They may have been big successes, but that was only after several studios turned them down.
It is, Goldman writes, the single most important fact, perhaps, of the entire movie industry.
And the reasons for pressing the go button on a movie can vary wildly.
Does the film have a bankable star attached?
Spare a thought, then, for the Hollywood types who turned down the movies on this list.
The boss had, Lucas later admitted, chosen to invest in Lucas rather than the concept itself.
By the summer of 1977, theStar Warsphenomenon was inescapable.
Paramount eventually agreed to financeRaiders, and production began on a relatively slim $18 million.
The resulting film benefited from Spielbergs pared-back approach, andRaidersis widely regarded as a genre masterpiece.
Spielbergs collaborator Melissa Matheson then worked up this new idea into a completed script, initially called E.T.
Spielberg was much happier with this new approach, and promptly abandoned Night Skies.
- So they let it go.
The Extra-Terrestrialwas eventually distributed by Universal, and made almost a billion dollars.
Made for $24 million, it was more than twice as expensive to produce asE.T.
Starmanwas released in 1984, and made $28 million.
E.T.wasnt the only hit 80s film Columbia politely turned down.
Hindsight can be a terrible thing.
Production on Home Alone began with an agreed budget of $14 million.
and in 20 minutes they said yes.
Home Aloneand its sequels would soon make around $800 million worldwide.
This is the worst thing ever written.
It makes no sense.
Someones dead and then theyre alive.
Its too long, violent, and unfilmable.
So I thought, Thats that!
Admittedly, Fox didnt rejectTed, so much as lose out on the project in a moment of caution.
