The movie Air came out a few weeks ago and it has a lot of people talking. Most of that conversation is now about how good the movie is, I found it charming and hilarious, but how it's doing at the box office.
You see, Air, an Amazon Studios film, cost $130 million dollars. At the time of writing this piece, it made $68,360,000 worldwide (according to Box Office Mojo).
In most circles, that would be considered a flop. But there's more to the story of this Hollywood budget.
Is Air a Win or a Flop?
The Ben Affleck-directed movie that stars Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Viola Davis, Chris Tucker, and Jason Bateman was originally budgeted out by Amazon to be a streaming-only film. That meant when it was time to make the contracts of the director, writer, and actors, they had to factor in the back end. So the budget, while it looks robust, covers all the money Amazon was ever willing to pay for the title.
That worldwide number? It's sort of bonus cash after an initial investment. air will wind up on Amazon Prime at some point and be another addition to its growing library. It will be a marquee title with recognizable names and faces people will click on.
It's so hard to measure what that is worth in streaming. Will people subscribe just to see Air? Probably not, but the idea is to have many popular titles that draw people in. That's a movie that will certainly add to any library.
What about the price tag?
Again, it's not so easy to determine what $130 million means to these places, but considering the project has made close to halfback, and they assumed it would make back zero, that has to be seen as a success for the studio.
The last factor is talent.
Affleck is a great director who has been making hit movies for a while. Amazon making that movie and releasing it has to go a long way in their relationship. And Hollywood forges new ground in an unprecedented era, you want great relationships with people who can put together hits for you.
All we can do is try to figure out what constitutes a hit anymore.
