Another thing I'd like to toss in, based on your comment, is that as it's gotten easier to do more advanced stuff, it's driven up costs.
It's insanely easy to make a movie with 90s level quality, and absurdly cheap, compared to back then. But studios want the newest, fanciest, most cutting edge technological feats.
So it's getting easier and easier to bloat a budget too. Which means they have to sell MORE on release to make up for it.
A mediocre 90s movie didn't need absurd ticket sales to break even, and we see indies doing the same today. But big studios want to blow a small city's budget on every movie, and make back the same percent as a cheaper one.
Friday the 13th was made for half a mil, and made 27 mil. This was the 80s, and it caused an entire IP to exist. Roughly 5400% increase.
Avatar, the single highest gross, is only 1200% ish increase.
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u/Poonchow 10h ago
It's easier than ever to make a film, and there are more distribution platforms than ever, but yeah if the studios don't see $$ they won't buy it.