I read on the-numbers.com that this film made around $600k, and according to other sites, it cost FilmFour about $20 million to make, excluding marketing. I thought the film wasn't too bad, but I can't believe it lost that amount of cash, which caused FilmFour to implode. Anyone got any ideas?
shareI'll try to help. I used to cover boxoffice for Variety newspaper, and I did all the annual charts on Film Rentals during the 1980s, including analysis of "Big-Buck" productions.
Given the studio work and location shooting plus only one star (Blanchett), it is reasonable to assume this film did have a negative cost in the $25 to $30 million range, but you have to realize that Warner Bros. would have put up much of this. So Film Four's exposure is not publicly disclosed info that you could get access to.
The groundrules here are simple. Ancillary markets -namely tv sales and homevideo release would be fairly token for this film, as it is not a blockbuster on paper, let alone at the boxoffice. It also would have a limited foreign audience beyond its "home" market of U.K., as well as Australia. Obviously, French audiences would have zero use for such a film, which paints them in a bad light (many of the French characters are "worse" than the nazis here). Also the decision to cast no French actors in significant roles -I think only one French woman is in the main cast, is a problem.
So I would throw around ball park numbers for the FILM in total (not Film Four's piece of the pie):
Cost including marketing, prints, etc. $30 to $40 million.
Worldwide film rentals returned at the boxoffice: $2 million give or take, with Britain the main contributor. U.S. film rentals on a $600,000 gross are negligible and of course would not contribute much towards print & advertising outlay.
Ancillary (post-theatrical release) net revenues: estimate $2 million.
So I would guesstimate a total loss on this particular film in the $30 million range. This is because of those hidden costs; interest on the production budget, overhead cost (a typical cost charged on all studio films -part of the "creative accounting" which ensures that participants with net points rarely see any back-end money), marketing, prints & advertising, which are not negligible.
Larry Cohn