When a Stranger Calls

angrynerdrock07 said:
The budget was $15 million and it's already made $42 million. Studios greenlight these movies because A)They're cheap to make B)no matter how moronic the film is, people will show up in droves to see it. Studios aren't looking to make great films, they are looking to make large amounts of money.
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True, but it seems to me, and maybe this is where I go a little nuts... that if people pay 42million to see a steaming pile of poop, how much would they pay if it was.... mediocore? or even..... *gasp*.....somewhat good?

Of course that takes more work, and you'd have to hire someone more talented that Texas oil rich boy hack Jade Wade Wall.

That explains everything.
 
Ought2bCommitted said:
True, but it seems to me, and maybe this is where I go a little nuts... that if people pay 42million to see a steaming pile of poop, how much would they pay if it was.... mediocore? or even..... *gasp*.....somewhat good?
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Man I would love it if hollywood was that way! Unfortunately, a great film is usually a gamble in Hollywood. It can either make a lot of money or loose a lot of money. Sometimes they do turn over a good profit (American beauty, Saving Private Ryan, Passion of the Christ, etc.) but the odds are usually against it. Check out some of these grosses:

Solaris: budget: $47 million, US gross $14 million.
Shawshank Redemption budget: $25 million, US gross $28 million.
Cinderella Man: budget $88, US gross $61 million
Dark City: budget $27 million, US gross $14 million.
Requiem for a Dream: budget $4.5 million, US gross $3.6 million
Donny Darko: budget $4.5 million, US gross $727,000.

Now you may not agree with me about these all being great films, but you would have to admit they are far superior to most of the garbage being produced today. Studios would make more films like these if they knew that is what made them the most money, but that's not always the case. A safe movie on the other hand like "When a Stranger Calls" is usually a sure-fire bet. It's cheap, it's appealing to teenagers (which are the biggest consumer of movies) and it's safe. Because the formula has been used so many times before and succeeded, they are going to bet on that formula.

It's the way the industry has been for years, and unfortunately it's probably never going to change. I worked at a theater for almost 3 years and it used to drive me crazy that films like "2 Fast 2 Furious" were constantly selling out and films like "Royal Tenenbaums" would get people wanting refunds because it was "too boring". Don't worry, you're not nuts. You just have a little better taste than the average movie goer.
 
Oh totally! I agree with you 100%. I used to argue with my mom. I use her a lot as my "average theatre goer" litmus test...the things she would like. LOL.

I just don't think it takes much work/effort to make a script a little better than total grabage like Stranger. I mean in this case, you still have the name value of the title and the gimmick that people know the hook. There are so many good writers out there that even if you're going to repackage crap, I think there's little excuse as to why its really low grade crap. LOL.
 
I watched a scene of Final Destination yesterday, I believe I already mentioned this, and it appalled me. The girls were both very bubblegum like and unrealistic (albeit hot until the whole dieing thing happens). One girl was a blonde stereotype who had a blatant disregard for any thing smart and called her friend "*****" all the time. Maybe I'm just lucky, but where I come from, we don't use ***** as a noun, we don't act like we're reading **** from a script all the time, and we ARTICULATE.

To older writers trying to recreate younger dialogue: Do not research MTV's "Laguna Beach" to create your lines in movies. We can say **** that isn't monosyllabic. See right there, I just did what you've never put in a movie! That was multisyllabic, as is that word!
 
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