What is the budget of a typical modern B-movie?
B movies are generally considered to be low budget films without the greatest production values. But where is the line in the sand that divides a B-movie from its richer brethren? (Also, who draws this line? The critics?)
Is Insidious: Chapter 2 considered a B-movie? It was apparently made on a budget of USD 5M and has raked in USD 102M.
Best Answer
A B-Movie isn't really a measure of budget, but rather is a genre all of its own.
For example, by your criteria The Blair Witch Project would be considered a B-Movie due to its tiny budget and low production values, but this is not the case. At the other end of the spectrum, we could consider Pacific Rim to be one of the biggest budgeted B-movies around, so it is worth examining what constitutes a B-movie.
This wiki link contains a lot of interesting information, namely that the B-movie has evolved from being the second (or 'bottom') movie in a double-bill into a class of its own - glorified and emulated by seasoned professionals in the industry.
Another great example to consider is Mars Attacks which is a supremely well-crafted, big budget movie with its roots firmly in B-movie territory.
At the end of the day, the whole B-movie genre is rather ambiguous, often (as you suggest) at the mercy of critics who like to pigeon-hole films. For the record, most of the movies coming out of the Asylum or SyFy stables are considered B-movies, and it is true that their budgets rarely exceed $1.5M and the production quality is sometimes horrendous.
It seems the whole genre hangs on the whim of critical reception and filmmaker intentions, and probably less to do with investment.
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What is the budget for B-movies?
[Its] distributor, United Artists, released around twenty-five programmers with production budgets between $100,000 and $400,000 in 1955." The film's length, 106 minutes, is A level, but its star, Ralph Meeker, had previously appeared in only one major film.What is the normal budget for a movie?
The average cost to produce a major studio movie has been around $65 million. But the production costs don't cover distribution and marketing, which adds another $35 million or so, on average, bringing the total cost to produce and market a major movie to right about $100 million.What is a modern B-movie?
Modern B-movies draw from the same melting pot of ideas so often that, at times, they can only be classified in a broad "genre" comprised of the most obvious '70s or '80s tropes. Examples include: The buddy-cop formula, ninjas, pulp horror, synthesizer music, and more.What is the average budget for a sci fi movie?
For example, Sci-Fi movies have a median domestic gross of $60m on a median budget of $61m \u2013 giving it a ratio of 1.10 Underrated Modern B-Movies That make for a fun Movie-Night!
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Answer 2
$5m to $20m is a reasonable guess. You can do your own budget quite easily using this guide on planning an indie budget.
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