Dungeons and Dragons movie

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

I enjoyed it, but can I just say, thank goodness they used some gorgeous practical effects? I've really grown to miss those in the era of MCU cgied-on costumes.

[McAvoy]

I don't know how financially successful this film is or will be, but I can't help but wonder why studios expend tremendous budgets on movies that can only be recouped if the film is a wild success.

Generally because studios are lying about how much they stand to lose. The black budgets of Hollywood are infamous in virtually every accounting circle. In addition to pure ticket sales, they have streaming and DVD sales as well as all merchandising. Plus any losses recouped from future uses by networks or licensing.

There's no way to actually lose money in the long run.

Might be true for D&D here as they are $203 million on a $150 million budget. Like how much was their advertising/press budget anyway. Seems like they didn't put too much into that.

I also wonder how much they actually make now on streaming, physical media sales now. I could buy into the movie becoming profitable like 20 years ago when DVDs, Blu-ray, VHS whatever rentals and sales are factored in.

[CharlesPhipps]

Might be true for D&D here as they are $203 million on a $150 million budget. Like how much was their advertising/press budget anyway. Seems like they didn't put too much into that.

I also wonder how much they actually make now on streaming, physical media sales now. I could buy into the movie becoming profitable like 20 years ago when DVDs, Blu-ray, VHS whatever rentals and sales are factored in.

Plenty of money to be made with renting movies directly online too. And Hulu or whatever pays a licensing fee for the films.

[Frustration]

Would you say studios really report their losses, in a direct sense? I feel like we usually just kinda have to guess the loss based on raw box office numbers, the budget, and studio activity (if they move forward with a sequel).

I would say there is a definite difference between losing money, and merely not making as much money as was hoped.

There seem to have been films that truly did lose money for their financers (although not necessarily for their actors, directors, and all the people involved with actually making films, directly or indirectly), but I suspect there's a lot of creative accounting going on.

J Michael Straczynski has famously noted that his contract entitles him to a portion of the profits of B5, but according to WB B5 has never made a profit.