WHY DID DREDD FAIL AT THE BOX OFFICE?Dredd (2012) is a British-South African film, released in 2012. The British collaborated with the South-African studio. The film was directed by Pete Travis and produced by Alex Garland. Dredd (2012) was shot in South Africa, Johannesburg and Cape Town. The movie is a sci-fi, action drama and has duration of 95 minutes. The film had a budget of $45 million, due to the small budget American companies refused to contribute to the funding of the film, as they didn’t see a potential future and thought that it was going to instantaneously fail.

The original movie was a film adaptation from the ‘Judge Dredd’ Comic Book and Graphic Novel (1977). Judge Dredd was released on 30th June 1995 and starred Sylvester Stallone, Diane Lane, Rob Schneider, Armand Assante and Max von Sydow, the movie contained an A List Star actor. The movie was set in 2129 and based in New York, USA. The main plot included a futuristic policeman protecting the over populated Mega City. Sylvester Stallone being the A List Star constantly took his helmet off as a way to promote the movie and himself, however his character (Judge Dredd) had to keep the helmet on. Due to this the movie failed as it wasn’t faithful to the 2000AD Comic Book. Director, Danny Cannon embedded a numerous amount of political puns, restricting it from being a serious, violent action themed movie; which led to the lack of views. This received bad critical reception as review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 18% and stated that it was “ both a legitimate violent action flick and a parody of one, but director Danny Cannon fails to find the necessary balance to make it work”. The Film also failed as it was unknown in status as the Graphic Novel (1977) was only released in the UK, meaning when it was released in America people were unaware of what and who ‘Judge Dredd’ was, so they had no interest in wanting to go and watch it. The money was mainly focused on the props and costumes in the movie leaving very little for effects; this led to Judge Dredd (1995) receiving bad critical reception as there wasn’t visual balance between the props, costume and setting.

Due to the fail of Judge Dredd (1995), director Pete Travis re-made the movie in 2012, with a similar storyline where a futuristic policeman protects the over populated, dystopian Mega City One from the antagonist Ma-Ma in 2129. Pete Travis evaluated the reasons as to why Judge Dredd (1995) failed and made improvements based on that. The first thing he did was he got Karl Urban (Judge Dredd) to keep his helmet on throughout the course of the movie, to make the movie about Judge Dredd instead of Karl Urban. No political puns were made as Travis wanted this re-make to be less comedic. Dredd was released on 7th September in the UK, then on 21st September 2012 worldwide. As it was released as an exclusive and limited run, Dredd (2012) lost out on a huge amount of income as not every cinema was screening this movie. Dredd (2012) was distributed by Entertainment Film Distributors, an independent UK film distributors and Lionsgate, a North American entertainment company. In the first week, the movie grossed £1.05 million making it the most viewed over 18 since Saw 3D in 2010. In the second week it was placed at number five, earning £769, 381, making half of the profit than it did in the first week. On 8th January 2013, Dredd (2012) was released on DVD, Blu Ray and Digital Download in North America and 14th January in the UK. It earned a total of £6.9 million in the UK and $36.5 million was made at Box Office, which is very little compared to Iron Man which made over $585 million at Box Office. In order for a film to be classified as a Blockbuster, the movie’s Box Office would have to make at least three times more than its budget, which Dredd (2012), failed to do. As Dredd (2012) was released in 3D, the 2D screenings were hugely limited receiving bad critical reception. This meant that they lost out on money, due to the lack of income because a large percentage of the viewers don’t enjoy 3D as it may give them headaches or eye strain. For a film to be successful they have to follow the Quadrant, this is the age groups in which who will go and see the movie. Many people think that Dredd failed at the box office because it was certificated as 18, only appealing to one of the quadrants meaning that it will only make ¼ of PG/PG 13’s such as Marvel Comic, Iron Man (2008). As Dredd (2012) is a cult film, this didn’t appeal to the female viewers as the movie mainly action and contained a lot of violent.

An example of a Blockbuster Movie that didn’t fail at Box Office is Iron Man (2008). Iron Man is a Marvel Comic Book superhero which is based on Tony Stark (an industrialist and master engineer) who builds a powered exoskeleton and becomes the technologically advanced superhero Iron Man. There are many reasons as to why Iron Man (2008) did so well at Box Office. Many people believe that it had promotion prior to the movie. TV Series, Iron Man: The Animated Series was aired from 1994 to 1996 in ‘’syndication as part of The Marvel Action Hour’’, which packaged Iron Man with another animated series based on Marvel properties, the Fantastic Four, with one half-hour episode from each series airing back-to-back. The show was backed by a toy line that featured many armor variants. This gave the Superhero extreme publicity as both children and adults were watching the TV Series. With each generation came a new Iron Man movie, meaning that each generation would have seen or heard of the Superhero Iron Man or the Marvel Comic.

When the movie was released on 2nd May 2008, as a Universal Release in 2D, people from all over the globe would have some knowledge of who Iron Man was and would want to go see the movie. Paramount Pictures (one of the Big Six production companies) distributed Iron Man (2008), enabling them to produce the best way in marketing the movie. The fact that it was 2D attracted people to their local cinema’s increasing the amount of income made for the film. Iron Man (2008) received critical acclaim as it was identified as the ‘’the best reviewed film of the year’’. Within the first week of release the film reached #1 in box office, as it grossed $98,618,668 in 4,105 theaters in the United States and Canada. In its second weekend, Iron Man held a grossing of $51.1 million, giving it the twelfth-best second weekend and the fifth-best for a non-sequel. By July 2009, Iron Man grossed $585,174,222 worldwide, $318,412,101 in the U.S. and Canada and $266,762,121 in other territories. Already, within the first week Iron Man made 128x more than what Dredd did. It was released as a 12A, which enabled children all of ages to watch it; this fit to ALL of the Quadrants instantly securing a bigger Box Office as families, friends, children and adults could go and see this movie. Romance and Action are the two most obvious genres within Iron Man (2008), which appealed to both genders. Females would want to go and watch the movie for the romance between Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Patrow) where as Men, would want to see it for the action between the hero and the villain. On 30th September 2008, Iron Man was released on DVD and Blu Ray in North America and 27th October 2008 in Europe. In the first week 4 million copies were sold, generating a gross of over $93 million USD. Just comparing the amount Iron Man (2008) had generated to Dredd (2012), it is evident that Dredd (2012) made a lot of mistakes. The budget for Iron Man (2008) was $148 million, for box office it made over $585 million, meaning that they generated a gross of over 5x more; enabling the movie to be classified as a ‘Blockbuster’.

Dredd was filmed with the RED MX, S12K and Phantom Flex high speed cameras, coinciding with the slow-motion scenes used within the movie. Many of the scenes in 2D were converted to 3D for a better effect. The film makers experimented with Mega City One, trying to build an apocalyptic wasteland emerging from the remains of another. Primarily, they designed to city so that the buildings were densely packed together; then they decided to alter the city and create space between the buildings to emphasise the larger buildings and alert the presence of infrastructure. A reason as to why Dredd failed at the box office was that the film makers in Post Production process, created the city to still consist some of the original aspects of ‘Judge Dredd’ Comic Book which meant that it had to look fake. Some viewers didn’t appeal to this as they may have thought that Dredd (2012) didn’t necessarily have the money to make a hi-tech film. The film makers wanted to create a city set in the future, so they made it to appear like a corrupt wasteland. For the Marketing process, Dredd launched a viral advertising website, put up posters of Judge Dredd (Karl Urban), a follow up comic strip on Ma-Ma was made and press conferences occurred; all of which to promote the movie.

Iron Man (2008) was filmed with a Canon 5D, which allows the movie to be viewed in 2D. During the Production process director Favreau used the Hughes Company in Playa Vista, LA, California because they shoot many superhero movies there. Due to $140 million budget, this enabled the director to hire a professional stunt man, to make the movie more realistic which is one of the many things Dredd lacked. The main effects were put into the suit, they hired Stan Winston’s company to build Iron Man’s suit to make it as believable and realistic as they could make it. Industrial Light & Magic was hired to create the bulk of the visual effects with additional work being completed by The Orphanage and The Embassy; Favreau trusted ILM after seeing Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Transformers. This made it look like all the money was on the screen, which followed the Four Blockbuster Rules by Mark Kumoda (a famous film critique). As you can see, there was a major difference between the attentions of the effects; Dredd (2012) focused more on the setting whereas Iron Man (2008) focused on the detail of the suit and visual effects. Both movies wanted to create a realistic movie by enhancing their effects. For Marketing, Iron Man (2008) released merchandise (action figures, video games etc.) globally, releasing a video game based on the film (so that the fans could get a taster of what the movie would be like and slowly get them liking it). Also worldwide companies such as Burger King and Audi promoted the movie, encourage children to go and watch the movie as toys were included in Burger King Meals as a way to appeal to them.

Although there were many improvements that were made in the Dredd (2012), such as Karl Urban (Judge Dredd) keeps his helmet on, centring the movie on Judge Dredd rather than Karl Urban. Another thing that was improved was the extraction of the political puns meaning that the movie could be taken more seriously. The technology has improved immensely over the past eighteen years, enabling the director to produce more high quality effects. One of the significant reasons as to why Dredd failed at the box office is that everyone saw Dredd (2012) was just made to compete with what Americans do best; create Superhero movies. As Superhero movies are (and have always been) everywhere, the use of CGI would be increased meaning there would be

heavy competition in making the best Superhero movie. Another vital reason why Dredd failed at the box office was because the movie wasn’t ‘British’. The movie had to consist of a British producer, director, setting and cast. A large proportion of the main casts weren’t British, but mainly American. This was to appeal to the American audience to encourage them to watch the movie. The British Film Industry are widely popular for their British Monarchy movies such as This meant that the audience weren’t interested as they just felt that we were competing with America. Furthermore, British films tend to be about the British Monarchy or certain eras within British History, this would appeal more internationally as people would be interested as Britain is famous for the royal family.

As Iron Man (2008) was created by Marvel Comics, which have brought about many famous superheroes; this made it internationally known. Also, as there were many Iron Man (2008) films created in the past, each generation of children are being bought up with these specific superheroes meaning that more people would be aware. As the Comics were famous worldwide, people from all over the globe would be familiar with the superheroes and therefore would want to see the movie. Another way that people knew who/what Ironman was because there were TV Shows and Video Games made prior to the movie, giving it a lot more recognition. Iron man was distributed by Paramount Pictures, which are one of the six big production companies, this was an advantage as Paramount are particularly wealthy; so the way in which the movie was Marketed was far better than Dredd. The casting used with Iron Man (2008), consisted of famous actors such as Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Patrow, Terrence Howard etc. attracted the audience to go and watch the movie; as they recognise the actors in movies that may have appealed to them previously.

Producer Alex Garland and director Pete Travis announced that there would be a sequel for Dredd at the London Film and Comic Con in July 2012. The sequel would focus on the origins of Dredd and Mega City One. The two also wanted there too be a trilogy, in which they would introduce Dredd’s nemesis. However, in 2013 it was said that this would be unlikely this cause the Dredd fans on Facebook launched a petition calling for a sequel. In July 2013, 2000 AD permitted the fan petition, supporting the campaign by printing advertisements in their publications, and by September 2013, it had attracted over 80,000 signatures. In April 2013, 2000 AD released an image teasing a continuation of the film in comic book form with a release date scheduled for September 2013 Titled Dredd: Underbelly, the comic began serial publication in Judge Dredd Megazine #340, dated 18 September, 2013. For future purposes, to prevent any more movies failing at the box office, the British Film Industry should collaborate with the American Companies providing them with the money to enable Britain’s to make hi -tech and high quality films similar to America. The strategy in which they release and market the movie should be different, as they should make the whole globe aware of the one particular character and what his/her purpose is; only then would everyone be familiar with who they were as Dredd (both movies) was unknown in status. In addition, they should incorporate all of the genres within the movie like Iron Man (2008), as then it would appeal to everyone. Similarly the age rating on the film shouldn’t be as high as then they’d be losing out on a huge amount of income. In addition, the movie should be available in different screens (2D, 3D, Imax etc.) so that the audience have a variety when going to the cinema. Finally, when being released it should be a Universal Release (Like Iron Man), so that everywhere has the opportunity to view the film.

Overall, the main reasons as to why Dredd failed at the Box Office was that it had a certification of age 18, meaning it’s audience was already limited before it hit the cinema; declining in the amount of income made. It only had one type of genre, mainly action and contained a lot of violence. This also restricted the audience, narrowing it down to over 18 males. The process in which the movie was marketed, the superhero itself wasn’t as publicised as Iron Man was meaning that when it was released nobody knew who Judge Dredd was. As it was released in 3D, it didn’t appeal to people as they don’t enjoy seeing movies in 3D. Dredd has the potential to be a good movie, however these certain aspects restricted this from happening.

Comic Book was only released in the UK, meaning that it was unknown in status, so no one knew who Judge Dredd was when it came out in the cinemas.