Wednesday, November 25, 2009

What Are The Exact Ingredients Of A Motion Picture Runaway Success?

By Evelyn S Morgan

The objective of every Hollywood producer is to put out a movie that is a huge hit. The combination of a wonderful story with tremendous actors and special effects seems to be the recipe for a chartbuster. However, it does not always work and at times even when a motion picture has all of the components that allegedly make a sensation, it still fails at the box office. There is no certain recipe for a Hollywood winner.

The quantity of money that can be utilized on a film in order to make a blockbuster success seems to be inexhaustible. But the reality of the matter is that until the motion picture hits the box office and in fact brings in huge revenue in ticket receipts it is a risk. Of course, there are always those directors who seem to have the magic touch and there are stars who possess the magic to be able to promise a blockbuster for awhile, if you look at past history even the most famous actors have played in box-office disasters.

With what seems like millions of motion pictures that have been produced it may seem like by now Hollywood would have the secret formula and know precisely how to make a successful film. But the only thing in life that is a constant is that things change and public opinion changes all the time. There have been high-priced movies that seem to have everything that is crucial for huge success and it still bombs completely at the box office.

One interesting and relatively recent case of a high-priced movie failure is the 2005 film "Sahara". While it opened at the box office well, grossing $18 million the first weekend and essentially did fairly well by generating $122 million in gross-box office sales the motion picture cost so much to make that the movie in fact lost cash. This movie had expenses of $281.2 million during production but when it was said and done it only brought in proceeds of $202.9 million. That is quite a failure even by Hollywood standards.

Looking at the comparison, in'99, "The Blair Witch Project" actually had the highest ratio of box office sales compared to production costs in American filmmaking history until 2009 when "Paranormal Activity" eclipsed it. There are varying reports on the production cost of "The Blair Witch Project" but the highest estimation was at $100,000. This movie grossed over $248 million at the box office globally.

One significant part but by no means a promise for box office success is creating a buzz with media exposure. This can cause a frenzy of anticipation that can add greatly to a great opening weekend. But opening weekend sales never tell the entire story and in order to be a huge box-office accomplishment a movie must continue to be popular.

With as many films as there are, you may assume that Hollywood would have it down and know precisely how to cater to the public and bring them the movies that they love. However, part of the exhilaration for both movie attendees and producers is the fact that there are no guarantees. Even the most well-liked actor occasionally has a box office failure and even the most sure of movie plots can stop working.

There will always be those shocking box office surprises, either the unforeseen blockbuster hit or the failure that no one could forecast. And that is part of the magic and fascination of motion pictures and Hollywood; you never know just what might be the huge box-office success.

About the Author:

0 comments:

Post a Comment