The recent state of the stock market is well known. This is having a major impact on the stock of the Hollywood studios as well along with the value of he stars. “Body of Lies” from Warner’s opened at a disastrous low this week.
With a heavy cast of Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio and a popular Ridley Scott in the director’s seat, this movie was expected to do well. All it could achieve was a No.3 position behind “Quarantine”, Screen Gem’s low budget thriller and a dog movie from Disney “Beverly Hills Chihuahua”. All the Warners could gross was a paltry $13.1 million.
Past shows Warners always spreading their risks. But this time around, they spent almost to the tune of $100 million without taking in a strategic partner as they always do to share the budget. There is no safety net to curtail the loss.
Warner took this risk confidently on the solid backing of a popular director and two mega stars. There was no way they were anticipating a failure.
Analyzing the situation brings out certain hard truths. People seem to be fatigued not with movies but with movie stars. Disney depends on its expertise on animation and budgeted family fare rather than movie stars and has seen enough success to clearly scream out a message to producers.
While no one is underrating the importance of stars, they are often not enough to catapult a movie to success as seen with the “Body of Lies”. It is time to think and revamp priorities.
