Summit and Twilight: Was a Bigger Budget Needed?
Sep 29th, 2008 | By Krystal | Category: Featured Articles, Movie News
Film.com has an article about Twilight’s $37 million film budget and whether or not that will be enough to draw in new fans.
“Twilight‘s production budget was a paltry $37 million dollars. Is that enough to launch the film franchise of the most beloved book series since Harry Potter? Especially if the studio behind it, Summit Entertainment, wants to convert audiences who have never read Meyer’s books? The Potter series dished out $125 million for its big-screen debut.”
I don’t think Twilight needs a bigger budget.
Having a small budget forces the cast/crew to be creative, ergo a better quality film.
I hope it’ll still be good…
(I’m not being pessimistice here, they did a wonderful job on casting and I HEARD that the special effects were supposed to be really good)
I think it will be fine and there will be so many that go to the movie that it will make so much money so that the sequels can be buffed up even more with money.
Guess what? Big budget films don’t always translate to box office hits….
i think they will do great either way. there is no reason to worry, because even if it is bad alot of people will go see it.
i don’t think they need to worry about it. there’s such a big fanbase already, and the hype it’s getting will make people curious
The thing is between Harry Potter and Twilight, HP uses a lot of special effects equipment and shoots on a set where Twilight is mostly on location (except for a few parts…) and they don’t use a lot of special effects for the viewing of the movie. That is my theory that I just came up with when I clicked on the link that went to the HP SS page (like IMbd…it really wasn’t that but…you get the picture).
And is it me or is the Euro less or more than the US Dollar? I’m not so sure….
Katelyn
Juno had no like no money at al and it won tons of awards
LONG LIVE TWILIGHT!!!!!!! BEST MOVIE EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it isn’t necessary for a bigger budget, cuz twilight is an international bestseller book and the movie would be the same, and there is alot of fans out there anyway….
Ya but the fan base is bigger and better and we have our own merchandise and some of it is better than theirs, so they prob. need to take that in to account…
i think that theyll do ok but im pissed of that the vamps wont sparkle in the movie 🙁
cant wait till the movie anyway!!!!
Truth to be told i have mixed feelings about that article. Part of me wanted to argue while another part of me was nodding with the arthor.
First off, i agree with some people saying that twilight doesn’t need a big budget considering the massive fanbase it already has. besides, what really draws people to the books, imho, is not the special effects or the action sequences (although they’re pretty cool too), but rather the intriguing characters, the mysterious and emotionally intense feel in the pages, and most importantly, the heart-gripping love story between bella and edward. So i really don’t think a blockbuster-scale budget is really necessary if they have the best screenplay, crew and cast (we’ll have to see the film to decide if this is the case). also i think many non-fans and so-called critics judge the film too entirely on the teaser trailers. those were made to give the audience a sneak peek, so of course they wouldn’t reveal the real goods (and what’s the fun of doing that?). So it’s not fair to say the movie will be of poor quality simply by looking at the teaser trailers. Another thing I might add is that if they had gotten a huge budget, Robert and Kristen, the perfect cast imo, might not even have been cast in the first place since the studio would’ve certainly wanted bigger names. Plus the movie probably wouldn’t have been true to the book either, becuz the movie studio would’ve wanted more control over the production since they’d already paid the big bucks (e.g. originally the bigger studio Paramount was interested in adopting the book into a movie, but they wished to change the book into something entirely different. As a result, stephenie of course turned them down in the end, and thnak god for that! Can you imagine how the movie would’ve turned out if she had compromised? *shudders*)
Regardless, i do think the author of that article made some very good points though. As a twilight fan, i wouldn’t want the film to turn out looking like a second-rate movie or tv movie (hope the full trailer won’t disappoint). I really want everything to be as good as possible for the movie, but sometimes that means a bigger budget is requisite. Although big budget movies don’t always equal successful movies or box office hits (just look at the infamous Godzilla, 10000 B.C and other countless big budget flops), it will still help make the movie look visually better to a certain degree, and isn’t that what we go to movies for, the visuals? So I do wish they had gotten a bigger budget and used that money NOT on casting different actors (the current cast is already perfect as it is), but on the overal production such as better equipments, sets, special effects, makeup, costume, etc. (although so far those things look fine by me, there’s always room for improvement.) And not that i care about the box office or what other people might think, I just want the movie to be really good and hopefull live up to my expectations or even exceed them, and if more money will do the magic, then why not? i don’t know why Summit issued Twilight such a low budget in the first place. Seriously, what were they worried about? the film will definitely bring them big box office revenue no matter what, even if there’s the possibility that it might not turn out as good as people expected, which i doubt. I just wish they had more faith in the film as we do. Twilight deserves a bigger budget for sure!
PS. sorry for being lengthy. i normally wouldn’t post a comment this long and this could almost stand as an article on its own. I just had a lot of thoughts on the source article and the budget issue of twilight, and i just had to get it out of my system. :p
i love that comment above me. and juno can not compare to twilight because juno was not previously a 400 page book., that is why the film was so choppy.
I think the budget should have been much bigger. to the other readers of the novel i think that they ruined the story. the running was shotty the effects weren’t very good in general. the story was choppy and too fast no time to relate to the characters they cut out important factors… like the story of carlisle… and jaspers powers… and the way bella got away from alice and jasper at the hotel i mean come on? the ending was wrong. it was just very dissappointing overall.
I have to agree with Caitlin (comment above me). I am a twilight saga fan. Although admittedly, I am not “hardcore”, nor am I the target 14-16 year old audience this series is directed at. I went into the movie not expecting too much as I did not want to be overly disappointed at the end. I wasn’t overly disappointed, but I wasn’t enthralled as I had been after reading the actual Twilight book. The movie felt like a series of shots put together with no real transition. An example, Bella wants to go to Port Angeles with Jessica and Angela to go dress shopping. So you see them at school, next second, they are in a dress shop. It is the same pretty much throughout the movie. Then there is the whole romance between Edward and Bella. In the book, you had time to fall in love with the story of their romance, however, in the movie, you did not. They cut out a lot of the little things that made you love their story in the book. The special effects were down right cheesy at times, and I understand that this wasn’t a big special effects movie, but come on. I also feel that there were some questionable cast choices to me, but that’s a whole other comment in itself. Overall, I think Twilight should have received a budget that reflected its popularity as Harry Potter received. With that being said, none of this will affect the utter success of the film. I just hope that they give New Moon a bigger and better budget and do the book a little more justice it deserves. (P.S. The director better do a better job in New Moon)
i agree with the last two comments,, whenever i went into the movie i was all excited im a big fan and i was hopeing to fall in love with the movie,, it wasnt bad but it wasnt great either. i mean come on, you could totally tell that edward had contacts on. it all happened so fast,. to many parts were not include in the movie. i think the best scene was when they were playing baseball. the battle scence was all to fast, another thing was the romance!, i didnt feel that at all! i mean people that havent read the books could think that they were just friends. i was dissappointed. it was all good at the begin and it was going at a pretty good pace but when it came to the ending part it seemed like they wanted to get over with it. i mean the hotel part wasnt even much like the book. i was expecting more excitment but that never happened. the hospital and prom pretty much suked. but what can i say im still a big fan. i just hope that new moon has a better budget. and i hope they take there time and make it more like the book, so we can feel all the emotions.
I agree with the comments above me. I think Twilight does need a couple more mill to just improve in some areas. Yes, there might not be a lot of special effects needed, but the ones that are lets make them look a little more real (as real as a sparkling vampire can) I am definately a twi-hard. I was dissapointed in the movie because there was no flow. As everyone has stated before it was completely choppy. Bella googles cold ones and we see words like “undead and cold skinned” the next scene shes glaring at edward and climbing up a hill to tell him I know what you are. Again, random hill and no thinking at all. Another thing they need to change is the added scenes. Just stick to the story. Give people more of a relationship between Edward and the Cullens and Edward and Bella. Way too much focus on James and his clan. By the way, Bella and Edward never said I love you..it was assumed that we knew.