To hold on to the rights.
If they hadn't made a movie, they would have lost the rights to the book.
This is not the definitive AS, it's like the seriously crappy first Fantastic Four movie.
Now they've got some wiggle room and some people already thinking up ways to make it better.
The film opened below the Mendoza Line. There's no way anyone will touch this book again, not if they are interested in making a profit.
shareThe film opened below the Mendoza Line.
Mendoza Line comes from baseball and there is a term used to describe a batting average that is so low that it doesn't matter how strong your defence is, you are still a liability to the team.
In movies, the Mendoza Line reffered to the minimum per theater average needed to cover the cost of the physical print of the movie and is $2,000. If you open below that, it would have literally been cheaper to burn the master print rather than release the film into theaters. Of course, with digital distribution, this is changing, but it is still a useful guide to tell when a movie has merely struggled at the box office to one that bombed.
Very interesting. Thank you for sharing and not being condescending about it.
Transformers Age of Extinction makes The Happening look like a masterpiece.
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"If that were true, they would have never made another version of The Wizard of Oz after it bombed at the box office (though later became a classic)..."
It became a classic and financially successful. That's why they go back to those stories.
"Incidentally, your reference to the Atlas Shrugged films as being unsuccessful is incorrect - they were extremely profitable on home video..."
No they weren't. I work in the industry and have access to home market numbers. Atlas Shrugged films didn't do well enough to break even, even after you take into account home market numbers.
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The producers lied. If the first film made money, why was the budget of the second film slashed in half? And if the second film made money, why was the budget of the third film slashed in half again? If the movies made money, why did they have to go to Kickstarter to get funds?
The films lost money.
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The Interview only went to VOD because hackers threatened terrorists attacks if theatres showed it. It was originally planned for a wide release, because if a film doesn't get a wide release, it tends to do very poorly on the home market.
Secondly, I've seen the home market numbers for Atlas Shrugged and they are crap compared to its budget.
If they said that, then you should have no trouble coming up with a source, right?
The fact is, people kept trying to stick that claim into the Wikipedia article, but it was eventually removed because no one could come up with a citation. Simply repeating something doesn't make it true.
You can check the totals at "The-numbers"
http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Atlas-Shrugged#tab=summary
The movie cost $20M. It made about $5M at the box office and $5M in video sales. Remember, those are *gross* numbers, so the makers only get a fraction. They came nowhere near breaking even, let alone making a profit.
Face it, the movies bombed. Not because of a liberal conspiracy. Not because people "don't understand the message", but because they were crappy movies.
It's not like it just slipped Agualoro's mind that the rights were going to expire; he tried really hard for 20 years to make this into a movie, and in the end, this is the best he could do.
There's no reason to believe anyone's going to step up and do better any time soon. Remakes are dubious enough, but successful remakes when the first attempt bombed? I can't think of any.
Especially if the original poster is right and Aglialoro retains the rights to the films simply because he produced these movies.
shareIt simply lacks the broad-based appeal necessary to put hindquarters in the seats due to its total disconnect from reality and how it's really hard to sympathize with the kind of people who have no problems yanking the ripcords on their golden parachutes and leaving their employees to fend for themselves when the company tanks...just like Dagny did when she made a run for the Gulch.
Your replies will be graded and possibly used as material in future projects.
Now they've got some wiggle room and some people already thinking up ways to make it better.