What could a billion-dollar budget do for a movie?

Velocity · February 16, 2017, 8:47pm

It appears that the most expensive movies ever made were in the $300 million+ budget range.

For fun’s sake - in 2017 dollars - what could a billion-dollar budget do for a movie, and at what point does the budget hit the point of no-additional-return-on-investment?

ISTM that there are really only three areas such a budget could be spent on:

Hiring more extras instead of using CGI people in the background, paying all of your staff and cast more - essentially, human-resources spending.
Going all-out on special effects. One can also do more expensive filming - for instance, actual filming at certain sites rather than using stock footage, etc. Maybe rent or reserve entire locales for filming.
Going all-out on marketing, promotion and advertising. One can buy up a lot more TV ad space, put more promo banners everywhere, etc.

Dewey_Finn · February 16, 2017, 8:53pm

If you’ve spent a billion dollars on a movie production, I think you would need very little in terms of advertising and promotion, since many people will want to see it just to see what all that money bought you.

Sir_T-Cups · February 16, 2017, 8:56pm

Make one GIANT movie into 2 movies

I know that it’s not really happening, but essentially that’s what you can do with it.

Drunky_Smurf · February 16, 2017, 9:00pm

It could make the greatest movie of all time: John Wick 3.

Jophiel · February 16, 2017, 9:25pm

Real dinosaurs.

drewder · February 16, 2017, 9:36pm

A very rich set of producers.

FairyChatMom · February 16, 2017, 9:41pm

You could truly have an ALL STAR CAST, provided you were willing to deal with egos. In fact, as I typed that, it occurred to me that no amount of money could compensate for having to deal with who gets what billing, who gets what trailer, who gets all green M&M in the dressing room.

So I’d have to go with locations and special effects, and maybe a famous orchestra to play the soundtrack.

Ranchoth · February 16, 2017, 9:42pm

More top-notch dead actors in starring roles. Including the voices.

Also along those lines, digital recasting. Buy the rights to a film with one or more generally recognized “bad” casting choices (or just ones you, personally, didn’t like—you’re the one writing the checks), and painstakingly remove and replace the character with someone you like better.

Or, back along the effects line, pay Kim Jong-Un to let you film an actual nuclear detonation for a battle scene.

Just_Asking_Questions · February 16, 2017, 10:33pm

Bankrupt two studios, maybe more.

Lose more money than has ever been lost before.

Just_Asking_Questions · February 16, 2017, 10:50pm

Serious answer - do my idea.

Five movies, all interlinked.

Take an idea like, say, Independence Day. But don’t do just one movie. That’s trying to cram too much. An event of that magnitude would have a million stories.

So, make 5 movies in five styles. Action, romance, comedy, drama.

One is the straight-up actioner telling the main story - ID4, for example
One is a personal drama of one family dealing with the alien attack on a local level - Signs would be the model, or maybe War of the Worlds
One is a “close in” movie about two lost lovers rekindling their romance while the war rages - modeled after Casablanca
One is a special mission, focusing on a small group - like Guns of Navarone
And the last is a broad comedy - think Airplane! level of humor.

Each movie MUST have all the main characters from the other four appear in it at some point, and the scenes must organically flow. And those scenes must be in BOTH movies, unaltered (though you can change perspective and camera angles). So a lead actor in one movie becomes a walk-on part in the others.

Like, the special forces guys in Guns of Navarone stop in Rick’s Cafe, they are seen in the background of troops at the end of ID4, etc. Rick and Ilsa are watching the war on TV, and you can see the President on TV. Things like that.

The hardest part would be integrating the serious movies with the Airplane! movie, but with clever writing, that could be fun. In the Airplane! movie, the dialog is gut-bustingly funny, but in the serious movie, the dialog is exactly the same but isn’t funny. It’s all context. Or you lampshade it. In the serious movie, after the Airplane! actors exit, the other movie characters say “what the heck was that about?”

I’ve been rolling this idea around since ID4 came out. I think it would be great, but you need a lot of resources. You have to film five movies at the same time, and balance all those actors going from one to another. Do your prima donna stars demand payment for EACH movie? A lot of details would need to be ironed out.

But I think the result would be awesome!

PS for a novelty - make one of the movies animated…

gnoitall · February 16, 2017, 10:50pm

Accounting irregularities.

ACCOUNTING IRREGULARITIES FOR ALL!

burpo_the_wonder_mutt · February 16, 2017, 10:57pm

A 16-hour Titanic?

Dendarii_Dame · February 16, 2017, 11:32pm

Just_Asking_Questions:

Serious answer - do my idea.

Five movies, all interlinked.

Take an idea like, say, Independence Day. But don’t do just one movie. That’s trying to cram too much. An event of that magnitude would have a million stories.

So, make 5 movies in five styles. Action, romance, comedy, drama.

One is the straight-up actioner telling the main story - ID4, for example
One is a personal drama of one family dealing with the alien attack on a local level - Signs would be the model, or maybe War of the Worlds
One is a “close in” movie about two lost lovers rekindling their romance while the war rages - modeled after Casablanca
One is a special mission, focusing on a small group - like Guns of Navarone
And the last is a broad comedy - think Airplane! level of humor.

Each movie MUST have all the main characters from the other four appear in it at some point, and the scenes must organically flow. And those scenes must be in BOTH movies, unaltered (though you can change perspective and camera angles). So a lead actor in one movie becomes a walk-on part in the others.

Like, the special forces guys in Guns of Navarone stop in Rick’s Cafe, they are seen in the background of troops at the end of ID4, etc. Rick and Ilsa are watching the war on TV, and you can see the President on TV. Things like that.

The hardest part would be integrating the serious movies with the Airplane! movie, but with clever writing, that could be fun. In the Airplane! movie, the dialog is gut-bustingly funny, but in the serious movie, the dialog is exactly the same but isn’t funny. It’s all context. Or you lampshade it. In the serious movie, after the Airplane! actors exit, the other movie characters say “what the heck was that about?”

I’ve been rolling this idea around since ID4 came out. I think it would be great, but you need a lot of resources. You have to film five movies at the same time, and balance all those actors going from one to another. Do your prima donna stars demand payment for EACH movie? A lot of details would need to be ironed out.

But I think the result would be awesome!

PS for a novelty - make one of the movies animated…

I like this idea. Oh, and use some of the money to have MST3K do every single one.

Chronos · February 17, 2017, 12:18am

I don’t think it’d be too hard to fit in the farce. See, it’s an all-out war, and the military can’t afford to turn away anyone… but some folks are just such horrendous screw-ups that there’s nothing productive you can do with them. So you take one ship (infantry unit, whatever), and pack it full of all of the incompetents, and do everything you can to keep them away from wherever the action is, so they can’t screw everything up. But they somehow just keep blundering into the wrong place at the wrong time. At the climactic battle, the enemy have figured out about the screw-ups ship, and target their offensive at some critical point where their ship is the only one in range to respond. The screw-ups do their best, and through a series of zany mishaps, manage to stall the enemy long enough for the real fighting forces to arrive. In the farce movie, this is played as dark comedy, like the end of Dr. Strangelove, with a fade to black as they all die while singing “Always Look on the Sunny Side of Life”, but in the serious movie, they’re treated as heroes, with the fact that they were screw-ups being glossed over for propaganda purposes.

snfaulkner · February 17, 2017, 12:37am

You could make 2 Blood Oceans.

Or 1 Blood Ocean and half a billion in cocaine.

Just_Asking_Questions · February 17, 2017, 1:14am

Chronos:

I don’t think it’d be too hard to fit in the farce. See, it’s an all-out war, and the military can’t afford to turn away anyone… but some folks are just such horrendous screw-ups that there’s nothing productive you can do with them. So you take one ship (infantry unit, whatever), and pack it full of all of the incompetents, and do everything you can to keep them away from wherever the action is, so they can’t screw everything up. But they somehow just keep blundering into the wrong place at the wrong time. At the climactic battle, the enemy have figured out about the screw-ups ship, and target their offensive at some critical point where their ship is the only one in range to respond. The screw-ups do their best, and through a series of zany mishaps, manage to stall the enemy long enough for the real fighting forces to arrive. In the farce movie, this is played as dark comedy, like the end of Dr. Strangelove, with a fade to black as they all die while singing “Always Look on the Sunny Side of Life”, but in the serious movie, they’re treated as heroes, with the fact that they were screw-ups being glossed over for propaganda purposes.

Nice!

It fits! It SINGS!