Scorsese's The Irishman cost $200 Million to make, after Netflix bought it for $105Million; Will it be a defining moment for Netflix or a future cautionary tale for major studios?

Scorsese's next movie, The Irishman has alot of people talking. The ensemble cast is the stuff of cinephile wet dreams, and the subject matter of gangster life and crime is familiar territory for Scorsese, who made some of the greatest movies of all time in said genre. In the 1980s or 1990s, on paper this would definitely be the type of project to throw money at, but in 2019, it's by far the biggest risk of being a flop.De Niro, Pacino, Pesci, Keitel, Scorsese. These are genre defining legends of cinema no doubt, but none of these have anywhere near the box office pull in 2019 to justify such a huge amount of money spent on one project. You'd have to go back to the 90s to find the last Scorsese project without DiCaprio to do business at the box office. De Niro and Pacino have spent their latter years in substandard projects and have generally lost the drawing power they had back in their heyday. Pesci has been retired for years, and Keitel was never a 'movie star' to begin with. $200 Million for a non-franchise Scorsese mob movie in 2019 is ridiculous. Actually, from a financial standpoint utterly absurd. In this post-Avengers era, budgets of $150 Million and over are normally reserved for franchise movies, properties with a significantly built in fan base and Christopher Nolan. That's because the average movie goer nowadays is more drawn to familiar family friendly IPs than R-Rated dramas (Nolan being an exception). The rare stars who can open movies without IPs (like The Rock or Leonardo DiCaprio) aren't involved in this project. So basically, on paper, nothing about this project can guarantee financial success at the global box office. Word of mouth alone isn't a guarantee, or Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner would have returned a profit (and it had a built-in fanbase and cost less to make).Scorsese is my favorite director and next to OUATIH this is my most anticipated movie of 2019. Hopefully it makes bank because that would inspire studios to bankroll more ambitious projects. However, one can't help but fear the spectre of a flop hanging over this project. Either way, this movie could be a defining moment in mainstream cinema. On one hand it could somehow be a huge success (It would need an estimated $500 Million to break even), and encourage major studios to spend more money on ambitious projects besides spinoffs/reboots/franchises (not badmouthing them, just stating how it is). On the other hand, it could be a flop that could scare big studios of big budget prestige dramas for a long time and serve as a cautionary tale. Or maybe, it could turn out like the aforementioned Blade Runner and do good business, but not good enough business and encourage studios to be a bit stricter with passion project budgets.Whatever the case, I look forward to seeing the final product and keep my fingers crossed for the success of this movie via /r/movies https://ift.tt/2Iet9Fh