by Craig Medlin

Created on: July 21, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

Many people believe that movies are made for the sole purpose of making money. And, that is certainly understandable considering the vast amounts of money movies make. The top grossing movies of all time have made hundreds of millions of dollars. And that doesn't even include DVD sales, merchandising, and other forms of income. And actors, let's not even go there. It's easy to look at the figures and wonder if movies are made for the sole purpose of bringing in money.

The truth is, people that make movies just to bring in millions of dollars are not making the movie right. There isn't any heart in it if you're just trying to get rich. Making a movie is about having fun and putting you're creation onto a big screen. Making a movie is an art that is sometimes abused as a money making tactic. This can be seen in studio films that are churned out with consistently horrible quality. Movies like, Scary Movie 4, Disaster Movie, Epic Movie, and let's not forget about Open Water 2. That is not to say that artists set out to make absolutely nothing from their films. Making movies is, after all, an occupation that one should be rightly compensated for.

The main reason movies make money is because they are good. To get good, there has to be a good creative force driving the film. Movies that suck don't make millions of dollars. In fact, most movies don't make a lot of money at all. So with the odds stacked against them, filmmakers set out to enjoy the overall production and satisfy themselves with the end results.

No one in the film industry sets out to lose money on a production. Investors on a project only lend money to the filmmakers if they feel they can get a substantial return. These people have to make a living somehow. You have to look at it as a business. If you ran a business, wouldn't you do all you could to maximize profits? Things work the same way in the entertainment industry. Movies that are made solely to bring in extra money don't tend to do too well. The movies that make money are ones that are made from an artistic standpoint.

So why do production companies spend millions of dollars making movies if they don't plan on bringing in money? The truth is, they only green light films they believe will make them money. But that is only on the business end. The actual filmmakers intend to make the best overall production they can.

In the end, business is business. There are going to be those that will do anything to increase their revenue and there are going to be those that do their best to increase the quality of their business, even if it means taking in losses. But most films, especially independent productions, are not made just to bring in money.

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