The document summarizes the budget breakdown for the blockbuster film Spider-Man 2. It details that the total budget was around £200 million. Major costs included £100 million paid to the cast, with Tobey Maguire receiving £9 million. Special effects cost £65 million. Marketing and advertising costs soared to £75 million. The high costs are due to using big-name actors and state-of-the-art visual effects to create large-scale productions.
1. Emily Kelly
Media- Unit 4
Funding and costs- Where is all the money spent?
Anatomy of a Blockbuster- Archie Thomas- The guardian- 11th June 2004
Archie Thomas runs his eye over the books of one of this summer's biggest movies, Spider-
Man 2
The major studios used to beat their chests in triumph about big-budget movies. In 1951,
MGM took an ad in Variety to announce that it was spending a record £3.8m on its period
extravaganza Quo Vadis. Half a century on, studio execs are loath to reveal spiralling
budgets, which are topping £108m only seven years after the £54m mark was passed. The
abject fear in Hollywood of being responsible for a blockbuster that stiffs makes accurate
budgets increasingly hard to discover, but industry gossip will always find a way.
However, since modern day blockbuster is more than a movie and the strong character and
storyline of the new blockbusters get the go ahead unless it can show itself in turn of spin
off, sequels and DVD tie in. The average total costs including marketing for a studio filmed
soared to 15 % and topped to 54 Million for the first time ever.
By pushing the cost through the roof, they keep a stranglehold on the capability to create
grand scale projects and the access to the considerable financial upsides of the hits. When
they have a monster hit, as Sony did with Spider-Man, there is only one thing for it: bottle
the winning formula by reuniting the cast and plough on with the sequel.
Before the deal (30 Million):
Script and development -10 Million:
This is 5 % of the total budget. Each writer was obliged to write at least one script for Sony
over four years and could pass on a maximum of four projects Sony offered. Considering
Spider-Man made £446m worldwide, writer David Koepp is considered to be the biggest
beneficiary of the Sony deal, netting an eight-figure payday.
Scriptwriters are at the bottom of the Hollywood chain. Under the Writer's Guild of America
basic agreement, writers are paid a minimum of £19,084 for an original screenplay.
Licensing (20 Million):
Marvel owns the Spider-Man character. Since Sony bought the movie rights in 1999, there
has been ongoing bickering and litigation between Marvel and Sony, pushing the licensing
price up further. Shared greed means differences have been placed on the back burner so as
not to disrupt this year's marketing campaign. Plans for Spider-Man 3 are already at an
advanced stage and a tentative May 4 2007 release date has been set. Marvel pays Lee an
annual salary of $1m. However was also threatened to sue for a share of profits from
licensing.
During the shoot (100 Million):
2. Emily Kelly
Media- Unit 4
This is when the money is given to the big stars that was in or involved in the film. The rest
of the cast will have a weekly wage for the length of their shoot. They are what are called
"above-the-line" costs that the studios are committed to paying before the cameras even
start to roll. By doing this, it is allowing the members to gain a daily accurate wage.
Producers-15 Million:
Blockbusters spawn numerous producers who all expect a slice of the pie. Spider-Man 2 has
two producers, one co-producer and three executive producers. This includes performance-
related bonuses or bumps from spider- man reaching box office targets. The escalating fees
paid to A-list acting talent are often reported, but the producers are among the richest
people on the set.
Directors-10 Million:
In the age of studio-led blockbuster movies, the director has less and less autonomy, and is
often brought on board after the studio has already completed casting. If test audiences
dislike a scene, the director is obliged to cut or reshoot. For their pains, directors can still
command a hefty fee. Spider-Man movie, then Columbia Pictures chairwoman Amy Pascal
surprised the community by hiring Evil Dead director Sam Raimi whose biggest hit up to that
point was Darkman which scored an unremarkable 18 Million.
The biggest upfront payday for a director is the £11m plus 20% of the gross paid to Peter
Jackson and his writing partners? Jackson had initially planned to follow up his marathon
Lord of the Rings trilogy with a small, effects-free project but was lured back by the
opportunity to remake the 1933 classic he loved as a child.
Cast-30 Million:
His payday of £2m for Spider-Man leapt to an upfront £9m for the sequel, although it was
not always a foregone conclusion he would keep the Peter Parker role. Industry insiders
estimate returning co-top liner Kirstin Dunst may have got £5-£6m for Spider-Man 2. New
baddie Alfred Molina would be paid in the region of £1m. The rest of the cast will have
picked up £1.6m. Actors, agents and managers go home happy with a tasty 10-15% of their
clients' payday.
Below the line- 45 Million:
Below the line means denoting or relating to advertising by means such as directs mail,
email and promotional events. It also means are the physical production expenses of the
shoot, including crew fees. The costs of hiring and operating state-of-the-art equipment,
corralling and feeding armies of extras, occupying and vacating locations.
According to a source close to the more modestly budgeted Thunderbirds, "the daily burn
rate for movie shoots is staggering. We were employing 870 people on an average salary of
£200 a day, so you can see how the costs race up.
After the edit (70 Million):
3. Emily Kelly
Media- Unit 4
Special effects-65 Million:
Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, SPFX, or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks
used in the film, television, theatre, video game and simulator industries to simulate the
imagined events in a story or virtual world. The cost: over £54m. Rumours are that The Hulk
visual effects ran way over budget and topped £54m. Effects house Industrial Light & Magic
needed £21m just to create Bruce Banner's alter ego for the film. It will come as no surprise
that blockbuster directors are increasingly investing in effects facilities.
Music-5 Million:
No more than 2% of the budget. Three-time Oscar-nominated Danny Elfman composed the
music for Spider-Man 2 for a fee nearing £2m. The first Spider-Man album debuted at no 4
on the US albums chart, and sold more than 2m copies worldwide.
The sell- 75 Million:
Prints and Advertising-75 Million:
Having already spent £200m on making the film, the studios are now committed to
spending even more money on marketing it. Global same-day release patterns, introduced
to combat piracy, are inflating the print and advertising costs hugely.
The Spider-Man 2 campaign has been relatively cautious but is now ramping up. Aware of
the dangers of overkill, marketing chiefs chose not to take a US TV ad during the Super
bowl, calculating that there is no real awareness problem with Spider-Man. Too much hype
can undoubtedly damage a film's box-office business. Matrix Reloaded is often cited as an
example of a film which was sold too hard and promised too much.
Conclusion:
To conclude, this piece of work shows the funding and costs of what is needed to create a
film or what is needed for the film. This also shows what the producers and the cast make
during the making of the film.
