Big winners and losers in the film biz

FISHER.Topbilled hugely profitable “Star Wars” film series.

Marking movies can be such an expensive proposition that producers do everything they can to make sure that their new films delight viewers and end up making loads of money. Despite their best efforts at cinematic prestidigitation, however, expensive flops litter the Hollywood landscape. It’s really just an all-or-nothing, make-or-break crapshoot, after all!

The most profitable movie series ever? Other producers and film financiers hope and pray that they can match the feat of the James Bond films, which since 1962 have grossed more than $3 billion—and counting!

Also much to be envied is the total box-office showing of the “Harry Potter” film franchise. When comes such another?

Prosperous

As for other prodigiously prosperous series like “Star Wars” and “The Lord of the Rings,” their storytelling proper may already have been wrapped up, but their makers simply can’t bear to pass on all those additional millions to be made, so they’ve come up with all sorts of “prequels,” “postquels” —etc.!

Filmmaking has become hugely expensive, with some big productions costing more than $200 million to bankroll. Alas, some of those brash biggies fail to earn back their huge investment, getting their financiers really ticked off—especially when they hear about the most profitable production ever, on a pro-rated basis:

In 1999, the scary movie, “The Blair Witch Project,” cost just $22,000 to produce—but ended up earning more than $240 million! The “sleeper” hit’s amazing outcome sent its young makers laughing all the way to the bank!

Unfortunately, such feats of cinematic financial prestidigitation are difficult to copy and repeat, so producers are forced to look for “insurance” to help assure their movies’ success at the tills. One proven safety net is to hire an actor with a great track record at the box office.

The short list in this regard is topped by Harrison Ford. He may no longer be a big star today, but producers keep reminding themselves that, all told, Ford’s starrers through the years have grossed over $4 billion!

You can’t pooh-pooh away “financial credentials” like those, so despite his now sagging jowls and craggy countenance fit for a giant Mount Rushmore sculpture, producers still sign Ford up with alacrity, hoping that cinematic lightning will strike again—and again!

Ford’s female counterpart is said to be Carrie Fisher, and it’s instructive to recall that both of them were in the hugely profitable “Star Wars” film series.

What about the biggest box-office loss? Producers don’t like talking about failures, but they do happen quite often, even to the best of them, in “accursed” productions like “Ishtar,” “The Mexican” and “Shangri-La.”

But, the biggest loser of them all is reported to be “Cutthroat Island,” which was very optimistically budgeted at a hefty $100 million-plus—but ended up earning back only $11 million. —Ouch, that really hurt!