How Big a Profit Might It Ends with Us Turn in the End?

As I remarked after seeing last year's list of the most profitable films, we may increasingly see the biggest profit-makers prove to not be the bigger-budgeted and higher-grossing "tentpoles," but the lower-cost films aimed at a narrower market that proves just big enough to, between the limited budget and the gross, produce a bigger margin than its higher-profile rivals.

Where this summer and this year are concerned I think the stand-out that way is It Ends With Us. Not even a top ten hit of the year, it is still the case that on its budget of $25 million it has grossed $325 million so far in theaters, before beginning what is almost certain to be a lucrative post-theatrical career.

What might the profit margin look like?

For comparison purposes let us consider Where the Crawdads Sing--also a bestselling book aimed at a not dissimilar audience, which was also similarly budgeted. That movie made $140 million gross and $80 million net in theaters, then netted almost twice as much from the post-theatrical revenue streams (as smaller films often do). Counting in the final costs (prints and ads, residuals and participations, etc.) the final bill came to about five times the production budget--$123 million. The result was that in the end the "studio net" was $75 million.

With It Ends with Us taking in well over twice that much on a similar production budget, much more money will be coming in--but more likely going out as some of the non-production expenses take a bigger bite out of the gross. (Higher grosses mean more "participations and residuals," in particular.) Still, as one can expect the movie to net $150 million+ in theaters, and make as much if not more post-theatrically, it seems a safe bet that in spite of the added toll the profit will break the $100 million barrier, while $150 million or more would not be out of the question. Last year that would have got the movie onto Deadline's "Most Valuable Blockbusters" list, and it may well suffice to do that for the movie this year--while failing that it is virtually guaranteed a spot on the accompanying list for smaller films with high returns.