Sic-Fi films, box office & sequels

[Gojira]

I am wondering how much do studios count the foreign box office when they contemplate a sequel? I see John Carter is doing a dismal run domestically yet when the foreign box office is added along with future DVD sales it looks like it will make it's production value back if not turn a profit. The same with Wrath of the Titans whose 1 day box office made about 14 million less than Clash of the Titans.

So with foreign markets helping put some of these since fiction fantasy movies into a profit, I wonder if a higher foreign box office help such movies garner a sequel?

 

[Harvey]

This article, though a few years old, is still relevant. Essentially, studios earn less of a percentage from overseas box office than they do from domestic box office (although, with more and more of the total box office gross coming from overseas rather than domestically, that may be less and less important).

It's also worth noting that box office grosses do not equate to studio revenue. You have to remember that exhibitors (theatres) take a cut as well, and when it comes to overseas exhibition, there are often middle-men involved as well, taking a further cut. So, even though John Carter has grossed $236 million (from a budget of $250 million), the studio has earned far less than that figure.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Strong international box office makes the difference for some films getting sequels, particularly SFF films, but it won't be strong enough for John Carter to get one.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The global marketplace will have more of an impact when the parasitic middlemen that Harvey listed are cut out of the equation when everything moves to internet streaming. It won't happen quickly or easily (nobody likes to have their livelihood threatened) but it's inevitable.

However, if the "impact" is that any old crap can make money, I'm not sure if that's something we want to root for. Sure, maybe John Carter was unfairly dinged because of the bad title and marketing campaign, but we shouldn't be encouraging bad anything, including marketing campaigns. Foreign BO has a bad habit of raising all boats, even the ones that need to sink.

 

[FordSVT]

This article, though a few years old, is still relevant. Essentially, studios earn less of a percentage from overseas box office than they do from domestic box office (although, with more and more of the total box office gross coming from overseas rather than domestically, that may be less and less important).

It's also worth noting that box office grosses do not equate to studio revenue. You have to remember that exhibitors (theatres) take a cut as well, and when it comes to overseas exhibition, there are often middle-men involved as well, taking a further cut. So, even though John Carter has grossed $236 million (from a budget of $250 million), the studio has earned far less than that figure.

I'd normally point out that distributors often have to recoup the 50-100% of the production budget they spent on advertising, but in this case that's clearly not true.

 

[Harvey]

I've read that Disney spent $100 million promotion the movie; that's not quite 50% of the budget, but it's a lot of money on top of a production budget of $250 million.