Dredd Essay

Dredd failed at the box office because of many reasons. One of these reasons was that it was up against three massive comic book films that year. These were The Dark Knight Rises by DC, The Amazing Spiderman by Marvel and The Avengers Assemble by Marvel. All these films made a massive success. Dredd was rival to these films but could not compete as it didn’t have the massive budget like these films and it had no major stars. Another reason why it didn’t win compared with these films is that 2000AD is not a major comic book series unlike Marvel and DC.

Pete Travis (the director) did not help this film either because he is an inexperienced poor director. Travis has only made two real films before he made Dredd, these were Vantage Point which was a success and nearly doubled its profits then End Game which did very poorly only grossing nearly 10 000 at the box office. These two films are not well known so intern Pete Travis is not well known as well. Karl Urban (the main actor in this film) also thought that Pete Travis (the director) was not a very good actor so he turned to Alex Garland (a producer) for directing tips.

Dredd has many film types; these are action, crime and sci-fi. This is another reason why it flopped. Sci-fi is not liked by all audiences and fits into only a certain crowd. This film is also recognised as a cult film, this is because it tailors to the ‘comic-con’ crowd and tailors to the comic book lovers who have followed 2000AD since it began. The next reason why it flopped was that it was an 18 certificate. An 18 certificate is not usual for comic book films as comic book films usually have a certificate of 12a like The Avengers Assemble, The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spiderman; they make these films 12a so the films appeal to a wider.

Unlike The Avengers Assemble Dredd was not a four quadrant film. Dredd isn’t a four quadrant film as it does not appeal to women and doesn’t appeal to people under 25. A survey was completed which found out that 69% of viewers were over 25 and 75% of viewers were male.

Another reason why Dredd flopped was that it had no major a list stars. Even though Karl Urban is a great actor and has been in many films he is not well known and neither is his fellow actor Olivia Thirby. Olivia Thirby is a very inexperienced actor and has not made any big appearances in any films so she not well known either. Overall there were no main stars and people look for big name actors to figure out if the film will be good.

Dredd was produced by DNA films and IM global, these are not major production companies as they are not one of the big six. This means that they are not well recognised and people because people look for the big names in the film business. This film was distributed by Lionsgate and Alliance; these are more recognised than the production companies.

Dredd had a small budget of $35 000 000 which is nothing compared to the $200 000 000 budget of The Avengers Assemble. This small budget means that they had to stay relatively cheap. This led them to filming in Cape Town, South Africa as it is a cheap place to film. On its opening weekend Dredd only grossed $6 278 491 and grossed only $13 401 683 at the boxbox office making the film a failure. Dredd eventually will make a profit from DVD and Blu-ray sales but this will take a long time. One way which was used to speed up the chance of making a profit was when the makers of Dredd announced there would be a greater chance of a sequel if DVD sales went well, this prompted the lovers of this film to go out and purchase copies of the film.  

Filming of Dredd was mainly in Red Mysterium X camera, these cameras shoot 14 megapixels and are used for slow motion footage as they are capable of 120 frames per second at 5K and 300 frames per second at 3K. This camera is capable of 3D capture as well which is suitable for IMAX screening. There were other cameras used in the filming but the Red Mystrium X was used mostly. Anthony Dod Mantle was the cinematographer for this film, this was his first time shooting 3D so he is inexperienced with the cameras. Anthony was a risky move for the production team but he paid off as he managed to do well and possibly won Dredds Best 3D Empire Award. Filming for Dredd was mainly in Cape Town South Africa as it is a cheap place to film and they didn’t want to spend money building sets. Cape Town was chosen for this reason as well because it was noticed that there was a three-walled external space that looked like an interior when filmed at night.

Marketing of Dredd was poor and is the main reason why Dredd flopped. The marketing scheme started with the release of viral advertising site launched in August 2012. This site was called the ‘Dredd Report’ and this site featured a video condemning the use of slo-mo and links to news about the film. This website was not well constructed and was not as effective as the producers had hoped. The marketing scheme also included a comic book tie in; this was published on the 5^th of September only 16 days before the release of the film. The comic book was designed to be a prequel to the film and inform people how slo-mo was created and Ma-Ma’s life before Dredd. To add to the marketing scheme an exclusive film poster featuring artwork by Jock was released in September 2012 at the 2012 Fantastic Fest. All of this marketing was very close to the release of the film so it didn’t have time to make effect. Lionsgate contributed $25 million to the advertising and print costs. 

In the UK Dredd was shown on 415 screens and gained only $1.7 million on the opening weekend. This is nothing compared to the 2506 screens running Dredd in North America, on these 2506 $6.3 million was gained on the opening weekend. This is nothing compared to The Avengers Assemble as The Avengers Assemble was shown across 11 800 screens in North America alone.  Dredd was mainly shown in 3D as distributers denied the request for the 2D version of the film. This decision was a bad one as 2D is the preferred format as people don’t like 3D because of high ticket prices, bulky, uncomfortable glasses, dim pictures and literal headaches. Dredds run in North America ended on the 1^st of November after 42 days.

The final reasons for Dredds flop was that it was classed as not ‘British’ enough and because of developments in CGI superhero films are easy to make and therefore are everywhere.