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The costs of "Ultimatum"

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 07, 2007 at 09:02 AM

The ad slogan for The Bourne Ultimatum (Universal, 8.3) is "this summer Jason Bourne comes home." But if the Universal marketing guys were to dream up a slogan that honestly characterizes the financial realities behind the making of the third Bourne flick, it might read "the more money an action franchise earns, the more money the next installment will cost. Just ask Jason Bourne."


That's a fairly dull slogan so let's stop cute-ing around and get down to brass tacks. I was told last night that The Bourne Ultimatum, which is locking its final release print over the holiday, has cost more than the first two Bourne films combined, or $175 million. (The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy both cost $75 million each to shoot, per IMDB and Wikipedia.) The Universal position is that Ultimatum cost $130 million. Big gap there.

I really and truly don't give a toss how much The Bourne Ultimatum cost. All big-studio movies seem to end up costing a fat pile, and it's hard to sustain an interest in such things when everything is $100 million this and $200 million that. I just want the film to be good, and a slightly prejudiced friend of Ultimatum tells me it's "flat-out great, and that's what should matter most of all.

"One of the things that distinguishes the Bourne films is that authentic, you-are- there, on-the-ground subjective shooting style -- that near-verite trademark feel," he says. "The production visited Morocco, Paris, London, Spain, Berlin and New York, but the Bourne series is not one of those metastasizing, ever-inflating behemoths like some other franchises. [Director Paul] Greengrass has become an even more accomplished director since the last go-'round and his virtuosity is one of the things that is a hallmark for Ultimatum."

Okay, but I don't want to experience the same heebie-jeebie, super-shaky handheld photography and spazzy machine-gun cutting that was used in two or three of The Bourne Supremacy's action sequences. Some moviegoers went with it, and some (including myself) found it infuriating. I was saying to myself, "Stop whipping the camera around and cutting everything so fast...it's too much work to follow what's going on!"


Where were we? Oh, yeah, the higher costs. I'm told that the engorged Ultimatum tab is due to an alleged 35 days of extra shooting above and beyond the original principal photography schedule. (The Bourne Ultimatum began shooting on 10.2.06.) "They weren't happy with what they had so they kept going back in stages and adding or re-shooting this and that," is how it was conveyed to me by an off-the-lot source.

This sounds like a pretty good thing from an audience perspective. The more exacting and perfectionist Greengrass and producer Frank Marshall were, the better the final film is likely to be...right?

I tried to get my Universal insider to confirm or question the "extra 35 days of shooting" story, and he replied that "none of that can accurately be told. It's not a matter of '35 extra days' or the schedule starting on this day and going until that one. There were hiatus breaks built into the schedule as well, so it can't be said that it started here and shot till then. The hiatuses were built in to accommodate the unorthodox schedule."

All he would say beyond this is that "'additional' stuff was shot in all locations. The same was true of Supremacy and Identity."

Universal's Bourne Ultimatum website says Identity and Supremacy have earned over $500 million in global box office. Wikipedia says Supremacy did $288,500,217 worldwide and Identity did $213,925,107 million. Supremacy, in other words, made almost four times as much as it cost to shoot (i.e., $75 million), and Identity earned almost three times as much as it cost to shoot (i.e., ditto).

Boil it all down and the higher budget figures (be it the official $130 million or the alleged $175 million) suggest that Ultimatum can't be the breadwinner that the first two films were.


The Ultimatum friend argues that using a budget-gross ratio formula "loses steam when you consider the nature of franchise revenues and how this series has built considerably from first to second film and how those ancillary revenue streams -- everything from DVD to TV, etc -- are different for the third in a successful series."

I told him that I absolutely love that shot in the Ultimatum trailer of Damon jumping from one building to another in Tangier with the camera jumping right along with him. "A very cool CG shot," I said. But it's not that, I was told. "The cameraman actually followed the jump and caught that as a practical," the Universal guys says.

With a crane, I presume he meant. The shot is so smooth and flotating it's hard to believe it's not a digital creation. I've watched it five or six times this morning. The guy just wrote back and said "not a crane -- the cameraman made the jump himself off the roof!" To which I replied, "Oh, come on...!!"

Comments

Jeff,

There's no digital assist in that shot. The AMC pre-show videos featured a making of "Bourne" and they actually show the clip of the stunt man jumping through the window with the camera rigged to an operator, who was harnessed to a bungee, following right behind.

"Bourne in the U.S.A."

Wells to Burma Shave: That's an excellent copy line...really good. But with the film having shot in Morocco, Paris, London, Spain, Berlin AND New York, it sound as if it's the same old globe-hopping Bourne with a third-act finale in NYC...or something like that.

[ Wells to Burma Shave: That's an excellent copy line...really good. But with the film having shot in Morocco, Paris, London, Spain, Berlin AND New York, it sound as if it's the same old globe-hopping Bourne with a third-act finale in NYC...or something like that. ]

"Bourne to Run."

Wells to RP: That's even better. In fact it's damn near perfect in its Zen simplicity. Universal marketing guys, are you reading this?

I suppose it's too late to suggest "Bourne Again" as a tagline for Supremacy...

Bourne To Die?

Ooooooh.

Eh.

Bourne to be alive..

You Bourne me.. as in i walked out after 5mns..im joking of course..

Personally, I'm Boured of reading all these silly puns.

The big surprise isn't how "Ultimatum" cost so much, its the "Supremacy" didn't cost more.

Some reasons for this rise could be an increase in everyone's salary and the number of countries this one was shot in. Not that there is anything wrong with that, this is a successful franchise and supposedly the last movie, so they should make as much as they can from it.

Or, as the CASINO ROYALE producers might put it, "Bourne Yesterday"

"Re-Bourne."

Bourne Than Meets The Eye.

"Bourne in East LA."

I'll be looking for any additional "Nixa, Missouri"
moments since that town is just a few miles
from where I live in Springfield, Mo. I've heard
local comments that the film production asked
about locations, but nothing official was ever
released about the movie filming here.

Patrick...Joplin resident here. Yeah, I thoguht I was cool to hear Nixa mentioned and I thoguht a great ending to this whole thing would beto Have Bourne show up on his parents' doorstep, bloody and tired, but home at last.

Great article, Jeff. I think, however, that Ultimatum will make more then the previous installments, especially if it's as good as some people are suggesting. Word of mouth and the fact that it doesn't face tough competition will, I believe, garner huge box office money. People are tired of all the crap that's been released so far, they're looking for something real and, well, good. Matt Damon is also an even bigger star since The Departed and to a lesser extent, The Good Shepherd. Also, I didn't mind Greengrass' camera work in Supremacy, the car chase at the end not only established geography, but to this day, remains as the best car chase ever in cinema.

"Bourne To Be Wild."

"Bourne on the Fourth of . . . August."

...or one for the pro-life crowd:

"Protect the Unbourne"

A huge reason I loved the first one so much was it's apparent lack of CGI. Give me practicals, baby. Love me them stunts.

"What's for dinner?"

"Bourneish hens."

Okay, that was terrible. Nevermind.

Considering the talent involved and track record of the franchise, this is money well spent. Both Identity and Supremacy have aged well and held up to repeated viewings -- these are right alongside Heat and Last of the Mohicans in my shelf of action DVD's worth owning and watching once or twice a year.

Yet somehow, I doubt it's gonna make blockbuster money in the theaters. I've expressed my fanatical love for this franchise repeatedly in the past on this board, but I know many people, some smart, who just don't "get" this franchise like I expect all to. It'll do very respectable numbers based on solid reviews and good word of mouth, but I really think DVD and cable is where this movie is ultimately going to get most of its eyeballs.

And yes, the lack of obvious CGI is a HUGE reason why I love this movie. Greengrass is no dummy, so I'm sure there was CGI stuff in Bourne Supremacy and that there will be in Ultimatium, but you certainly don't feel it when watching.

Dare I propose "Bourne Stupid"?

It's well and good to spend millions trotting all over the world, but when you consider that at least 1/3 of this film will comprise Joan Allen (or some other official type) pacing around a room where everyone's staring at his computer, I guess they need to show us SOMETHING for our money.

Why hasn't anyone mentioned the completely repetitious feel of the "Ultimatum" preview? I expect something great and think I will be served, but Universal would be wise to cut something new because the preview they're playing right now makes everything feel been-there-done-that. It looks as if the crew just got back together and shot the same movie again, beat for beat. Universal needs to kick it up a notch and show us what's new here. And watching Damon kick people's ass in NY instead of Europe does not constitute new.

The slogan isn't good, because it sounds like they're releasing a Bourne movie on DVD. Still very much looking forward to this, though...

Agreed. Definetly shades of "Bring home Bourne today! Along with these other hits from Universal Pictures!"

And if it bombs....

"Still-bourne"


"Bourne Free or Die Hard"

Wait a minute....

Has anybody done a truly in-depth piece on why the hell movies cost so much these days? I remember Premiere doing a huge story on Rambo III in 1988, calling it "the most expensive movie of all time." And, if memory serves, the budget for that was around $65 mill. Inflation certainly isn't the only reason, so what is? Unions?

I would guess it's all about technology - specifically CGI, which I think is just insanely expensive.

I wish I knew where I read it, but a few years back someone was explaining the runaway costs in movies of this type was really a case of one-upmanship. Each year someone pulls a "wow' on the spectacle scale and the competition take it upon themselves to outdo them, hence the rising costs. Factor in salaries, the piles of producers and exec producers getting their piece, and it's not hard to see where the money goes. Target audiences are demanding more bang on screen to pull them away from the X-Boxes and Playstations, so the spectacle has to be high.

Now the other question is: how much of the money spent has been worth it? Roger Corman is on record of justifying the budgets on TITANIC and APOLLO 13 (helmed by famous Corman alumni) because "it's all on the screen." Now when a flick like TOWN AND COUNRTY clocks in at a reported $90 million, you can't exactly say it was well spent.

so much under the table cash, inflated prices for goods and services that gets kicked back to the studio, a friend of mine works for a caterer she says the studio has them down for 12% more than what they are actually recieving.. bidness is bidness....

Even if Town and Country had been a $200 million hit, that budget still couldn't have been justified. In 1988, that movie would have cost $15 million tops, and I just don't see where the difference in cost comes from. Even the "runaway" budget of Ishtar topped out at a then-unheard of $40 million. Now that seems to be below-average.

Hell, I just watched Black Snake Moan, and I can't figure out how it took $15 million to make it.

What is Sam Jackson pulling down these days? Do they still pay him in crack?

face it, when studios claim their global hits are still in the red, there's a shitload of skimming and scheming.

and it's funny how cgi was supposed to save time and money...

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Last updated: October 3, 2007

                                       Obviously I'm light in several categories. 

                                      Suggestions and disputations are welcome.

 

BEST PICTUREAustralia (20th Century Fox), The Argentine (Focus Features), Guerilla (Focus Features), Milk (Focus Features), Seven Pounds (Sony), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount/Warner Bros.), The Soloist (DreamWorks),  Body of Lies (Warner Bros.), Revolutionary Road (Paramount Vantage/DreamWorks), The Changeling (Universal Pictures),  Frost/Nixon (Universal), Doubt (Miramax), Blindness (Universal Pictures), Defiance (Paramount Vantage), The Duchess (Paramount Vantage), Valkyrie (MGM-UA), The Reader (Weinstein Co.)

BEST DIRECTOR: Fernando Meirelles (Blindness), David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon), Brian Singer (Valkyrie), Baz Luhrmann (Australia), Steven Soderbergh (The Argentine and Guerilla), Gus Van Sant (Milk), Gabriele Muccino (Seven Pounds), Joe Wright (The Soloist), Ridley Scott (Body of Lies), Sam Mendes (Revolutionary Road), Clint Eastwood (Changeling), John Patrick Shanley (Doubt), Edward Zwick (Defiance), Saul Dibb (The Duchess), Stephen Daldry (The Reader)

BEST ACTOR: Leonardo DiCaprio (Revolutionary Road), Brad Pitt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Ralph Fiennes (The Duchess), Hugh Jackman (Australia), Tom Cruise (Valkyrie), Harrison Ford (Crossing Over), Sean Penn (Milk), James Franco (Pineapple Express), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Synecdoche, New York), Heath Ledger (Dark Knight), Will Smith (Seven Pounds), Jamie Foxx (The Soloist)

BEST ACTRESS: Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road), Angelina Jolie (Changeling), Keira Knightley (The Duchess), Nicole Kidman (Australia)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Leiv Schreiber (Defiance), Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon), John Malkovich (Changeling and Burn After Reading), Bill Nighy (Valkyrie), Robert Downey Jr. (The Soloist), Robert Downey Jr. (Tropic thunder), James Franco (The Pineapple Express), Alan Alda (Nothing But the Truth)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Meryl Streep (Doubt), Amy Adams (Doubt), Vera Farmiga (Nothing But the Truth)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who (20th Century Fox)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Charlie Kaufman (Synecdoche, New York)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Peter Straughan (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People)

SPECIAL EFFECTSIron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

 






Discland
edited by Jonathan Doyle
Cloverfield [BLU-RAY] (Paramount Home Entertainment, 6.3.2008) Disguised under deliberately goofy, yet deliciously edible-sounding, aliases such as Cheese and Slusho, Matt Reeves' Cloverfield was produced and rushed into theaters under an equally appetizing shroud of secrecy. From last year's incredibly elusive Super Bowl ad to the film's viral marketing campaign, Cloverfield had everybody scratching their heads and drooling in anticipation. Aside from the as-yet untitled title and the Blair Witch-ian visual style, the film's biggest appeal was the enigmatic creature who was last (un)seen hurling the decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty onto the crowded streets of New York City. All we knew about the mysterious beast was that it was big and angry. Now that the highy-anticipated project has come and gone, one question has fortunately been answered: Cloverfield was a major success. (continued)


American Express






Inside Elsewhere...

The Barenaked Critic

Michelle discovers a couple of comedy films thanks to the power of Netflix.

The Silver Spotlight

Adam joins the Elsewhere crew from the Windy City and hits the ground running this week.

Upcoming


July 2

Hancock

July 3

The Whackness

July 4

Diminished Capacity

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson

Holding Trevor

Kabluey

We are Together

July 9

Full Battle Rattle

July 11

A Man Named Pearl

August

Eight Miles High

Garden Party

Harold

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Meet Dave

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired

The Stone Angel

July 18

A Very British Gangster

Before I Forget

The Dark Knight

The Doorman

Felon

Lou Reed's Berlin

Mad Detective

Mamma Mia!

Space Chimps

Take

Transsiberian

July 22

Two Tickets to Paradise

July 23

Boy A