The film Dredd; a futuristic irradiated waste land running
from Boston to Washington DC lies Mega City One - a vast, violent metropolis
where criminals are left to roam the streets and cause havoc. The only force of
order left within the megalopolitan are the urban cops called “Judges”, who
poses the combined powers of a judge, jury and instant executer depending on
the crime. Known and feared throughout the metropolis, Dredd is the ultimate
judge; respected and feared by every criminal within the super-city. Dredd is
tasked by the Chief Judge to evaluate the new recruit, Cassandra Anderson; a
powerful mutant-psychic who failed to aptitude tests to be a judge. The two
judges respond to a multiple homicide in a 200-storey slum tower, where drug
lord Madeline Madrigal (Ma-Ma) executes three rogue drug dealers by having them
skinned, intoxicated by Slo-Mo and thrown down the tower block from the top
floor. On their arrival, they arrest a thug named Kay, who Dredd decides to
take in for questioning in which Ma-Ma decided to shut down the entire
building, leaving the two judges trapped alone, with hundreds of drug barons
wanting to kill them…
Pre-production
Dredd was finally released on the 7th September
2012, after the comic – which came out in July, the same year – built up a lot
of hype when it first debuted at Comic-Con. With one of the largest
independently produced Brit films of all time and based on a well-loved comic
(Judge Dredd) from 1974. Despite having a small budget of only $45 million,
Dredd impressed both fans and critics alike. However, when the film first came
out none of the hype and enthusiasm expected by critics came to light and the
film became one of biggest losses of the film industry that year; taking $27.6
million from markets outside of North America and $13.4 million from North
America, making a total of $41 million. Therefore this created a loss of around
$14 million, after the film was marketed. It’s often seen that films with such
a low budget don’t seem to do well on the box office; with very few exceptions.
However when the film came out none of the expected hype and enthusiasm
that critics were predicting came to light and the film was one of the major
losses to the film industry that year. But what is at blame to its downfall?
Firstly, Dredd was first attempted to be made into a film in 1995 by Hollywood;
starring A list stars such as Sylvester Stallone and Rob Schneider. The film
received negative reviews upon its release with the review aggregation site
Rotten Tomatoes giving the film a score of just 18% based on reviews from 51
critics and an average rating of 3.7/10. The film also picked up comments like,
"Judge Dredd wants to be 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."
Furthermore, the film was considered to be a flop in the
United States as it grossed only $34.7 million in the North American domestic
box offices and to make it even worse, Judge Dredd picked up a Golden Raspberry
Award nomination for Sylvester Stallone as the worst actor. However, it did do
better internationally with over $78.8 million around the world, giving it a
total of $113.5 million worldwide. Therefore with the original 1995 Hollywood
version being such a flop, it may have put many people off going to see the
latest version of the hit comic.
Also , as Dredd is originally a British comic book
character, it puts it into a niche market with competition such as The Dark
Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man and The Avengers all being released in the
same year. So with two huge Marvel franchises and another Batman from DC
Comics, surely Dredd was up for a tough year. The fact that Dredd was given an
18 rating also places it into a niche market as it means that the majority of
cinema goers; 7-21 would not be allowed to see this film, giving it a smaller
potential market, which the other comic book films exploited with ratings of
12, giving them a wider audience and more profits.
Production
Firstly, I feel that the drug “Slow-mo” that is present in the
majority of the film doesn’t help it at all as the film seems to me that
director Alex Garland managed to get his hands on a few Slow motion cameras and
decided to go mad with them, resulting in unconvincing special effects which
was picked up a lot by the critics. Another mistake from the experienced
director Alex Garland, was investing in 3D cameras where he could have used
that to improve the special effects.
In comparison, The Avengers had a whopping budget of $220
million for the making of the film; almost 5 times as much as the budget for
Dredd! Also, the producer of The Avengers was Kevin Feige; a well-known
producer, similar to that of Dredds - Alex Garland. However, the cast of The
Avengers may just skip the scales on which film you would go and see, with A
list actors such as Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey
JR, Scarlett Johansson and many more, whereas Dredd’s cast featured the likes
of Carl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Wood Harris and Lena Headly – not quite as
thrilling. Therefore, with that in mine I feel this is one of the reasons that
contributed to Dredd’s failure to succeed in the box office.
Post
production
The marketing side of Dredd suffered a huge blow in its bid
to be successful with a very low budget of just $25 million. In comparison, the
$25 million paid by DNA Films was just a fraction of what Marvel paid for the advertisement
of The Avengers with $4 million just going on a 30 second advert at the
Superbowl.
Finally, Dredd also didn’t do well when it came to screening
it, mostly down to the fact that it was only showed in 3D with not many small
cinemas having the equipment to show the small production. Only large cinemas
that showed a huge variety of films in London or small independent cinemas
showed the film, meaning that Dredd took very little from the cinemas.
In conclusion, I feel that Dredd failed because it decided to
shoot the film in 3D. If they hadn’t of done this, they could have spent the
money they spent on 3D cameras on marketing the film to get more people to
watch it, or instead on improving the special effects to make them more
convincing. Finally, if they hadn’t have filmed Dredd in 3D, it may have been
showed in a wider variety of cinemas, increasing its potential profits and
helping it to succeed.
Word count: 1,142
It was reported that in August 2010, Paramount Pictures and
Marvel Studios were to plan shooting The Avengers (The Avengers Assemble) in
February. Simultaneously, it was decided that the film was to be shot in 3D,
although Mark Ruffalo later denied
