How did they manage to make this film on only a $76 million budget, I am curious to know.
All of the DreamWorks and Pixar films of the last 8 years have been made on a budget at least double of this. Hell, Pixar took $120,000,000 to produce A Bug's Life, and that was back in 1998!
My guesses:
--Technology gets cheaper as time goes on
--They didn't have to invest in a lot time and money in development of techniques and inventing new ways of designing and building the animation - it's already been done
--Some expenses can be paid out of the proceeds instead of up front - like producers or actors who take a smaller salary in exchange for a percentage of the profits instead
You can kind of tell the difference...for one, the characters in Despicable Me look more cartoon like and don't even look like real people...while in Brave, for example, Merida's hair was a big, big deal. The animation is not nearly as good looking as Pixar...
shareI remember reading somewhere when the first one came out that they took a lot of shortcuts while they animated it. It is similar to how Hanna Barbara was in the '60's.
shareA large reason is that unlike Pixar, DreamWorks, Disney and Sony Animation productions, Illumination's films are not animated in California. In fact, the animation is done in an entirely different country. While the film is written and storyboarded as well as the voices recorded in the United States, the animation is outsourced to France. That's why the animation credits are full of French names.
It's also a smaller crew than at the aforementioned studios and they don't have to comply to California animation union rules. Blue Sky is also non-unionised, due to being in Connecticut, hence they do have smaller-than-average budgets for a CG animated films. They also get tax incentives for the state's government.
Pixar is also non-unionised, but they're the most expensive, because I believe they have a much bigger team of people working there and they're probably the studio most working on finding new techniques for their projects. For example, Monsters University had a whole new program written just for lighting and the Blue Umbrella (the preceding short) was also created with a whole new technology that creates more realistic surfaces and images than ever before.
"If your life had a face, I would punch it." - Kim Pine
I was rather surprised the budget was low considering how computer. Animation is expensive.
sharebecause it's a french movie (100% made in france) so it cost low.
shareI think the main points have been addressed here well by the other posters.
It was a surprisingly low budget when I first saw it, considering some animation films cost upwards of $200 million.
Their profit is going to be very substantial as well since it's set to earn around $700-800 million.
and a COKE.... I'm sorted
[deleted]
Well, studios are already doing just that. Planes was animated entirely in India and a good chunk of Kung Fu Panda 3 will be animated at DreamWorks' China division. I believe Sony Animation also occasionally has some extra work done in Canada, along with the Toy Story shorts that Pixar is currently making. And, of course, it's common practise for animated series to typically outsource their animation to Asian countries.
Disney at one point had a studio in France, too, where A Goofy Movie was entirely animated, along with one in Australia which focused on their direct-to-video output.
So, Illumination is not the only one has taken advantage of overseas animators, though this does take jobs away from American animators and I imagine there is some clause that studios have the union that requires a certain amount of animation work (for feature films, anyway) stay in the United States.
"If your life had a face, I would punch it." - Kim Pine
This will easily be the most profitable film of the year...whomever managed to keep the budget so low deserves a huge raise...
shareReally simple.
Have you ever looked closely at the back of an apple product?
It says designed in California and then adds wherever it was built.
Why do they do this?
Because otherwise they arent seen as an american company and the US is a huge market nobody wants to lose.
Doctor Martens boots lost their hype as soon as they moved production.
People say it was about the quality but my three year old ones(produced wherever) look just as new and I love them. No stitches falling appart whatever.
Their problem?
They were no longer produced in the UK.
Studios are afraid of people watching other films that are produced in the US because some studios will remain in the US and release the titles with a much bigger cost(it always happens)
yo, @esta says it right. lot of work is outsourced and not done in california.
The budget can still go lower, if outsourced to thai and singapore( singa not sure it gets cheap as it is usa of the asia). But seeing what happened with "life of pi", the budget can be brought down to 50 mil come to think of it and not much marketing is needed.
This is what hollywood needed especially for pure animation movies when in person movies are costing a pile; the budget for animation cannot go out of hand like those when technology is there to ease the burden.
they hit the jack pot here as this will gross close to 650 to 700 mil!
They can still better it in future that is a good news for others to take queue from!
Wow, it's amazing that $76 million is considered a low budget in the movie-making world. It's no wonder America is so in debt.
share