ADVERTISEMENT

Studios Spend a Ton on Ads Because You People Have No Idea What You Want

'Casablanca'? Is that the one with Marky Mark? No, I bet it's the new Denzel. (Image via Flickr user daniel)
November 19, 2014

Movies are really, really expensive to make. Just look at the budgets* of a few flicks released this year: Transformers: Age of Extinction, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 all had a production budget of $200 million or more; Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Maleficent, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and Edge of Tomorrow had budgets between $170 and $180 million; and Interstellar and Godzilla were relative bargains, at $165 and $160 million, respectively.

Common sense would suggest that movie studios tying up so much capital in so few products is an extremely risky proposition. The films above represent some $1.8 billion in production costs. For just 10 movies. "Diversify!" I can hear you yelling at your smartphone. "Spread out the risk!"

And, of course, the studios do make some more modestly budgeted flicks, comedies like Neighbors, dramas like Gone Girl, etc. But as Ross Douthat and plenty of others have argued, the mid-budget film aimed at adults is something of a dying breed. Studios are investing in micro-budgeted flicks and giant tentpoles and not a ton in the middle. But why?

The answer is simple: advertising costs have skyrocketed in recent years. On the giant films above, average advertising costs are likely to be in the high eight, if not low nine, figures. Assuming a fixed advertising budget (let's say, $100 million), studios are faced with a rather daunting choice: pour $25 million into four flicks with an average budget of, say, $65 million, or $100 million into a flick that costs $170 million.

Now, maybe you're asking yourself why spend so much money on ad campaigns. Why plaster your product on billboards and run nonstop TV ads and fly the stars all around the world to do interviews and buy up tons of radio time? Why get your logo in as many fast food joints and product tie-ins as possible? Because of this:

Screen Shot 2014-11-19 at 9.41.39 AM

So, basically, a supermajority of you people don't actually know what you want to see when you go to the theaters. You just say, "Hey, let's catch a movie," and then you wing it. But when you're looking up at the marquee with your friends and taking in the show times and trying to decide on what, exactly, you want to see, well, what's more likely to stick out to you? The modestly budgeted movie you may have seen one or two ads for? Or the movie that has been an omnipresent portion of your life for the last month, the movie whose ads you've seen on TV and whose stars you've seen making the talk show circuits and the logo of which is plastered all over your neighborhood 7-Eleven? "Well, The Tragedy of Joe Bob, I kind of remember what that one's about—it's got the guy, you know, the one. But War Machines Seven, yeah, I know what that's about and who is in it and what the plot is, more or less. Let's do that one."

So if you find yourself wondering why there aren't a ton of mid-budget, adult-oriented movies waiting for you when you arrive at the theater, totally unsure of what you want to see, remember that you have your fellow theatergoers to blame. At least a little.

*All numbers courtesy of Box Office Mojo, except for Amazing Spider-Man 2, which was courtesy of Google.