Why did Dredd flop at the Box
Office?
The action thriller film Dredd
was released in 2012. The producers for this film were Alex Garland, Andrew
MacDonald and Allon Reich. The studios involved in it were DNA Films and IM
Global and the distributors were Lionsgate and Entertainment Film. The main
stars in Dredd were Karl Urban, playing Judge Dredd, Lena Headey playing Ma-Ma
and Olivia Thirlby who played Anderson.
The marketing strategies used to promote the film were teaser trailers,
an interactive website and posters. The estimated box office figure was
$36,000,000 which was less than the original budget resulting in the film
‘flopping.’
In my opinion one of the reasons
why Dredd failed to succeed as expected at the box office is because the film
did not comply with, in Mark Kermode’s opinion, the four ways to enable success
which are: to have a newsworthy budget, to include spectacular visuals, to not
be a comedy and to include ‘A’ list stars. Although Dredd was not a comedy and
contained superb visuals the other two aspects were not met. The estimated budget for Dredd was a rather
unimpressive $45,000,000 as opposed to its rival film The Avengers who had a
huge budget of over $200,000,000. Other films released within the same space of
time are films such as ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, ‘Skyfall’ and ‘The Amazing
Spiderman’ which were all box office successes. A ‘newsworthy budget’ is
anything above $100,000,000, which Dredd was not. The main reason for the
budget being so small is because there were no A list stars involved in the
film.
The Avengers included ‘A’ list
stars such as Robert Downey Jr who is well known for his roles in Sherlock
Holmes and the Iron Man sequels. Downey has been nominated for several awards
including two Oscars, and has won three Golden Globe awards, one being for ‘Best
Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical’ in the 2009
film Sherlock Holmes’. Downey is a well know and very well respected ‘A’ list
star and has been nominated for an estimated 58 awards. On the other hand Karl Urban, the lead in Dredd, is not so well
known and has only been nominated for an estimated 12 awards, the majority of which are cast related such
as the BSFC award for ‘Best Assembled Cast’ for the cast of the well known film
Star Trek. Urban is not classed as ‘A-list’ and has had no main roles in any well
known or popular films.
The certificate given for Dredd
was 18 which is justified by the amount of violent and gore ridden scenes
included in the film. I believe that due to the high certificate rating the
opportunity to create tie-ins such as figurines and animated games was limited as
the audience would be grown adults, not children or teens. In comparison The
Avengers certificate was a 12A, aimed at a much younger audience there by providing
every opportunity to capitalise on merchandise such as games and figures,
boosting the status of the film and its profits. I also believe that the
certificate rating correlates with the marketing opportunities: as the film is an
18 the times at which it can be publicised are restricted to eliminate every
possibility of an under 18 year old seeing trailers that are considered to be
in appropriate for them. Owing to this, the trailers could only be show on the
television after a certain time in the evening, if at all.
This film was a remake of the
1995 film starring the A list star Sylvester Stallone. Through researching this
film I discovered that this also failed at the box office. Even though the film
starred an undoubtedly famous actor. The budget for this film was higher than
the 2012 remake, at an estimated $70,000,000, and made a mere total profit of
just over $7,000,000. The first thing that came to mind after reading about
this film was why the producers decided to make a remake of a film that performed
so badly at the box office. As this film starred Stallone, a top ranking A List
star, I can only imagine how high expectations must have been, which makes the
failure even more surprising to me.
The film was originally going to
be released in 3D alone but due to the poor reception, was then granted 2D
viewing. In my opinion the fact that this film was only released in 3D to begin
with was another reason why it didn’t reach the targeted profit. With it only
released in 3D this limits where the film can be seen as not all cinemas worldwide
are equipped with the appropriate technology.
The film was based on the comic
book series Judge Dredd which isn’t
as famous and well known as those included in The Avengers. The Avengers
consists of well known comic book characters, which all have their own separate
films, coming together as a team. The film includes characters such as Iron
Man, The Incredible Hulk, Captain American and Hawkeye, all of which are
unquestionably renowned. I think that the main reason for the success of The
Avengers is because all characters included all have a well known background
and all feature. Not only does The Avengers comply with Mark Kermode’s ‘list of
four’ of using a newsworthy budget, A list stars, Visual effects and is not a
comedy, but the film has such a detailed background that almost everyone is
familiar with it. The critical rating for The Avengers was an impressive 92% or
8/10. Dredd also had good reviews with a 7/10 but due to the fact that the
original story is not as renowned worldwide as the famous Marvel characters I
believe that it had a huge part to play within the failure of the film.
In conclusion, Dredd flopped due
to the producers not following the four rules set by Mark Kermode: having A
list stars, a newsworthy budget, superb effects and to not be a comedy. With
the original film failing surely the producers would consider what they could
do differently to avoid a similar outcome.
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