Why Did Dredd Fail at the Box Office?
Pre Production
Dredd is a film based on the comic series back in 1997, and
is a remake of the first “Judge Dredd” film produced, and is set in the future,
where the police have been renamed to judges, and can now give people charges
for their crimes, and even execute them without the need of a jury, hence the
name Judge Dredd. Dredd is one of the best Judges they have on the team, and they
send him out in order to take care of one of the biggest gangs in the area,
responsible for the drug called “Slow-Mo” and the killing of hundreds of
innocent civilians. Dredd and his client, who’s a mind reading mutant in
training, are required to take out the gang leader, for committing a numerous
amount of crimes.
The director of this film was Pete Travis, who’s also
directed films such as Vantage Point and Legacy.
Lionsgate, IM Global, and DNA Films were the studios
involved in the production of the film, and IM Globan and Lionsgate had a three
picture deal, The Company also had to maintain a very close relationship with
FOX. DNA Films funding was split in half with FOX. They had a budget of $45
million, and made only $41 million back. And actually only recently did it
manage to make a profit through DVD Sales.
Dredd failed at the box office for a variety of reasons.
Firstly, they only released the film in 3D, which meant that not all cinemas
could see it, or at least, it was very limited, and also that some people could
not physically go and see it. Second, the age limit was 18 and over, which
meant that younger viewers from 12-17 could not go and see the movie. Which
then causes the producers to lose money as A LOT of 12-17 year olds would want
to go and see this movie with their friends. Thirdly,
Carl Urban was starred in the film, and interestingly, he
announced his role at Comic-Con back in 2010, he did this as there is a lot of “Geeks”
who attend Comic –Con, many of which are big fans of films, and so it would
only make sense if he were to announce his role here.
Production
Most of the film was shot on location in Cape Town and
Johannesburg, and some of it done in their studio, in order to add some of the
CGI, which was stuff like set extensions, and the building, which is cheaper to
do than to build an entire building of course. It was filmed in 3D using 3D
cameras, which they actually had to make new cameras rigs for, in order to
produce close up shots. And they also used a Phantom Flex slow-motion camera
for the super slow motion.
Post Production
This film relies on a lot of special effects, some of them
being physical effects like blood pouring out when someone got shot, and others
are entirely CGI when someone’s head gets blown to pieces. It used a lot of 3D
compositing for the shots of the building, from everything from the mountains,
all the way down to the little plants on the floor, as well as using it for
massive holes in the building (when the gun shot through it) and much more, 3D
compositing is one of the main and most flexible ways of achieving almost any
special effect in films. If you wanted to blow up a car for example without
buying a car, take a shot of a street with no car, find a model of a car, and
simulate some car explosions and render it out and composite it on top! It’s
easier said than done, but that’s the super basics of VFX… Was 3D added after filming?
Well in terms of viewing it in 3D, no, in order to shoot 3D you basically need
2 cameras (For each eye) and then when you blur the certain colours together
and project them on a 3D projector, your brain only reads the very certain colours
on screen and tricks it into thinking it’s 3D. It’s basically like the old 3D
red and cyan glasses, but way more technical. And in terms of 3D as in 3D
effects, yes, all of that was added after filming. And finally, it was all
premiered at the Odeon in London, cathedral square!
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