The Four Quadrant Picture

What is it?
A four quadrant picture is a film that is targeted at all ages, these are mostly popular with families as they involve different age groups, the four quadrant age ratings are: men over and under 25 and women over and under 25.
A good example would be Shrek as it was so popular it managed to keep the story going, overall making four equally as good films, this was because not only are they a good sequel of films but they were also aimed at all the audience quadrants.

The effect of it
Like ive mentioned the audience for these types of film are huge and the film industry want to maximise their target audience for each individual film so they can produce a bigger profit. The films attract men, women and children of all ages because the imagery and language is all appropriate, without huge, gory violence also. They are able to bring in massive amounts of revenue on opening weekends because everyone will be free meaning parents can take their children to go and watch the film. The Four Quadrant term associates with gender and age. Studio's need to make each four quadrant film appropriate meaning they need to address the correct age rating, too high and there would be complaints for it being unsuitable. However if they are able to reduce a PG 13 to just a PG, this can produce huge amounts of money because parents would feel much more comfortable to take their children to the cinema to watch it.

Well known examples
There are a few four quadrant picture blockbuster that have been extremely popular, one of the most famous example would have to be Star Wars, this does contain violence but it is only moderate, there isn't any blood or overly scary scenes throughout each of the 6 films that were made. Another blockbuster example is Back To The Future 1, 2 and 3. The other more recent examples that weren't blockbusters unfortunately are: Pirates of the Caribbean, WallE, Shrek(1, 2, 3, 4) and the Spiderman films.

Dredd research and presentation

Producer

The producer for this film were Carlos Ezquerra and Alex Wagner. The writing of the story began in 2007 and the film came out last year, the green light showing the director that he could start the filming started in 2009, showing us that Dredd took a good 3 years to fully film and edit, this seemed a waste of time as the film didn't appeal to the public eye as it lost money when out in cinemas.

Distributor

The film was distributed by Lionsgate, however owned by Marvel who have been in charge of many great superhero movies over the years e.g. Spiderman, Iron Man, Captain America and so, therefore Dredd should have been a success.

Budget

The total amount of money Pete Travis (director) was given to spend wasnt enough for the type of film he needed to produce and live up to the standards of the other superhero films. The amount of money he had was $35,000,000.

Box Office Gross

The opening weekend the film was on around 400 screens in the UK and made £1,000,000 and in the USA it was shown on 2,500 screens and produced around 6,000,000. Therefore was more popular in America as the film had many American elements in it even though it was British. 

Director and actors

Dredd was directed by Pete Travis, who has also directed Omagh (2004), the actors used weren't huge stars because there simply wasn't enough money to pay them all.

Actors were:

Karl Urban- Dredd

Olivia Thirbly- Anderson

Lina Heady- Ma Ma

Wood Harris- Kay

Marketing

It wasn't marketed well as i had never heard of it until watching it, again this was because of the amount of money they had left after finishing the filming. 

Reasons for lacking success

The reasons why it didn't gain money is because of the audience it was aimed at, the biggest fans of superhero films are children however children couldn't go and see Dredd because the certificate was an 18 as there was lots of violence and gory scenes which would clearly be inappropriate for 12 year old's.

Technology used

They used green screens throughout this film to create the amazing back drops, they also had a camera made specifically for this film called the Red X this was used for the 3D/slow mo effect. 

The video below stars me and Callum Barker-Dean talking about Dredd, it includes everything above and also critical reception, the awards given to the film and also our personal opinions, please watch!!

Dredd Essay

Why did Dredd fail at the box office?

Dredd came out in 2012 and wasn’t very popular as instead of producing a respectful profit it actually ended up losing money, the budget clearly wasn’t enough being only $35,000,000 whereas the other superhero films that came out the same year had budgets of $250,000,000, this is why they became must see films. However Dredd is a cult film meaning it will become very popular in the next couple of years or so, therefore earning its money it should’ve got when it was released.

The distributor for this film was Lionsgate, although it was actually run by Marvel who have had a huge impact on children as they have been responsible for many successful superhero movies over the years, things like Spiderman and all the Avengers characters. The reason why Dredd may be wasn’t such a success could come down to its rating, it was an 18 certificate because of the blood, violence and cursing, however all the other Marvel superhero films are suitable for those who probably enjoy superhero films the most, children. Dredd simply lost money because it wasn’t directed at the correct audience, children weren’t allowed to go and see this film at the cinema because of their age, this therefore excluded most of the fans of Marvel meaning not as many people were paying to go and see this film. However saying this Pete Travis the director had to follow on from the comic book: 2000AD, which involved gory scenes.

 2012 was a huge year for superhero films as it wasn’t just Dredd that was released; there was three more popular contestants, two of the three were also by Marvel and these films were The Amazing Spiderman and the all-time favourite superhero film ever The Avengers Assemble. The other film was also a big hit but wasn’t by Marvel, The Dark Knight Rises (Batman) is sponsored by DC. Therefore this meant that Dredd had some hard competition and it wasn’t going to be easy to win as proved.

Dredd was developed in CGI which is computer work this means it would have been an easy film to produce as they would have added the 3D effect in after filming the whole film. Therefore this could have been another reason why the public didn’t seem to like it as it wasn’t very advanced because in some scenes it actually looked quite fake.

Dredd is a British film and was made to compete against those more developed US films like The Avengers which is the film I have chosen to compare against Dredd as I feel its an amazing film with great amount of action and excitement. However Dredd didn’t compete very well as it was a failure, unfortunately as it just didn’t stand up to the other superhero films of 2012.

Although Karl Urban (Judge Dredd) was an outstanding man for this character there were problems that arose when the film was published, one of these reasons was that the viewers never got to see Dredd’s face which was actually annoying because people wanted to see who he was as he did a brilliant job. Also the producer made Dredd very violent which he was in the comics but maybe not as much as he was in this film, the reason for this being a problem is that it was a big shock and a little unnecessary as Dredd was more focused on just brutally killing people. The film was made in the UK but didn’t feel like it was, it wasn’t British enough as they used US sceneries and developments that we rarely have back in the UK.

The stars that featured in Dredd aren’t well known, they weren’t A listers. I only knew Karl Urban who played Dredd as he has also starred in a few other films that I have seen like RED and Star Trek into Darkness. I think that he was an exceptional Judge Dredd and Pete Travis chose the correct man for the job. The other stars were Lina Heady who played Ma Ma and Olivia Thirbly who had the role of Dredd’s apprentice sidekick, Anderson. The reason why they couldn’t enrol big stars was simply because the budget was too low to be able to pay them and pay for everything else that is also just as important, having said this however each actor/actress was brilliant in playing their individual parts. Pete Travis was the director for this film, his highest rated film was Omagh produced in 2004, therefore being a long time since he was in some line of work, Dredd was his escape to become a well-known director. Helping him along the way was Carlos Ezquerra and Alex garland who were the producers, they had never done a film so supposedly Dredd was again a way to become a tad more famous. The budget has been mentioned earlier, $35,000,000 really wasn’t enough, I think that if they maybe produced more money before starting the film they could have made this film more popular and created a profit therefore enabling there to be a sequel, meaning more films would’ve been made, I wish that this was the case as I enjoyed it.

The film was shot digitally and primarily in 3D using the Red x camera, this camera was made specifically for Dredd, this took a big chunk out of the budget as the technology was very advanced.

I believe that the film wasn’t marketed very well as I never saw an advert on TV or a viewing of it when at the cinema, however Dredd's marketing campaign won a Golden Trailer Award for Best Thriller TV Spot for the trailer "Big Addicted", reports indicate that Lionsgate contributed $25 million to advertising & print costs. The opening weekend in the UK it was showing on 415 screens however in the USA it was showing on 2,506 screens which is a massive improvement from the UK.

My choice of film: The Avengers

The film I have chosen has made a huge impact on superhero films, its said that The Avengers is the greatest ever superhero film and that its going to be difficult to make a better one. This was because unlike Dredd, The Avengers had A list stars like: Robert Downey JR, Samuel. L. Jackson and Chris Evans I could go on, also they had a huge budget of $220,000,000 which is why it was a blockbuster.

Another reason for The Avengers being more successful is because the age range wasn’t aimed so high, it was a respectful 12A which enabled children to watch the film when it was released. This therefore also enabled families to go and see the film together. The word of mouth was great as everyone was talking about how good the film was and that you should definitely go to watch it. Because of this The Avengers was in cinemas for a long time because this way it was able to produce much more money.

The director Joss Whedon hadn’t directed any films before, The Avengers was his first ever film which I think is amazing as it was such a success, this will enable Joss to have a good career if he is able to produce films like The Avengers. The producers were Zak Penn and also Joss Whedon, there were both able to create a fantastic storyline with many exciting scenes throughout.

 The production was obviously from Marvel studios and also from Paramount as they have produced many successful films over the years. In the USA it was showcasing on 5,000 screens just on the opening weekend showing us that it was very popular film because of the special effects used, stars and the storyline. The opening weekend also made profit for the film straight away meaning there may be another one to follow if it has become this popular.

To conclude the reasons why Dredd failed at the box office is because of the audience it was aimed at, not being enough money, not very famous stars, also I think that Dredd isn’t really a superhero as he doesn’t really save people like Iron Man, Thor, Captain America etc.  Overall I also believe that there was too much violence and not enough work done on the actual story meaning they had enough time to improve it.

Dredd Review

This film was based around the classic comic book which was published back in 1977, this was a huge hit and so Pete Travis decided to adapt it into a film, adapting the comic but also starting a sequel, however the film wasn't a success unfortunately.

When watching the trailer I knew that I was going to enjoy watching Dredd as it was my type of film, show casing plenty of action with violence and guns with some gory scenes also. It was exciting to watch and kept me interested throughout the whole film, however I think the story could be improved as it was all based in Palm trees, showing us the same boring and dull scenery. Having said that the story was well thought of and was able to get into it straight away without any delays.

I think that every character played their part well, especially Karl Urban I think he was an exceptional Judge Dredd and was always concentrated and serious. He also had the right face, the picture above shows you how he looked throughout most of the film. I don't think the other Judge characters played their part properly as they didn't sound convincing or scary in any way except for Olivia Thirbly (Anderson, picture below).

The effects were all good and Pete Travis the director didn't cut any corners when using them. I thought the Slow-Mo drug was a great idea and the way they filmed it was magnificent, one inhalation of the drug able the person to experience reality at the fraction of its normal time. However filming this used up a lot of their very little money as they had to make a specific camera just for this film.

I think that it was a shame that Dredd lost money instead of gaining it as I thought it was a very good film and easy to understand, plus I also wanted there to be a sequel to see what would happen in the next film. However due to the age rating being an 18 due to the violence and language they were unable to make more money as children where unable to watch it being at a young age. But without the violence and blood etc. Dredd wouldn't feel the same as its mostly about him killing people, therefore Pete Travis couldn't aim this at the younger generation.