Peter Berg Blames A Lack Of Star Power For The Commercial Failure Of BATTLESHIP
Hancock director Peter Berg looks back on the commercial failure of Battleship, sharing his thoughts on why he thinks the movie ultimately failed to find an audience. He also reveals that he will be giving big budget blockbusters a rest for a while now. Check it out!
"I felt I had a new understanding of what went into making a blockbuster," Peter Berg said of his approach to box office flop Battleship. After the success of Hancock (which starred Will Smith and earned upwards of $600 million at the box office), you can't blame the director for being confident, but Battleship would go on to earn only $300 million on a $200 million budget. "I got a taste of a film’s global power. But I discounted the effect of Will Smith on ‘Hancock’s’ success. I thought I could pull off ‘Battleship’ without a big star." That point is of course debatable - look at the recent commercial failure of After Earth - but Berg blames the lack of a big star on the fact that there simply wasn't enough money left for one due to nearly half of the budget being spent on special effects. So, what's next for the director? Well, he's giving big budget blockbusters a break to focus on movies like Lone Survivor; a story about a team of Navy SEALs. "I don’t want to tackle that kind of economic project for quite a while," he added.