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 7
th
September 2012 in the United Kingdom and on 21
st
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
Dredds 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.
Dredds 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 childrens 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 Nolans 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 Marvels 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
$220 million. Marvel, Warner Bros and Paramount ensure that their films are applicable to a
Alex Hooseman AS Media Studies
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, Peters
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 films success. In comparison to Zack Snyders 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
were RED MX, SI2K and Phantom Flex high-speed cameras, which are expensive to rent
Alex Hooseman AS Media Studies
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 Dredds 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
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.