My Authors
Read all threads
Do you actually know what the technical meaning of "bomb" is, in film?

Because Rise of Skywalker didn't bomb. It's on track to pull in at least a billion. It's at $725 mil now.

It's made back its budget and it's going to turn a profit. That's not a bomb.
It wasn't a critically acclaimed film, but that's not a "bomb."

Cats, on the other hand, had an estimated budget of $100 million and only brought it a little under $7 million opening weekend.

That's a bomb.
Batman Forever? Not a bomb. Second highest grossing film of 1995, only beaten by Toy Story. It beat Jurassic Park's opening.

Howard the Duck? Budget of $37 million, box office of $38 million.

Both are terrible but only one of these was a bomb.

See how it works?
Not all terrible films are bombs, and not all bombs are terrible films.

"Bombing" at the box office is a separate issue from reviews and audience reception.

The Rocketeer was a bomb. Budget of $40 mil, box office of $47 mil.

But it's not a bad movie.
In the middle of this we have projections, which are weird, nebulous, quasi-mystical attempts to read the tea leaves of box office returns.

Justice League is terrible, but it's also not a bomb. It brought it over twice its budget. Nobody lost money.

But nobody MADE much money.
Films have always been considered investments, but we're in the billion dollar era and that's becoming more and more true.

Return on investment is a consideration. If a film disappoints, then a franchise could be retooled or shelved.

None of this speaks to the work itself.
If someone convinces the deep pockets that throwing down money on a Superman film would bring in four times their investment, and it only brings in two or three times, well ... that's not a bomb, but it's a problem.
Yup. Budget of around $300 million, box office of just under $400 million.

That's bomb territory.
It kind of ... doesn't matter?

Nobody scrapped any plans after Solo. Star Wars is too big to fail. And anyway, the "main saga" is over now.

True, but there's also the always shadowy "marketing budget," which isn't always or accurately disclosed.

So you can make enough to cover the paper budget, when in reality you're maybe a million in the hole once the numbers are crunched.
And to round this all out, one very notorious box office bomb:

Blade Runner
Entirely different thing. That's about projections, and it's gotten worse now that we've come into the era of the billion dollar blockbuster.

And they were some stupid executives who thought you could just autopilot a franchise. Same with "Dark Universe."
The reason studios freaked out that The Mummy didn't make a billion is because they seemed to believe this shit is all point and click.

Get film rights to popular thing, make movie about it, get a billion dollars.

I still don't think they really understand why it didn't work.
You are *really* going to see the shit fly thick and heavy when we hit the next global recession, and *nobody* brings home a billion anymore.

They've rebuilt Hollywood around the billion dollar blockbuster. If that's no longer a thing, if that stops chugging along?

Chaos.
There's a reason Disney is devouring every studio, why less films gets made each year, why fewer projects with a starting budget under $100 million get a major release.

Less films, bigger stakes, more eggs in single baskets.

Everybody in film is whistling past the graveyard.
Once upon a time you could make a movie for (inflation adjusted for 2020) $10 million, bring home $30 million, the studio would pat you on the back and everybody would be happy.

Those days are gone.
Less films released to the theater chain system.

C'mon ... didn't you think it was weird they could show Star Wars or Avengers or whatever on like *half* the screens at a single theater?

They studios aren't using all the real estate.

The best part about this thread is the multiple multiple MULTIPLE replies I've received that say "BUT WHAT ABOUT THE MARKETING BUDGET" and I instantly know they didn't read the whole thread.

It's read AND comment. AND. AND.
Muting the thread because bunches of y'all won't read past the first tweet and I don't have time to spend all day linking to the specific tweets that address your "well actually" asses.
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh.

Enjoying this thread?

Keep Current with Nash Across the 8th Dimension

Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just three indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!