Everybody Wang Chung wrote: ↑Fri Jun 25, 2021 4:58 pm
Any idea how much the film needs to make in order to break even? I'm guessing that after distribution/box office sharing fees are calculated, the film probably needs to bring in around 2 million before it can start making a profit.
I think that's a pretty good guess. Standard industry practice is that the budget and box office receipts get posted. Just google pretty much any movie ever, and it will give those dollar amounts. The more interesting question, to my mind, is *why* they haven't posted the budget. I think there are at least three possibilities, which I'll list here in order from least to most plausible:
1. Dr. Peterson is actually profiting from the movie somehow, and he is keeping the budget a secret in order to avoid revealing that he's actually engaged in priestcraft. I think it's unlikely that this is going on. While I do think that there is a sincere hope that the movie would rake in tons of dollars, I would imagine that that money would be funneled back into Mopologetics. But if it made tens of millions? If that were the case, you'd have to imagine that he would take a slice.
2. There is a fear of a "hostile takeover" by the Brethren, and so the budget is being kept under wraps so that the Church doesn't assume control of their movie-making venture. Given what happened with FARMS back in the 1990s, I think there is a very real fear of this happening.
3. They are afraid of getting made fun of by critics, being taunted over the film being a "box office failure," and so on. This is the most likely reason. So much of their motivation has to do with responding to critics, trying to score points, and bristling over being made fun of, etc.
"If, while hoping that everybody else will be honest and so forth, I can personally prosper through unethical and immoral acts without being detected and without risk, why should I not?." --Daniel Peterson, 6/4/14
