10 Great Movie Ideas Let Down By Their Budget
Sometimes, you have to speculate to accumulate...
A movie can live or die by its budget and that is why so much strategy goes into deciding how much dollar a certain idea will be allocated by a studio.
If it seems like your concept is a little risky and doesn't look as though it will be the mega commercial hit that most producers crave, the chances are you're going to be given less of a financial push than say a typical MCU film.
At the end of the day, films are investments. If your project doesn't recoup its budget and then some, it can only be seen as a failure. Yet, sometimes an idea can be let down by a lack of funding, which could aid the scripts desperate need for top class CGI or perhaps a higher calibre of cast.
Equally, an inflated budget can weigh down a once untainted idea and cause the filmmakers involved to convolute the potential of what could have been.
More money can mean more problems, but at the same time - without enough of it - some of the most original films to ever be conceived would never have made it to our screens.
10. Dog Soldiers
When Dog Soldiers howled its way into existence in 2002, it did so to little fanfare.
The story of a routine military exercise gone horrifically wrong - pitting a group of British soldiers up against some gangly werewolves - didn't exactly rip up the British box office upon its release, earning just £5 million from a reported £2.3 million budget.
Despite the cast trying their damnedest to have you believe the threat these hairy beasts posed was sincere, the sight of a man clearly running around in a werewolf suit and painfully obvious rubber organs being torn out of bodies, made sure that this film would never punch above its weight.
It's a shame, as with a little more investment - both on-screen and off it - this film had the potential to be the kind of creepy, slasher/monster flick that could have horrified audiences around the world.
Jason Statham and Simon Pegg were both attached to roles at some point, which tells you all you need to know about what they thought of the script. With a little more money used on putting together a stronger cast, tightening up the visuals and promoting the film overseas, Dog Soldiers could have seriously moved the needle.