"The Lone Ranger" shut down

[Elee s]

I agree.

My only argument is with those selling the story that new Home Video release revenue is being maintained or sustained.

Your argument was that lone ranger was shut down because of blu ray.
Now youre just backtracking.

[mikemorel]

'Gigli's' Real Price Tag -- Or, How Studios Lie About Budgets

In Hollywood, there’s the reported budget -- and then there’s what a picture actually costs.

As confidential sales documents about Revolution Studios' library obtained by TheWrap demonstrate, studios often engage in fuzzy math about movie budgets.

It’s an open secret that studios are less than honest about their financials, and the documents show that was definitely the case when it came to Revolution’s 46 films.

Also read: Inside Revolution Studio's Library: Where Joe Roth Went Wrong

From bombs like “Gigli” to hits like "Black Hawk Down,” the studio could reliably be counted on to shave off between $10 to $20 million from the negative costs of its films.

In the case of “Gigli,” a $75.6 million film became a $54 million one, limiting reports of the company’s losses after the movie flopped. "Gigli" made a mere $7.7 million worldwide, meaning the the studio losses were actually on the order of $70 million.

Or “America’s Sweetheart,” a bright spot for the studio, which reportedly cost a mere $46 million to produce, in actuality carried a price tag of $64.4 million.

Also read: Disney Stops Production on Johnny Depp's 'Lone Ranger'

Likewise, Revolution publicly stated that “Tears of the Sun” cost $75 million when the true cost of the Bruce Willis dud topped out at $100.5 million.

In this creative accounting, "XXX:State of the Union" reportedly cost $87 million, but in reality Revolution spent $113.1 million to film the stinker. The $70.6 million it brought in at the worldwide box office killed the franchise.

So as studios engage in public budget battles with filmmakers like Jerry Bruckheimer over "The Lone Ranger," take the figures bandied about with a grain of salt, and add $20 million.

[Lee Stewart]

THE LONE RANGER Comes Back from the Brink; Expected to Begin Shooting in Early 2012

http://collider.com/lone-ranger-shoo...y-2012/116567/

[Kosty]

Disney CFO: ‘We Are Maximizing Blu-ray’
21 Sep, 2011
By: Erik Gruenwedel


CFO Jay Rasulo says the studio continues to utilize the high-definition format to extract what remains of the physical retail channel

The Walt Disney Co.’s CFO, Jay Rasulo, Sept. 21 said the studio remains bullish on Blu-ray Disc, incorporating the high-definition format into catalog DVD releases and new releases with digital copy.

Speaking at Goldman Sachs 20th annual Communacopia Conference in New York, Rasulo said Walt Disney Studios continued to leverage the potential of Blu-ray and DVD, underscored by a strong conversion rate of theatrical to incremental home entertainment revenue. That said, Rasulo compared the packaged media retail market to melting ice.

“Whether that ice cube is in the desert or elsewhere is a matter of debate,” Rasulo said. “But it’s definitely a melting ice cube.”

The CFO said Disney is trying extract remaining revenue from the physical channel DVDs. The studio continues to have a better conversion rate from box office to home video than the industry average due in part to the way Disney packages home entertainment releases, Rasulo said.

“We are maximizing Blu-ray for whatever it is,” he said. “But clearly, over time, this is a market that is moving over to digital.”

Reiterating previous company statements regarding the promotion of Bob Chapek to head a revamped consumer products division, the CFO said Disney’s myriad retail “touch points,” which include consumer products, publishing, home video and video games, provided an opportunity to utilize Chapek’s strengths reorganizing and transforming Disney into a singular brand to retail.

“Which is akin to the responsibility [Chapek] had in a big bulk of his career when the home video business was his sole responsibility,” Rasulo said, adding that Chapek, with more than 20 years experience at Disney, also will oversee licensing of the Disney brand.

“He will represent [home video] to the extent that there are still physical DVDs being sold at retail,” Rasulo said.

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/dis...-blu-ray-25129

[Kosty]

THE LONE RANGER Comes Back from the Brink; Expected to Begin Shooting in Early 2012

http://collider.com/lone-ranger-shoo...y-2012/116567/

So I guess this means all the storm and fury in this thread was all just a kerfuffle?

Sounds like a tactic to lower costs.

[Elee s]

So I guess this means all the storm and fury in this thread was all just a kerfuffle?

psound had the right idea. Its because blu ray was a failure that it was cancelled. So now thats its been reannounced it means blu ray turned everything around in a few short months and is now doing amazing.

[Kosty]

psound had the right idea. Its because blu ray was a failure that it was cancelled. So now thats its been reannounced it means blu ray turned everything around in a few short months and is now doing amazing.

Oh that's right. It was cancelled because of the poor theatrical to home video conversion rates.

They must be better now because the project is now on and Disney stated conversion rates are high. Not only that but the Disney CFO is specifically mentioning Blu-ray in regards to those strong Disney conversion rates.

The mention of a strong conversion rate because of the way the studio "packages home video releases" also seem to imply the Disney marketing strategy of Blu=ray+DVD combos is also a significant contributing factor to those strong conversion rates.

Disney CFO: ‘We Are Maximizing Blu-ray’


21 Sep, 2011
By: Erik Gruenwedel





CFO Jay Rasulo says the studio continues to utilize the high-definition format to extract what remains of the physical retail channel

The Walt Disney Co.’s CFO, Jay Rasulo, Sept. 21 said the studio remains bullish on Blu-ray Disc, incorporating the high-definition format into catalog DVD releases and new releases with digital copy.

Speaking at Goldman Sachs 20th annual Communacopia Conference in New York, Rasulo said Walt Disney Studios continued to leverage the potential of Blu-ray and DVD, underscored by a strong conversion rate of theatrical to incremental home entertainment revenue. That said, Rasulo compared the packaged media retail market to melting ice.

“Whether that ice cube is in the desert or elsewhere is a matter of debate,” Rasulo said. “But it’s definitely a melting ice cube.”

The CFO said Disney is trying extract remaining revenue from the physical channel DVDs. The studio continues to have a better conversion rate from box office to home video than the industry average due in part to the way Disney packages home entertainment releases, Rasulo said.

“We are maximizing Blu-ray for whatever it is,” he said. “But clearly, over time, this is a market that is moving over to digital.”

Reiterating previous company statements regarding the promotion of Bob Chapek to head a revamped consumer products division, the CFO said Disney’s myriad retail “touch points,” which include consumer products, publishing, home video and video games, provided an opportunity to utilize Chapek’s strengths reorganizing and transforming Disney into a singular brand to retail.

“Which is akin to the responsibility [Chapek] had in a big bulk of his career when the home video business was his sole responsibility,” Rasulo said, adding that Chapek, with more than 20 years experience at Disney, also will oversee licensing of the Disney brand.

“He will represent [home video] to the extent that there are still physical DVDs being sold at retail,” Rasulo said.

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/dis...-blu-ray-25129

[Kosty]

I do like the analogy of the physical market as a melting ice cube. That's a great way to look at it.

Except the size and magnitude is more like a glacier or iceberg as its scale is in the billions of dollars right now even in decline.

[Malanthius]

I do like the analogy of the physical market as a melting ice cube. That's a great way to look at it.

Except the size and magnitude is more like a glacier or iceberg as its scale is in the billions of dollars right now even in decline.

Ice cube. Glacier or iceberg. Who cares?! It's the percentage of the decline! That's the point. Size of the block of ice doesn't change the facts. The market is in steep decline and the studios are worried. Bluray isn't doing what the studios needed it to do. But like they are saying. They are going to get all they can out of it. Whatever that might be. Doesn't sound very insuring.

[Kosty]

It makes a big difference my pessimistic friend.

The mass of the melting object in that analogy implies how long it takes to melt away.

You always think that the billions and billions each year on packaged media sell through and rental will disappear overnight and that's clearly not the case.

Packaged media in the form of Blu-ray will be around for many years to come and Blu-ray still has plenty of growth in it before its inevitable decline.

[Lee Stewart]

It makes a big difference my pessimistic friend.

The mass of the melting object in that analogy implies how long it takes to melt away.

You always think that the billions and billions each year on packaged media sell through and rental will disappear overnight and that's clearly not the case.

Packaged media in the form of Blu-ray will be around for many years to come and Blu-ray still has plenty of growth in it before its inevitable decline.

LOL - no one expects OD sell thru and rentals to "dissappear overnight." That's just you exaggerating.

If BD reaches twice what it did last year in it's growth state - that's still less then $5B. A far cry what DVD did before it's decline. And again, you have to split that pie among a ton of plate holders.

[Kosty]

Disney Eyes Early 2012 Start For ‘Lone Ranger’; Announcement Expected Next Week

By MIKE FLEMING | Friday September 23, 2011 @ 1:36pm EDT


EXCLUSIVE: Deadline told you a week ago that things were looking up for The Lone Ranger for the first time since we broke the shocking news on Aug. 12 that Disney had pulled the plug over budget. I’m hearing that the studio is likely to have everything resolved by next week, and can start rehiring crew so that the picture will be ready to begin production in January or February. How that late start impacts the Dec. 21, 2012 release date remains to be seen, but Johnny Depp will get to play Tonto (Disney wouldn’t make the movie without him), and Armie Hammer will be back in as the title character. Ruth Wilson, the scene-stealing killer from Idris Elba’s British cop series Luther, is also expected back as the female lead.

Disney has gotten to this point after a painful overhaul of the movie by producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski to bring to $215 million a budget the studio feared could reach $250 or more. Verbinski’s struggle has been to reach that number while retaining enough of the spectacle that made them say yes in the first place. The cutting process has included the reworking of deals for Depp, Verbinski and Bruckheimer, and trimming the production budget and the long shoot. That would enable Depp, Gore and Bruckheimer to re-team after making the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films together. The Lone Ranger is one of several huge-budget films that Disney’s Rich Ross and Sean Bailey are managing. The others include John Carter, the Andrew Stanton-directed adaptation of John Carter of Mars with Friday Night Lights‘ Taylor Kitsch in the lead role, which has a budget around $250 million; and The Great and Powerful Oz, the Sam Raimi-directed James Franco-starrer, which is hovering around $200 million.

The Lone Ranger is on the verge of serving as an example where a film comes through the budget scrutiny process with a construct that can actually make Disney its money back. More than those other big Disney bets, I think the timing of the plug pull had everything to do with the dismal results of another ambitious Western, Cowboys & Aliens, a film that is going to lose a fortune for DreamWorks and its partners. Having a studio waffle isn’t fatal, however. While the architects of At the Mountains of Madness, The Dark Tower and Ouija struggle to regain footing after Universal dropped them for various reasons, worthy movies tend to find their way. That proved to be the case with American Gangster, and with Moneyball, which opens today.

Sony Pictures’ Amy Pascal took the painful and radical step of pulling the plug on that film a weekend before the start of production because a Steven Soderbergh rewrite so veered from the picture she had greenlighted. We’ll see how that film does in a brutally competitive weekend, but the Bennett Miller-directed film got a rousing ovation in its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival two weeks ago. And Soderbergh moved on and recently topped the box office with his viral thriller Contagion. Some of Hollywood’s biggest names are in the middle of these greenlight struggles, and this trend will become more common because the stakes are so high.

http://www.deadline.com/2011/09/disn...k/#more-175288

[Kosty]

Earlier Deadine Hollywood story

Will ‘The Lone Ranger’ Ride? Guarded Optimism Disney Film Is Alive Again


By MIKE FLEMING | Friday September 16, 2011 @ 7:54pm EDT


EXCLUSIVE: For the first time since Deadline broke the shocking news that Disney had pulled the plug because of a huge budget on the Gore Verbinski-directed The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer, insiders tell me that things are starting to look up for the film and there is now optimism that the picture might actually get made.

Back on August 12, Disney derailed a film that had a December 21, 2012, release date because the budget had gone to the stratosphere. Insiders feared the film could cost $275 million, though my sources at that time said the filmmakers had already taken $10 million out and got it to $232 million. No matter which of those numbers you embrace, that’s a lot of dough for a Western, and it’s probably not coincidence this standoff happened after the mega-budget Cowboys & Aliens tanked, and proved to be one of the summer’s biggest debacles.


Disney pulled the plug and initially demanded the film be brought down to $200 million; producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Verbinski have been trying for a number closer to $215 million. Deadline has reported Depp won’t make the movie without Verbinski, his director on the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films and Rango, so it is an all or nothing proposition because this film would never get made without the world’s most bankable male star.

Verbinski’s difficult challenge has been to pare costs while retaining the spectacle that made the movie worth making in the first place. Bruckheimer, Depp and Verbinski have all made salary concessions to get the film made. We should have an answer shortly, but don’t be surprised if The Lone Ranger rides again

http://www.deadline.com/2011/09/will...n/#more-172394