Imagine you’re a movie mogul- You’ve spent $65 million making your big summer film and plan to dole out $35 million for advertising. And you’re also counting on making millions hawking merchandise from the film-remember “Batman II”? One problem: your movie opens in a matter of weeks and you haven’t seen the film yet.
That’s business as usual in Hollywood these days. As the crucial summer season approaches, a slew of big-budget films, from Steven Spielberg’s much awaited “Jurassic Park” to “Last Action Hero” with Arnold Schwarzenegger, may have trouble making their deadlines. Of course, moviemakers scramble to meet deadlines every summer. That’s because the 14-week period between Memorial Day and Labor Day accounts for 40 percent of the studios’ $5 billion annual business. But for the 1993 summer crop, the deadlines are particularly crucial. Movie revenues are flat so far this year, and the movie industry doesn’t have big-time sequels like “Batman II” to bank on. “We’re all rushing, and we’ll all make our dates,” says a film boss. “What we don’t know is what we’ll sacrifice in terms of quality.”
As a rule, summer films should be completed by March. But for many potential hits this year, that deadline is a distant memory. Consider Universal’s dinosaur epic “Jurassic Park,” which opens on June 11. Director Spielberg is in Poland making another movie, which isn’t a problem. The trouble is, he hasn’t seen the completed film nor heard the musical score, which is being flown to him in Paris this week by Boston Pops conductor John Williams. Meanwhile, Paramount’s Sharon Stone thriller, “Sliver,” is back in the editing room, only four weeks before its May 21 opening. Then there’s the Schwarzenegger action-comedy, “Last Action Hero.” The good news is that the film, scheduled for release in mid-June, is nearly done. But Columbia’s chairman Mark Canton won’t see it for another two weeks.
The deadline pressures hurt films in a number of ways. For one thing, the rush jobs are often shoddy. “There is this triangle of getting things fast and cheap and good,” says director Renny Harlin, whose high-altitude Sylvester Stallone movie “Cliffhanger” ran an estimated $26 million over budget. “You can have fast and cheap, but it won’t be any good.” In addition, frenetic deadlines can add another 30 percent to a film’s budget. “You want someone to build a wall, it’s going to cost $60,” says producer Joel Silver, who dropped out of “Beverly Hills Cop 3” when he saw he couldn’t bring it in on time and under budget. “You want someone to build it tonight? It’s going to cost $600.”
Films run late for various reasons. While filming “Die Hard 2” a few years back, Harlin and Silver spent an extra $20 million in April dashing from Utah to Michigan in search of snow. Last year preview audiences didn’t cotton to the conclusion of Universal’s “Death Becomes Her.” Three weeks before the opening the director reshot significant portions of the movie, costing another $1 million.
Turmoil on the set is expensive, too. Take “Super Mario Bros.,” based on the hit Nintendo video game. Directors Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel brought in teams of new writers to overhaul scenes and clashed explosively with stars Bob Hoskins and Dennis Hopper. The result: the directors left the set when the movie was still “a complete hodgepodge,” a Disney source says. The producers needed three extra weeks of filming. Additional cost: about $2 million. The film will be released next month, but as much as a third of the movie’s special effects still aren’t completed.
Of course, all the hoop jumping will be forgotten if films like “Super Mario Bros.” become hits and help peddle millions of dollars in merchandise to kids in Kmarts. But these are different times. Studio chiefs are less tolerant of big budgets and big paychecks for stars. In other words, if the summer of ‘93 is a flop, business as usual in Hollywood may be be another small step toward its final deadline.
As deadlines approach, studios stretch their budgets to make it to the screen on time. The figures below are estimates.
MOVIE STUDIO BUDGET RELEASE Cliffhanger TriStar $73 mil. May 28 Super Mario Bros. Walt Disney $49 mil. May 28 Jurassic Park Universal $60 mil. June 11 Last Action Hero Columbia $65 mil. June 18 The Firm Paramount $45 mil. July 2
