Why did Dredd flop at the box office?
The film Dredd had a lot of hype and excitement when it was announced in July 2012 that there was a film being made. Lionsgate took the decision to screen the film Dredd; in which it later came out in September that year. But also in that year there were a few big action movies out such as The Avengers, Skyfall and The Amazing Spider Man, which were big successes and were more successful than Dredd. This may be one of many reasons Dredd flopped at the box office. Not only was this film at a low budget, it was also in one location, it had a poor storyline and there was very few big stars involved in the film. The main producer of the film Alex Garland, who actually wrote the screenplay, was also planning on write many more of these films. Alex had also been involved in many big films such as 28 days later, 28 weeks later and never let me go, which were all big success films, that he produced. so why did the film Dredd flop at the box office?
Firstly, in 2012 Dredd was one of many action film released in this year. Dredd had a lower budget than these other films at only $45,000,000, compared to The Amazing Spider Man, the Avengers and Skyfall that all had a budget of $200,000,000 or more. Because of Dredd having such a low budget it made the film directors, producers and the finical investor’s consider, where who and how they were going to make the film fit this budget, which could be the main reason why it flopped at the box office.
The location of the film was based in South Africa, in the capital city of Cape Town. Dredd had no Hollywood influences which would have made it harder for the film to be recognised. As it was produced in South Africa, this would make it cheaper because there are every few Hollywood blockbuster filmed and produced in Cape Town that are very successful. Dredd was also the first film to be produced in these Cape Town studios (the Mega City one and its high rise towers which were created in the Cape Town). This is one of the main reasons the producers chose to film in South Africa because of the lowered cost of employing the cast and crew compared to locations in Europe and North America, and the government incentives that offered to rebate up to 25% of the production costs. The key sequence of the film was for judge Dredd to kill ma ma and her gang, by doing this it involved killing hundreds of people in their attempt of killing judge Dredd. This required 10 days of filming in eight different sets inside and outside the studio, which were blended together with an added visual effect. The producers didn’t want to build an expensive set due to the low budget of the film; this resulted in the film being set in just one place which would have made the film more boring for the audience to watch as it was all in the same location for around 95 minutes. In pre-production the filmmakers tested and experimented with the visual effects of Mega-City one including the design and positioning of the tower blocks as in the comic books the visuals of the blocks are made to look very close together, whereas in the film the filmmakers wanted them to look bigger with larger space. Over the location of the film and the way it was produced could have an influence on the flop the film had at the box-office due to it being in Cape Town, being in one setting and not being accurate to the comic books could also put some fans off.
Also due to the low budget of $45,000,000 to make the film Dredd, it made the film producer and director had to consider who they were to employ as the casting members of Dredd this could be another reason why Dredd flopped at the box office. The four main casting members were Karl Urban (judge Dredd), Olivia Thirlby (Judge Cassandra Anderson), and Lena Headey (MA MA), Wood Harris (Kay). All of which are not very well known actors. Even though Karl has been in film such as star trek and lord of the ring he is not a ‘A list star’ as most of the film had actors that are ‘B list stars’. Also through the film there were few characters in Dredd, so became boring seeing the same 3 /4 characters throughout. Also you could only see half of the judge’s face, because of the helmet he wore; so his emotions had to be shown through facial expressions. Because he was the main character and one of the more well-known characters out of the cast; the audience may not have even recognised who the character was. This could have been one of the other reasons it flopped at the box-office.
Another contributing factor of the low budget film could have been that there was little faith that the film would make much profit as it was a replica of the film in 1995, which also didn’t do very well. Unlike all the spider man movies that have been massive successes; so The Amazing Spider Man was likely to do the same as all the other movies as it is one of the most famous superhero film. Which is mainly Due to the larger budget spider man had investors were more than certain it would make a profit.
Secondly the film was a certificate 18 this means there would have been less of an audience as only people above this age could go. Unlike most Marvell film that are certificate 12A or PG-13 the superhero films are more family based films so for Dredd only 2 of the ‘4 quadrant movie’ would be able to see Dredd. So that’s already a drop in gross at the box office compared to other superhero films like The Amazing Spider man and The avengers. By the film being certificate 18 ads onto the fact why the film was the biggest seller in DVD’s in the UK; reaching number one. This is one of the contributing factors of why Dredd flopped at the box office this is because people can watch it at home as the parents can buy it so they can watch it with their families which may work out cheaper than going to the cinema to watch it; also then you can watch it as many times as you like. By The Amazing Spider Man being a PG-13 and the avengers being a 12A, lead to their success at box office, as the age group in which is most popular at the cinema is 12A. But as it is a superhero film these are commonly viewed as family films which is why it would have seen a flop at the box office.
Dredd was made to be viewed in 3D. The film was shot digitally and primarily in 3D using a RED X high speed camera some 2D elements were converted into to 3D in post-production. This is a cheaper way of producing a 3D film as it does require all the cameras need to film in 3D throughout, also these is what all the big budget films suggest doing as well to save money in order to fit the budget. As it was produced in 3D this is also dearer in cinema so could of also put people of going to see it as it is not a well-advertised film so may not be as appealing as being able to watch spider man in 3D, which could be another reason why there was a flop in the box office.
In post-production Dreed’s marketing was also very poor and was not well advertised worldwide. Due to the low budget of the film they had little money left to sell the film to a worldwide audience through its marketing to offer the film a bigger campaign of fans. One of the ways the film was advertised was through its trailer. This would have been played at the cinemas around the world before other films started; but this would have been in competition with other film trailers such as spider man, so may have been as appealing to the audience. One of the main methods of marketing Dredd was by creating a viral advertising site call ‘Dredd Report’ this including things such as news and information about the film, also video clips that talked about the slow motion in the film to give the audience an insight into what the film will contain which may lead to the interest in people to watch the film. A comic book was also published following the life before ma ma film began It is written by Matt Smith (the Judge Dredd Magazine editor and the artist was Henry Flint and was released in September 2012. This would raise awareness in fans of the comic book of the film to make them want to watch the movie. One of the main distributors of the film was Lionsgate, but also in the same year Lionsgate produced other big films such as the dark night rises. The distributer of the film contributed to $25,000,000 to advertising and printing.
The film was shown in cinemas across the world but on a very small scale; only being released in 2506 cinemas across the world in which only 2200 shown it in 3D. This would also see a drop in profit at the box office as they spent a lot of money making it 3D and not all cinemas worldwide were showing it in 3D. Also as it is more expensive to watch it in 3D as the cinema prices go up so the box office can make money but they were also losing out on as the majority of cinemas were showing it in 3D more people were less likely to go due to the cost; and would have rather waited for it to be out on DVD which could have been another factor into why it dropped at the box office. But overall at the box office Dredd grossed $41,000,000 so had an overall loss of $4,000,000.
To conclude after analysing all the different possible reason why Dredd flopped at box office; I feel the main reason was because it didn’t have a higher enough budget. For most of the suggestions I have made are mainly to do with the budget of the film. The budget seemed to restrict everything about the film such as the stars, producer and marketing. If the distributor and investor had more faith in the film, they could have made a higher budget to make it a better film; which could have made this film a success. Also if the marketing of the film was to be improved it could have made it into a more popular film that would have possibly improved the gross of the film.
