7 votes

How David Fincher’s ‘Dragon Tattoo’ marked the end of the big-budget adult drama

5 comments

  1. imperialismus
    Link
    It's interesting to see the effect covid's disruption of Hollywood had on the global box office. In 2019, the top 10 highest grossing films were all Hollywood. The top 5 included 3 superhero...

    It's interesting to see the effect covid's disruption of Hollywood had on the global box office. In 2019, the top 10 highest grossing films were all Hollywood. The top 5 included 3 superhero franchise films, an animated Disney film and the Lion King remake. In 2020, the top 3 were a Japanese anime, a Chinese war film, and a Chinese anthology film, with 5 out of the top 10 box-office hits being from China or Japan. (All going by the numbers on Wikipedia.)

    I kind of wouldn't mind seeing more international films take spots off of Hollywood, but I fully expect things to return to normal by next year.

    Oh, well. There's still smaller/indie films for those of us who are tired of blockbuster explosions-with-funny-quips films and superhero movies. Parasite getting the Oscar was a nice nod to the rest of the world.

    7 votes
  2. [4]
    cloud_loud
    Link
    It's an interesting take, and it's certainly fair to say that 2011's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is one of the last adult dramas to have such a high budget. Though this does ignore Martin...

    It's an interesting take, and it's certainly fair to say that 2011's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is one of the last adult dramas to have such a high budget. Though this does ignore Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street (100 million dollar budget) which I suppose is more of a comedy, but it's still an adult oriented epic.

    The Irishman (200 million dollar budget) and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (90 million dollar budget) came out a year after this article was published, The Irishman is probably the biggest budgeted non-action film ever made. It seems as though Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino are the only filmmakers to be allowed this type of budget to make adult dramas, Killers of the Flower Moon is the next Martin Scorsese movie and that has a budget similar to The Irishman. Even David Fincher's films after Dragon Tattoo had smaller budgets: Gone Girl (61 million dollars) and Mank (25 million dollars).

    4 votes
    1. [3]
      mrbig
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      I wouldn't say that Wolf... is more of a comedy than drama, no. As is sometimes the case with Scorsese, that is a very witty, irreverent drama, but a drama nevertheless. IMDb tags it with the...

      Though this does ignore Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street (100 million dollar budget) which I suppose is more of a comedy

      I wouldn't say that Wolf... is more of a comedy than drama, no. As is sometimes the case with Scorsese, that is a very witty, irreverent drama, but a drama nevertheless.

      IMDb tags it with the genres "crime, drama, biography". I very much agree.

      One thing to notice is that most dramas (or pure dramas at least) don't really need a lot of money to start with, so I'm not sure how much of an issue that is.

      Also, Dunkirk had a budget estimated in between 100 and 150 million dollars in 2017.

      1 vote
      1. [2]
        cloud_loud
        Link Parent
        The Golden Globes nominated Wolf in the Comedy or Musical category, which means about as much as IMDb's classification. Dunkirk was also rated PG-13.

        The Golden Globes nominated Wolf in the Comedy or Musical category, which means about as much as IMDb's classification.

        Dunkirk was also rated PG-13.

        2 votes
        1. mrbig
          (edited )
          Link Parent
          Submitting dramas as comedies is a well-known tactic by producing companies to increase the odds of getting a Golden Globe. They did the same with Jordan Peele's Get Out, which is very much a...

          Submitting dramas as comedies is a well-known tactic by producing companies to increase the odds of getting a Golden Globe. They did the same with Jordan Peele's Get Out, which is very much a horror and not at all a comedy. I wouldn't trust the Golden Globes for genre classification. IMDB generally makes a lot more sense, but I wouldn't blindly trust it either. I only mentioned it as an example. The reason I do not believe Wolf is a comedy is that the main effect it seeks to provoke in the audience is not humorous (even though comedy is certainly a major part of it).

          And despite age classification, I cannot envision any scenario in which the expression "adult drama" would not adequately describe Dunkirk.

          To be clear, despite the fact that I'm poking holes here, the main premise of the article is something I believe is probably true.

          2 votes