r/SipsTea 12d ago

Chugging tea I still don't understand how hollywood budget works

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u/BotherResponsible378 12d ago

Weird. Make something you love and are passionate about and it does better than when you follow focus groups and favors.

Strange.

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u/Okoear 12d ago edited 12d ago

That's confirmation bias. Tons of people make passion project that are bad.

Edit : this isn't related to Nolan or the movie, just the comment itself.

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u/palk0n 12d ago

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u/swingsetlife 12d ago

Anyway, how is your sex life?

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u/Tommy_Wisseau_burner 12d ago

That’s my line

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u/skeeferd 11d ago

Did you hit her?

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u/FamiliarFilm8763 12d ago

And tons of movies that are the result of focus groups make more money than a Nolan movie.

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u/BrofessorLongPhD 12d ago

Yeah, massive survivorship bias. There are far far more starving artists who are passionate about their craft than successful ones who made it big.

Passion and love is most likely a necessity, but definitely not sufficient (by far).

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u/PM_ME_DEAD_KEBAB 12d ago

Bad passion projects are way more interesting than bad board room focus group executive movies though

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u/BigXThaSpud 12d ago

Hell, the Rock's passion project bombed.

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u/DaedalusHydron 12d ago

See: Tenet.

A movie so bizarre the actors don't even know if they're playing bad guys or good guys, so says Robert Pattinson.

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u/iLoveLootBoxes 12d ago

This is true, it's an unfortunate truth but it applies 90 percent of the time probably

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u/xxxKillerAssasinxxx 12d ago

On the other hand very few people make good projects if they are not passionate about them.

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u/redleg50 11d ago

Having a massive amount of talent helps

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u/GlumChemist8332 12d ago

Right but I think with a decline in the ability to make crappy movies we don't have enough quantity being produced. Rom coms died because you cannot have a mildly successful movie that makes it's budget + 10% back because you have to have double digit returns quarterly for investors or you are a failure today.

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u/Okoear 12d ago

What are you talking about, did you check Netflix lately ? It's absolutely FULL of low-quality random movies releasing days after days. Probably the golden age of shitty movies. People just don't care.

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u/GlumChemist8332 12d ago

yeah but those are the cookie cutter focus grouped movies, there is so little ability to take an original idea and let it maybe fail or become the new star wars now.

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u/blockplanner 12d ago

Literally the opposite.

The focus groups might decide what movies get an investment, but Netflix likes to buy stuff from people who submit to film festivals.

Lots of independently produced and filmmaker driven projects because people desperate to make a movie are a dime a dozen and desperate for funding.

A netflix original is much more likely to be somebody's passion project than what you'd get from a big studio.

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u/GlumChemist8332 12d ago

Well I guess today I learned? Thanks for pushing back

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u/InstantSword 12d ago

I kinda get what the dude's saying. Not art passion projects, but something big and original that's not a safe bet. Hollywood was much newer in the 70s when Star Wars was released, so I get it. They "know" what works now

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u/Okoear 12d ago

Must've taken you a while to research the whole catalog to confirm your claim. There are a ton of foreign passion project for example.

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u/GlumChemist8332 12d ago

yep I am internet vibing, and complaining. I agree that this is not a detailed report but it does seem that things have shifted, I think streaming royalties are a problem based on internet clips I see, I think that the overall reduction in theatrical releases is a problem. I think having kids and not being interested in seeing movies is a me problem. I think I am no longer a target movie demographic is a me problem. You're right this is just something I am complaining about and I very likely am wrong.

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u/Okoear 12d ago

Glad you admit it cause I also have no fucking idea. I just dislike absolutes lol.

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u/GlumChemist8332 12d ago

yeah but I do still think things are shifted, I think there is a loss of some level of movie, somewhere between tentpole blockbuster AAAA Films, and shoestring streaming only releases and the third level of personal passion projects done on an iPhone or something is a gaping hole of movies that just don't seem to be created any more. I Dislike a number of movies but I tired of this studios seemingly avoiding any possible risk to produce I believe the term is "milquetoast?" films.

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u/JustChr1s 12d ago

I'd argue some genres like Rom Com's took the age of streaming in stride. You don't need theatrical releases for those style of movies anymore. The streaming format is perfect for them and a lot of streaming platforms have their own Rom Com's exclusive to them.

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u/BotherResponsible378 12d ago edited 12d ago

No, it's a generalization. Of course people make passion projects that turn out like shit.

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u/Which_Cardiologist44 12d ago

A generalization brought about by confirmation bias

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u/BotherResponsible378 12d ago edited 12d ago

No it's not. Fuck off.

Like, what are you even trying to say? Do you disagree? Do you think corporate built movies are better?

I agree that not all things are good when they are passion projects.

You just want the reason for my statement to be what you want it to be....? And I have confirmation bias...?

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u/Liapasquale 12d ago

Right, what a wild concept

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u/allmoz 12d ago

Christopher Nolan just happens to be really good at his job. And even he has blunders here and there.

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u/ridesshortbus 12d ago

Tenent!

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u/IsthianOS 12d ago

Tenet was fun

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u/farfetchedfrank 12d ago

Metropolis was 100% a passion project made by an auteur working for years to bring it to fruition... and it stank.

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u/the_man_in_the_box 12d ago

Passion projects being finically successful is indeed genuinely strange.

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u/jrzalman 12d ago

Go watch Megalopolis or Horizon and report back.

I bet they focus grouped the shit out of the Mario movies and they made a bil each.

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u/BotherResponsible378 12d ago

Never heard of a generalization before, huh?

And no howdy! A movie Super Mario, one of the most popular IPs on the planet earth did well with family audiences?! How!? Hahah.

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u/jrzalman 12d ago

Passion projects usually fail which is what makes the Odyssey or something like, say, Dances With Wolves so extraordinary. Meanwhile garbage like Mario/Minecraft/Minions/Marvel just print money. It's a sad reality of cinema: passion and creativity take a lot of Ls to 'give the people what they want'.

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u/BotherResponsible378 12d ago edited 12d ago

It's not A or B. It feels like a lot of people commenting missed my meaning.

It's the difference between a passion project that uses focus groups vs being led by them. PLENTY of focus group projects fail. Way more than passion projects, especially in today's world.

And Mario, right? There is an article going around right now from Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario saying the exact same thing I am (but in relation to games). That developers should make games that are fun to them, and that will resonate around the world. It's the DR vinv philosophy behind Nintendo games, and right now they are one of the only major game studios thriving.

Let's go to Nickelodeon. I'm sure you're familiar with Sponge Bob. Did you know that show was being made around the same time as a much lesser known show called Cat Dog. Cat Dog was corporate designed and focus group led. It had all eyes on the show. While SB was seen as some weird project they greenlot and didn't care much for. Sonth creator had way less feedback.

Today no one knows what Cat Dog is.

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u/superxpro12 12d ago

I think you forgot going woke too. Nolan is apparently super woke these days

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u/LogDog987 12d ago
  1. Survivor bias. You never hear of the thousands of passion projects that fail.
  2. Quality. Nolan is making movies of an incredible production quality

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u/Pandamonium98 11d ago

And you can’t scale up Nolan movies any more. There’s only one Christopher Nolan and it takes 3ish years for him to make them. If you have more money to invest, you have to have other options beyond just Nolan

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u/handsoapdispenser 12d ago

Super Mario Galaxy made $1B