Why Did Dredd Fail At The Box Office?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dredd is an adaptation on the 2000AD comic book.

 

 

In 2012 Dredd was finally released after its 3 year filming process came to a close and it hit the big screens. The film was produced by Alex Garland, Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich. Film was distributed by Entertainment Film and Lionsgate and written by Alex Garland.

Dredd had so many different factors for all Sci-Fi fans. The dystopian themed movie had various aspects of it that appealed to all types of movie goers but it was not enough.





It was very unlikely that Dredd would be a success at the box office but one of the huge factors of Dredd doing so bad in the box office was due to the fact that it was rated 18. The movie was fairly gruesome and parts that include sexual references, straight away making the movie an 18 it narrows down the audience to above 18, this contrasts with all other superhero movies such as Thor which had a lower age rating so Thor appealed to a wider range of audiences than Dredd due to the film not being as gruesome. Marvel films are usually 12A(UK and Ireland) Or PG 13(USA) so this veered regular marvel fans away from going to see Dredd because it was not in its expected age range for a marvel film so people avoided watching it due to the fact they didn’t know what to expect.





There's no hiding from the fact that Superhero movies are everywhere, (E.g. Thor, Iron man, Superman, Etc...) most of these movies appeal to all the genres of movie watchers, they have happy endings with a clear hero who saves the day and gets the girl. This is well in contrast with Dredd. Dredd is an anti-hero, he gets the job done and doesn’t care about ‘getting the girl’ or looking tough for the audience, this is why the movie wouldn’t appeal to many people because the mainstream movie goers wouldn’t want to go and see this film because it doesn’t have the iconic ending of the mainstream action/superhero movie, this narrows down the audience completely. Another key factor in Dredd failing is a very similar movie called ‘The Raid’ was released at the same time, the movie was a foreign movie which would instantly wipe out the aficionados Audience. Dredd was a big Hollywood film this would wash away all of the Film buffs audience doesn’t like to watch big Hollywood films they like to watch low budget films with little advertisement and that don’t really include any big movie stars. These factors contributed to the little success of Dredd greatly being only able to appeal to one type of movie goers makes it very hard to make a profit. The task of advertising this movie was very hard because of the fact it only appealed to one audience.





The fact that Dredd did not have a huge movie star that appealed to the public did not help the matters of Dredd failing at the box office, Kyle Urban is known in the Sci-Fi world greatly but not much out of that so he does not appeal to other audiences, compare this to Thor which had huge movie stars such as Chris Hemmingsworth and Natalie Portman In an Kyle Urban just doesn’t compare to those huge actors.

Dredd proved Mark Kermode's theory correct; Dredd only followed 2/4 of Marks Kermode's ideas. The movie was not a comedy and it had spectacular visuals. Dredd did not have an A list star or a newsworthy budget which in my opinion are the two most important factors in having a successful movie, if Dredd had a big movie star it probably would of done a lot better than it did, saying this the movie wouldn't of stuck to the comic book version where Dredd never takes his helmet off but if they had and A list star they would of made him take the mask off to show his face so it would sell more.

The movie Dredd was a fail at the box office, there's no hiding from that fact, but Dredd failing is in great contrast with its distributer. Lionsgate is a huge film distributing company and it distributed Dredd, Lionsgate have quite a good record with successful movies but Dredd is not one of these.

Arguably the biggest aspect of Dredd failing at the box office was that at the majority of cinemas the movie was shown in 3D. When Pete Travis started filming Dredd 3D was very new and everyone wanted to watch every movie in 3D because it was so new, but when they finally released Dredd, 3 years after they started filming, 3D wasn't that rare anymore and not many people were bothered about it. People would not want to pay '3D Prices' to see a movie that didn't have much hype about it or have a huge star. If they had made it available in 2D at more cinemas the movie might of not been such a flop and made more of its money in the box office. For example Leicester's closest cinema that showed Dredd (2012) in 2D was in Nottingham. People would rather just wait for the DVD to come out or just to see a movie that only appealed to one movie audience.  

In my opinion Dredd is a fantastic movie with spectacular visuals and a great lead role, everything in the movie was performed to a great effect, saying this, I hadn't even heard about the film until we watched it in class, the movie was clearly poorly advertised and was not news worthy because I had never read anything about Dredd, I didn't even know what Dredd was until we watched and talked about it in class.

Overall Dre was a huge disappointment in the money that it made, plans for a Dredd 2 are in the works and they need to address all these issues and develop on them, they need to get a bigger budget and a huge star then I have no doubt Dredd will be successful.

The Big Six

Major Film Studios

A major film studio is a film producer and production company that releases a substantial number of films annually.

The Big Six film studios are:

1. Warner Bros. Pictures. Comprising a whopping 19.7 percent of the US/Canadian market share (2007 figures), Warner Bros. Pictures is the biggest player in the film industry. Securing the rights to major films like Harry Potter, Superman, Batman, The Matrix and Star Wars have made Warner Bros. the No. 1 name in the business.

2. Paramount Pictures. With 15.5 percent of the US/Canadian market share (2007 figures), Paramount Pictures continues to be one of the most successful film production companies in the world. Star Trek, War of the Worlds, the Mission Impossible series, Transformers and Tropic Thunder are just a few of the popular films produced by Paramount Pictures.

3. Walt Disney. One of the most renowned film production companies in the history of the business, Walt Disney now holds 15.3 percent of the US/Canadian market share (2007 figures). With highly successful movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, National Treasure, Meet the Robinsons and Enchanted, there's no doubt that Disney will continue to play a key role in the industry for years to come. Walt Disney Pictures (1928-present):
Animated features produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, DisneyToon Studios and Studio Ghibli (North America distribution) are usually released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures under the Walt Disney Pictures banner.
Beginning in 2011, the studio's production logo and on-screen credit was shortened to simply 'Disney'. Lucasfilm:
 Lucas Film is best known for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, Lucasfilm was founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1971.
Based in San Francisco, the company has also been a leader in developing new film technology in special effects, sound, and computer animation, and because of their expertise its subsidiaries often help produce non-Lucasfilm pictures.
On October 30, 2012, it was announced that Lucasfilm would be acquired by The Walt Disney Company for $4.05 billion.

4. Columbia Pictures. Comprising 12.9 percent of the US/Canadian market share (2007 figures), Columbia Pictures remains a big player in the business. Some of this company's recent successes include Casino Royale, The Da Vinci Code, the Spider-Man series and Step Brothers.

5. Universal Studios. 12.2 percent of the US/Canadian market share (2007 figures) belongs to Universal Studios, which continues to make millions for the film industry. With major hits like the Bourne series (Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum), The American Pie series, Knocked Up, American Gangster and The Incredible Hulk, it's very clear that Universal Studios knows what it takes to make money in this industry.

6. 20th Century Fox. Also known as "Twentieth Century Fox," this highly successful movie production company makes up 11.9 percent of the US/Canadian market share (2007 figures). Some of the biggest and most successful movies from this empire include the X-Men series, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Star Wars Episodes II and III, and the Fantastic Four.

Roughly 9/10 films in the UK are seen as a result of these distributors

Representation of Tony

During the clip we watched we were asked to observe the character of Tony. Tony could be seen as your typical rebellious teenager by the audience that are not assessing his action. There are lots of aspects on the surface to show that tony is a very stereotypical teenager but below the overall look of the character there could be alot to suggest that he isn't and he could actually be fairly dark and have a very contrasting side to how he presented on the surface.

The first thing we see about tony that could represent anything against the stereotypical teenager is during the first time we see Tony, this is during a rising shot that captures the lighting to show one side of his face is dark and that one side is light, this represents that his character has two sides to him. We get the impression that he could be quite a dark character when he wants to be but can also be quite a positive upbeat character, we see this in the first 5 minuets when he's speaking to all his friends in a friendly banterful way.  

Another way that tony is represented is in the same scene. Stereotypical teenagers are usually thought to be quite messy and lazy, but Tony is not represented in this way. During our first sight of tony we see that he is in the center of his bed in-between the two people on his bed sheet, there is no alarm he is just laying there awake. this could represent that he might have various issues because that is not seen as a normal way to wake up, it gives us the impression that he has been up all night just laying there staring up. Another way that Tony is represented to go against the teenage stereotype is that everything in his room is very neat and tidy unlike the impression we get of most teenagers where their room is messy, Tony's is not, this could represent that he likes things a certain why an he could have OCD we can also see this when we watch his morning routine where we see him work out and look out the window and help his sister out, We can tell that this is a regular thing when his Dad says 'Every bloody morning Tony'.

There are lots of ways that represent Tony as a stereotypical teenager. One of these obvious ways is that he annoys his dad consistently and this is very typical of a teenager that he wants to annoy his parents.

Another thing to go against the stereotype of teenagers is the overall view of Tonys room. The colours in the room a very dull, this gives us the representation that he could be quite a dull person at times, this could build on the earlier point of the shaded part of his face and represent the dark side of his character, these aspects could foreshadow how events could pan out during the events in his story.

Overall i think that Tony isn't your typical teenager, obviously there are things that suggest that he is but i think the hidden little things make Tony a very different teenager to the stereotype that we are used to.   

The 4 Key Areas:

Shots: establishing shot, master shot, close-up, mid-shot, long shot, wide shot, two-shot, aerial shot, point of view shot, over the shoulder shot, and variations of these.

Angle: high angle, low angle, canted angle.

Movement: pan, tilt, track, dolly, crane, steadicam, hand-held, zoom, reverse zoom.

Composition: framing, rule of thirds, depth of field – deep and shallow focus, focus pulls.

Editing

Includes transition of image and sound – continuity and non-continuity systems.

Cutting: shot/reverse shot, eyeline match, graphic match, action match, jump cut, crosscutting, parallel editing, cutaway; insert.

Other transitions, dissolve, fade-in, fade-out, wipe, superimposition, long take, short take, slow motion, ellipsis and expansion of time, post-production, visual effects.

Sound

Soundtrack: score, incidental music, themes and stings, ambient sound.

Diegetic and non-diegetic sound; synchronous/asynchronous sound; sound effects; sound motif, sound bridge, dialogue, voiceover, mode of address/direct address, sound mixing, sound perspective.

Mise-en-Scène

Production design: location, studio, set design, costume and make-up, properties.

Lighting; colour design.

The 7 Key Areas.

Particular areas of representation that may be chosen are:

• Gender
• Age
• Ethnicity
• Sexuality
• Class and status
• Physical ability/disability
• Regional identity

AS Media 5x5

Top 5 Bands

Oasis: The Greatest

Oasis are a British Indie Rock band, who were around during 1994-2009, The group are mainly known for Noel and Liam Gallagher, Noel writes the music and Liam is the frontman, Liam has a ‘bad boy’ attitude where it seems he doesn’t care what people think of him or his band. Oasis are basically the face ‘Britpop’ which was huge during the 90s, oasis are one of the greatest bands of their time and in my opinion the best ever.

 

The Twang: The Underrated

The Twang are a British Indie Rock band from Birmingham. The Twang have been active from 2001-Present. In my opinion the twang are one of the most underrated bands around at the minute, they are very different to any other band, there album ‘Love it when i feels like this’ got to number 3 in the album charts, some people say they have peaked but I think they are only getting better.

 

Catfish and the Bottlemen: The ones to watch

Catfish and the Bottlemen are a Welsh band. Catfish and the Bottlemen are an upcoming band who have already played at festivals such as Reading and Leeds. Catfish and the Bottlemen genre is mainly Rock or indie. They are a band to watch. Keep your eyes out for this band, they’ll be big

 

 

The Stone Roses: The Comeback Kings

The Stone Roses are an alternative rock band from Manchester. The stone roses were a HUGE band during the 80s and the 90s. The stone roses proved that it doesn’t matter where you’re from, you can still make it if you try hard enough. Sadly the stone roses split up, all fans everywhere were devastated. But in 2011 they announced a comeback gig at Heaton Park in Manchester. The stone roses played 3 days of hits at Heaton Park and were one of the greatest comebacks ever. I know this from personal experience

 

Kartica: The unsigned ones

Kartica are a 5 piece indie rock band from Sheffield. Kartica deserve a record label more than any other band. Their music echoes  Oasis, The stone roses and The Verve and maybe if they were around 20 years earlier they would be doing a comeback tour. Kartica deserve a chance and I hope they get one, they are fantastic

 

 

Top 5 songs

 

Fade away – Oasis

Fade away is one of oasis’s lesser known songs, but is one of their all-time great song, any true oasis fan knows this.

 

 

 

Cocoon – Catfish and the Bottlemen

Another mention for this great new band, cocoon is a very lively up beat song with a deeper meaning, this song is class, expect great things from these lads.

  

Hard to swallow – You Me At Six

 In a different direction to all the other songs and bands I’ve picked, You Me At Six are a pop rock band and write some great music, just missed out on my top 5 bands but get into the top 5 songs with this amazing song

 

 

Wide awake – The Twang

Wide Awake was the biggest song on the album ‘Love it when i feels like this’ if you don’t really listen to the twang you’ll probably still know this great song, The twangs fans national anthem

 

 

Married with children – Oasis

Another brilliant song by Oasis, again not their biggest song but a great song, this song deserves so much more recognition, Oasis have so many hidden gems like this that most people haven’t heard but I’m sure the ‘hard-core’ fans love this as much as I do.

 

 

Top 5 Albums

Oasis – Definitely maybe

As you can see I like oasis, A LOT, this album is one of the best ever; oasis probably had the greatest debut album of all time, this album smashed records and blew people’s minds, it is a fantastic piece of art. If you haven’t already LISTEN TO THIS ALBUM.

 

 

Jamie T – Kings & Queens

Jamie T hasn’t yet featured in my other two categories but he has done more than enough to make it into this one. Kings And Queens is a brilliant album with some fantastic song. I recommend listening to this album.

 

 

The Twang – Love it when i feels like this

 Another mention for The Twang, fantastic album with some amazing songs. This album made number 3 in the album charts when it was released; I believe it should have gone to number 1. Fantastic album. Fantastic Band

 

Stereophonics – Word Gets Around

Stereophonics were completely on point with this album. Has some great songs on this album. Stereophonics have released some great stuff but none can beat this. Class album

 

Gorillaz – Demon Days

Everyone has to have heard this album at least once, The Gorillaz are known for this album and too right it is fantastic. If you have not listened to this album you are seriously missing out.

Top 5 movies

Star wars: return of the Jedi

Star wars episode 6 (return of the Jedi) is the last movie in the star wars franchise (until 7,8,9 come out) this is  my favourite movie ever and is amazing for its time, if you love star wars like I do, you’ll love this.

Spike Island

Spike island is a movie about 5 boys trying to get into ‘Spike Island’ which was a huge stone roses concert that everyone wanted to go to, Spike island is a fantastic film and has a terrific subplot.

 

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

Star wars Revenge of the Sith is latest movie made in the star wars saga. This movie ties the whole star wars saga together and is a great movie with lots of very high quality special effects that make the movie look a whole lot better. This is a fantastic movie and I wouldn’t expect any less from George Lucas

 

 

Red Dawn (2012)

Red Dawn is a movie based on Red Dawn (1984). Red dawn (2012) is a more modern  version of the 1984 instalment and is a lot better, with a lot more action. Not many people have seen the new movie but I would strongly suggest you see it, it is a brilliant film with some great actors and a fantastic storyline

 

 

Step Brothers

Step Brothers is a film about 2 40 years old men who still live with their parents and eventually become step brothers. This movie is one of the funniest movies I have seen; the movie is so typical of will Ferrell and has endless memorable quotes. I strongly suggest you watch this movie

Top 5 tv shows

 

The US Office

The US Office is based on the British version, but its true what they say everything is bigger and better in  America, The US Office is 100 times better than the original. I love this TV show and I’m sure you will too, absolutely hilarious.

 

 

Mad Dogs

    Thrilling, Funny and Dramatic. Mad dogs is about 4 men who go to see their friend in  a villa In Spain and run into huge misfortune and that is now haunting them. This show is so underrated and deserves a lot more credit than it gets at the moment. You will not regret watching this show.

 

 

House of cards

If you love clever dramas than this is for you, house of cards is about a whip who is wrongly denied the role of senator and after being denied this role comes up with a cunning plan to ruin the president, this series can get confusing and leave you thinking but it is amazing and presented in very clever ways. Watch this show NOW.

 

 

 

 

Friends

 Do I need to say anything? This TV show is an absolute classic and all the actors have had great careers due to the show. If you haven’t watched this where have you been for the last twenty years?

 

 

Skins

Skins is a British drama which explores the life of a group of teenagers. This is a very entertaining series filled with great parts and is very dramatic. After every episode you will want to see the next one and so on and I promise you will be left wanting more after you’ve seen the final episodes, one of the best British dramas in recent years.