Most Films Lose Money! (2024)

FAQs

Do most films lose money? ›

Most films lose money. Indeed, 80% do. The fundamental reason for this phenomenon is simple. If you were trying to impress someone at a co*cktail party, what would you rather say: “I make movies” or “I make widgets”?

Theatre chains, and exhibition platforms (iTunes, Cable VOD services, Stores that sell DVDs and Blu-rays) all get to keep some amount of the money from the tickets and movies they sell, and then distributors and sales agents all get to recoup their expenses to make the films available in those theatres / on those ...

The fact that marketing expense is not included in production cost figures is why studios may claim to have lost money on a movie that grossed more than its negative, or production, cost.

While the exact number of lost films is unknown, a study commissioned by the Library of Congress ballparks the surviving number at a scant 14 percent.

The more a film costs to make (and market), the more it has to make to avoid flopping at the box office. Film studios are making fewer and fewer movies as the years go by, but they tend to cost much more over time, so perhaps it's not surprising that there seem to be more and more flops.

But 2009's Avatar still holds the top spot. These stats, of course, are skewed by rising ticket prices and increases in population. Adjusted for inflation, no movie can match the $8.2 billion haul that Gone with the Wind's $390 million box-office receipts since its 1939 release would be worth in today's dollars.

Writers, directors and editors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez spent between $35,000 and $60,000 shooting “The Blair Witch Project,” making it arguably the cheapest movie ever made.

The film industry is in flux, and ticket sales alone don't drive revenue. There's merchandising, VOD, streaming video, foreign sales, and a plethora of other distribution channels that can help filmmakers, producers, and studios turn a profit.

Who pays the money for a movie? ›

People frequently wonder, “Who finances a film?” Filmmaking is an expensive business, with budgets ranging from $1 million to $400 million. The answer is that film financing can come from a variety of sources, including studios, distributors, production houses, and even private investors.

Budgets are vital in making a movie, but sometimes it can be commonplace for a movie to go over budget, with the numbers of cash spiraling out of control due to unforeseen reasons. This could be the result of a film needing reshoots, expensive CGI, or the need for more lavish sets.

Marketing: The most important part of how to make a movie as well as an expensive magic potion that it requires is its marketing.

However, a few of the common factors that contribute to a successful film include: a compelling storyline; a well written script; great actors who have a reach to the audience; a visionary director alongside a director of photography and editor and….. the list just goes on and on.

A general rule of thumb for qualifying a movie as a “financial success” is to compare its gross revenue to twice its reported budget - in other words, an ROI of at least 1. A movie “doubly” is successful if it performs well both financial and critically while deem it a “total” failure if it loses money and is panned.

Statistics on lost films

Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation claims that "half of all American films made before 1950 and over 90% of films made before 1929 are lost forever". Deutsche Kinemathek estimates that 80–90% of silent films are gone; the film archive's own list contains over 3,500 lost films.

Left Behind: The Movie

2000

Left Behind II: Tribulation Force

2002

Left Behind: World at War

2005

Left Behind

2014

Vanished: Left Behind ‑ Next Gener...

2016

Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist

2023

Some of the most profitable movies of all time include films such as "Avatar,” which had a production budget of approximately $237 million and grossed over $2.9 billion at the box office, making it the highest-grossing movie of all time, and"Titanic” which had a production budget of $200 million and grossed over $2.2 ...

Who loses money if a movie flops? ›

Who bears the loss when a movie is a flop at the box office? Generally the studio that loaned the money to the production company to pay for the “negative” or the cost of shooting a movie and editing it for release.

Jaws – the tale of a seaside town (Amity) terrorised by a great white shark – swiftly proved to be a cinematic sensation.

The truth is that the majority of movies break even and make a little bit of money. About 20% are blockbuster hits that create massive revenue.

The Blair Witch Project would go on to earn an astounding $248 million and is widely regarded as the most profitable, widely seen low budget film of all time.

The second most expensive movie ever made was Avatar, which cost $237 million to make. It grossed over $2 billion worldwide and won three Academy Awards.

So, do all actors get paid for reruns? According to the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, some do, and some don't. For principal performers, royalties can lead to long-term payoffs that trump the original salary.

How do actors get paid? ›

Generally speaking, for screen work, actors are paid a day rate. If they are needed for more than five days, they are paid a weekly rate. Rates vary if actors are needed for the entirety of the film shoot or the entirety of a television season. Television actors can also be paid per episode.

When shows are syndicated, redistributed, released on DVD, purchased by a streaming service or otherwise used beyond what the actors were originally paid for, those actors get residual checks called royalties.

10. Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump in "Forrest Gump" The box-office hit "Forrest Gump" is another case in which Hanks opted for performance-based pay, in which he received an estimated $60 million.

Actors get paid so much because they are part of films, TV shows, and productions that generate a ton of money. Audiences grow to love and want to see more and more specific actors in films and TV shows.

The number of available manufacturing facilities is decreasing. The equipment to produce film is no longer being produced so everyone is trying to maintain what they have the best they can. The environmental costs continue to rise, especially around chemicals, which have a direct impact on the cost to manufacture film.

The average cost to make a movie is between $50 million and $100 million. It depends on the budget and the quality of the film.

Big actors can earn between $1.5 million and $4.5 million for every movie. Screen Actors Guild has also specified how much actors make in terms of the minimum salary for every movie. So, those who are part of SAG make $45,579 on average.

According to the “rule of thumb”, the film breaks even to the penny, as it made exactly 200 percent of its production budget. Using the “Insider's Formula”, we see the numbers match. Half of the box office gross of $200 million is $100 million. Subtract your $100 million production budget and you get exactly $0.

Negative cost is the net expense to produce and shoot a film, excluding such expenditures as distribution and promotion. Low-budget movies, for example The Blair Witch Project, can have promotional expenses that are much larger than the negative cost.

How much does an average movie make? ›

Theatrical is the largest income driver for films, although not the most profitable. The average movie in my dataset grossed $129.9 million domestically (i.e. the US and Canada) and $243.3 million internationally (i.e./ everywhere else), leading to a total box office gross of $373.2 million.

What percentage of Hollywood movies make a profit? Using my 'Insider' dataset of 279 Hollywood movies I found that overall 51% made a profit and 49% made a loss. This pattern of 50:50 seems to be the common understanding of movie economics among the insiders I spoke to.

Short films generally make money from AVOD (advertising) placed by the channel around your content and you take a percentage of the income. So the more viewers you can drive to watch your film, more money for you.

Over time, the movie studios realized that it took at least seven messages to get someone to buy a movie ticket. Thus, the Rule of Seven was developed which stated that a prospect needs to hear the advertiser's message at least 7 times before they will take action to buy that product or service.

Overview. The 20% rule states that in general a shot must change by 20% in angle, zoom or camera position for the preceding shot in order to be cut in. Anything less than this will produce an undesirable jump cut.

The rule of thirds is the basic rule of composition in film production. Divide the frame visually into thirds horizontally and vertically, so the image is divided into nine equal parts, which creates control points. Place your main objects along or within these lines, or their intersection.

There's no industry on the planet that loses money on 80% of its projects, but recoups it all on the remaining 20%, especially when they spend $25 million to upwards of $250 million on each (like filmmaking). I compare this to the belief that brick-and-mortar stores don't become profitable until Black Friday.

Thanks to the magic of Hollywood accounting[1], even a movie that grosses hundreds of millions of dollars can end up being considered a net loss (usually so the studio won't have to pay actors, writers, directors, and others who were naive enough to agree to a share of net profits as part of their compensation).

What percentage of movies don't make a profit? There's no industry on the planet that loses money on 80% of its projects, but recoups it all on the remaining 20%, especially when they spend $25 million to upwards of $250 million on each (like filmmaking).

It seems like a pretty low bar, but at least 40 percent of films fail, according to BechdelTest.com, a site that crowdsources these test results. “Birdman” fails. The "Lord of the Rings” movies all fail. “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” fails.

What movies lose money? ›

As of June 2022, the four biggest movie flops of all time were Disney productions. "Turning Red" (2022), "Jungle Cruise" (2021), "Mars Needs Moms" (2011), and "Mulan" (2020) recorded losses of more than 140 million U.S. dollars at the global box office.

The executive producer is at the top of the producer food chain, as they control—and often provide—the film's funding.

Using a large sample of films released in the North American market from 1997 to 2007, the analysis shows that, in general, African American films earn higher revenues yet are typically produced on lower budgets. Regression results of revenues show that this difference is highly statistically significant.

1. Horror Movies Are the Most Profitable Genre. Using real-world data and statistical modelling, we are able to estimate the profitability of most major horror movies.

But while the move industry pats itself on the back, ticket sales at the box office are down about 35% from pre-pandemic levels — which is unsustainable for smaller cinemas, said Matt Belloni, an entertainment journalist.