Joe Rogan - Guy Ritchie on the Drawbacks of Box Office Success "It Should Be Secondary"

Hello freak bitches. Are you using CGI in this movie? A lot of it. Yeah, wow. What's that like? Boring but creative It's three years to make this movie. I'm used to making movies that take Three months to write three years three years Wow three months to write from beginning to end Something like snatch was three months six weeks to shoot Two months to edit so snatch was three months to do the whole thing or to write it To write it and to shoot it the whole thing from the beginning to the way we're getting to the end of six months Oh Wow And then three months safer editing. So you're wrapped and packed in nine months ten months So this is a totally different kind of commitment Yeah, as your mind and yeah, if I really knew what I was getting into I would have asked for double bubble on the salary Because you still I think this could be a year and a half. It's not it's three years Like when you play on a movie like there's a big epic movie Do you have an actual schedule of when you think it's gonna begin and when it's gonna end or do you do? but you know The terrain of filmmaking has changed exponentially like everything like with technology So what was pertinent last year is not pertinent this year. So release dates are a real dog So we had a release date which was projected a couple of years from when you start the movie So they go right? Here's a check make the movie you're coming out in It was we were supposed to come out exactly a year ago But then what happens is if you're not a branded movie You get Elbowed off that date, you know Star Wars or something will come along and then you're not gonna compete with Star Wars So you got a move because you can't compete So you got a very crowded market with lots of brands now This isn't something that we used to have suffer because everyone was Equal going into the equation you give yourself the advantage of having a movie star or something But that doesn't exist anymore. What exists now is the brand is the big brother so he comes muscling in bullies his way into a weekend and that's why you can't really get new films breaking through because those Occupy those weekends already occupied so trying to break through is a real real struggle We had to wait a year for a day and the date that we're coming out on is one weekend after Guardians now Guardians will be a vast hit and It's very dangerous being within the parameters of a big movie That's a really interesting thing that only movies have to go through these days, right? I mean, it's one of the rare things where people are getting out and going to see something that's been made Together in a group, you know that you're you're watching media like it's not a live performance It's something that's been created and it's going to press play at 8 p.m On Friday night and everybody's gonna go to see it and you got to get as many of those people together as you can It's one of the rare things like that Yeah, and it's becoming more polarized. So it means more now So you're opening weekend everything's about they know what you're gonna make by Thursday evening, right? You're coming you're supposed to be coming out on Friday and everyone knows what you're gonna make by Sunday night on a Thursday evening There's enough clever people out there tapping into clever little boxes and computer says Dada and they seldom wrong now that never used to be the case used to come out and the films would get discovered You should look platform you start small go big that sort of nonsense now You just got come out Ball swinging and if you don't come out ball swinging people get very upset and they think that this is a failure It hasn't lived up to expectations even if it's a creative success. Yeah, buddy likes it. It's well, you know There's a bit of that, you know, there's there is an acceptance of a movie's good movies good and movies find their own way Usually in the end anyway, but the financial aspect has become polarized it's too Significant of a component in the equation because it should you know, it's an art form right in the end of the day Entertainment in an art form and somehow you want to unify reconcile that So because they're essentially different Reconcile those put it in a nice little package. So you put in a pill with a sweet wrapper around it and then you've got both and Then you should be happy you should have the substance and you should have the flavor But Then now the focus is all on the flavor and not on the substance and that's result orientated So your movie comes out and they go put it back. Right? It's like slow down son. What's the movie like? The question first of all should be what's the movie like rather than what did it make and it it's just it's become too competitive and too comparative Financially and I love a dollar bill and I like things that successful But it has to be secondary to what's primary and primary is what's it like creatively? Well a film like not not to shit on it, but fast enough furious. All I heard about was how much money it made That's all you hear. It's like the big story the bigs fast the furious opening box office hundreds of millions of dollars All you see is like it's gonna make a billion dollars. Why do you give a fuck? Why does anybody who's watching that? Give a fuck you're not gonna get any of that money. Why is it so appealing that this movie has made a billion dollars? Because it's comparative and it's competitive. Yeah, why to people in the audience? Because it's voyeuristic Voyeuristic. Yeah, so you can it's like spectator sport. Who's the winner, right? You don't do you really care about how they won? You just care about the fact that they did win Or like a Floyd Mayweather you want to find out how much money he made he made 200 million dollars at five. Whoo People get excited about it's an extra element. Yeah There is a sort of Ficarious life that people can have through sport style Celebrities and success if they feel somehow related to or they went on the opening weekend or they are invested in Then if it's successful then somehow proliferate arm successful. Yeah, that gets weird, right? It does get weird Yeah, it's the business of movies is a very very strange business because you're you're a creative business But you're also a business enterprise I mean you're you're a financial business and when it it's a guy like you like your movies have a certain flavor You know like you start off with lock stock and two smoking barrels Like that movie has a flavor to it and then your other films Like people want to go to see that kind of flavor from your films You feel like pressure in that regard like to live up to those expectations or to conform to these ideas that people have of your movies Yes, and no Yes, and no, okay. It depends what mood you catch me in right? I like what I do and I'm gonna do it anyway I just like it very much when people pay me to do it and give me the money to go and do it so I Don't mind the financial aspect of it. I don't mind films having to compete I'll want what I'm after is a reconciliation And as I say the the primary component should be on the quality of the work That should be what's primary, but I don't grudge films being successful. I like them to be successful I like the competitive element, but sometimes when you're talking with executives You realize Mate your priorities are on the wrong thing here in the end It is a creative medium and that is what has to be primary Do they get in the way of a guy like you though? But I would imagine a guy like you they give you a certain amount of leeway they give you all the leeway Oh, that's beautiful. Yeah, and I my experience with studios It'll be very positive and they try to encourage your Hopefully what is your individual Idiosynchronous they want you to put your imprint upon the work and they've been nothing but encouraging in that sense But you know people portray their agendas whilst you know, you're in light conversation or they portray their priorities so You want to trust a man because he's a man of substance and to a degree independence So he's not looking to me to find himself through me so you're not asking me to tell me you who you are and That's the ongoing battle of life, right? We're all asking other people to tell us who we are, right and Independence from that is a man that could be trusted I don't want anything from you and thereby I can be kind to you because I don't need to manipulate you You're no longer a crutch You