(Untitled)

[iseeyouflaming]

I'd like to share some numbers, as provided by Box Office Mojo.

First, this was the state of TLA about two weeks ago:

Domestic gross: $123,264,000
Foreign gross: $27,300,000
Total gross: $150,564,000
Production cost: $150,000,000
Total cost: $280,000,000 (plus a possible $10-15,000,000 if the cost of the last minute 3D isn't taken into account

Comments

[zidane]

Those numbers may not indicate any measure of success for the film at all. From Edward Jay Epstein's "New Hollywood Econocmics":

First, these reported " box office grosses" are not actually what the studios take in from their movies. They are the ticket sales which go to the movie houses. The movie houses usually keep about half for themselves and remit the balance to distributors (which may or may not be an arm of the studio). The distributor then deducts from the its out-of pocket cash expenses, including prints and advertising (called “P&A,”). These deductions often wipe out most, if not all, of what remains. Studios spent on average $35.9 million just for P &A on each of their titles in 2007. (Even their so-called “indie” divisions, such as Miramax, Sony Classics, and Fox Searchlight, spent an average of $25.7 million on P & A.) As a result, the studios spent more on P&A to lure in an audience into American theaters for an average film then they got back from their share of the box-office. And that does not take into account the

[robowolf]

This is true! Although from what I've seen (I wish I had numbers of this, though), TLA merch hasn't been selling very well. I've gone into stores where they're consistently sold-out or nearly selling out of their ATLA stock, but their TLA stuff is gathering dust; I've heard similar things from other folks working retail. I don't really predict the DVD release of this film doing too well, anyways, and at any rate, they've still got about $100 million left to go just to break even.

We're mostly concerned with a sequel being greenlit; my personal opinion is that may or may not happen, but even if it does, it'll get stuck in production hell and nothing will come of it. Too much negative press has happened and it's just not killing at the domestic box office like Shyamalan and Paramount meant it to, and I know some people on racebending and wtf_tla have been saying that's what most studios look at in terms of calling a movie a success

[zidane]

If it does well on the home entertainment front-DVD, Blu-Ray, Netflix, iTunes download, etc-then it could very well be a "hit" for Paramount. Pinch of salt here since I can't find the supporting link, but in my meanderings around Disney fandom, there was a quote floating around from some exec that said that they weren't making sequels "for critics" but for "Walmart shoppers."

I honestly agree that it's unlikely to be greenlit for a sequel, since other similar attempts to adapt popular young adult fantasy haven't taken off, either (The Golden Compass, The Dark is Rising, and Percy Jackson). But for a movie to well and truly fail, it has to fail at home, not in the theater.