MovieChat Forums > Zift (2008) Discussion > Zift Budget 700,000 euros.

Zift Budget 700,000 euros.


Seeing it only made 37,000 levs in its first weekend in the boxoffice I dont think it will make its money back unless distrubted abroad.

37,000 is still a record since the last successfull film Shivachki made 8000 levs in its first weekend and Mila ot Mars made 14,000levs

Source: http://kino.dir.bg/boxoff.php

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not "levs", it's "leva"

and yes, that's the main problem in film industry not only in bulgaria, but in europe generally.

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more likely is that the movie's not worth it... sad, it is, I know

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You can use BGN heheh.

I think that in a country like Bulgaria with a mall market like the bg one 37 000 is still ok...........BUT make this calculation:37000 devided by 8 BGN this makes 4625 viewers. Suppose one hall of a big cinema has 200 seats. That makes only 20 halls. In one week this is 3 per day. So the halls were half empty... No one was really interested in the movie really. Thats bad, show we are not interested in BG cinema. Or bg cinema is not good enough lately to draw interest.

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as of today Zift has made $182,878 which puts him in the top 20 for the year which is brilliant, but needs to be shown outside Bulgaria for it to make a profit.

http://boxofficemojo.com/intl/bulgaria/?yr=2009&wk=04&p=.htm

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No, it doesn't simply because it is one big piece of crap.
Actually, it shouldn't be sold at all, in return, it should pay viewers for watching it.

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shark_attack, I am also a Bulgarian but I am sorry to say that Dzift won't make it. BTW the budget of the movie is 1 350 000 euros and not 700 000, and the revenue according to you is close to 1/10th of the budget (Approx. Eur 140,000). This is called major flop, not a major success you know :) 28000 viewers in 9,000,000 population makes less than 1/3rd of a single procent. And you call it a succcess?
Besides, I am totally pessimistic if the movie will be getting profits abroad. It is too sporadic, too distant, too uncoherent in order to be understood at all. Also it has absolutely no meaning, with no conclusions and no ideas to follow hence not profitable at all. It is movie made for the movie itself, just because "some people were giving away some money to make some movie" as most of the post soc movies in Bulgaria were made.

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actually you are wrong the film cost around 1 350 000 BGL 100% sure there many websites and even interviews which confirm that.
Secondly the film is a success because it has made 10 times more money than any recent Bulgarian film. Just for the record Buntat na L had a 1 500 000 BGL budget, so Zift is a cheaper film although much better done. And where did you get the 9mil population from, Bulgaria was never that big, At the moment is at most 7 million if that, and only about 1.5 milion had the chance to see it.

Looking at yearly top films Zift surpassed any blockbusters like Iron Man, Chronicles of Narnia and I am Legend.

http://boxofficemojo.com/intl/bulgaria/yearly/

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Well OK, maybe I was wrong but I have read somewhere about 1.35 mil. euros, not leva, never mind.
As for the population, even according to Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgaria, the total population in Bulgaria is 7 929 000 according to the 2001 census, 8 yrs later people here must number over 8 mil. (count and over 1 mln people abroad). OK, let's face it - Zift as most Bulgarian and non-Bulgarian movies is shown only in Arena Cinemas, which in turn take place only in big cities, that would make 2.5 mil. if we take into account only big cities like Sofia, Plovdiv, Bourgas, Varna etc. etc. Unfortunately that doesnt make any success because all in all, the movie industry is based on profit. That said, every movie is supposed to bring more money than spent. In other words, the balance needs to be positive rather negative. And I dont think Zift is making any noticeable profits versus costs. This is sad, because it is sponsored by the Ministry of culture, which makes it money taken from your and mine incoms and taxes (considering you live in Bulgaria).

I recently watched a movie from Estonia - "Somnambulance" - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385243/ and all the time I was thinking - this movie was made with about maybe 1/5th of the Zift budget (yes it's possible!) and it is still beautiful ... how come?

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Bulgaria's growth rate is negative. 9.58 births per 1000 persons compared to 14.3 deaths, as of 2008, according to CIA World Factbook. So the population has decreased in number since 2001, not increased. Again according to CIA World Factbook, our estimated population is 7,262,675 (July 2008).

Anyway, I wanted to reply to shark_attack's post. I believe that the movie will earn back some more money when it's released on DVD. I personally would buy it and believe that many other people would do so as well.

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Zift made a total of 223,911 leva in Bulgaria and now is on screen in the big theatres in Russia. Plus all the DVDs were sold out and HBO bought the rights to broadcast it. So I think it will earn back the money.


To light a candle is to cast a shadow...

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This is considered a big failure for 223 911 leva is approx 112 000 euros which is about 1/7th of the movie budged nationwide. If a movie worth 70 000 000$ back in US gets as much as 10 mln nationwide it IS failure indeed. Not to speak that "it will earn back the money" is any success at all.

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You are aware that Bulgaria is not Hollywood, right? :) Bulgarian and American films are not financed in the same way. Here a large amount of the budget is provided by the state and if a film had to make profit in the box-office in order to be considered successful, then no films would be made at all.
Besides, with its 35-40,000 attendants, "Zift" is the highest grossing Bulgarian film ever.

To light a candle is to cast a shadow...

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Movies worldwide are meant to be financially successfull, i.e to bring at least as much money as spent, especially nationwide. Anything else is failure.
The sole fact that large amount of the budget is coming from the government (because this is the situation, clearly Zift is taking from my and yours incoms and taxes) does not excuse it from not bringing money back.

BTW, as for the grossing, you are terribly wrong, there are plenty of bulgarian movies that used to bring far more viewers and got higher grossing at 0.70 leva per ticket than this one - just to name a few - Khan Asparouh, Time of violence, The Goat's Horn. And when I say it, I really mean it.

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Im wondering how much the film has made in Russia so far, since Boxofficemojo has not updated its figures. But as soon as it does ill post it here

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Yes, I agree, I was talking statistically, which excludes the older films, simply because there aren't any statistics about them (at least none of which I've heard).

As of the financial success - name three Bulgarian films made in recent years that have earned at least as much as their budget. The only one I can think of is "Mila ot Mars" (and that is only because it has a budget of just 50,000 leva). And even if there are more, that is not the general case. Another recent successful film, "Svetat e golyam i spasenie debne otvsyakade", has a budget of about 2,000,000 euro and I really doubt it that it will earn that kind of money or that anyone ever expected it to. Lots of films are not even made with the idea to appear in theaters, but only on festivals and therefore are predestined not to be profitable. You can't really make money with cinema in Bulgaria and that's not the idea in the first place.

In USA the producers are usually rich people which invest in the films and expect profit. In Europe the producers rely on various gratuitous funds to obtain the budgets. If you don't believe me just read some interviews with Bulgarian film directors, for example.


To light a candle is to cast a shadow...

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M-vaskes says "Lots of films are not even made with the idea to appear in theaters, but only on festivals and therefore are predestined not to be profitable."

Yes it is the very true and I was expecting someone to finally say it. Dzift was not made with the idea of gaining profit, in fact this is something a child would do if he has the money - child would fullfill all his dreams just because they are childish. And yes, it was made only to appear in festivals and not in theaters, therefore boasting that it made 35000 viewers is pointless.


p.s. Boxofficemojo has finally updated the data.

Zift is 15th with total gross as much as the great 10 000 usd per weekend, leaving deeply behind Night at the museum 2 with $5,234,909 avg per screen $5,929... oh it was the opposite :)

The irony of it all is that next to it is the movie called ... Disgrace :)

15 N Zift (2008) Frontiers $10,630 - 5 - $2,126 $10,630 1 Bulgaria
16 N Disgrace CP $10,617 - 6 - $1,770 $10,617 1 Australia, S Afr

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http://boxofficemojo.com/intl/cis/?yr=2009&wk=21&p=.htm

see N15

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15 N Zift (2008) Frontiers $10,630 - 5 - $2,126 $10,630 1 Bulgaria
16 N Disgrace CP $10,617 - 6 - $1,770 $10,617 1 Australia, S Afr


As I have previously said, it is very precisely put next to Disgrace ;)

Having the premiere movie get as much as $10 000 per week-end IN MOSCOW is almost the same as entering with only 1,000 rouble the club "Pacha" in Cremlin

P.S. Next week - N 27 with as much as $531 per cinema theatre (that's about 35 tickets for run out of 4000 places)

P.P.S. Previous week - N 35. Expecting to drop out of the box office this weekend

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Total gross up to date in Russia and CIS - $19,125

Imagine how big is this amount - in Moscow you can spend one evening in the night clubs with it or buy yourself pretty big plasma TV device.

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yes but check out the rest of foreign films, some of which very famous, which have made less than Zift in Russia. I guess foreign cinema its just not popular there(except for USA. Zift needs a release in USA or UK.

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Considering the fact Zift has won such a big prize as Silver St. George in the last Moscow international film festival (it is more important to Russians than Oscar) it just didn't have other chance than to become smash hit (and never succeeded)

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