Did you know that some world-famous movies have been screened at the box office and even won gold statuettes for not being released? And yet, movies like Star Wars, Rocky and the latest Joker were approved at the last minute.
A viewer has a lot of choices when it comes to movies, which is also true for movie studios, which choose which movies to give the “green light” to, usually based on their commercial viability. Some movies are “safe bets” for them, as they are guaranteed to win a positive reception, while others consider them more “dangerous” and often hesitate to release them or, in more extreme cases, are reluctant to do so.
The reason is usually that they raise a controversial issue, star in an actor they do not approve of, or simply feel afraid that some of these films will confirm their original concerns.
We have heard many times about movies that almost did not release for various reasons, and finally managed to become global hits. Below we present 6 movies that are about to be released.
Rocky
The Rocky movie series is one of the most legendary in movie history, however the first movie was considered a huge challenge. Studio United Artists – which was worried about its financial prospects – strongly opposed the production of the film and tried to sabotage it more than once.
According to producer Irwin Winkler, the problems started before filming even began, with the studio rejecting the basic premise: Sylvester Stallone taking on the lead role, which he created himself.
“It got a little complicated as United Artists, the studio we contracted with, came back and said, ‘Why would we want to pay for a movie starring an unknown guy named Sylvester Stallone who will play a boxer with a difficult life and has a love affair with an ugly girl? There is nothing here that appeals to us, and that’s not what we’re going to do with the film. ‘ liked this event.
Trying to break the deal, the studio offered Winkler $ 2 million to make the film – $ 500,000 more than agreed – so they can say that this film costs too much, and that they can not they do it. However, Winkler said he would make the film for $ 1 million, and United Artists reluctantly agreed.
Then one of the studio executives tried to buy the script from Stallone for $ 250,000. That way, they would have the script and can cancel the movie. Fortunately, Stallone turned down the offer, despite being an African at the time.
Things did not get any easier, as the studio imposed financial constraints on the creators, demanding that the film be shot in no more than 25 days and dropping the budget below $ 950,000. Eventually, fortunately for us, the film was vindicated, as it was a huge box office success and was nominated for a total of nine Oscars (eventually winning Best Picture, Best Director and Best Editing).
Cool
Psycho, which is one of the greatest thrillers of all time and continues to influence filmmakers even today, is almost never created.
Alfred Hitchcock had a contract with Paramount at the time, according to which his next film was to be shot with them. Except that the people in charge of the studio did not like the director’s idea for the film at all, and in fact described the book as “disgusting”. Hitchcock insisted so much that the studio accepted, on the condition that they would give him a much smaller budget to implement his idea.
Hitchcock, however, because he believed so much in his film, was forced to finance much of it himself, through the company of Shamley Productions. To reduce the cost of the film, he turned it into black and white and hired staff who had not participated in major productions.
Gravity
Alfonso Cuarρόνn’s Gravity was a huge box office success in 2013 and received 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress in a Leading Role for Bullock, winning the Academy Award for Best Director and six other statuettes. categories. What many do not know, however, is that the studio was reluctant to go ahead with the film, because they did not believe that such a film starring a woman would receive a warm welcome from the audience.
The plan was under development at Universal for years, but in the end the studio did not implement it. Warner Bros. bought the rights in February 2010. Warner Bros. expressed concern that Gravity would be a financial failure because it had a female protagonist. Her anxiety was somewhat alleviated by the fact that Angelina Jolie was willing to accept the leading role, but left because the studio refused to pay her $ 20 million.
Finally, the people of Warner Bros. calmed down when at Comic-Con 2013, just a few months before its release, the film was loved by the audience there and received great reviews.
Breakfast Club
Breakfast Club is one of the most popular movies of the 80’s, as it had a great response from the audience and critics, while all the actors who later played in other similar movies got the nickname “Brat Pack”. But before it became popular, Universal was pessimistic about the financial course and the reviews it was going to receive.
The reason was that at that time they thought that a teenage movie containing nudity would not sell. In addition, Universal executives felt that director John Hughes did not have much cinematic experience, as this would be his second film.
However, as the director said, The Breakfast Club became a huge success despite the fact that Universal tried to “bury” it.
Idiot and Panilithios
New Line Cinema had absolutely no faith in the Idiot and Panilithios of 1994, to the point that they actively tried to intervene in the casting for the film.
Since this was the Farrelly Brothers’ directorial debut (it took them years as no one undertook to release their film), they did not really have much influence in the industry and as a result New Line had the upper hand.
The studio wanted to shape the film into something that, in their eyes, was more likely to be a success, and so it started intervening in the casting. Steve Martin and Martin Short were one of the film studio’s choices, but they turned down the role of Lloyd. Eventually Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels took over the roles, despite New Line reactions. The film was a cinematic success, grossing $ 127,175,374 in the United States and $ 247,275,374 worldwide.
Star Wars
It may sound silly to doubt the George Lucas culture phenomenon now, but in the 1970s, Fox was deeply concerned about the commercial viability of the Star Wars series, and the studio executives were sure to fail.
The reason was that Star Wars was something new and could be considered a bit strange and silly by the public. One studio executive eventually convinced the others that the film would be a success. In a memo, Peter S. Myers – Vice President of Fox Home Distribution – assured board members that the audience would be “electrified” by the film and that Lucas had created something truly special. Even Lucas himself, fearing failure, was preparing to head to Hawaii when the film was released, to avoid any possible negative criticism.
The first film of the same name was finally released on May 25, 1977 and has since created a pop culture phenomenon, which has given birth to seven more films and an extensive list of books, comics, video games, TV series, games, figures and other products. constitute the Star Wars universe.
Joker
Although the Todd Phillips film was scanned at the box office and is now considered one of the 20 best films of the decade, Warner Bros. was so worried that the film would fail that it asked two other companies to co-finance the project – with in exchange for a share of the profits.
Prior to the film’s release, the New York Times reported that film studios Bron Studios and Village Roadshow had been asked to cut Warner Bros. ‘financial exposure – meaning the company did not want to bet on the Joker alone. ”.
“The company has taken measures to mitigate the risk. “Warner Bros. brought in two co-sponsors, reducing the studio’s exposure – and potential profits.” But why exactly did the studio worry so much? Well, it’s supposed that studio executives feared for the level of violence in the film, and worried that it could provoke negative criticism and some terrorist attacks in reality.
Fortunately, all these worries were unfounded and everyone saw a really great movie. As for the movie studios, they still have to believe what happened.
