A success story I'd like to emulate

D

David W. Richardson

Chapelgrove Films
"Facing The Giants"

Production Budget: $10,000

Theatrical Gross: over $10 million

Video/DVD gross would probably be considerably higher than the theatrical gross. Add foreign sales (if any), pay cable, etc.

A decent story -- not great, but good. Well executed.

I'd love to have a project as successful as that!
 
Tabula Rasa Productions said:
blair witch project 35k budget

300 million profit.

though to be fair it spent 5 million on advertising.
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Also an impressive success story. Unfortunately, everybody and his brother has tried to copy it -- most of the time, badly. (Rent 'Haunted House' as an example.)

The 'hook' for Blair Witch was the whole 'shot on camcorder and 16mm, this is REAL' angle. It worked one time, but it's hard to pull it off successfully again -- and if you try, you're just accused of 'copying Blair Witch'. (Which you are, of course.)

'Facing The Giants' didn't have that kind of gimmickry. It's 'gimmick', if you want to call it one, was its genre -- it's a Christian feature film. It's targeted for a specific audience, and plays very well to that audience. And the good thing is, it's a formula that can be used again and again. Different stories, different settings, different actors -- but the same general theme and the same target audience. It's reproducible in a way that Blair Witch no longer is.
 
BTW, I know that IMDB says $10k budget for Facing the Giants, but I'm pretty sure I read that the budget for it was more in the $100k range. Even then, that was a great return on investment. I see that they have produced a new movie called Fireproof, I believe, that should be coming out soon. Not sure what the budget is on it.

Matthew
 
Yeah, Box Office Mojo reports $100k, but they always seem to report consistently higher than other sources. I should email Alex Kendrick and see if I can get the exact figure for 'Facing the Giants'.

But you're right -- either way, it's a great return!
 
Macville said:
BTW, I know that IMDB says $10k budget for Facing the Giants, but I'm pretty sure I read that the budget for it was more in the $100k range. Even then, that was a great return on investment. I see that they have produced a new movie called Fireproof, I believe, that should be coming out soon. Not sure what the budget is on it.

Matthew
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I agree. I'm willing to bet the budget was above $200K when all costs are added. Which is still great.

"The Signal" out of Atlanta boasts a $50K budget but it's really more like $200K. Lab601 did post work as a favor and for points. And I'm sure lots of other people did points and such. I checked out the behind the scenes shots for "Facing the Giants" - no way that's $10K. I shot my last movie for $25K only buying equipment, and I didn't have half of what they did.

Budgets are all about what people want to report. I think it's great. I'm interested in seeing this movie and the next one "fireproof" but I doubt you're looking at anything lower than $150K when all is said an done and maybe more like $350 to $450K.
 
jls4 said:
I agree. I'm willing to bet the budget was above $200K when all costs are added. Which is still great.

"The Signal" out of Atlanta boasts a $50K budget but it's really more like $200K. Lab601 did post work as a favor and for points. And I'm sure lots of other people did points and such. I checked out the behind the scenes shots for "Facing the Giants" - no way that's $10K. I shot my last movie for $25K only buying equipment, and I didn't have half of what they did.

Budgets are all about what people want to report. I think it's great. I'm interested in seeing this movie and the next one "fireproof" but I doubt you're looking at anything lower than $150K when all is said an done and maybe more like $350 to $450K.
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I'd be very interested.....take a look at the rough trailer for 'Afterlife' on YouTube and tell me what you estimate our production budget to have been. Not trying to challenge you, just curious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A92ZurHvyRQ

Thanks!
 
chapelgrovefilms said:
I'd be very interested.....take a look at the rough trailer for 'Afterlife' on YouTube and tell me what you estimate our production budget to have been. Not trying to challenge you, just curious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A92ZurHvyRQ

Thanks!
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I think I remember you telling me or writing what it was on a post, so I think whatever I say will be biased. But I do know how much things cost based on how much a person knows.

After I wrote the post, I talked with a friend of mine that says the budget really was $10K. But he admitted that everybody, even the 16+ person crew all worked for free. The only thing they paid for was a production truck and they got a good deal on local equipment. H3ll, if everyone worked for free on "The Dark Knight" I doubt it would have cost more than $30 Million! (they still would have had props and such to pay for, and I guess they did blow up a building - but it was probably condemed anyway)

My movie cost out of pocket $25K but again no one was paid, so really it's worth more like $120K, if everyone had decent salary, etc.

That being said, I would say you could have paid as low as $10K up front, if you didn't have to buy any equipment, but the total cost is worth a little over $100K if everyone got paid.

If you shoot for 7 days, with a crew of 2, and paid them $100 a day that'd be $1400.

If you had 7 cast members and paid them $100 a day for 7 days = $4900

If you fed them 3 meals a day * 10 people (yourself + 2 crew + 7 cast) * $5 per meal $1050 for food.

Tapes and Such - at least $300.

Post production - 1 editor for 16 days at $100 = $1600.

all of these are super low payments. Total = $9250. So they are claiming $10K, but did they feed everybody? give them money for gas? Pay for electricity? It's how people want you to view. I know when I get ready for distribution, I'm claiming $250K. Because I've seen indie's get ripped off by Distributors that say "Oh you only paid this, well I'll just go up a little over what you paid."

just my .02
 
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