Dredd Essay

Dredd 3D was a flop film released in the year 2012, the budget for the film was $45 million and it only made back $36.5 at the box office. In this essay I will be writing about how and why it flopped and I will be comparing to the dark knight rises.

One of the reasons why Dredd was a flop film for me is that it’s not a very known comic character; this could mean that not many people knew who Dredd was. On the other hand Batman is known in the world and almost everyone knows who he is and that is one of the reasons why the dark knight rises was a big hit. The year that Dredd came out into the cinema it had very big competition from the likes of The Avengers Assemble, The Amazing Spiderman and The Dark Knight rises. So people would want to see them more because they have herd of them more.

 Next the certificate for Dredd was an 18, which means that only people over 18 can see the film. This restricts the film to make more money because of the limited people allowed to watch it. The dark knight rises certificate was 12a, this allows for a wider age range to go and see the film. Another reason for Dredd was a flop is the budget that the film got to be made, it was given $45 million to be made and that is not that much for a comic book film. The dark knight was given $250–300 million ($230 million after tax credits) which is a lot more than Dredd. This allows the director of the film to a lot more in the film e.g. film in more exiting places and have better technology in the film. In Dredd the graphics used in the film were not that good for example when Dredd shoots the guy in the face, it just looks like paint is coming out and does not look very realistic. In the dark knight rises, the graphics in the film looked realistic.

The location used to make Dredd was Cape Town in South Africa; they could only use one location because of the low budget given to them to make the film. This could be a reason why it was a flop because they were not given the chance to shoot in more exiting places. For the dark knight rises the locations were India, Romania, Michigan, Pittsburgh, New York, New Jersey, London, Glasgow, Wales and Nottingham. This gives the audience a lot more views of how Gotham City looks like. Next Batman the character is owned by DC a comic (detective comics) who also owns the rights to other big comic book characters such as Superman and The Joker and warner brothers produce their films; they are also a well-known company. DNA is the studio that made Dredd, they made films such as 28 weeks later but they are a British based studio and they are not very big. This is one of the reasons why Dredd was a flop because of the size of the studio that made it, they could not give the director the resources that he wanted to make the film. On the other hand warner brothers are a big company and make big movies like man of steel, and they can provide the director and the production team with what they want to make the film.

The actors and actress that were in the film Dredd were  Karl Urban as judge Dredd, Olivia Thirlby as judge Cassandra Anderson, Wood Harris as Kay and Lena Heady as Ma Ma. These are all good actors but the only one that I have herd of is Karl Urban and I think that was one of the problems with the film, there was no big Hollywood name in the cast. The dark knight rises cast includes Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman, Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth, Gary Oldman as James Gordon, Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle, Tom Hardy as Bane, Marion Cotillard as Talia al Ghul / Miranda Tate, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox. In that list there is several big names and that was a reason why the dark knight rises was a hit film because people knew who the actors were. Dredd flopped because the actors and actresses in the film were unknown and people did not want to see a film where they did not know who played in the roles.

The marketing for Dredd was not very good. The things that they did to market the film and promote it were launch a new website for the film, which included news and information about the film and also have videos about the slow Mo drug used in the film. Next tie in comic book was made for the film was made it was about the origins of Ma Ma and how she became a drug lord. Lastly the released an exclusive film poster. This is not that much marketing for a film and this was a major factor why the film was a flop because not that many people herd of it coming out. The dark knight rises marketing was much better than Dredds, they had a website for the film where people had to decrypt an audio file using twitter. Next they had a logo for the film on a formula 1 car, toys of the characters where made, a video game was released on ios and android this meant that people world-wide knew that the film was coming out. Also they had clothing made for the film in which people could buy and lastly the stars of the film would go onto TV shows and talk about the film trying to help promote it. This is why the dark knight rises was a hit film because there marketing was great, Dredd on the other hand didn’t do well because there marketing was poor.

Lastly the film Dredd 3D stuck very closely to the comics which is great for people who are fans of Dredd, but because Dredd is not very known people might have been put off because in the movie Dredd never takes off his helmet and you can’t see his face. Next the film is violent throughout and people could have been put off because of how much violence was in the film. Lastly the films’ ending is a bleak dystopia which is an ending that doesn’t really matter to people who watch the film, this could be why the film was a flop. The dark knight rises stick with the comics in some places but the director has put his own touch on the character which both comic book fans and non-comic book fans enjoyed. The film is violent in some scene but not that violent and kids can watch it. Lastly the ending to the film is happy you feel happy after you have watched it, this could be why people liked it so much.

These are my opinions on why Dredd 3D was a flop.