For the last few years franchise movies like star wars, marvel, etc. made money regardless of quality. However now it seems like audiences are being choosier when it comes to these kinds of tentpole releases. I’ve seen some people online say that the movie/theater industry is losing people in general but I don’t think that’s the case.
Super Mario and spiderverse made a lot of money. And Oppenheimer, Barbie, and Dune seem to be tracking well. I think the problem is that people are getting sick of the same old stuff and need more than just a brand name to go to the theater. What do you you think?
$250m production budget for an Indiana Jones movie is absolutely bonkers. Raiders had a $20m budget.
Inflation?
Even with inflation the cost of making films (especially in the US) has gone up a lot. Just a rough Google says that 20 mil in 1980/81 is now roughly 75 mil. That makes the new Indie film more than 3x the production cost