Getting a D- in Hollywood Economics 101

David Card | April 15, 2007, 10:38 AM

So yesterday I posted that hits were hard to predict. But how about misses? Or outright disasters? I mean, how do you spend $160 million in production costs, $280 million total, on a would-be blockbuster starring Matthew McConaughey (average box office: $43M), directed by -- only his second feature -- Breck Eisner (yes, he's Michael's son) with script problems so serious that the bestelling author and the producers end up suing each other? The LA Times, using documents leaked from the Sahara trial, wallows in glorious detail.

I saw Sahara back when it came out in the theaters; it's no worse than a dozen other silly action movies, and it has some nice location footage.