Question: How does a large budget impact the way an action film is made, and is a large budget necessary to make a film more enjoyable?
Script:
Budget obviously plays a large role in the film industry, but I am going to compare whether a higher budget makes an action film more objectively enjoyable or entertaining. Baby Driver (2017, Dir. Edgar Wright) takes a more story heavy and stylistic approach to a narrative as its lower budget means that it can’t always rely on action set-pieces like much more mainstream and higher budget films such as Fast and Furious 7 (2015, Dir. James Wan). One of the key stylistic conventions featured within in the action genre is the use of high octane stunts and set-piece chase sequences; factors which rely on high budget production values such as expensive locations, equipment and stunt personnel. These elements are often considered in terms of an investment which will ultimately pay off at the box office by drawing in a large audience. The mantra appears to be – spend big, earn big. This has proved to be a successful formula for the Fast and Furious franchise; with each entry spending more money than the last, it is as if each movie is trying to one-up the previous entry. However, many critics such as Sonny Bunch have argued that the films have been going downhill since some of the previous instalments, calling more recent films in the franchise “Aggressively brain-dead”[i]. In Fast and Furious 7, every time the plot advances, it just feels like an excuse to move onto the next action scene With critic Josh Dickey saying the story as a whole “Requires you to cease all thinking” in order to watch the movie. Conversely, Baby Driver (2017, Dir. Edgar Wright) appears to be much more focused on narrative development and character arcs with the occasional action scene placed in to keep the audience excited as well as advancing the plot.
Another incredibly important part of a film’s budget focuses on advertising, and for a film like Fast and Furious 7, advertising was key. Without a massive advertising campaign, the movie wouldn’t have brought in nearly as much money as it did. Similarly for Baby Driver, whist it did have a fairly large advertising campaign in comparison to many of Wrights other films, a main selling point for many was that it advertised as “An Edgar Wright Film” which meant that many people would have bought tickets simply because it was directed by someone known for heavily stylistic films. Fast and Furious 7’s budget also meant that it could hire more mainstream/big-name celebrities, and even though Baby Driver stared slightly more well-known actors than some of Wright’s other films, (Which have typically stared Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, both of which Wright thrust into stardom from relative obscurity) it’s stars are still much less famous than almost the entirety of the main cast in Fast and Furious 7. Baby Driver is also Wright’s 2nd highest budget film, following the $85 million ‘Scott Pilgrim Vs The World’ (yet despite its budget, Baby Driver was still more of a success in the box office), In fact, all of the films that Wright has directed thus far cost less than the entirety of Fast and Furious 7, with all of his credited films only costing around $155 million in total, in comparison to Fast and Furious 7’s $190 million. From this stat alone, it is clear that almost the entire mainstream film industry is focused on making money, which is why there are so many franchises in Hollywood.
David Hesmondhalgh has a theory which says that the media is being commodified in the cultural industries (which means everything is turning into something that can either be bought or sold). Therefore studios will commission several sequels to films that have done well at the box office. The first film in the franchise usually has a fairly small budget, and if the series continues to have a large box office profit, more sequels will be made with a higher budget in the hope to make even more money than the previous film. At the time of this recording, Baby Driver is still a stand-alone film, however there are rumours of a sequel being discussed, with Wright even teasing the movie early in 2019, saying “A first draft of Baby Driver 2 exists”. Wright has said that he initially didn’t think about a sequel, but after the massive commercial success of the film, (Grossing more than all of Wright’s previous films combined at the box office) decided to go along with the idea. This is an example of the commercial and profit-driven studios of Hollywood. Wright’s films take years of careful writing and planning, even before he gets to the filming stage, as all of his films were more or less entirely controlled by him. James Wan on the other hand, has directorial credits in over 29 films; Compare this to Wright’s 8 films, and you can begin to see how Wan makes movies that studios ask him to direct, whereas Wright takes a much more independent approach to film making, only making the films he wants to make, and changing some minor details for the studio.
Before Wan was working on action films with gigantic budgets, he was very influential to the horror genre, most notably, he directed the first 6 “Saw” films, as well as “The Conjuring” and “Insidious” Which all have relatively small budget. In total contrast to this, he is currently working on films like “Aquaman 2” Rumoured to have a budget of over $200 million. This is completely different to Wright’s way of film making, as he carefully crafts, Writes, directs and produces his films at the expense of not making as much of a potential profit, whereas Wan is constantly churning out a steady stream of either high budget action blockbusters or very low budget horror films in order to make the studio as much money as possible, which follows along with Hesmondhalgh’s media theory about commodification. Through the use of commodification, Wan has been commissioned to make several low budget films for different studios in order for maximum profit, working with studios famous for this, such as Blumhouse Productions. Wan’s films are typically more successful than Wright’s movies as they are aimed at a wider audience, giving Wan a net worth of around $50 million. Compare this to Wright’s estimated $10 million and it is clear that Wan’s films are aimed at a very wide audience to sell more tickets, whereas Wright has a fairly niche fan-base, due to his films being much more stylised than Wan’s, and also based on the fact that you can get a lot more out of Wright’s films (As he includes small “Easter Eggs” and references to both his own films, as well as his inspirations and homages to films and other popular culture events) by paying it your full attention. For this reason Wright’s films are usually given higher praise, as they are targeted more towards film fans, rather than a casual audience. Both directors were born within 4 years of each other and both started their line of work as a director at around the same time in the late 90’s, but considering Wan’s number of films, he was the obvious choice for studios. The shows how cinema in recent years has been commodified, and many filmmakers are more interested in the money than the art of filmmaking. Legendary director Martin Scorsese recently stated his thoughts on the Influx of superhero films and how they aren’t truly ‘cinema’, but simply designed as versions of other ideas; “They are sequels in name but they are remakes in spirit, and everything in them is officially sanctioned because it can’t really be any other way.”[ii] This theory can be applied to the Fast and Furious franchise, how each film is just another variant of itself, as opposed to Baby Driver, which is not part of a franchise, but an independent story. This can be linked to genre theory and specifically the 4 stages Metz’ Genre Cycle[iii], starting with the experimental stage. This stage (known as the Experimental Stage) focuses on action films from the 60s and 70s which attempt to bring something new to the genre. Films like Bullitt (1968, Dir. Peter Yates), The Italian Job (1969, Dir. Peter Collinson) and early Bond films are prime examples of changing up the formula for action films. Then there is the Classic Stage, where these new conventions of action films are beginning to become more widely used by other filmmakers, this is where large franchise blockbusters such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe films and Fast and Furious Movies start to become much more formulaic and similar. This is then followed by the Parody Stage, where films such as Johnny English (2003, Dir. Peter Howitt) and Hot Fuzz (2007, Dir. Edgar Wright) attempt to make fun of the stereotypical conventions of those franchise action films for their flaws. Finally there is the Deconstruction Stage, in which Baby Driver falls under due to the way it starts to break the rules of the stereotypical action film, blurring the lines between the action, comedy, musical and drama genres.
The large budget of Fast and Furious 7 definitely helped the film become more accessible to a large audience all over the world, however, it was also due to the films BBFC and MPAA classification of the film as a 12A and PG-13 respectively, meaning the film is much more accessible for younger children and families. This means there are a lot more potential profit to be made simply due to the number of people that can actually access the movie. Compare this to Baby Driver, which is Rated R in America and 15 in the UK and you can see that Wright’s film was at a clear disadvantage for potential profit from the outset. Some films are intended to be rated as a 15, and then changed in post-production and editing in order to get the film rated as a 12 or 12A so that it is much more accessible to people as well as so it will make a larger profit. Because of this potential loss of profit, most of the very expensive, stereotypical, Hollywood blockbuster films will be rated as a PG-13/12A, in order to make back as much of their budget as possible, and turn a profit. This also means that films with a higher rating are typically less successful in the box office, which is why so many of Wan’s horror films have such a small budget of only a few million dollars. This means that Budget is much tighter in a film like Baby Driver, as it doesn’t have an established franchise that will draw people in, or a seemingly infinite amount of money being given to them by the studio, because the studio cannot be sure that it would make the money back at the box office.
In conclusion, budget can have a huge impact on the way a film is made, affecting the production values contained within the film. That said, this does not always equate to a better cinematic experience. From the box office sales alone, Fast and Furious 7 looks like a much “better” film because more people went to see it in the cinema, however using data from Metacritic, The 50 or so reviewers found Baby Driver much more enjoyable, giving at an average rating of 86%[iv]. Compare this to Fast and Furious 7’s 67%[v] and it is clear that audiences and critics alike actually found Baby Driver to be an objectively more enjoyable film, despite having a fraction of the box office sales. This seems to prove the idea that even within the action genre, audiences ultimately prefer to watch a film which tells a good story using well-drawn characters rather than watch a series of elaborate set-pieces, visual effects and stunts.
Word Count: 2003
[i] https://freebeacon.com/culture/furious-seven-review/ Sonny Bunch, Published 03/04/2015, (Viewed 16/01/2020)
[ii] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/opinion/martin-scorsese-marvel.html Martin Scorsese, Published 04/11/19 (Viewed 20/01/2020)
[iii] http://johannabeckera2media.blogspot.com/2015/06/genre-theory-christian-metz.html Unknown, Published 21/6/15 (Viewed 21/01/2020)
[iv] https://www.metacritic.com/movie/baby-driver Metacritic, (Viewed 23/01/20)
[v] https://www.metacritic.com/movie/furious-7 Metacritic, (Viewed 23/01/20)
