Dredd
was released on the 7th of September 2012. The film had an estimated
budget of $45,000,000 ($45 million) dollars. The film flopped in the box office
only recalling just over $36,000,000 ($36 million) dollars, this was a loss of
around $10million dollars making the film an official flop in the box office.
In this essay I will give reasons for why Dredd failed in the box office and
give evidence to support the reasons I have given. I will talk about the
production, pre-production and marketing. In these areas I will talk the actors
who contributed to film as well as talking about the directors and producers.
Other information and I will talk about in this essay is the filming location,
film budget and the marketing such as trailers and posters.
Whilst
doing all of this I will compare the film to a larger superhero blockbuster and
that blockbuster I will be comparing Dredd to is the film The Amazing Spider-man that was released on the 3rd July
2012 the same year as Dredd was released these two films also had to compete
with another superhero film which was The
Dark Night Rises released on the 20th July 2012.
To
start of this essay about how and why Dredd failed in the box office my first
reason for this would be in the Pre-production section which covers the actors,
director, producers and the budget. My very first reason is the actors, when I
say this I mean the lack of outstanding and well-known actors in the film Dredd
compared to the film the amazing Spider-man. In the film Dredd the actors were
Karl Urban who had also stared in Star Trek made in 2009 and the Bourne
Supremacy made in 2004. Karl Urban is probably the most well-known actor in
this film because the audience might know of him from the other films he had stared
in. Other key actors in Dredd were Olivia Thirlby and Lena Headly. These two
actors played big parts in the film but few in the audience that watched the
film knew of these people. When you compare Dredd’s actors to the amazing
spider-man’s actors you can clearly see the difference of actors used. In the
amazing spider man the main actors were Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Ryhs
Ifans. Andrew Garfield also stared in films such as The Social Network made in
2010, this film was a big film that made allot of money. Another actor is Emma
Stone who over the past couple of years has stared in a range of movies such as
The Help made in 2011, Easy A made in 2010 and Zombieland made in 2009. The
Final actor to star in the amazing spider man is Rhys Ifans who plays Lizard in
the movie. He has also stared in films such as Notting Hill made in 1999 and
Anonymous made in 2011. You can see the actors in the amazing spider man are
far superior than the actors in Dredd they are more well-known. Audiences and
people in general have a liking to different actors this could of meant that
Dredd would of not stood a chance in the long run against theses big
blockbuster films.
Another
reason why I think the film flopped in the box office is due to the directors
and producers. When I say this I mean the lack of creativeness made by the
director and producers to make sure the films competes with other well-known
superhero films out at that time. The director of Dredd was Pete Travis not a
well-known director he has directed other films but those films were not well
known as well such as End game made in 2009 and Omagh made in 2004. This
compared to the amazing spider man’s director who is Marc Webb who is not the
most well-known director either but is known for his creativeness which would
help the films he directed to become bigger films.
The
Budget of two films I am comparing could have been a big factor in how well
they did in the box office. Dredd had a budget of around $45million dollars
compared to the amazing spider-man’s budget of $230 million almost $200 million
dollars more. The budget I think is the most important reason why the film
flopped; I think this because with a big budget like the amazing spider-man’s
you can literally make a film which is almost real it’s that good. They can do
this with the special effects and the CGI which costs a lot of money to make.
Whereas Dredd with a $45 million budget had to keep their effects and locations
to a minimum because they couldn’t afford the amazing special effects so had to
do with the best effects they could get. Audiences want to see realistic films
which look as if they have been captured their and then that’s why audiences
would of chose The amazing spider man over Dredd all day every day because of
the complexity of the film.
The
filming locations for Dredd were based in one area which was Capetown in South
Africa. They only used this location because it was cheap and didn’t use that
much of their budget up. Whereas the amazing spider man was filmed in the USA
at the Universal Studios Hollywood as wall California and New York. These areas
are again more well-known than Capetown in South Africa so the audience would
want to see a better filming location because it helps make a better film all
together.
The
amazing spider-man’s main character spider-man is owned by Marvel which is a
major company in comic books and superhero’s. They also own superhero’s such as
Hulk, Ironman, Captain America and brands of superhero groups such as the
fantastic 4, Avengers and the X-men. All of these Marvel characters are
well-known by everyone and most people will go to see any movie around and
about them. Whereas Dredd is owned and created by John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra
and Pat Mills, and the comic was published by IPC Media who is not as well-known
as Marvel a bigger franchise.
My
final couple points of why Dredd flopped in the box office would be about the
whole marketing of the film. When I say this I mean Dredd was marketed
abysmally, this could of lead to less recognition of the film than others out
at that time, resorting to the audience seeing other films instead. A couple of
ways the film was marketed in ways films should be marketed through trailers
and posters. The posters and billboards for Dredd were called appalling by many
people. It was called this because the billboards just looked like vandalism
and so did the posters so no one took any notice of the film all together as
you can tell by the image on the right of a Dredd billboard. The only way Dredd
was marketed was through trailers show on the television which I suppose gave
the film a little recognition. My final point is about the cinema showings and
the run time. Dredd’s run time total is a total 95 minutes and the amazing
spider man has a total run time of 136 minutes. This means that the film the
amazing spider man had a better reception because it was shown for longer
whereas Dredd has a short run time for a film so many people would not of liked
this and would not gone to see the film at the cinema. Finally Dredd was shown
of a total of 415 cinemas and the amazing spider man was shown in a total of
3150 cinema screens. You can clearly see that the amazing spider man would have
gained more money because it was shown in more screens as Dredd which would may
not as much money; this is a key reason why they flopped in the box office.
Conclusion
My
conclusion to the film Dredd and why it flopped in the box office is because of
many reasons. And simply it didn’t match up to the other superhero films out at
the time such as the amazing spider-man and
The Avengers. I think this because
the stars of Dredd don’t match up to these films stars; the budget was no way
near a good budget price to create a great film either. All together I think
the film was released at the wrong time to compete with these types of films.
