A lot of numbers have been thrown around over the last few months about how much it was costing to make Superman Returns. First the number $250 million was thrown out there… and then that was raised to $300+ million. By FAR the most expensive film ever made.
Well, director Bryan Singer has brought some sanity back to the table telling people at WonderCon that the film is actually going to come in at UNDER $200 million. The good folks at Dark Horizons give us the following:
“There’s some idiot [who] wrote somewhere that the movie was $250 million, which is the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard. I’ll tell you exactly: The movie was budgeted at $184.5 million and will probably climb with visual effects and variables that occur in a movie of this magnitude, with 1,400 visual effects, etc., to somewhere still south of $200 million. Which is still a great deal of money, but it is by no means … what was published in that” said the director.
Well that makes a lot more sense. Still, I was really fascinated to see what the hell they needed $300 million for. Still a massively expensive movie to make. I can’t wait for it!
I am all excited abt the movie.
i cant wait to see the movie
Budgets are always massively inflated anyway.
Ever wonder why the movie industry is the only one that tells what it costs to make their product? It’s because they want to put bums in seats curious as to what $200 million looks like on screen. These films never cost what the claims are. It’s all a marketing ploy that’s obviously working because we’re talking about it here.
They spent 200 million on King Kong, and the CGI in some portions of that movie was bordering on ridiculous(the dino stampede), so 200 million for superman is more than enough. How much can it cost to make a guy FLY and pick heavy shit up?
As far as I know, a substantial part of the budget of a film like this usually goes into paying the actors (although I suspect Routh isn’t making much on it because he’s untested). Let’s use a “bankable actors” list I’ve found (http://www.ez-entertainment.net/bankable.htm) and consider the figures. To pick some random names off that list, say you want to cast Harrison Ford, Will Smith and Mel Gibson in your huge blockbuster film. That’s potentially $70 million dollars spent (using the current figures on that list as a guide to what these people can and do ask for) before a foot of film has been exposed (and before we get into debates about whether or not those three individuals are collectively actually worth that amount of money and ways in which it could be better spent). And then you’ve got the rest of the roles to fill, crew to pay, etc. No wonder these damn things cost so much. The real wonder is that no one at the studio seems to notice or care that the films are, quite frankly, sinkholes that will almost certainly never return a profit and that the attendant crash still hasn’t come.
heres’ a question for you, John:
in this day and age, with the way that digital effects have replaced most others as the staple of the industry, is there any excuse for any movie to hit over 200 million anymore?
i remember hearing that polar express cost that much and in my opinion you really couldnt tell it was that expensive.
have we perhapse passed the days of WATERWORLD, where, to make a truely astounding movie you HAVE to spend 200mil+?
what do you think?
YES, the bigger the budget, the better the movie. Plus, no one is interested in those small budget movies. Right, John?
Glad to hear this getting cleared up.
BTW, has anyone heared about what happened to the potential classic Alien 5. I’ll just say it involves James Cameron and Ridley Scott.
This movie is going to be amazing.
I still have very limited interest in this. I’m sure it’ll be decent with Singer at the helm, plus there’s a good cast…. but can Routh prove that he is “Routh” in The Movie Blog sense of the word? I dunno…
250-300+ million Superman better get over his Kryptonite problem, and better have a Sexy as Louis throughout the movie. Shit for that much you mine as well make Super man black and cast Will Smith just to see if the shock factor will help you break even with the budget, come on theres been as many Superman’s as Rocky’s and even they started to get old. I hope Superman has Robin, Supergirl and a new viliian that I’ve never read about pus should plug in about 2 1/2 hours at least if not pushing closer to 3.
No one is making money on this movie. No one.