After reading the article about how Warner Brothers allowed the Slumdog Millionaire producers to move to Fox Searchlight and lost on a golden opportunity. http://uk.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUKTRE51M2AZ20090223
Warner Brothers did not believe that the movie had the potential to generate so much revenue, as it actually did. I am curious as to how they made the decision to literally “give” it to Fox Searchlight for a relatively small fee of $5 million. Instead they focused on star power of Brad Pitt in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” which has earned about $176 million at the worldwide box office. But it cost about $150 million to make, and is far from turning a profit. I am sure in the model they use to rate movies (besides NRG) they definitely have an attribute “Star Power”. Does the phenomenal success of “Slumdog Millionaire” change the utility curve for star power or will it be considered an outlier?
