Big Budgets

Published: Nov. 9, 2022, 10:24 a.m.

Do high budgets for films and television series lead to high-quality productions? Or does spending too much money actually make the end product worse?\n\nIn this week\u2019s podcast, we discuss big budgets. We use Amazon\u2019s Rings of Power series to question whether a large budget is a necessary condition for success in film and television. We discuss the economic theory of resource scarcity, hubristic planning, white elephants, the Mythical Man-Month, and the Swedish warship Vasa. We widen the lens of the conversation to ask how large budgets affect decision-making and even draw an analogy between large film budgets and military spending. Finally, we share some of our favourite high and low-budget films.\n\nA few things we mentioned in this podcast:\n\n- Big-budget films are getting worse \u2014 and we can prove it https://www.vox.com/2016/4/4/11351788/batman-v-superman-terrible-reviews\n- Why movies cost so much to make (Investopedia) https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0611/why-movies-cost-so-much-to-make.aspx\n- Movies Decoded: The complex relationship between budgets, box office and ratings https://medium.com/cinenation-show/2009-movie-correlations-between-ratings-box-office-and-production-budget-2dc68ce7db27\n- The Mythical Man-Month https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month\n\nFor more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email podcast@alephinsights.com\n\nImage: Peter J Vost via Wikimedia Commons