1. Low Budget
A key sign of a successful comic book adaptation is that it leaves you wanting more and Dredd had that. The film finished and you wanted to see more bad guys taken down and judged. A lot of that had to do with the points I've already made but lets not take anything away from Karl Urban who made Judge Dredd look cool on screen. It was always going to be hard to get a character across who is in a helmet all the time but Urban, via his chin, did an excellent job to make the audience fall in love with Dredd, much in the same way Peter Weller did with RoboCop. Combined with a well presented setting, awesome weaponry, a thrilling electro soundtrack and probably the best use of slow motion since the first Matrix movie, Dredd did wonders with its modest budget of $45million. It highlights that once again, a film with a small budget will force a director to be more creative and imaginative in the way he translates the script to the screen. Compare that to $100million movies like Transformers and even Avengers which feel like you are watching a soul less, CGI bore, where the computer that renders the effects is the real star. The low budget kept Dredd grounded and in turn it was a far more entertaining film. Hopefully it's a sign to Hollywood that a good summer blockbuster does not always need a huge budget, however, Dredd didn't exactly set the box office alight and that is what the film studios will see. There are many reason Dredd wasn't a success at the box office, the major one being that it's an adult only movie, but it will make its money back once you factor in overseas box office receipts and blu-ray sales. In the UK, Dredd was the first 18 rated film since Saw 3D to go straight in at No.1. A film with a smaller budget like Dredd, stands a better chance to make money for its investors, even if it doesn't have the biggest opening weekend since records began. But more importantly, a restricted budget allows film makers to do what they are trained to do and the end results are always more interesting than a super polished product that's more of an advert for Intel Inside. The low budget might also be the biggest reason why everything went right to make Dredd the best film of the 2012 summer Hollywood season.