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Wes Anderon has earned his reputation as a singular filmmaker. His style is incomparable, dating back to his breakthrough indie hit “Rushmore” through his Oscar-winning success “The Grand Budapest Hotel”. You can’t deny a Wes Anderson film when you see one. The filmmaker has been working consistently for 30 years now, which is no small feat. There have been a few speed bumps along the way, that’s for sure, but Anderson always manages to bounce back.
One such speed bump came in 2009 with the release of Anderson’s stop-motion animated feature film “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” Although it was critically acclaimed, the film was not a box office winner, to put it mildly. Against a reported budget of $40 million, the film grossed just over $46 million worldwide during its original release. However, the relative failure of this film ended up paving the way for one of its greatest successes. Namely, 2012’s “Moonrise Kingdom.”
In a 2012 interview with DeadlineAnderson explained that after “Fantastic Mr. Fox” failed at the box office (for which he takes responsibility)it was harder to get a bigger budget for his next project. So when he decided to pull the trigger on “Moonrise Kingdom,” he had to do it for a more modest sum. By Anderson:
“I think after we made ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ and that movie didn’t do very well, we had to make ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ for less money than we could have made in other films. “We probably would have had a little more, not much more and still would have made the same movie anyway, but it was a little more complicated than it could have been.”
Although “Fantastic Mr. Fox” wasn’t a huge success in its day, it eventually found its audience. It even got a Criterion Blu-ray release in 2019, which you can pick up on Amazon. Anderson’s films tend to have a long lifespan, which is not the case for all directors. Beyond that, the director learned a valuable lesson while making this film. “I’d rather make the movie I want to make than make the hit he thought we could make,” Anderson said in the same interview.
Moonrise Kingdom benefits from lower budget
Ultimately, Anderson was able to secure a $16 million budget to make his love story about two 12-year-olds on the run from New England’s New Penzance Island in the 1960s. period piece with an A-list cast on this budget is no easy task, but Anderson pulled it off. Even though it had to be on a smaller budget, he made “Moonrise Kingdom” the way he wanted. As he mentioned, it was certainly more difficult due to financial constraints, but it was also uncompromisingly his film.
Newcomers Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman led the cast as Suzy and Sam, respectively, but Anderson also took on Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Harvey Keitel, Bill Murray, Francis McDormand and Tilda Swinton, among others. Still, the film’s total budget isn’t much more than a star might have earned for a blockbuster at the peak of his career. Fortunately, Anderson’s reputation as a filmmaker means actors want to work with him, regardless of the pay.
“I think I made $4,200 from that movie,” Edward Norton said in a 2019 interview with Weekly Entertainment. “People ask me, ‘Why were you in that Prada ad in London?’ It’s because I want to do movies like “Moonrise Kingdom” and Wes doesn’t pay… I’ve lost money, for sure, on every Wes Anderson movie I’ve done. ” Norton also said he would like to emulate Anderson as a director..
“Moonrise Kingdom” was a great critical and commercial success. It grossed $68.8 million at the worldwide box office, more than four times its production budget. It was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards that year. The only Anderson films to gross more money were “Grand Budapest Hotel” ($163 million) and “The Royal Tenenbaums” ($71.4 million).
Taking less money while maintaining creative control is the model that Anderson has largely followed since. This is a big part of what allowed “Asteroid City” to become a big success.with an A-list cast once again working for less just for the chance to be in a Wes Anderson film. If “Fantastic Mr. Fox” was a big success, who knows? Perhaps Anderson’s filmography is very different.
“Moonrise Kingdom” is available to rent or purchase on Prime Video.
