Brian Grazer: Mid-Budget Movies will come back

Quote :

The movie business has become bifurcated, with studios making either big-budget event films or high-concept pictures that cost less than $20 million to make, he said in an interview from Vanity Fair's New Establishment Summit in San Francisco.

Meanwhile, character-driven movies with moderate budgets like "A Beautiful Mind" and "The King's Speech" have disappeared from theaters — but perhaps not for long, Grazer said. "[But] they're now coming back"

"What's going to happen is the movies are going to catch up to that and they're going to draw those master filmmakers and other filmmakers that want to make character-driven material back to movies," he said

Meanwhile, Spielberg made the same assertation a few months ago by stating:

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Even five years ago there wasn’t an audience for everything. But now, these little movies are just squeezing in and finding a berth next to these huge Queen Mary type movies and they’re able to find an audience, enough of an audience to encourage the distributor and the film companies to finance more of them

I hope they're right, but studios sure are backing mid-budget filmmakers more this year than before.

IM Global to focus on Mid-Budget Movies!

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At a time when the six major studios continue to focus most of their attention on blockbusters, IM Global’s production and financing unit is gearing up to fill the gap for mid-budget films.

“When I came on in the fall of 2013, Stuart and I talked a lot about the diversification of the slate and creating more of an atmosphere for filmmakers,” says production president Matt Jackson. “We are still driven by foreign sales, but we’re trying to balance that with selling films domestically.”

STX Entertainment to Mainly make Mid-Budget studio Movies!

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Instead of cooking up its own answer to the Marvel universe, the studio plans to produce films in the $20 million to $80 million budget range with big-name actors. It aims to release as many as 15 films annually by 2017, and already has lined up projects with Matthew McConaughey, Julia Roberts, director Gary Ross and “The Purge” producer Jason Blum.

In the meantime, STX’s movie operation, led by former Universal Pictures chief Adam Fogelson, is going full throttle.

“We want to be seen as a major studio, but we have the benefit of building ourselves today,” says Fogelson, the company’s motion picture group chairman.

As long as they don't go to Netflix, I'm straight.

Mecha wrote:

As long as they don't go to Netflix, I'm straight.

Well, both Spielberg and Grazer were referring to the number of smaller-to-mid budget movies that have been huge successes since the end of 2014 in movie theaters, so I kind of doubt they'll move to Netflix (for now.)

Anyway, this will be an awesome thing if it continues (I'm looking at you, Creed.) :)

Quote :

Digital purchases of movies are increasing so rapidly they will have eclipsed slumping DVD sales by the end of 2014, returning Hollywood’s most important revenue stream to growth, according to one of the largest film studios.

The industry-wide decline in DVD sales has hit Hollywood hard over the past seven years. The big studios – Walt Disney, Universal, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Warner Brothers and Fox – are making fewer movies as a consequence of the decline and trying to rein in production and marketing budgets.

But digital sales are increasing fast enough to offset the fall. “I think it will tip this year,” said Mr Dunn.

“Home entertainment is so critical for Hollywood that if this space shows growth,  it changes everything,” said Mr Dunn.

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By 2018, electronic home video, which includes subscription video-on-demand services and cable on-demand offerings, will be the main contributor to total filmed entertainment revenue, overtaking the box office by 2017, the study finds. In five years, revenues for the sector will double from $8.5 billion in 2014 to $17 billion by 2018.

In comparison to a comment Weinstein made about the DVD collapse:

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Little by little by little, VOD is making up for the DVD business. It’s more challenging, but I think eventually the technology will catch up and equate to what we lost.

Obviously, all of these things weigh in on how much money you’re bidding on projects. You don’t know exactly what everything will be worth, so you have to go with your pure gut. If a movie grossed $5 million in theaters, it used to mean that it would do $5 million on DVD.

Now, with EST and VOD and everything else, who knows what you’re going to carve out? The theatrical business is now the biggest profit center. If you don’t win in theaters, you’re in trouble.

If Digital sales catch up by 2018, that'd be a great thing for the Film industry. Especially if people want more original movies, which have relied on home entertainment since the 1970s.

No. I want mah physical media, dammit!

Mecha wrote:

No. I want mah physical media, dammit!

I love physical media as much as anyone else, but

More original movies and more adult-driven Hollywood movies > endless reboots/remakes/etc. 

Besides, you'll still be able to buy a physical copy, anyway. I know that I don't like a Film collection that's stored on a HDD. It doesn't feel like a collection to me by then.

Film collecting is all about owning stuff that others may not have. If everything went digital, then there would be nothing special about collecting movies. Hell, a lot of people get into movies they never even heard of all thanks to companies like Arrow, Criterion and Shout Factory. I know I have made blind buys all due to the trust I have with those brands.

Mecha wrote:

Film collecting is all about owning stuff that others may not have. If everything went digital, then there would be nothing special about collecting movies. Hell, a lot of people get into movies they never even heard of all thanks to companies like Arrow, Criterion and Shout Factory. I know I have made blind buys all due to the trust I have with those brands.

My only gripe with digital collections is that they don't feel like you actually own those films. They belong to some HDD BS.

RamboOnRedBull wrote:

Mecha wrote:

Film collecting is all about owning stuff that others may not have. If everything went digital, then there would be nothing special about collecting movies. Hell, a lot of people get into movies they never even heard of all thanks to companies like Arrow, Criterion and Shout Factory. I know I have made blind buys all due to the trust I have with those brands.

My only gripe with digital collections is that they don't feel like you actually own those films. They belong to some HDD BS.

Exactly! Like all of the digital games I bought on PS3. I can no longer play them. It's SO stupid. Not to mention, games like MvC and Turtles In Time can no longer be purchased on your console. With physical, you don't have that problem what's so ever. If a physical copy of something is discontinued, you can still go on the hunt to buy them. Which is part of the FUN of collecting physical media.

Mecha wrote:

RamboOnRedBull wrote:

Mecha wrote:

Film collecting is all about owning stuff that others may not have. If everything went digital, then there would be nothing special about collecting movies. Hell, a lot of people get into movies they never even heard of all thanks to companies like Arrow, Criterion and Shout Factory. I know I have made blind buys all due to the trust I have with those brands.

My only gripe with digital collections is that they don't feel like you actually own those films. They belong to some HDD BS.

Exactly! Like all of the digital games I bought on PS3. I can no longer play them. It's SO stupid. Not to mention, games like MvC and Turtles In Time can no longer be purchased on your console. With physical, you don't have that problem what's so ever. If a physical copy of something is discontinued, you can still go on the hunt to buy them. Which is part of the FUN of collecting physical media.    

That, and I love to get stuff like trilogy collections or franchise collections, or even something like a steelbook case. It makes it a little bit more special IMO.

I know what you mean.

That random LittleBigPlanet figure in the middle of a Hannibal orgasm-collection.

RamboOnRedBull wrote:

That random LittleBigPlanet figure in the middle of a Hannibal orgasm-collection.

Nah mayne. Dat's Lil Hannibal.

Mecha wrote:

RamboOnRedBull wrote:

That random LittleBigPlanet figure in the middle of a Hannibal orgasm-collection.

Nah mayne. Dat's Lil Hannibal.

Oh, I didn't notice, lol.

More like RamboOnBotox.

Mecha wrote:

More like RamboOnBotox.

I'm sure you'd make a joke like that considering your vast experience of the entirety of 9 years on Planet Earth.

Congratulations, Mecha, you've just become Duke 2.0.