Films must make money to be worthwhile producing. Data from the UK box office shows that crime/drama/gangster films can attract mainstream audiences, as two examples have grossed over £13 million in their first three weeks. The highest grossing film in this genre is The Departed, which made $132.4 million on a $90 million budget, yielding a $42.4 million profit. These types of films tend to be made by independent or subsidiary studios with smaller advertising budgets than major blockbusters, which may explain their generally lower box office returns despite critical acclaim.

1. Box office data
If weare going to create a film weneed to know that there is an audience to
view it, as when it comes down to it,
the morepeople who view a film the
more money it makes, films mustmake
money otherwisethey are not worth
making.
Here in the UK box office (07/11/16)
there are two crime/drama/ gangster
type films in the top ten, with the spots
of third (Jack Reacher: Never Go Back)
and sixth (Inferno), this clearly show
that there is a mainstream audience for
crime/drama/ gangster film they have
grossed over £13 million combined and
they’veonly been out a maximum of 3
weeks.
The highest grossing filmto fit into our genre is the ‘Departed’ staring
Leonardo DiCaprio which grossed $132.4million, this is quite low considering
other blockbusters, but they are not high budget, therefore they make a lot of
money, ‘Departed’ cost 90 million to make, giving it a large profit of $42.4
million.
Many crime/drama/ gangster films are made by independent studios or
subsidiaries of major studios, thereforethey may not have the budget to
advertiselike massiveblockbusters, and legend is an example of this (Cross
creek pictures)
This may be an explanation for the slightly lower return than other genres, all
though they are highly rated by critics