Movie how much money

The percentage of revenues that the exhibitor takes in depends on the individual contract for that film — which in turn depends on how much muscle the distributor has, according to Stone. These deals often protect the theaters from movies that bomb at the box office by giving the theaters a bigger cut of those films. You can actually look at the securities filings for the big theater chains, to look at how much of their ticket revenues go back to the studios, points out Stone.

So for example, the latest quarterly filing by Cinemark Holdings , shows that So as a ballpark figure, studios generally take in around percent of U. The highest profile example of a film that bombed in the U. And a similar thing happened with the previous Narnia movie, Prince Caspian. Another big film that made way more money overseas than domestically was Terminator Salvation. So if a film does incredibly well overseas but flops in the U. As with everything else to do with box office, the answer is "it depends.

According to the book The Hollywood Economist by Edward Jay Epstein, studios take in about 40 percent of the revenue from overseas release — and after expenses, they're lucky if they take in 15 percent of that number. Domestic revenue just counts for a lot more than overseas revenue, says David Mumpower with Box Office Prophets:.

The reason for this is simple. Collecting revenues abroad is a trickier proposition since the dollar fluctuates against foreign currencies. There are also tariffs from these governments in place in order to keep as much money as possible from leaving their countries and going abroad, which is an understandable practice.

While the global conglomerates such as Fox, Disney and Time-Warner that run major Hollywood studios can secure sweetheart deals with various local governments, it doesn't happen for each film.

As such, international box office revenue is much less reliable than in North America. Research I conducted last year , showed that the amount of time between the DVD and VOD release of the top grossing movies has fallen considerably in recent years. In , VOD consumers had to wait an average of 74 days after the DVD release but by this had fallen to just 14 days.

Television is the largest single source of income for British films, mostly thanks to the collapse of the DVD market in recent years see more on this in my article from January this year stephenfollows. An offshoot of this is Product Placement where the studios charge brands to feature their products in the movie.

How much money do Hollywood blockbusters make? Theatrical is the largest income driver for films, although not the most profitable. This is the figure you will hear reported on the news i. Now you can see why the studios are so worried by the fall in DVD sales! Studios typically still charge a distribution fee to cover their time and lawyers but this is minute in comparison with the marketing and manufacturing costs of Theatrical and Home Ent.

That said, my dataset spans ten years and the studios were slow to build serious VOD operations. Looking just at the films released since reveals that 4.

It seems that the biggest Hollywood blockbusters can get up to half of their budget back in merchandising alone. Airline and Music income can be viewed in one of two ways. Do Hollywood movies make money? Q1: Are the films that make money better than those that lose money?

Q2: Does the amount they spend on marketing correlate with financial success? Q3: How important is the international market, compared to North America? For a sense of scale, IMDb lists release dates for Avatar in 69 countries, and I suspect the real number is slightly higher.

The margin is more reliable and less prone to huge theatrical losses. As we saw above, the risk associated with releasing a big movie in North America is far greater than that associated with its international release.

It has the most potential for growth in the near future as the North American market is saturated with cinemas and movies. You can read more about the enormous growth in the movie business in China here stephenfollows. Epilogue So there you have it — a rather long sorry!

Comments 54 comments. July 11, at am. Carl Schoenfeld. Emmet D'Alton. July 11, at pm. Thank you for all the work that went into this. Jan Roger Henden. Hemmersley Hammersmith. Thanks again for your superb analysis. Nic Phillips. August 11, at pm. Very, very illuminating. Thank you. Toby Miller. Matthew Prince. Stephen Follows. Hope this helps S. July 20, at pm. July 12, at am. Doug Cowles. July 13, at am.

Thanks a lot Stephen, this is such a great job! In answer to your questions… 1. Alex Stitt. July 15, at am. July 16, at am. Mike Edwards. July 15, at pm. July 22, at pm. August 7, at am. Karl H. August 29, at am. September 14, at am.

October 18, at pm. Adrian Bertino-Clarke. December 8, at am. December 9, at am. March 10, at pm. Again, really insightful stuff you have here! March 11, at pm. Randy Scott. May 16, at pm. Truly, thanks so much.

Tobias Deml. October 29, at am. Lawrence Perry. January 29, at pm. The investor profits more than you suggest. However I thank you for your opinion, but is it peered reviewed? Hi Lawrence.

Thanks for getting in touch. I hope that helps clarify things. Pramod Singh. February 14, at pm. May 29, at pm. June 24, at pm. July 1, at am. July 7, at am. This is great. In Hollywood, there are no guarantees. Motion Picture Association of America. Accessed Aug. The Numbers. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. NDP Group. Alternative Investments. Company Profiles. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for Investopedia.

At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page. These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data. We and our partners process data to: Actively scan device characteristics for identification.

I Accept Show Purposes. Your Money. Personal Finance. Your Practice. Popular Courses. Key Takeaways While there's a lot of money to be made in the film industry, the economics of movie-making are far from simple. Theater attendance in the U. Ever since Star Wars, merchandising has played a major role in revenue for films that appeal to children. Television rights, video-on-demand, and streaming services are increasingly important sources of income for movie studios.

Some American films make more money internationally than they do in the United States. Article Sources. Investopedia requires writers to use primary sources to support their work. Want to make a feature film? This is how much money you will really need.

What's really needed We know why it happens: because people want to be big-time directors. Number crunching That's a fairly realistic setup for an ultra-low-budget independent feature and it involves person-days of labour, rounded up to to allow for any specialists we might need here and there.

Graphic by Shutterstock Tags: Business Tweet. Related Articles Five lame excuses companies give for not paying invoices on time Sky Glass: The future of television? Popular Quantum Computing just got desktop sized. Solid-state batteries will change everything. Mars helicopter: Ingenuity continues to break records. Signup to RedShark Subscribe Here! About Redshark RedShark is a multiplatform online publication for anyone with an interest in moving image technology and craft. Signup on Social.

Subscribe to RedShark. RedShark All rights reserved.