I’ll leave it to you to determine which aspect ratio the directors of these blockbuster “event” movies overwhelmingly favor, and whether you can interpret any statistically significant trend toward that changing. With all that out of the way, here are the numbers for your perusal. Please see this post for an explanation of why these terms are used interchangeably in the industry.
#Hunger games catching fire commander thread movie
I’ve made a good-faith effort to compile a list of every movie I could find that meets the $100 million budget criteria, and to cross-reference them with aspect ratio information from IMDb and other sources.Īlso: I am using the phrase “2.35:1” to describe movies composed for and projected at a “scope” aspect ratio, even though the technical theatrical standard is actually 2.40:1 (or, more specifically, 2.39:1 and change). If you find other mistakes in here, please let me know. I spotted a few errors and omissions that I’ve tried to correct myself. The majority of my information was sourced from. Once you spend $100 mil making a movie, it has to be a blockbuster just to break even.įinding information on movie production budgets can be tricky. The studios and the filmmakers want you to see these movies in a theater on the biggest screen possible. These aren’t little indie dramas better suited to streaming from Netflix onto your iPad.
These movies get released on thousands of screens worldwide, often in 3D and/or IMAX or other premium venues. These are the “event” movies, the tentpole productions that studios rely on to generate most of their income for the year. To that end, I think it’s safe to say that any movie with a budget of $100 million or higher is explicitly produced to become a blockbuster, even if that doesn’t wind up coming true. As such, I believe that production budget is a better indicator of what the filmmakers wanted their movies to be. Even if a movie winds up being a flop, it may have been produced with the intention and hope of becoming a blockbuster. I think that looking at box office revenue is the wrong approach entirely. Should we look at the Top 10 grossing movies of every year, or just the Top 5? Do we look at worldwide numbers or just domestic?
Enjoy!Ī lot of hot air was expended in the other thread about defining what a “blockbuster” movie is. Apropos of a long-winded argument that has raged in another post on this blog this week, I’ve taken the considerable time and effort to prepare a chart breaking down the last 20+ years of blockbuster movies, sorted by aspect ratio.