Alex Hooseman AS Media Studies

Why did Dredd flop at the Box Office?

Dredd 3D is a science-fiction, action film that was released in 2012 and was directed by Pete Travis. The producer for Dredd is the famous novelist, Alex Garland who was the executive producer of Never Let Me Go two years before the creation of Dredd. The film was released on 7th September 2012 in the United Kingdom and on 21st September 2012 in cinemas worldwide. Hype around the film came to light at Comic-Con in July 2012 when the film was first debuted. An award winning cinematographer, Anthony Dod Mantle, was introduced into the creation of Dredd to capture the actions and representation of Judge Dredd in a way in which fans would appreciate. Even with these positives, the film failed at the box office. With a reasonably small budget of $45 million, the film was still appreciated and accepted by fans and critics. Although the expected hype of the film did not come to reality when the film was released, neither was the reaction from critics and fans. Reasons for Dredd’s lack of success at the box office include its age certification, casting choices, poor marketing, screening issues, being released after a similar film or has the legacy of the films history been crushed. The film contains moments of beauty but Dredd is having its moment in the dark abyss of the film industry.

Dredd’s certification of 18 became a critical issue when it came to the audience watching the film. The film may have been derived from a 1970s children’s comic book, but to the present day, the violent actions with in the comic book that have been transferred to the film have had an impact on the audience the film targets. By making the film a certificate 18, it is now not a four-quadrant film. This means that the film is not suitable to everyone, just to a certain audience. Stereotypically, the film targets adults, particularly males more than females. This is interpreted through the excessive violence and language used in the film. Unlike recent superhero films, Dredd is not suitable to every audience of any age. An example of this is Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008) which had a certificate of 12A. This ensures that the film is a four-quadrant film and the results of this had really shown when the total box office gross for the film was $1.005 billion. The budget for this film was $185 million. Another example of a four-quadrant superhero film is Marvel’s Avengers Assemble (2012, the same year as Dredd) directed by Joss Whedon. This film also had a 12A certification and gained an even larger profit of $1.518 billion. The budget for this film was

Alex Hooseman AS Media Studies

$220 million. Marvel, Warner Bros and Paramount ensure that their films are applicable to a suitable audience that anyone can watch, this allows these films to gain a huge profit compared to Dredd which was produced by DNA Films and distributed by Lionsgate who decided to target a specific age bracket and a specific audience. This aspect had an impact on the profit brought in and contributed to making the film a failure.

Another factor is the casting choices for the film. The actors/actresses that starred in the film are fairly unknown to most people and are not considered to be ‘A-list’ stars. Karl Urban takes up the roll of the infamous Judge Dredd with Olivia Thirlby standing beside him as his apprentice, Judge Anderson. The reputation of Urban in this film was considered to be important as he starred in previous film franchises such as The Lord of the Rings and Star Trek. This is important as his reputation on him is on his shoulders to bring the character of Dredd to life. However, the previous Dredd film, Judge Dredd (1995) did feature ‘A-list’ stars such as Sylvester Stallone as the role of Judge Dredd and Rob Schneider as Herman Ferguson. Although the film consisted of ‘A-list’ stars the film still failed. In comparison to Avengers Assemble (2012) in which consisted of many ‘A-list’ stars such as Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Scarlet Johansson and Chris Evans. This film made an outrageous profit; a factor that contributed to this is having as well known and popular cast. Another example is The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) that consisted of a fairly known cat including Andrew Garfield as the web-swinging protagonist and Emma Stone who plays Gwen Stacy, Peter’s love interest. The budget for the film was $200 million and made a total box office gross of $708,689,160 million.

The film offered poor marketing as very little was used to advertise the film. A 60 second trailer called ‘Addicted’ was created as a small insight to what the film has to offer. The most common feature of the trailer is the use of the SLO-MO drug in the film. This use relates to the title ‘Addicted’ to give the audience an insight into what the drug is in the film and how it affects the user. Additionally, an exclusive trailer has been released which shows more details into the characters and the plot of the film. The exclusive trailer features similar segments as the 60 second trailer as well as adding more to grasp the interest of the audience by featuring more of the film so that the audience can become interested in the film. Lastly, an action packed poster was created to spread the message that the infamous Judge Dredd has returned to the big screen. Although many copies of the poster were distributed, only one type of poster was made. This does not vary any details of the film and so contributed to lacking in the film’s success. In comparison to Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel (2013) in which released many trailers and posters. With a budget of $225 million, the ability to market the film becomes much easier as more trailers and posters can be produced.

The film was filmed in 3D and was the primary format in which to watch the film. However there are cinemas around the world that do not provide 3D screenings. There was no option of watching the film in 2D as the film was designed to be shown in 3D. The cameras used

Alex Hooseman AS Media Studies

were RED MX, SI2K and Phantom Flex high-speed cameras, which are expensive to rent especially for a film that has a reasonably low budget. Therefore places such as art houses and independent cinemas could not show the film as they only provide 2D. 3D film tickets are said to cost more than 2D tickets, so this may have put the audience off by having to pay extra to watch a film that is not provided in another format. Another film example of relying on one particular format is The Dark Knight Rises (2012), directed by Christopher Nolan. This film relied on screening it in just 2D, with this in mind it still made a profit and had a total gross of $1.08 billion. The budget for this film was $250-$300 million.

Unfortunately for Dredd, a film that had a similar narrative had been released the year before. The Raid: Redemption (2011) directed by Gareth Evans tells the story of a S.W.A.T. team trying to overthrow a crime lord by traveling up an apartment block as well as defeating thugs that prevent the men from stopping the crime lord. The target audience may have already seen this film and then seen the trailer of Dredd and then thought that it is the same narrative as The Raid. The only difference between the two films is that Dredd is a science-fiction genre film whereas The Raid is a crime and thriller genre film. The Raid also has a low budget or $1.1 million similarly to Dredd, but this film made a profit with a box office gross $14.1 million.

The final reason for Dredd’s lack of success is that is has had a hard history on the big screen. Judge Dredd (1995) was directed by Danny Cannon and was produced by Charles Lippincott. The film starred Sylvester Stallone, Diane Lane, Rob Schneider, Armand Assante, and Max von Sydow as the main casting choices. This film was based on a strip from 2000AD but emerged as a commercial disappointment. The budget for this film was $90 million and made a box office gross of $113,493,481. The film also contained ‘A-list’ stars but even still emerged as a failure due to a poor narrative. Rotten Tomatoes rate this version of the film 3.7/10 and describes the film as ‘rotten’. IMDb rate the film 5.4/10. Due to poor reviews of the previous Judge Dredd film, the audience may judge the 2012 version because of its poor history, thus not watching the film. The poor pedigree of Dredd can be off-putting to some audiences.

In conclusion, I think that the main reason why Dredd failed at the box office is because of its certification and that is not a four-quadrant film. The film is primarily targeted at older men and does not appeal to the opposite sex or children. Additionally, a mainstream audience would expect to see the common well known superheroes in which can be viewed by anyone instead of introducing a superhero that is rarely known and has been given a high certification. If the film contained less excessive violence and reduced the age certification then there is a possibility of it becoming a four-quadrant film thus bringing in more profit to add to the box office gross. The film is slowly making its money back through selling the film on Blu-Ray which provides both 2D and 3D viewing format so the audience can then view the film again in their own format that is applicable to them. Ten years from now, I am sure

Alex Hooseman AS Media Studies

that Dredd will make its money back and hopefully provide fans with a sequel to this film and hopefully have a much more positive reaction from both fans and critics.