Comment by ep103

Yeah, I'm not in the movie industry or anything, but it seems to me like if one was so inclined, they could put together a list of all of the things that have to be done well in order to make a fantastic movie.

If we ignored all of the things that aren't obvious in the end product, like market research and staff salaries, etc, I think it would probably look something like:

  * Plot
      * Well written
      * Inherent meaning
      * Intelligent
  * Acting / Directing
    * Name brand actors
    * Size of cast
  * Cinematography
  * Music
  * CGI / Special Effects / Locations
  * Props / Clothes / Styles / etc
  * Action budget (choreography, explosions, etc)
  * Marketing / Marketability
  * Release logistics

Its rare that someone, usually a director, becomes a large enough force in Hollywood that they can actually get the funding and political pull to invest in every category. Most films sacrifice a few of them to put out a lower quality but hopefully still acceptable product.

What's interesting to me about a list like this, is that they are by no means equal in terms of cost and profit.

Marketing and Releasing internationally have major ROI, so every film leans as heavily into both as they can afford.

After that, Cinematography, music, CGI, props, and action budget are all far, far cheaper than the other items on this list. Which is how you wind up with so many beautiful looking movies that you leave wondering "really, did no one spend 5 minutes thinking about X in the plot? How do you spend this much money on a movie and not consider X?"

Similarly, Plot is probably the one thing on this list where creators can exchange time for capital. If you are low on capital, you might be priced out of better actors, and you won't be able to buy them on layaway, but you might be able to survive off of ramen for a few years while really building out a fantastic script. Hence why we see so many interesting indie films invest heavily into this aspect of their movies.

And that's before you start factoring in things like trying to make a plot that is accessible to world-wide release in every culture, or factoring the plot requirements particularly restrictive governments and cultures (China) will have about your movie in order to access their markets.

So yeah, most of the time when I see a movie now, I've noticed I'm more or less giving a score into how much I think the movie producers invested into each of these categories, to bucket the overall film. You invested 3/10 in every category, but tried for 10/10 plot? Okay, indie film, we'll judge you accordingly. Or, oh, this is another all-cgi-all-cinematography-all-big-actor-no-plot movie? Okay, judge it against the other AAA marketed B movies.