At this point I’m going to Ladbrokes and betting against everything Kotaku promotes. They are like Jim Cramer of the gaming industry.
I had a conversation with my sister about that recently.
The amount of shows and movies that have $100,000,000+ budgets is rising, yet more and more of them feature very limited sets, small casts of mostly mid range talent, and a dozen executive producers all putting up their own money (this is all especially prominent with big shows on streaming networks, cough Star Trek cough The Acolyte)
Here’s my comparison: a group of 10 investors come out and announce they’re spending a billion dollars to develop a new luxury car. They drum it up as being the next big thing. Then, when it comes out, it’s about as nice and luxurious as a base model Toyota Camry. Fine, but not “a billion dollars” fine. Immediately, everyone would be wondering where the hell that money went? There’s definitely a chance it was just squandered, but you have to wonder. When you have a group of private investors with executive power over the project, what goes on behind closed doors?
For all we know, they’re literally just passing massive checks in a circle to one another to say “yes, it says right here in our bank records that we spent a combined $100,000,000”, meanwhile only 25% actually goes into the production, and they pocket the rest. Then, when the flock of people have to come and check out the new megaproject, all they need to recoup is a few million more than they spent (far less than the perceived budget), and they can run for the hills.
Anywho, crackpot theory time over. But think about it, if my simple brain can think this stuff up, why can’t the hollywood bigwigs, who actually have the capital to make it happen?
It gets better, because all the money they “lost” on a movie they can also write off. Oops, we didn’t make any money this year because we put out 10 billion dollar movies and only made 10 million at the box office. Tax break please!
For all we know, they’re literally just passing massive checks in a circle to one another to say “yes, it says right here in our bank records that we spent a combined $100,000,000”, meanwhile only 25% actually goes into the production, and they pocket the rest.
That would be illegal and easily discovered
But you could pay $10M to hire another company to do the sound mixing. They might spend $500k to do the work. You might also be the owner of that company, and the money ends up back in your pocket…And that’s not embezzlement or a kickback, because that’s what it’s called when poor people do it
Good point, I shouldn’t have used the world ‘literally.’ I was just trying to make the point that there are plenty of creative ways where tremendous amounts of money could end up back in someones pocket when by all means it should have gone elsewhere.
And yes, your example is perfectly believable and I wouldn’t at all be shocked if that kind of thing happened frequently.
The most frustrating thing about this article is that it completely ignores that good movies targeted at kids still have to be good. Personal complaints aside, the new Mario movie was reasonably good for adults and great for kids. Pixar keeps churning out things that are fantastic on many levels. Bluey is an amazing show that can resonate with kids and parents. I don’t for a minute buy the elitist bullshit of “well you’re not a kid so you can’t comment.” Muppet Treasure Island holds the fuck up as an adult so this writer can fuck right off.
What’s also weird is Minecraft is 15 years old at this point. That means you’ve basically got a huge age range (kids to adults) within the target audience. Why isn’t it targeted at the entire fanbase?
Adults were fans of Minecraft when it came out since there was really no other sandbox game like it at the time. There were precious few sandbox games at the time period.
Oh yeah, I don’t disagree it has had a large following since it released. I was just highlighting that even if a majority of the player base was 5-15 on release, they’d be 20-30 now. So why target just kids.
Why isn’t it targeted at the entire fanbase?
Is that a serious question? Because the answer is obvious…
Ok, let me start out by saying I have an 8 year old, and he fucking loves Minecraft. And hey, I played the game a bunch back when it was in beta and I was like 25. But I did not love the game the way that he loves the game… He’s obsessive about Minecraft, some days it’s all he talks about. How many adults do you know like that?
And here’s the real question, when’s the last time you bought Minecraft merch for yourself? Because my kid has a Minecraft lunchbox, a Minecraft hoody, a Minecraft Lego set, some Minecraft figurines, and of course the Minecraft sheets and PJs.
Yes a thousand percent. You can entertain young children by showing a dancing clown on a colorful flashing screen for 3 hours straight. Kids will love it. But that doesn’t make it a good movie.
A good kids movie is not a movie that appeals to kids. It’s a good movie that also appeals to kids.
Hear hear. Soul was a great movie because it was fun for kids but spoke to adults. Pixar does that a lot. A good kids movie is just a good movie that’s appropriate for children. Sure you can feed kids entertainment slop and it might even make bank but if you’re trying to make a film and not just a vehicle for the line to go up then slop is not it.
I’ve been playing Minecraft off and on since the Beta. I usually play the “All the mods” packs when they launch.
I do not understand how people get so emotionally invested in an IP.
If it isn’t a good movie who cares? Just spend your time doing something else.
Can’t speak for everyone, but the reason that I care when one of my favorite IPs has a terrible movie, is because the terrible movie ensures that a good one will never be made.
They did a great job with Fallout, and now they are making a second season.
Then there’s Borderlands.
I still haven’t seen it, but I already know that the Borderlands movie I would have loved will never exist.
And in some cases, the IP getting a shit movie or show can tell the game developers “well, time to drop the entire brand for 15 years”.
the terrible movie ensures that a good one will never be made.
Super Mario Bros got another movie.
But generally, video games don’t usually work as movies. So it isn’t that big of a loss, lol
I will rewatch a wasted Hoskins and Leguizamo riffing lines in the 90s mario bros forever. That movie is so terrifically bad its awesome.
They generally don’t work as movies because no one ever follows the story that’s right in front of them. They always add some stupid artistic bullshit preference of their own which causes a huge disconnect from the source material.
the Borderlands movie I would have loved will never exist.
For me it’s Monster Hunter. I refuse to watch the one they made a few years ago. I wonder if there’s a supercut of only scenes that feature the monsters. Or anything involving the Charge Blade.
After reading the synopsis, why tf did they have to make it an isekai?
Why do you need a Minecraft movie in your life though?
Personally, I don’t need the things I like to be cross format.
If it works as a movie, great.
If it is never made, no problem.
If it fails, meh.
I made it about as far into the Borderlands movie as i did with the monsterhunter movie, bailing after about a 3rd of the film.
Not really super popular take, but the sexual politics (as in the way the story treated women) in both were something I struggled to get past. Plus they were both goofy and not in a very fun way. I have very similar feelings about the fallout show lol, but glad you enjoyed it.
But i think i teenager might have liked borderlands
Just reiterating what others have said but… if you have an IP you like and want more of it in the future (regardless of medium!) then its success in any other medium will likely impact whether or not you get more.
Unfortunately, we live in a world where:
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Money matters more to most IP holders than the IP itself
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New IP is seen as risky
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Those in charge don’t have to take responsibility for their failures
If there is a commercial failure of an IP, there is a good chance that its failure will be seen as the IP generally failing or falling out of poluarity instead of the failure to best utilize the IP that likely occurred. As a result, priorities will often shift away from the IP to something else in all mediums (ex. ASOIAF/GOT). Unless the IP is absolutely gangbusters in all other mediums, it will suffer. Similarly, success will likely lead to more utilization of the IP in any medium.
It’s unlikely that the IP owner will sell or license the IP in the near future because at one point it was popular and new IP is hard to make. It would be better to hoard IP and maybe try again in a decade when they need a trick up their sleeve. Plus, another failure might damage the IP even more.
Admittedly, I’m not attached to any brands or IP in particular and so I’m not invested really. I just makes me a little sad when some IP I thought well of has this happen… or when the person who benefits from the IP turns out to be a person I’d rather not give money to. Occasionally I’ll ponder what might have been if things had gone differently and feel a little bad.
If there is a commercial failure of an IP, there is a good chance that its failure will be seen as the IP generally failing or falling out of poluarity instead of the failure to best utilize the IP that likely occurred.
For example, when EA released Tiberian Twilight and it was absolutely awful and didn’t sell, they said that people just didn’t want RTS games anymore and shelved the entire C&C franchise. That was fourteen years ago and we haven’t had a new C&C since then that wasn’t mobile shovelware.
I mean, if you’re going to make a movie based on a video game, shouldn’t you aim it at The demographics that most commonly played that video game?
I feel like Minecraft has kind of lagged in popularity with the current crop of 5 to 12-year-olds compared to some of the newer games, like Roblox.
That may be so, but that’s irrelevant to them. Their IP is Minecraft, not Roblox. They only need to appeal to the largest demographic of people who enjoy Minecraft (aka kids, not adults). The other interests of their target audience are hardly relevant. All that matters is that they’re interested in the topic though to see a movie.
Or more accurately, bug their parents to pay to see the movie. Because those are additional tickets, too.
If were going average or median I would be genuinely surprised if it was under 20 ngl.
They advertise to kids cause kids and adults buy it then, advertise to adults and youre just cutting off part of your market - companies aren’t so super sterilised these days cause today’s youth are just super loaded
