Why did Dredd fail at the box office?

Films Producers:

Alex Garland, Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich

Who are Lionsgate?

Lionsgate are a film studio, the current chairman is Mark Rachesky, making an overall income at 2.07 billion dollars in 2013 alone. As of November 2013, it is the most commercially successful mini major film and television distribution company in North America. They are the seventh most profitable studio in America.

Who are IM Global?

Founded in 2007 by Stuart Ford, it is a worldwide leading team in film financing, sales, and distribution. It has backed 15 films in the past 3 years, helping them with production finance.

Who are DNA films?
DNA films are another film producer, they are British, and has been one of the most successful production companies that is located in the United Kingdom, London.

How was the funding for DNA originally split?
DNA films is a company with a 50/50 ownership split between The Film Council and Fox.

Why did they need to maintain their relationship with Fox Searchlight?
Because of the co-financing , DNA’s viability is cemented and the outfit is ready to charter new waters while maintaining its relationship with Fox. “We have an incredibly close relationship with Searchlight,” says producer Allon Reich, who runs the DNA operation alongside Macdonald. “We remain committed to this relationship and we’re historically a huge supplier for them. That’s the studio where we have the closest relationships and they’re like gold dust. We value them.

When did Lionsgate announce their three picture deal with IM Global?
November 2010

Where did Karl Urban announce his role in Dredd?
He has revealed his role at ComicCon, the role was of course to be Dredd, and he was not allowed to remove the helmet, Which may of been a challenge for Karl.

Why might this have helped attract the film's target audience?
The reveal at ComicCon would of been a good location to reveal it, as ComicCon is a big event where essentially film and game enthusiasts go to yearly, and so revealing it there would of appealed to most of the audience that had visited that year.

How much money did Dredd make from pre sales (this is people buying the right to show your film)?
It has 650,000 copies of the film sold, 50% of them were blue ray, number one sold, and it also had a high download amount in the UK.

How much did a distributor pay for the rights to show the film in the UK?
Entertainment Film Distributor paid $7 million to distribute it, and Lionsgate contributed $25 million towards it.

Where was the movie filmed?
Entirely on location in Cape Town and Johannesburg

Production When was the 'lawmaker' gun built and designed?
Sometime in 2010 or 2011, before shooting began, it does not state directly when it was built, but they do mention that it was built around a 9mm firing system, and was fully functional.

During which other UK film was the 'slo mo' sequences designed?
Raid

How did the film makers feel about making an 18 certificate film?
Well, when a film is made, the objective is to get the age rating certificate as low as possible, so it allows for more people to view it, so, when it was an 18 for unknown reasons I think the film producers may of been slightly annoyed because they knew it would lower the chances of the film making profit.

How long did it take to film Dredd?
It does not state exactly, but I imagine around to 2-4 months, which is usually average for a fairly average film.

Which camera was used to film Dredd?
For the slowmo, they used a Phantom Flex, a super slow mo camera with frame rates over 1000 per second.

Why did they need to create new camera rigs?
Mantle had to create new rigs in order to produce close up shots of people.

Post production
What issue affected the films editing?
Travis who was part of the editing team was disagreeing with some of the shots that were made, and so he was pulled down from the editing team, Garland took over instead.

Distribution and marketing
How many cinemas was Dredd released in and how many ONLY showed it in 3D?
Dredd was released in apparently 415 cinemas. And it was only very limited in 2D cinemas, as the distributors did not yet want to release it in 2D. So the majority was shown in 3D.

How did producers begin promoting Dredd3D?
Because the 3D featured slow motion, and they said it could make things such as blood look fascinating and enjoyable to look at.
What viral marketing campaign did the producers use for Dredd?
Dredd's marketing campaign won a Golden Trailer Award for Best Thriller TV Spot for the trailer "Big Addicted", and received nominations for: Best Action TV Spot, Most Original TV Spot, Best Graphics in a TV Spot, Best Music TV Spot, and Best Action Poster and Most Original Poster for the Dredd motion poster. Reports indicate that Lionsgate contributed $25 million to advertising & print costs.

The film premiered at Fantastic Fest, what is it and why would this appeal to the films target audience?
"Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse, Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, and Tim McCanlies, writer of The Iron Giant and Secondhand Lions." They would of shown Dredd here in order to catch the attention of everyone who attended the event, and any publicity that it would of gained afterwards.

Which awards did the films marketing campaign win?
A golden trailer award for best thriller TV spot.

How much money did the film gross at the box office?
$13,401,683

What unusual step did the film's UK distributors take to ensure people watched in 3D?
Apart from having an 18 rating...They took it one step further and didn't release the film in 2D, they only allowed it in 3D for a long period of time before releasing the 2D version, at which point no one was interested.

What percentage of audiences are physically incapable of seeing a 3D image?
1 in 10 people cannot see movies in 3D, so 10%, this is most likely due to either having one eye, or having brain issues which prevents an eye from functioning properly.

What % of light is lost in a 3D film?
As much as 80% can be lost in a 3D film, or as little as 30% But some cinemas can use lasers in order to project the footage onto the screen, which greatly reduces the amount of light lost.

Which film was Dredd unfortunate to be released after?
Raid, they looked like they copied it.

In the UK which position in the DVD charts did Dredd occupy?
It managed to hit number one in the charts for a short period of time.

What might this show about the decision to allow only a 3D release?
That it urges people to go and watch it in 3D.

In the US which audience demographic was the largest?
The largest demographics audience was over the age of 25 (69%) and male (75%).

How many units did Dredd sell on DVD/BluRay in the US?
650,000 units.

How much money did this bring in?
Approximately $10 million.