Critically Acclaimed: What Actually Makes for a Successful Movie?
With the Oscars right around the corner I got thinking about what makes a movie successful. That is to say, “successful” in the eyes of the producers and creators. Is it getting nominated for multiple Academy awards? Or, maybe, it’s getting five stars from Rolling Stone. For me a successful movie is all about watching something I enjoy. It’s probably a good thing I’m not one of these all-powerful movie producers, because there is something that might be more important to them than me enjoying their movie.
Money.
Awards are great. People liking your movie, also pretty cool. Money, though, is the driving factor in creating blockbuster films. There is an important distinction to be made though; not all movies are intended to “make it big”. Some movies are made to send a message, while some are made from pure passion. Of course, these reasons are not mutually exclusive.
Money = Success. So, how does a movie make money? A portion comes from merchandise sales and licensing agreements. However, most revenue comes from ticket sales. It is important that they get us to go see their movies in a theater.
When I am deciding whether to go to the theater to see a movie, I do a few different things: I look up movie ratings on Rotten Tomatoes or IMDb or wherever else; pick your poison. I watch the trailer for the movie, and finally, I always ask family or friends if they have seen the movie and what they thought of it.
Critics’ Effect
“What do the critics know?” We’ve all thought it, right? We look up movie ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and think “Oh Yeah! Its 97% Certified Fresh. Wait, what does that even mean? I’ve heard this movie wasn’t even that good”. What do these sites even tell us? This Vox article states, “The score that Rotten Tomatoes assigns to a film corresponds to the percentage of critics who’ve judged the film to be “fresh,” meaning their opinion of it is more positive than negative”. That means an average movie, in theory, could still get the same score as an excellent movie if things fell that way.
Do these critic’s scores have any effect on the success of a movie? In some regards, yes. The same Vox article claims that smaller movies can live or die on the scores they receive from the critics. When a movie isn’t well known or widely publicized, it is often dependent on reviews and word of mouth to gain traction.
This is the realm where critics thrive. This is where they have a place, and where their opinions seem to carry some weight. When it comes to the big budget movies, what the critics think and say doesn’t matter all that much. Why does that seem to be the case?
Production Budget Effect
An article suggests that production budget has the biggest effect on the success of a movie. This makes sense. Or, at least you would hope it would make sense. Movies that have the most money put into them tend to have a higher return than low budget films. Would it be worth it otherwise?
Where does that money go?
One place for the money to go is something I referenced earlier. The Trailers. Marketing and advertising is what really gets people excited about buying a ticket to go see a movie. This is why movies that aren’t as well publicized, and thus don’t have as big of a budget, won’t get as many people out to see the movie.
What about the face(s) of the film? The Actors? Some actors carry more weight than others. Star power is a huge factor in selling tickets. Actors like George Clooney are going to demand more money than some Joe Schmo actor, regardless of talent. However, those actors will also bring in a larger number of viewers to your movie solely because of their name and reputation.
The “I’m Not Going to See it” Effect
Although movies with higher production costs or bigger star power often do better at the box office, this is not always the case. Even in recent history there are many flops that prove this. There are movies that, for whatever reason, just fail. One example for this was Solo: A Star Wars Story. Needing to gross about $500 million worldwide to break even, it only grossed $392.9 million. It had a good marketing campaign, a notable cast, and even fairly positive reviews. A lot of movies lose money, but rarely is it this much.
There doesn’t seem to be any reason movies like this flop other than the fact that people just don’t want to see them as badly as the producer imagined they would. There isn’t anything that can be done about it either. This is a risk that is taken when pumping this much money into a movie.
The most important thing is to create something that people want to see. How to accomplish that goal is something I have neither the time or the expertise to discuss.
What Matters Most
As a regular person I don’t really enjoy watching all these award shows because I’ve only heard of less than half of the movies and of those, I’ve only seen a handful. So, what does The Academy actually know? Maybe I’m just not sophisticated enough to understand their judging rubric. Maybe if I was I would love all the critically acclaimed films and Oscar nominees.
In a perfect world there would be a system to determine whether you would like a movie before seeing it. You would be able to read about it, or watch a trailer, or ask a friend and know for certain whether it was a movie for you or not. But that isn’t the how the world works. There is always a hint of uncertainty.
But this is what makes it kind of exciting. The best movies are often the ones that are unpredictable. The most important thing is to not only create something that people want to see, but something that people want to talk about. That is a movie that will keep people coming back for more.
Money. Followers. Number of Stars. Sadly, these are the things that tend to measure success in the world today. That is just an unfortunate truth.
