# Is a 100 million dollar movie really that big a deal anymore? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 19, 2004, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-100-million-dollar-movie-really-that-big-a-deal-anymore/251201 "2004-06-19T15:40:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2004, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-100-million-dollar-movie-really-that-big-a-deal-anymore/251201/1 "2004-06-19T15:40:52Z")
Seems a lot of “big”, but fairly run of the mill studio movies cost around this much to make these days. Is $ 100 million still a useful benchmark of a “really big deal” motion picture, or not, in the current movie making scene? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2004, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-100-million-dollar-movie-really-that-big-a-deal-anymore/251201/2 "2004-06-19T15:45:20Z")
The numbers have goten so huge and the accounting so convoluted that it’s frankly impossibly to say the movie actually cost $100 million. It’s just another factoid for the hype machine. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2004, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-100-million-dollar-movie-really-that-big-a-deal-anymore/251201/3 "2004-06-19T16:04:21Z")
[This site](http://www.boxofficereport.com/atbon/budget.shtml) lists 60 movies which cost $100,000,000 or more to make. How accurate the numbers are, is part of the “Hollywood Magic”. As for being useful, that’s up to you - Speed 2 cost $150,000,000 :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![The\_Long\_Road](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@The\_Long\_Road](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Long_Road)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2004, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-100-million-dollar-movie-really-that-big-a-deal-anymore/251201/4 "2004-06-19T16:42:11Z")
> [@Tapioca Dextrin](#): > > [This site](http://www.boxofficereport.com/atbon/budget.shtml) lists 60 movies which cost $100,000,000 or more to make. How accurate the numbers are, is part of the “Hollywood Magic”. > > As for being useful, that’s up to you - Speed 2 cost $150,000,000 :rolleyes: To me, the most interesting stat on that page is how badly _Pluto Nash_ bombed. Amazing. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2004, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-100-million-dollar-movie-really-that-big-a-deal-anymore/251201/5 "2004-06-19T17:31:05Z")
That site is very interesting. I had no idea “The 5th Element” had not done well, or that “Master and Commander” had not made back it’s production cost. The fact that “Oceans 11” did so well surprised the heck out of me as well. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2004, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-100-million-dollar-movie-really-that-big-a-deal-anymore/251201/6 "2004-06-19T18:05:23Z")
> [@astro](#): > > “Master and Commander” had not made back it’s production cost. I think the gross quoted in that table is the US box office figure. It certainly is for [Titanic](http://imdb.com/title/tt0120338/business). ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2004, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-100-million-dollar-movie-really-that-big-a-deal-anymore/251201/7 "2004-06-19T19:45:04Z")
There’s a link on that page to another one showing the top grossing movies by worldwide box office revenues. I remember reading in the New York Times a few months ago that the US box office represented only a fifth of the revenues for a typical movie today. Other sources of revenues include overseas revenues, cable and broadcast television broadcast, product placement and DVD sales. DVD sales in particular are a big deal now. And I think that the production cost for one of the recent James Bond films was almost completely offset by the product placement fees. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2004, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-100-million-dollar-movie-really-that-big-a-deal-anymore/251201/8 "2004-06-19T23:44:14Z")
In regard to whether a movie made money for the investors, you have to remember that the contracts with the movie theaters are negotiated per film. “Spider-man 2 is coming, and what are you going to do, NOT show it? That’s right, you’ll show it on 6 screens at once, take your 15% (or whatever) cut, and live on the insane consessions you’ll get for the first two weeks. After that, your percentage increases as incentive to keep it around.” I have this on the authority of a former theater manager and a woman who was involved in the negotiations as a job.