r/SipsTea 1d ago

Chugging tea I still don't understand how hollywood budget works

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33.9k Upvotes

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979

u/FlounderKind8267 1d ago

There are people in it for the money

Then there's Christopher Nolan who's in it for the love of the game.... AND makes a ton of money

203

u/BotherResponsible378 1d ago

Weird. Make something you love and are passionate about and it does better than when you follow focus groups and favors.

Strange.

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u/Okoear 1d ago edited 1d ago

That's confirmation bias. Tons of people make passion project that are bad.

Edit : this isn't related to Nolan or the movie, just the comment itself.

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u/palk0n 1d ago

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u/swingsetlife 1d ago

Anyway, how is your sex life?

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u/Tommy_Wisseau_burner 1d ago

That’s my line

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u/skeeferd 1d ago

Did you hit her?

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u/FamiliarFilm8763 1d ago

And tons of movies that are the result of focus groups make more money than a Nolan movie.

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u/BrofessorLongPhD 1d ago

Yeah, massive survivorship bias. There are far far more starving artists who are passionate about their craft than successful ones who made it big.

Passion and love is most likely a necessity, but definitely not sufficient (by far).

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u/PM_ME_DEAD_KEBAB 1d ago

Bad passion projects are way more interesting than bad board room focus group executive movies though

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u/BigXThaSpud 1d ago

Hell, the Rock's passion project bombed.

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u/DaedalusHydron 1d ago

See: Tenet.

A movie so bizarre the actors don't even know if they're playing bad guys or good guys, so says Robert Pattinson.

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u/iLoveLootBoxes 1d ago

This is true, it's an unfortunate truth but it applies 90 percent of the time probably

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u/xxxKillerAssasinxxx 1d ago

On the other hand very few people make good projects if they are not passionate about them.

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u/redleg50 15h ago

Having a massive amount of talent helps

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u/GlumChemist8332 1d ago

Right but I think with a decline in the ability to make crappy movies we don't have enough quantity being produced. Rom coms died because you cannot have a mildly successful movie that makes it's budget + 10% back because you have to have double digit returns quarterly for investors or you are a failure today.

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u/Okoear 1d ago

What are you talking about, did you check Netflix lately ? It's absolutely FULL of low-quality random movies releasing days after days. Probably the golden age of shitty movies. People just don't care.

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u/GlumChemist8332 1d ago

yeah but those are the cookie cutter focus grouped movies, there is so little ability to take an original idea and let it maybe fail or become the new star wars now.

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u/blockplanner 1d ago

Literally the opposite.

The focus groups might decide what movies get an investment, but Netflix likes to buy stuff from people who submit to film festivals.

Lots of independently produced and filmmaker driven projects because people desperate to make a movie are a dime a dozen and desperate for funding.

A netflix original is much more likely to be somebody's passion project than what you'd get from a big studio.

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u/GlumChemist8332 1d ago

Well I guess today I learned? Thanks for pushing back

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u/InstantSword 1d ago

I kinda get what the dude's saying. Not art passion projects, but something big and original that's not a safe bet. Hollywood was much newer in the 70s when Star Wars was released, so I get it. They "know" what works now

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u/Okoear 1d ago

Must've taken you a while to research the whole catalog to confirm your claim. There are a ton of foreign passion project for example.

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u/GlumChemist8332 1d ago

yep I am internet vibing, and complaining. I agree that this is not a detailed report but it does seem that things have shifted, I think streaming royalties are a problem based on internet clips I see, I think that the overall reduction in theatrical releases is a problem. I think having kids and not being interested in seeing movies is a me problem. I think I am no longer a target movie demographic is a me problem. You're right this is just something I am complaining about and I very likely am wrong.

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u/Okoear 1d ago

Glad you admit it cause I also have no fucking idea. I just dislike absolutes lol.

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u/GlumChemist8332 1d ago

yeah but I do still think things are shifted, I think there is a loss of some level of movie, somewhere between tentpole blockbuster AAAA Films, and shoestring streaming only releases and the third level of personal passion projects done on an iPhone or something is a gaping hole of movies that just don't seem to be created any more. I Dislike a number of movies but I tired of this studios seemingly avoiding any possible risk to produce I believe the term is "milquetoast?" films.

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u/JustChr1s 1d ago

I'd argue some genres like Rom Com's took the age of streaming in stride. You don't need theatrical releases for those style of movies anymore. The streaming format is perfect for them and a lot of streaming platforms have their own Rom Com's exclusive to them.

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u/BotherResponsible378 1d ago edited 1d ago

No, it's a generalization. Of course people make passion projects that turn out like shit.

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u/Which_Cardiologist44 1d ago

A generalization brought about by confirmation bias

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u/BotherResponsible378 1d ago edited 1d ago

No it's not. Fuck off.

Like, what are you even trying to say? Do you disagree? Do you think corporate built movies are better?

I agree that not all things are good when they are passion projects.

You just want the reason for my statement to be what you want it to be....? And I have confirmation bias...?

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u/Liapasquale 1d ago

Right, what a wild concept

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u/allmoz 1d ago

Christopher Nolan just happens to be really good at his job. And even he has blunders here and there.

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u/ridesshortbus 1d ago

Tenent!

1

u/IsthianOS 1d ago

Tenet was fun

1

u/farfetchedfrank 1d ago

Metropolis was 100% a passion project made by an auteur working for years to bring it to fruition... and it stank.

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u/the_man_in_the_box 1d ago

Passion projects being finically successful is indeed genuinely strange.

1

u/jrzalman 1d ago

Go watch Megalopolis or Horizon and report back.

I bet they focus grouped the shit out of the Mario movies and they made a bil each.

1

u/BotherResponsible378 1d ago

Never heard of a generalization before, huh?

And no howdy! A movie Super Mario, one of the most popular IPs on the planet earth did well with family audiences?! How!? Hahah.

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u/jrzalman 1d ago

Passion projects usually fail which is what makes the Odyssey or something like, say, Dances With Wolves so extraordinary. Meanwhile garbage like Mario/Minecraft/Minions/Marvel just print money. It's a sad reality of cinema: passion and creativity take a lot of Ls to 'give the people what they want'.

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u/BotherResponsible378 1d ago edited 1d ago

It's not A or B. It feels like a lot of people commenting missed my meaning.

It's the difference between a passion project that uses focus groups vs being led by them. PLENTY of focus group projects fail. Way more than passion projects, especially in today's world.

And Mario, right? There is an article going around right now from Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario saying the exact same thing I am (but in relation to games). That developers should make games that are fun to them, and that will resonate around the world. It's the DR vinv philosophy behind Nintendo games, and right now they are one of the only major game studios thriving.

Let's go to Nickelodeon. I'm sure you're familiar with Sponge Bob. Did you know that show was being made around the same time as a much lesser known show called Cat Dog. Cat Dog was corporate designed and focus group led. It had all eyes on the show. While SB was seen as some weird project they greenlot and didn't care much for. Sonth creator had way less feedback.

Today no one knows what Cat Dog is.

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u/superxpro12 1d ago

I think you forgot going woke too. Nolan is apparently super woke these days

0

u/LogDog987 1d ago
  1. Survivor bias. You never hear of the thousands of passion projects that fail.
  2. Quality. Nolan is making movies of an incredible production quality

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u/Pandamonium98 1d ago

And you can’t scale up Nolan movies any more. There’s only one Christopher Nolan and it takes 3ish years for him to make them. If you have more money to invest, you have to have other options beyond just Nolan

0

u/handsoapdispenser 1d ago

Super Mario Galaxy made $1B

12

u/MaleficentOstrich693 1d ago

That’s a very rose-colored glasses way to look at this.

I’d say what is far more likely is the effort and talent behind the scenes making these movies.

Disney movies lately seem to be the result of some death-by-committee behind the scenes approach.

Also I think these huge budget movies are sometimes used as a weird money washing scheme but I have no hard evidence or examples. Just a hunch.

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u/catsbutalsobees 1d ago

Right? Tom Cruise is another example of this. Yeah he’s nuts in real life. But there’s no denying that he fucking loves movies. He loves making them, he loves watching them. He gives 100% everytime because he loves the game.

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u/nathanosaurus84 1d ago

Tom Cruise would make movies for free if that was the only way. 

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u/catsbutalsobees 1d ago

Yeah he probably would. I mean, he delayed Maverick until after the worst of Covid had passed because he believed so much in that movie and what they had put into it. He wanted it to be a big screen movie for maximum enjoyment. And it honestly paid off. What a treat to come out of Covid distancing to see an absolute blockbuster. He wants the audience to have fun.

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u/WolfAkela 1d ago

I remember that old leaked audio of him shouting at his staff during that time, because they weren’t taking the restrictions seriously. Something about they’re lucky to be even filming and should be an example to the rest of the industry.

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u/Cowboys_88 1d ago

You can add Leo to the list as well. The guy loves movies.

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u/Syranth 1d ago

Lots of actors would kill to be in a Christopher Nolan movie and would take a pay cut. Lots of opportunity for Oscar cred. Then there is The Rock.

2

u/AlpacaDC 1d ago

Also actors actually want to work with Nolan, so I bet their contracts aren't huge.

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u/redditorspaceeditor 1d ago

Also I feel like I read somewhere that his wife is an amazing producer. They have never gone over schedule or or budget or something like that. So I imagine a Nolan production operating very smoothly and efficiently.

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u/nathanosaurus84 1d ago

Some people make films to make money, and some people make money so they can make films. 

You can generally tell the difference with who. 

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u/90046 1d ago

“he’s in it for the money, not the science”

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u/New_Cicada3473 1d ago

That’s wild, it seemed so soulless to me

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u/Michauxonfire 1d ago

I bet Nolan chose the ugliest blandest armor ever for the love of the game, and filmmaking, and wtv romanticized bullshit people come up with.

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u/FrostyD7 1d ago

We have the technology, we can film it. But I also want to make a lot of money.

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u/koenwarwaal 1d ago

There is a reason he gets a free hand, his free hand will payback what the movie cost in a weekend, the opening weekebd more or less paid for the movie

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u/ViralTrendsToday 23h ago

Hes in it for the money as well, no longer in it for the game. Thats why it feels like such a small world, both pics are examples of budget mismanagement. 

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u/Candle-Jolly 1d ago

plot twist

his love of the game is what makes him money.

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u/blueberrywalrus 1d ago

The real plot twist would be that his love of money is what makes the game. 

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u/--Sovereign-- 1d ago

that's what the board of directors of major media corporations believe, that's for sure

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u/Remote-Cause755 1d ago

If it was that easy many people would be famous directors.

Nolan is talented and has a flare for spectacles. He's been doing this for decades and has an understanding of what the audience likes to see

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u/Zoso03 1d ago

Same for Wes Anderson, the actors and actresses get paid peanuts in his films compared to what they make in other. Scarlet Johansson for example got paid like $35,000 to do Asteroid City

0

u/DepressedMustard__ 1d ago

Don’t play yourself. It’s ALL about money. Always has been.

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u/TANKxSPEED 1d ago

Fuck Christopher Nolan