There are reports that the current Lone Ranger movie cost around $225M to make. That is a lot of money. Where did it all go?
Why do you want to know, copper?
Anyway, the answer is "I dunno, but I certainly did not steal any of it, and any claims to the contrary will be [del]answered via gunshot[/del] be referred to my attorneys.
it took several takes to get the timing of that bridge explosion and train crash ‘just right’ - they did not want to use CGI.
Johnny Depp’s Swiss Bank Accounts
Hey, those were real feathers on whatever the hell Johnny Depp had on his head.
Well, when even a movie screw can cost $10, these film budgets soon add up.
And having to tape all the cats together, well …
The action scenes definitely ran up some of the cost.
Also, the expenses on period pieces can quickly add up. For something set today, they can use some regular backgrounds, the extras can be in their normal everyday clothes, and a lot of props can be somewhat easily found. But for period pieces, they have to do a lot more set building and be vigilant that no cars or cell phones are left anywhere. The costumes can be made or bought, but usually with more difficulty and expense than just buying something from a regular department store. And same with props- if a character in Transformers needs to use a pen, the person in charge of props can easily get a pen at any number of office supply stores. But if someone in the Lone Ranger needs to use a pen, then some sort of pen or writing instrument that’s appropriate to the time period needs to be purchased from some specialty supply store or needs to be specially made.
With action period pieces all this stuff is even more expensive, because that usually means a lot of extras and big sets.
To da dump, to da dump, to da dump-dump-dump…
Thread over, we have a winner.
Development hell is one issue. The movie has been in development for nearly a decade; any money spent during that time get added to the final cost. Two years ago Disney execs hit the brake pedal on production in an effort to curb costs (it didn’t work).
As noted, big set pieces are expensive, as are period peices; together it’s even worse. I also get the impression that when a budget is unimaginably big, the importance of keeping costs down is largely ignored. What’s an extra three or four million when your budget is 210 million? When that happens a dozen times over a year or two of shooting and editing, suddenly you’re out $40 million.
Johnny Depp is a big star. It takes a lot of money to destroy his career.
Idiots don’t hire recreators from the right time period, we come fully equipped with costuming and lots of props of our very own, and frequently work cheap.
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Johnny Depp.
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The same writers, director, and producers of the Pirates movie, all very expensive.
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It really is a pretty strong visual movie, with many explosions and major effects. I looks like it cost a lot, even if it isn’t very good.
Oh, and the real question is why all Adam Sandler movies cost so much. Did you know Jack and Jill cost $79 million and looks like a $10 million movie?
Wait, how can producers be expensive? I thought that they were, by definition, the ones paying, not the ones getting paid.
Silver bullets.
I had no idea Hollywood prostitutes worked that cheap.
The studio and executive producers pay, the producers are among those ringing up the bill. Depending on their level of influence on a movie, they could be the ones insisting on multiple explosions, chases in/on/between multiple trains, or a fight between a pre-Wright flying machine and a giant mechanical spider (oops, wrong western flop).
Probably “creative accounting”-the accountants shift expenses to the loser (TLR) so they can get a writeoff on their taxes. The more successful films rack up profits overseas, where they are shielded from US taxes.
There were all those dead hookers they had to disappear from Depp’s trailer/dressing room. That can get expensive.
To understand Hollywood standard accounting methods and practices, you first have to be very adept with Bistromathics.