Check this article out! Sahara has made all of it's money back and is still raking in some as well!

Sahara DVD Numbers

wooohooo!!! party: party:

I've pointed this out before... but, in reality "Sahara" is far less than halfway to being a profitable film.

It's a basic, though common, misunderstanding that every dollar spent at the box office goes directly to the studio's pocket. The problem is you're forgetting that the exhibitors (theater owners) get a percentage of that number (a good rule of thumb is 50%) -- otherwise they'd go out of business. So right now, the studio's share amounts to only about $60 million.

The DVD sales help, but again it's not $11 million of pure profit. It costs money to manufacture, ship, and advertise those discs -- plus the retail outlets have to keep some of those dollars too or they couldn't afford to stock their shelves.

So now if we apply the same 50% formula, Paramount and Bristol Bay get to add $5.5 million to the world box office total... bringing us to $65.5 million or just halfway past the reported $130 million production cost (assuming we simply ignore the substantial outlay in prints and advertising required for a major release -- which would conservatively raise the cost of making and promoting the film closer to $160 million).

Of course, this doesn't account for other potential revenues from rentals, PPV, television rights, and mechandising.

Even so, "Sahara" still has a long, long way to go before the filmmakers make all of their money back.

Dude, if it does well on DVD, there might be a sequel. Therefore, I am happy that it got it's money back. Besides, it's still going to include new dvd sales and the 130 million doesnt even include the millions that Paramount was paid by TNT so that Sahara will be shown on TV.

Sahara has made all its money back in my opinion and most others! th: beer: party:

I wonder what TNT paid? p:

Good point Stranger, that was the way I saw it too. My fingers are crossed because I would love to see another film made but will be some time before all the numbers come in on the film. :)

Please don't put words in my mouth junior.Stranger seems to know what he/she's talking about.You don't.

I've got to agree with Tyler on this one. I mean really, the movie made back its production budget. Sure there is more money to be made, but cant we at least celebrate because of this? If you all want to be negative about this, keep it to yourself or say it elsewhere. There's nothing wrong with celebrating :)

Isn't this is what we are about? He should be able to say it. It doen't mean we have to agree and not celebrate what is a victory to us .

Amen Sister!!

Last I checked this was a discussion forum, right? :unsure:

Kel's right this is a discussion forum and will use it as that, but remember, we can all make our points without the name calling.

Awwwwwwwwwwww just when things started to look interesting :(

All joking aside (Giants are winning, what can I say?) one of the best things about this forum is that we can all have different opinions and have people respect them even if we don't always agree with them so lets not bring the place down now with some pointless name-calling :)

You guys are all right. I just found it a bit dissapointing to my spirits with Stranger saying we still have a long way to go. He's probably right, and we still need more money, but I was in good spirits after hearing we made the production budget back. And just because Tyler and I are in high school, doesn't mean that we're available for name calling.

Don't be dis-heartened, look on the bright side it may have not made ALL it's money back just yet but it has alot of support and that support group is growing the more people see it.

Oh and glad to hear you're not available for name-calling, I wasn't actually thinking of you though ;)

Youre right Kelly, itll make more money back and Ill be interested to see what Paramount decides to do with what they have. This year was they're biggest in a while, so maybe theyll consider supporting another Cussler film. Well just wait and see. p:

Who was being negative? Name calling?
I was taking offense to Tyler putting words in my mouth that's all.I'm old enough to speak for myself thanks.

I don't recall Tyler saying I speak for Mostly Heep but maybe I missed that part.

Sure Tyler's wording wasn't perfect, can you say your reply was? I have no words to describe my thoughts on my own wording that's for sure beer:

Im honestly still unsure as to what was bad about what Tyler said... :blink:

Obviously I read into it more than you did all seeing Queen Kel.
w: cya I've wasted enough time around here

I think people took offense to this comment:

Interesting!

I'm just trying to keep the peace.....obviously not doing a good job at it, oh well.

Oh, I didnt realize that it could be interpreted like that. Oh well.

WOW! :o It looks like we won't be seeing Mostly Heep around here any time soon... YIKES :unsure:

Wow what happened here. did we catch him in a really bad mood or what? Lighten up Rob. :)

Yes, it's true with the high budget movies that are made these days, it takes a while if at all when a movie makes it's money back. But like tyler says, the 130 million dollar mark is impressive and worth celebrating. Let's not fight, let's have some decent fun. As in the Roman and Greek times let's have a Forum discussion that's respectful. w:

Well said Tonym5 th: , I second that. :)

I hate entering this debate because I don't want to come across negative - I do think we should celebrate the success of Sahara and keep our fingers crossed that somehow more films will be produced - but there are several factors involved that are not mentioned anywhere on this string of posts that serious fans need to keep in mind: 1) the $130M that is mentioned does NOT include the marketing costs that were associated with advertsing Sahara. A former employee of Bristol Bay who occasionaly posts on the Simon & Shuster CCDB indicated those costs to be around $50M - that makes the cost to recover $180M - not $130M. My point, it's premature to get TOO excited claiming costs have been recovered. However, Sahara did better than expected in initial DVD sales and rentals - and that in itself will probably be enough to encourage the new leadership at Paramount to forge ahead, along with Matthew's un-dieing enthusiasm and push as one of the Producers, 2) We can't lose sight of Clive Cussler's lawsuit that is expected to go before the judge in the fall will likely put a kinker in those plans - at least temporarily. I'm not a lawyer or in the industry - but I'm guessing that Paramount may be willing to pay for work on a new script at this point- but I doubt they or Bristol Bay will be willing to enter into "pre-production" before the results of the lawsuit is known. There's too much costs associated. That's purely speculation on my part. Let's keep our fingers crossed that a settlement can be reached that benefits everyone!!

So again, please don't read into this anything negative - the success of Sahara by most industry experts is factual. We just need to understand that there's more at work here than just recovering the production costs - at least that's the way I understand it from my sources.

Some good points there, Ace. I got word recently that the sequel will not progress any further than where it is at the moment until the lawsuit is resolved. The only reason in my opinion that the sequel plans were made public a few months back was to generate interest in the impending release of the Sahara DVD. I'd say the plan worked.

Man, I take a couple of days off and the whole place goes haywire!!

You're right about the marketing costs Ace. Im just happy that Sahara did well on its DVD debut. Don't worry, we dont hate you for saying the truth j:

I heard something along the lines of that as well. Let's hope for the best and everyone, including Dr. Cussler, turns out happy th:

Now that this is setteled and Polar Shift is doing so well in book sales maybe they can think about making it into a movie for the next project. :lol:

As a former theatre owner operator I note that Hollywood will kill a whole franchise if it pisses them off. This one pissed off a few folks so by creative accounting methods, if this picture did make money then the charge out rates would be rised to make it not make money. I can site many examples--Fatal Attraction--Douglas raise his fee by 9 Million when it made money, Paramount raised its fee by 50 million. Sahara pissed off enough people in that there are so many people (like us) who hold the bar high for Cussler in presentations of his work, that the end result being so poor that it is surely going to tick off powers that be. Hence--they can kill this by fee raising. I would be suprised if there was ever going to be another Cussler picture. If there is one it must be done verbatim and not a re-imagination (with the exception of Trojan Odessey a rewite of that ending is needed). Of all the Cussler books (less Cyclops) this was a story that did not need a James Bond Mega Machine Rewrite.
Mat

I agree that the bar is set high should another Cussler movie be made.

The bar is set high for Cussler. I hope this doesn't mean there won't be another movie. He's to good of a writer not to have more movies made. It doesn'e make sense that fees could be raised after contracts are signed. Maybe I just don't understand enough legal talk. :lol:

Listen here everyone...If James Bond can still be coming out with pointless movies, and Dirk Pitt and even Kurt Austin are ten times the man Bond is, I want movies. I truley believe if done right, these movies can be the Bond movies of old, where people are talking about them even 20 or 30 years later. Thats all I care about and want to see. w:

Couldnt agree with you more :)

It's nice that atleast someone agrees with me... w:

Like we all, I would like to see another Dirk Pitt movie. Unfortunatelly, Sahara wasn't such a blockbuster it supposed to be. They just spend too much...

But, returning to the topic - does anyone know what are Sahara DVD numbers ?

To add my voice - it's sad that they, lets say it, cheat dr. Cussler. And I understand why he sues them. But Dirk is a perfect hero to use in a movie series.