Production Budget: $145,000,000 Worldwide Gross: $85,131,830 Estimated Losses: $102,434,085 The entirely computer generated animated film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within took nearly four years to create and was extraordinarily expensive. While today the film might be done via far less expensive motion capture, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was entirely rendered from scratch... and the price tag showed it, costing neophyte studio Square Pictures $145 million. Though Final Fantasy is a popular fantasy video game series, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within had very little to do with the games despite being directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, who created the game series. It required the studio to spend additional millions on promoting the film to a largely uninterested audience. This included attempts of marketing the lead character Aki Ross as a sex symbol despite not being a real person. Initial reviews were average at best, and those who actually saw the film mostly spoke about how "creepy" the life-like animation was. The movie grossed just $85.1 million worldwide, resulting in losses of $102.4 million. Not surprisingly, Square Pictures closed shortly afterwards making Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within its first and only feature film.
Chris McKittrick is a published author of fiction and non-fiction and has spoken about film and comic books at conferences across the United States. In addition to his work at WhatCulture!, he is a regular contributor to CreativeScreenwriting.com, MovieBuzzers.com, and DailyActor.com, a website focused on acting in all media. For more information, visit his website at http://www.chrismckit.com.
