Each week I look at a different topic around the film industry, focusing on the data and statistics which reveal what’s going on.
It: Chapter Two is an unusual horror film because it’s almost three hours long. This means it is longer than 99.78% of all horror films made over the past twenty years. Earlier in the year Avengers: Endgame was one minute over the three-hour barrier and Martine Scorsese’s up-coming epic The Irishman is expected to be […]
For many independent filmmakers, whether or not their film reaches the big screen means everything. No matter the money to be made via television deals or the massive audiences possible with VOD, a theatrical release is where it’s at. In a new piece of research for the American Film Market, Bruce Nash and I set […]
In much of human life, we equate the length of time someone has been performing a task with their level of skill. Businesses proudly state how long ago they were founded, a lawyer with “30 years’ experience” can charge more than one fresh out of college and ‘time served’ often denotes seniority. But is this […]
Over the past few weeks and months, we have seen an increase in press articles covering music–based feature films. Only last week, The Guardian stated, “We are in an uncommonly busy period, if not a flat-out golden age“, the BBC declared that “2019 has been the year of the music film” and The Independent claimed […]
I am working on a long-term research project looking at gender among documentarians. Previously, I’ve studied the gender split among directors, producers, writers, cinematographers, composers and sales professionals – but always focusing on fictional feature films. As I branch out to study factual films, I wanted to do a couple of micro-research projects to learn […]
I have produced films alone and I have produced in partnership with other producers. Personally, I prefer the latter. Producing a movie is a big undertaking and so it’s good to have people to share the load and journey with. Plus the film gets to benefit from multiple people’s strengths, passion and contacts. Recently, I […]
Of all the creative jobs involved in the making of a feature film, the role of director is perhaps the most important. It’s also the one which most clearly identifies a film. We talk about Spielberg films and Tarantino films more than we do Streep or Hanks films, even though all of these creatives are […]
In the last couple of weeks, I have looked at a number of topics around movie budgets. To complete this trilogy, I am turning to the connection between a movie’s budget and the amount of money it collects at the box office. Specifically, I’ll be looking at the “Domestic” gross, i.e. all the money spent […]
According to news reports, Netflix boss Ted Sarandos has privately been telling producers that his company will be more cost-conscious going forward. This comes on the heels of Netflix’s Triple Frontier (a movie which reportedly cost $115 million but which has gone down poorly with audiences and critics alike) and their up-coming blockbuster Red Notice (which […]
Among the most frequent questions I’m asked by those new to the film industry is “How much does the average movie cost to make?” The short answer is “it depends”. It’s similar to asking “How much does the average meal cost to make?” It depends where you are, who’s making it, for whom and whether […]
