ABSTRACT
Because a major studio film frequently needs to recoup better than $100 million between production and marketing costs-with the average cost of a studio film approximately $70 million and the average marketing costs approximately $35 milllion1-openings are critically important. (Note: These amounts were published by the MPA a few years ago, and while not recently updated, they still serve as one of the few “hard data points” published in the industry; as discussed in Chapters 1 and 9, SNL Kagan estimates that the costs were similar to these prior benchmarks, with the average studio film having a negative cost of $72.3 million in 2010 and $66.6 million in 2011, and domestic print and market ing costs of approximately $40 million; see Table 9.5 in Chapter 9.) One of the most interest ing developments of the maturation of the distri - bution market is that the more important the revenue streams outside of box office have become, the more important the value placed on the
box office. In other businesses, the thesis would be that as traditional outlets were overtaken by new channels of distribution, one might see the original outlets dwindle in importance and, in cases, be phased out entirely. Not so in the film world.
