A.

1 Pre-Production - Financing

By Rory Forde
 Dr Strange-Blockbuster
The budget for Dr Strange was approximately $165,000,000 making it a blockbuster film. The casting
contained notable actors such as Benedict Cumberbatch whose net worth is $20 million and therefore
this would have contributed to the high budget.
Many scenes were shot in front of a green screen in Longcross studios in Surrey however for all scenes
shot inside temples the actors travelled to the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu, therefore before they went
to film, a location recce and risk assessment would have needed to have been completed. This would
have been done in order to keep the crew and actors safe while the site.
On the opening weekend the movie made $85,058,311 and overall the movie made $232,597,113.
Notable distributors contain Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, Walt Disney Studios Motion
Pictures and Columbia Pictures. The movie was produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Marvel Studios
alongside co-contracting over 30 other companies to help with the production of the movie meaning
that they had a large crew which also would have had an impact on the financing of the time.
Nonetheless the conglomerate that supported the film due to its pre-sold audience as a comic book
character (and now a part of the Marvel franchise) and therefore the conglomerate (Disney) were happy
to finance at this last cost due to the lack of risk.
Part of the pre-production documents of the production was creating concept arts which imagined
different actors and how they would look like playing certain characters. An example of this would be
concept art of Actor Ryan Gosling (Left) and concept art of Actor Benedict Cumberbatch (Right). Not
only are both well known names (high budget) but casting was carefully considered (if they incorrectly
casted, it could have had an impact on the role, audiences and therefore gross for the film which is why
they did this first (very significant as the film was a debut for the character as he has not been shown
before in previous Marvel films).
 Friday the 13th(1980)– Mini-major
The budget for the movie was $550,000, making $5,816,321 in the opening
weekend and having an overall turnout of $59,754,601. The movie was
produced by Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros, Georgetown Productions Inc.
and Sean S. Cunningham Films and therefore it had some support by
conglomerates, but as you can see the budget was significantly lower than Dr
Strange and other blockbuser films that came out at the time, and example of
the is the film “Halloween” that came out 2 years prior and was inspired by its
success.Furthermore the movie made $17,165,830 purely from rentals, this is
significant because its exhibition shows us that it gained more value after the
film was out. The production co-contracted 8 other companies and
institutions to help with the production of the. Part of the pre-production
process would be researching the conventions of the slasher sub-genre and
seeing how similar characters are portrayed in their respective productions.
The writers would use existing productions for inspiration such as the film
“Halloween”. The crew would have needed to create a location recce and risk
assessment for the differing locations that they filmed in, these location’s
included 3 different towns within New Jersey: Hardwick, Blairstown and
Hope.
 Submarine – Small Scale Film
In the opening weekend of its release the film made £244,476 in the UK and
$41,832 in the USA which is a surprised statistic as it is set in the UK and a
indie film (unique in narrative and humour). The budget for the film was £1.5
million, which is significant in comparison to the other two examples, this is
due to the narrative and the casting/location of the film, fitting with its style.
Notable people within the production of the film are people such as Ben
stiller and Richard Ayoade which would have impacted the financing of the
movie.
The film was produced Warp Films and Film4 (additional financing would have
been used here to gain a larger budget as they are in association with one
another). Also it is presented by The Weinstein company in association with 5
other film and releasing companies- Why? Distributed by 35 companies each
based in different countries which is iconic for independent films. The film
was shot In 5 different locations all within the country of Wales which fits
with the genre as usually high budget films are set in iconic cities to support
its narrative.