i'm naive when it comes to what things cost to make, so can anyone tell me why 'Avatar' cost $280 million to make? I understand the $150 million it cost to market it worldwide, but with most of the action being CG, how much can it really cost??? Help me understand where my $16 is going please! :-)
Dave: But movies cost millions of dollars to make.
Robert K. Bowfinger: That's after gross net deduction profit percentage deferment ten percent of the nut. Cash, every movie cost $2,184.
- Anika
CG is actually quite costly to produce.
- Jason Wehmhoener
is it pricey because of the labor involved in using the technology, or it is due to the cost of the technology rights themselves?
- Morgan
Given the Iliad-list-of-the-ships-length credits for animators of all flavors, I'm going with the labor involved in using the technology.
- Jennifer Dittrich
i guess the 3D and IMAX technology added to the costs too. i'm gonna see this movie, that's for sure. I'm just trying to learn about why they cost so much to make. i know sigourney is awesome, but she doesn't command $30 mil a picture that I know of.
- Morgan
this post talks about some of the new technology developed specifically for Avatar: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr...
- Jason Wehmhoener
What Jason said. So it's like "Dude, where's my 3D"?!
- Roberto Bonini
Here's another post that gives you some sense of some of the other technology involved: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009...
- Jason Wehmhoener
Figure your CG software costs 4K to 22K per person per year (handwaving; the main 3D package itself may be a couple of grand, but then there are particle effects or other more specialized software and Alienbrain - a revision control system best suited for artists costs a surprising amount too. Then, yeah, each artist costs $50K - $100K a year or more, and the number of digital artists on a major flick like this is really staggering.
- Andrew C (✔)
If you review the full cast and credits list - http://www.imdb.com/title... - you'll see that the movie's staff is well in the hundreds. The cost of developing a movie of this technical caliber requires a small army all employed full time for the bulk of 3 years or more. And, with a mostly no-name staff -- Sigourney Weaver certainly got the biggest paycheck -- all those dollars went into the actual making of the movie and not it's cast. Cameron is probably getting points off the revenue so he likely didn't get a large initial fee either.
- Jason Toney
billion dollar bump.
- Morgan