Why did Dredd flop at the box office?

(1000 words)
Dredd is a science-fiction/action film, which was released on the 7
th
of September in 2012.
When first debuted at Comic-Con in July 2012, the film received much appraisal from both
fans and critics, and was predicted to be a great success. Dredd was directed by Pete
Travis, a reasonably unheard of director, produced by DNA Films; one of the most
successful production companies located in the UK, IM Global; one of the leading film
financing, sales and distribution companies in the world, Reliance Entertainment; specialists
in distribution of films through different forms of media (internet and mobile portals etc.), and
distributed by Lionsgate; the seventh most profitable movie studio in North America. It is a
British film depicting a US dystopia, set in the near future; violent and gory, it featured
mesmeric visuals produced by an Oscar-winning cinematographer, and an accurate
representation of the classic comic character, Judge Dredd.
The film was an adaptation of the previous Judge Dredd film, released in 1995, which was a
failure with the box office, critics and world-wide audiences alike. This rendition featured
Dredd played by Sylvester Stallone, whom although considered to be a talented actor at the
time, has a tendency to play the character of himself in each film he stars meaning that the
behaviour and characteristics of the character of Judge Dredd were going to be predictable
before the film had even started. Another major criticism of the 95 version, was that it had
been Americanised by huge Hollywood producers; Hollywood Pictures, Cinergi Pictures and
Edward R. Pressman Films. This caused unsettle amongst fans of Judge Dredd, as although
set in America, is a British comic book, and this film rendition depicted a very American
remodel of the original character and plot ideas.
Due to the less than satisfactory product of the first Judge Dredd film adaptation, Travis held
the obligation to regain respect for this once-loved comic character. However, in comparison
to directors of the same genre as Dredd such as Joss Whedon (The Avengers), Pete
Travis does not hold the same well-known household-name, which surely would have left a
less imposing first impression upon both die hard sci-fi fans, and the general public alike.
Dredd was produced by Alex Garland, Allon Reich and Andrew MacDonald; all of whom are
well credited within the film industry. Garland, in particular, had previously been attached to
large films, such as; The Beach, Never Let Me Go and 28 Days Later, which have proven
him to be perfectly well-equipped to produce critically and commercially acclaimed films.
Pre-production, the film already created some causes for concern, due to its 18-rated age
certificate. Although it enabled up-close violence and gore, the choice to produce the film as
an 18 resulted in a limited target audience. The majority of sci-fi/action films are released
either as a PG, 12A or PG-13, as they aspire to attract as large an audience as possible. As
Dredd was an 18, the number of potential viewers dramatically decreased from what it would
have been, had it been accessible to a much wider age range. Another factor to take into
account was the surprisingly low budget. The total budget for the film had been estimated at
$50,000,000. This, in comparison to other comic book film adaptations, is a very small
budget to the likes of The Avengers which had a budget of $220,000,000, and The Dark
Knight Rises which had a budget of $250,000,000. The low budget also denied director,
Pete Travis, access to A-list actors to star in his remake. Instead, he cast Karl Urban as
Dredd, Olivia Thirlby as his rookie Anderson, and Lena Heady as the lead antagonist Ma-
Ma. Each of these actors have their own right to credibility; Urban has starred in Star Trek
and Lord of the Rings films (both of which are part of major franchises), Thirlby has starred
in rom-com No Strings Attached (alongside Natalie Portman) and Juno, and Heady has
starred in Brit television series Merlin, and has a major role in the hit series Game of
Thrones. Yet, these actors are not big enough to draw massive amounts of attention to the
film, unlike someone such as Robert Downey Jr a globally known A-list actor, who stars in
the Iron Man and Avengers films.
During production, large amounts of time and money were spent on areas of the film that
potentially contributed towards the failure of Dredd. The first, and foremost, being the
decision to film and release in 3D. There are a total of 26 existing 3D cameras in the world,
valued at approximately $500,000 each, and so filming in 3D, as you can imagine, must
have occupied a large sum of the overall budget. However, the drawback of using this
technology did not just concern the budget, but also the accessibility of the film when
released. Dredd is considered to be a cult film, and therefore to reach its target audience,
would have been presented in arthouse and independent cinemas most of which would
not be able to facilitate the likes of a 3D film, thus cutting off a large portion of the target
audience. Another disappointing aspect of the film was the use of slow motion effects (SFX).
Although an original idea and one that fit well with the plot used to represent the effects of
a drug in the film, named Slo mo, the results were not entirely convincing. The use of slow
motion did create stunning visuals in parts of the film, (in particular, a scene in which the
character Ma-Ma is splashing water, whilst in the bath), but in others, it added to the
inconceivability of situations within the plot for example, when a character is falling through
the air at an incredibly slow rate. If, however, less money had been spent on producing the
film in 3D, more money could have been spent on the SFX creating scenes which would
have been increasingly believable. A third feature of the film, which could have contributed to
the discourage of Dredds success, was the location in which it was set. During filming, only
a small section of the tower block in the film was genuinely built to act in, the remaining was
filmed in front of a green screen which, again, does not assist towards the convincingness
of the visuals. The entirety of the plot is set within one building, which for some, could mean
a boring watch. Not only does the location never change, every part of it looks the same, and
so it lacks any contribution towards the thrill of the action.
Post-production, further obstacles stood in the way of Dredds success. Due to a low budget,
most of which was spent on 3D filming, only $25,000,000 could be spent marketing the film.
This, of course, instantly set it up to fail as publicity is vital in creating excitement and
anticipation for a film, not to mention to notify the public of its very existence. Three varieties
of marketing were used in the films campaign; a trailer, a poster and a website named
Dredd Report. The poster featured exclusive artwork by Jock, to promote the screening of
the film at Fantastic Fest, in September 2012. The website, Dredd Report, was a spoof of a
website named Drudge Report a very simple-looking news website, which posts mostly
political reports and current events that take place in the US. However, if the audience did
not know of the Drudge Report prior to viewing the Dredd Report, the website for the Dredd
film would just look badly made, and uninteresting, which did not help in terms of their
campaign when releasing the film. Another major problem which occurred during the release
of Dredd, was the success of two very similar films, both released prior to Dredd. The
Avengers, initially released on the 11
th
of April 2012, had a budget of $220,000,000 and
made $207,438,708 at the box office during its opening weekend. A second film, The Raid:
Redemption, which was released in March of 2012, also posed a threat to Dredd as
although it had an even lesser budget of approximately $1,100,000, and it made only
$213,785 at the box office during its opening weekend, it was highly critically acclaimed
and fell under the category of an art film, just as Dredd did. The main disadvantage that The
Raid held to Dredd, was that it contained a comparable plot; men fighting their way up a
notorious tower, in order to reach their goal at the top. Many critics felt that Dredd copied this
concept from The Raid. The fact that both of these films, which fall under the same genre as
Dredd, were released within the same year meant that the action/sc-fi film market had
already been fulfilled for 2012, leaving little space for Dredd.
During the opening weekend, Dredd made only $6,278,491 at the box office, and overall
made a gross of $13,401,683 which covers just over a fifth of the original budget. This
critically acclaimed film shocked the public when it failed so horrifically at the box office,
however it is clear to see that once these many factors are taken into account, we can
confidently understand the reason behind its monumental flop.