District 9

**Cheebs** · 05 Sep 2009, 12:33 AM

Originally Posted by arjue

I really hope Michael Bay and his ilk see this movie and feel ashamed of themselves. Blomkamp has made a movie with better action, MUCH better story and dialog and better looking cg for a tenth the budget Transformers 2 and GI Joe had.

Michael Bay isn't feeling ashamed for shit when his movie is closing in on 1 billion dollars.

You're comparing two different things. District 9 tried (and succeeded) to make an artistic statement. Transformers 2 tried (and succeeded) to make money. You can't make a (remotely) challenging movie when you're stuck to a PG-13 rating and are looking to draw everybody and their grandmother.

D9 was multiple times better than TF2. But D9 will piss people off. D9 will keep people away with it's gore. D9 will push away the large portion of the population that doesn't want to feel bad at the theater. D9 will not make a fraction of the money TF2 pulled in. Money or art. It's a trade-off.

**Gohron** · 05 Sep 2009, 05:05 AM

D9 will probably be more profitable than Transformers 2 because it had a drastically smaller budget. If it doesn't do as well in the box office as T2 doesn't really matter because of the smaller budget. A movie like Napoleon Dynamite can probably be considered more successful than a movie like Independence Day because of the profit margin. The producers on D9 did a hell of a job.

**arjue** · 05 Sep 2009, 01:56 PM

Originally Posted by Cheebs

Michael Bay isn't feeling ashamed for shit when his movie is closing in on 1 billion dollars.

You're comparing two different things. District 9 tried (and succeeded) to make an artistic statement. Transformers 2 tried (and succeeded) to make money. You can't make a (remotely) challenging movie when you're stuck to a PG-13 rating and are looking to draw everybody and their grandmother.

D9 was multiple times better than TF2. But D9 will piss people off. D9 will keep people away with it's gore. D9 will push away the large portion of the population that doesn't want to feel bad at the theater. D9 will not make a fraction of the money TF2 pulled in. Money or art. It's a trade-off.

That's total bullshit. Firstly, the only reason any film with any sort of budget gets made is ultimately to make money for the investors. Its not like Neil pulled 30 million out of his checking account to make D9. Secondly, there is no reason you couldn't make a transformers film thats well written and shot. The X-Men movies were "made to make money" too but they weren't a total fucking mess like TF.

**Drewbacca** · 05 Sep 2009, 02:14 PM

Originally Posted by sleeve

Dude.

Avatar hasn't even come out yet. WTF are you talking about?

I really don't get the backlash this movie is getting. The trailer looked cool. Besides, Titanic got a ton of backlash when the trailer came out and looked what happened there.

Maybe I am getting ahead of myself, but there was nothing special in those trailers and I am not a huge fan of 3D movies. Even the trailers for District 9 were great.

Originally Posted by Gohron

D9 will probably be more profitable than Transformers 2 because it had a drastically smaller budget. If it doesn't do as well in the box office as T2 doesn't really matter because of the smaller budget. A movie like Napoleon Dynamite can probably be considered more successful than a movie like Independence Day because of the profit margin. The producers on D9 did a hell of a job.

Uhh... this is completely wrong.

TF2 makes 1 billion dollars and takes 200 million to produce. Profit: 800 million dollars.

D9 makes 100 million dollars and takes 30 million to produce. Profit: 70 million dollars.

The difference here is if District 9 made no money the risk was small because a relatively small amount of investment went in to it. If Transformers 2 had tanked the studio would have been SOL on 200 million dollars. (though some of it is insured, and there is marketing costs, etc. but lets not get too complicated)

And stop calling it T2. We already have a way better movie occupying that abbreviation.

Originally Posted by arjue

That's total bullshit. Firstly, the only reason any film with any sort of budget gets made is ultimately to make money for the investors. Its not like Neil pulled 30 million out of his checking account to make D9. Secondly, there is no reason you couldn't make a transformers film thats well written and shot. The X-Men movies were "made to make money" too but they weren't a total fucking mess like TF.

Except the 3rd one. Wolverine was OK up until Deadpool.

**Gohron** · 05 Sep 2009, 03:00 PM

Originally Posted by Drewbacca

TF2 makes 1 billion dollars and takes 200 million to produce. Profit: 800 million dollars.

D9 makes 100 million dollars and takes 30 million to produce. Profit: 70 million dollars.

The difference here is if District 9 made no money the risk was small because a relatively small amount of investment went in to it. If Transformers 2 had tanked the studio would have been SOL on 200 million dollars. (though some of it is insured, and there is marketing costs, etc. but lets not get too complicated)

The profits weren't as big but the movie will likely make about 4 to 5 times it's budget within the next year (possibly more if DVD sales are good, which they likely will be) while Transformers will also make about five times it's published budget. Seems to me that they both won.

**SamuraiMoogle** · 05 Sep 2009, 03:09 PM

Finally got around to seeing this last night. Holy crap! There was all kinds of people exploding into bits! Didnt expect that at all.

Movie really makes me wish they woulda been able to do Halo.

**Cheebs** · 05 Sep 2009, 05:06 PM

Originally Posted by arjue

That's total bullshit. Firstly, the only reason any film with any sort of budget gets made is ultimately to make money for the investors. Its not like Neil pulled 30 million out of his checking account to make D9. Secondly, there is no reason you couldn't make a transformers film thats well written and shot. The X-Men movies were "made to make money" too but they weren't a total fucking mess like TF.

Think what you want, but if someone gives you $200 million and you turn it into a billion (before the DVDs even hit the shelves), there is no shame or fail.

But this is an ugly sidetrack anyway. My fault for bringing it up.

D9 was afuckingmazing. Discuss.