But [random new show] is wokedei and costs eleventy bajillion bitcoins per episode, bah something something cultural Marxism something social programming. I’m putting Fox back on.
The Acolyte: Disney said it performed fine, but they canceled it specifically because it was too expensive to make. I was excited to see more from Qimir, whom I found to be electric on screen. Free Qimir!
Not sure as I've never been involved with that end of things, but I've seen supposedly high-budget stuff that made me wonder what was going on behind the scenes and glorious lower-budget productions.
A budget is measured against… what. A fiscal quarter? Sometimes. Other times, no. There’s way too many variables to consider it a meaningful number. We’re still celebrating things that never made money upon release decades after the fact. Don’t fall for it.
When I was a kid I remember hearing how much money Jurassic Park or The Lion King made at the box office and then Water World came out and it's like we have to compare the profit and loss now.
Sure, but budgets and profits are kinda how we know if the artists we like get to keep practicing their craft, or the shows we like get to continue on.
Like I can wait for a movie to hit streaming but I’ll go out of my way to see something in the theater or rent it to support artists I like.
Is [pearlclutcher] ALSO one of the project’s financiers? No? Then they’ve got much more important things to do with their time on Earth. Like laundry. Or putting away laundry. Or therapy.
I get the joy of marvelling at things that are miraculous for having accomplished so much with so little, but the opposite impulse ("WHERE DID IT GOOO?!?!?") remains as baffling to me as the other performative negativity does
Sometimes I dream of a world where it was forbidden to release box office gross numbers for like...a year after a movie comes out. Force people to choose whether or not to see a movie based on how interesting it looks, not on whether or not it's "winning"
This. It's frustrating because you can't just dissect a work on its own merit anymore, reviews of anything tend to spend more time on metacommentary about "how it was made" than critiquing the actual result.
The business side of Hollywood is so important to (American) film history that I think a lot of movie buffs start internalizing that info almost accidentally. The numbers can point the way to good behind-the-scenes stories, though (@ryanscottwrites.bsky.social is really good at that).
But I don't think the exact figures are actually important to anyone other than accountants and the people getting paid, and as soon as they're used as a measure of a film's quality or influence or as some kind of game piece in some weird fandom race, yeah, useless.
I don’t do the quarterback exec thing, if a show or movie costs that much and every penny is on screen then it’s absolutely worth it. Andor is a visual feast so I’m not complaining.
And for a show with a finite number of seasons. I get people are upset about other shows not getting renewed but Andor was always designed to be two seasons with time jumps that leads up to Rogue One’s beginning. So if they blow out the budget to make a movie quality series, why should I care?
I have worked on so many shows that I can’t count them all, with budgets all over the place, and even then those numbers pretty much never affect me or are any real indicator of actual quality one way or another.
I have a buddy like this and he’s constantly fretting over budgets because he wants the studios and movie theaters to be profitable so they can continue to make movies, but I tell him there’s so many variables you are unaware of. Don’t even worry about it.
I hear you, but it’s also reasonable to care after all the reporting on why The Acolyte was supposedly dropped. With all the people still raw about that, they hear “high budget” and don’t want to get hurt again.
At least that’s how it feels for those of us with no idea what the future holds.
It’s just how modern movie pundits talk. they also believe if budgets are kept small the movie ticket prices will also stay low. but they don’t get that rich billioners ceo don’t raise prices just cause budgets are hight they raise simply to hit quarterly projections
They also raise prices when movies are popular cause they know people will pay more for popular movies. Finaly people now are willing to pay more just to be the first to see a movie before it get spoiled or so they be first make a reaction for it and get those clicks. Budgets don’t affect this trend
I think it's because people worry that it might put Disney off commissioning further Star Wars series if it's not an enormous hit. The slightly cynical Englishman in me wonders what costs are hidden in that budget number though....
I think you're right. Unless stuff is farmed out, it's all in-house and possibly salaried. Was when I worked in TV, anway. "We spent X" is an accounting trick
There's a lot of overhead that's used across several shows--studio rental, cost of building the Volume--that they can include in an individual show's budget depending on the particular accounting purpose.
I’m an outsider. I care about budget because it is a reflection of the production’s commitment to the quality of the experience. Even though, yeah, I fully understand that accountants will be exploit budget items to convert any profit into massive losses so that a few go home with enormous cash.
As an insider I can confidently say that thinking that the size of the budget in any way reflects the production’s commitment to quality is 100% false.
Well, not 100%. For the viewing audience, suspension of disbelief is infinitely superior when Godzilla is $$$$$ CGI versus $ man in rubber suit. Or road trips shot on location versus Cary Grant pretending to steer in front of a green screen.
Ultimately, I think it's just "make it make sense" syndrome. Studio decision-making can often be/seem pretty opaque, but we're often told that budgets and box office are why sequels get made and shows are renewed (or not), and I think it's only natural for us to try and understand / care about that.
I think it is because viewers want sequels. When we learn something costs $100 billion dollars it is a sign to us there's no way it will ever turn a profit. Every one is throwing too much money at things. If it doesn't break a record in profit it might be the last we ever see of it.
When the question “why isn’t this company making more of the thing I like?” gets answered with “the thing didn’t make enough money” or “the company lost a ton of money on this other thing” the finances of the project become relevant to understanding what’s happening with the work.
The transformation of television and cinematic production over the last ten years is directly related to changes in how projects are budgeted and how they make money.
We’ve gone through several years of strikes, corporate consolidations, project cancellations, network reinventions, and creative people talking about how the economics of the industry are broken. That’s going to be of interest to some people.
Whether the information we have is accurate or reliable is a different matter to me than why we are interested in the information in the first place, but I take your points about sourcing and context.
It’s the same as people yapping about the ratings for pro sports. Unless you are a big executive with a network or a major advertiser, who cares that the ratings for the Super Bowl dropped 3% from last year.
Echoing what others have said, if the thing I like doesn't hit financial mumbo jumbo metrics, it doesn't get made. Sure, the suits and the press lie about money all day, but I'm just a rube with no insight.
Like, I'd love more hand-drawn 2D animation, but I hear that shit costs a couple bucks.
Well when I see those headlines I can’t help but ask questions.
Why was This show cancelled but not That one?
Why did that other show that seemed to have a lot more riding on it reportedly have a much lower budget than this one?
(Especially if it looked noticeably cheaper)
Comments
Relax, we are not making movies,
🤪😃
Like I can wait for a movie to hit streaming but I’ll go out of my way to see something in the theater or rent it to support artists I like.
if you're not an investor who effing cares
At least that’s how it feels for those of us with no idea what the future holds.
Like, I'd love more hand-drawn 2D animation, but I hear that shit costs a couple bucks.
Why was This show cancelled but not That one?
Why did that other show that seemed to have a lot more riding on it reportedly have a much lower budget than this one?
(Especially if it looked noticeably cheaper)