Within the last 30 years Hollywood has been obsessed with the summer blockbuster. Every summer every major film studio pumps millions of dollars into movies in hope to lure bored teenagers into theaters over and over and over again. It’s all about the money and it has not been any other way since 1975 when Jaws was released. Millions of moviegoers crowded the streets in hope of a good scare. It was the first movie to make over 100 million dollars. That was just the beginning.

Jaws didn’t cost all that much to make, not even 12 million. That is what a summer blockbuster should be made for. Jaws was a great movie, made for a small sum, and grossing millions. With a profit like that, it is a mystery to why Hollywood doesn’t contribute that money to other societal problems. Since then however, summer blockbusters have been progressively losing money.

In the summer of 2003, the average summer movie cost over 100 million dollars. Each one was supposed to

Hollywood movie will continue to cost millions of dollars, but as the ideas for new movies become few and far between, the average movie will lose money. Combined with the fact that there are now multiple releases in one weekend, movie will continue to bring in millions of dollars but will ultimately disappoint. They will end up making all their profit upon video release and the theaters will remain strictly as a form of expensive entertainment. One day however, Hollywood might reinvent the way they work, and one day budgets will take in a profit worth taking in.

To find out exactly where some of the budget is spent, I contacted Gabriel DellaVecchia, a accounting and payroll clerk based in Baltimore, MD. He has worked on both a Hollywood production and an independent film in Baltimore. The Hollywood movie he worked on is called Ladder 49 and is dues out later this year. When asked to explain a little bit of the film budget he said, “Well, a lot of the budget goes to little things no one ever imagines. Food costs more than people think. Feeding the cast and crew on a day to day basis is hard. One of the funniest things I ever saw while going through some of my files was a 200 dollar hair piece for Joaquin Phoenix. Since it was a movie about fire fighters there were also a lot of things like burnt dummies and fire fighter equipment. The main part of the budget for any big budgeted movie divides into separate areas. Most of the money goes to the crew itself at costs a good 80 million just to complete the picture. A lot of the money is wasted on little things. There was a rewrite of the script that cost a few million just by itself.”

The biggest budget to date without inflation is Spiderman 2, due out this July. It has a budget of 200 million. Over 50 years ago Cleopatra had an inflated budget of over 300 million. It flopped. The excess of money these movies waste or make could feed starving countries for a year. Worldwide gross income could reach over 500 million. When there is too much money to be spent, there are often greedy decisions that lack creativity. If this were any other movie, this budget would be a great risk. Movies need to stay at modest budgets and keep skill at the top of the producers list. Before Dungeons

Some topics in this essay:
, John Waters, Joaquin Phoenix, Baltimore Hollywood, Lord Rings, Line Line, Price Glory, LA Times, Pluto Nash”, Cinema Line, millions dollars, ladder 49, money movies, summer blockbuster, lord rings, it’s money, little bit, box office, line cinema, movie gross,