THE NORTHMAN | April 22, 2022 | Robert Eggers Joint | Alexander Skarsgard

[BestPicturePlutoNash]

 

[FilmFincher]

This is only getting 3/40 screenings at my local this weekend and immediately dropping to 2 showings on the Sunday.

 

Fantastic Beasts and Sonic are holding on to most of the screens and The Lost City/Operation Mincemeat also release this weekend in the UK. Feels like it will struggle to find an audience with those odds but there's been a respectable amount of advertising, seen a lot more bus ads than I expected around. 

[ThomasNicole]

2nd and final trailer 

 

 

 

 

[harrisonisdead]

Quote

People love that movie [The Witch] and you know it.

 

Yeah. But it made $40 million. If this movie [The Northman] makes $40 million, we’re screwed. The Lighthouse doesn’t really have a plot. I’m proud of The Lighthouse. I love The Lighthouse. But doesn’t really have a plot. It barely made a profit, which was fine. Everyone knew that was going to be what that movie was about. So now people are giving me $70 million net, whatever that means, a lot of money to make this thing. These people’s jobs are on the line, brother. You know what I’m saying?

https://uproxx.com/movies/robert-eggers-interview-the-northman/

 

It's interesting for a director to be candid about the financial aspects of his films like this. He says that post-production and studio intervention was hell, but it made for a "better" movie, the "most entertaining version" of it, and he also feels like the studio is entitled to some say in it when they gave him $70M to play with.

[Pinacolada]

5 hours ago, ThomasNicole said:

2nd and final trailer 

 

 

 

 

Awesome trailer actually that didn't just go ahead and spoil everything, but a final trailer 8 days before domestic release? Lame. Finally showing some effort this late

[Lucas]

This was great. The lesser of the three Eggers films, but far more exciting than movies at this budget level are usually allowed to be.

[BestPicturePlutoNash]

The rollout of this movie has been an event. I appreciate Eggers being publicly frank like this even if it risks his career and clouds the film because directors very rarely are. 

[Ozymandias]

10 hours ago, ThomasNicole said:

2nd and final trailer 

 

 

Looks amazing

 

flop inc tho

[Macleod]

Saw this tonight.  Nice to see an 'adult' movie about Norse/Viking (and Icelandic) mythology again!  This sits somewhere between "The 13th Warrior" and "Conan the Barbarian" for me.  Nicely stunning photography, great music, really good (but not quite great) performances, great consistent accents, lots of great "manly" primal screams. 😅  Clear references to Excalibur, among other things.  Didn't emotionally move me, but was still impressed by the experience.  Even if it's truncated Eggers, I liked it a lot more than The Lighthouse in its current form.  But I would love to see an alternate cut, too...  Even Bjork's one scene-appearance is great!  

 

But yeah, I don't see it really making big bucks!  Still too "weird" for a general audience!  Laughs at all the typical moments that play "awkward" for a general audience.

Edited April 14, 2022 by Macleod

[ban1o]

I just realized the budget for this is 90 million????? lmao how the hell did Robert Eggers, who has only done Indie films get a 90 million budget for a Viking revenge movie??  I was wonder how he got such a good cast lmao. 

[BestPicturePlutoNash]

7 minutes ago, ban1o said:

I just realized the budget for this is 90 million????? lmao how the hell did Robert Eggers, who has only done Indie films get a 90 million budget for a Viking revenge movie??  I was wonder how he got such a good cast lmao. 

It’s 70

[Pinacolada]

3 hours ago, ban1o said:

I just realized the budget for this is 90 million????? lmao how the hell did Robert Eggers, who has only done Indie films get a 90 million budget for a Viking revenge movie??  I was wonder how he got such a good cast lmao. 

$70m according to Eggers himself.

 

It was originally supposed to be $60m. Covid ballooned it up a bit, but that $90m is incorrect. It's just the first one that came out so now that's the one that everyone is rolling with

Edited April 15, 2022 by Pinacolada

[BestPicturePlutoNash]

I don’t get the confusion of Eggers getting money when it happens to directors all the time with blockbusters or comic book movies (Treverrow, Zhao, Watts, Cretton, Boden and Fleck, Cathy Yan)
 

And not far off from like Olivia Wilde making Booksmart and then Don’t Worry Darling or Coogler with Fruitvale to Creed and then Black Panther

[ban1o]

6 minutes ago, BestPicturePlutoNash said:

It’s 70

 

2 minutes ago, Pinacolada said:

$70m according to Eggers himself.

 

It was originally supposed to be $60m. Covid ballooned it up a bit, but that $90m is incorrect. It's just the first one that came out so now that's the one that everyone is rolling without

oh okay. I saw 90 million in a review I was reading and thought that couldn't be right so I googled it and other sources said 90 million. My mistake then. 70 million is still a lot for a film like this in my opinion, if I was a studio I would be like 50 million max lol. But I guess the great visuals cost money lol. 

[ban1o]

Just now, BestPicturePlutoNash said:

I don’t get the confusion of Eggers getting money when it happens to directors all the time with blockbusters or comic book movies (Treverrow, Zhao, Watts, Cretton, Boden and Fleck, Cathy Yan)
 

And not far off from like Olivia Wilde making Booksmart and then Don’t Worry Darling or Coogler with Fruitvale to Creed and then Black Panther

Comparing a Viking Revenge movie to a comicbook movies and Star Wars. 🤣

[BestPicturePlutoNash]

Just now, ban1o said:

Comparing a Viking Revenge movie to a comicbook movies and Star Wars. 🤣

Of course you ignored the overall point and other films i mentioned that aren’t comic book movies 

[ban1o]

8 minutes ago, BestPicturePlutoNash said:

Of course you ignored the overall point and other films i mentioned that aren’t comic book movies 

I swear to God you love antagonizing me for no reason lmao 

 

13 minutes ago, BestPicturePlutoNash said:

I don’t get the confusion of Eggers getting money when it happens to directors all the time with blockbusters or comic book movies (Treverrow, Zhao, Watts, Cretton, Boden and Fleck, Cathy Yan)

 

Treverrow - Star Wars 

Zhao - Eternals 

Watts - Spider-man 

Cratton - Shang-Chi 

Boden and Fleck - Captain Marvel 

Cathy Yan - Birds of Prey

 

 

13 minutes ago, BestPicturePlutoNash said:

And not far off from like Olivia Wilde making Booksmart and then Don’t Worry Darling or Coogler with Fruitvale to Creed and then Black Panther

Booksmart Budget - 6 million

Don't Worry Darling reported budget - 20 million 

 

Coogler - Creed was a known IP, a Rocky film and had a budget of like 40 million, Black Panther again was a Marvel movie. 

 

Again, how can you compare giving an unknown IP in a genre that is unlikely to reach a large audience a large budget to  Marvel or DC hiring indie directors for their films. Anyway I'm glad it's not actually 90 million like I initially read. 70 million is still a lot though. 

 

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by ban1o

[BestPicturePlutoNash]

6 minutes ago, ban1o said:

I swear to God you love antagonizing me for no reason lmao 

 

 

Treverrow - Star Wars 

Zhao - Eternals 

Watts - Spider-man 

Cratton - Shang-Chi 

Boden and Fleck - Captain Marvel 

Cathy Yan - Birds of Prey

 

 

Booksmart Budget - 6 million

Don't Worry Darling reported budget - 20 million 

 

Coogler - Creed was a known IP, a Rocky film and had a budget of like 40 million, Black Panther again was a Marvel movie. 

 

Again, how can you compare giving an unknown IP in a genre that is unlikely to reach a large audience a large budget to  Marvel or DC hiring indie directors for their films. Anyway I'm glad it's not actually 90 million like I initially read. 70 million is still a lot though. 

 

 

Northman originally had an even smaller budget than what it ended up being. Don't Worry Darling's budget went over 20m with COVID, similarly. Eggers had 2 indie films that were acclaimed and broke out. How are directors supposed to grow and develop brand and style when they are not given larger budgets and projects outside of IP? We wouldn't have Villeneuve, otherwise. Ditto Rian Johnson, etc. 

 

Peele had Get Out, then Us, and now Nope is his biggest film. Same with Greta Gerwig going from Lady Bird (10m) to Little Women (40m). It's not uncommon (God, Nolan went from Memento to Insomnia!) which was the point. Nobody bats an eye when it happens to Treverrow but Eggers getting money to make a viking film is suddenly out of line? It's not your money, you're not funding it. It was co-funded with New Regency and Focus, they can do what they want. They saw a director people liked who had some hits and gave him a larger canvas to paint with because the risk was worth it. And maybe they thought getting a director with an acclaimed style could provide appeal and potential to large audiences?

 

So you can't be talking about "antagonizing" when you freely entered this thread to post a rumor that's already been confirmed as incorrect multiple times throughout here

[Eric Loves Rey]

Honestly I get why Northman was greenlit. The Witch was a big hit, and while The Lighthouse wasn't as successful, it and Witch probably got bigger followings on VOD/streaming. Eggers is a rising name within the cinephile community, so you get prestige that Focus can legitimize when they're selling it to premium/cable networks or to give Peacock more clout. Netflix got to where it was first by copying what HBO was doing for decades, and services love prestigious titles like this.

 

You also had a good ensemble that's easy to market, with Skarsgard fresh off Big Little Lies, Anya a rising star with a bunch of stuff lined up, and a lot of appealing actors like Kidman, Hawke, DaFoe, and Bjork. And on the basic concept, a historical action revenge story, that's a very easy thing to sell to executives as a compelling story. "It's like The Revenant! It's like Gladiator! Those were big hits, and this is in the same vein!" Plus at $70-90 million...sure that's a lot, but not this massive bank-breaking investment that will force Eggers out of a job if it does poorly. And frankly, Universal's always been a riskier company, at least in terms of greenlighting projects that aren't big franchise features designed to milk a zillion sequels out of. A lot of them have missed over the past couple years, but there's little indication they're stopping.

[AniNate]

Normalize indie directors getting big budgets for original IPs.

 

Seriously, this is the kind of thing everyone complains doesn't happen enough. Appreciate it when it does.

 

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by AniNate