GT-Institutional Context- Independent Film Investigation

The Cabin in The Woods (Goddard, 2012)

The Cabin in the Woods earned approximately $42 million in North America, along with a further $24 million in other countries, equating a total of $66 million, an exceptional budget for a horror film, which have a tendency of making less at the box office. In its opening weekend in the United States it grossed $14 million in 2,800 theatres. 

Production (Mutant Enemy Productions)

• The Cabin in The Woods is horror/thriller film shot on a budget of around $30 million dollars. 
• The film was directed by both Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard (his debut job as a director).
• MGM, who were responsible for the film's distribution filed for bankruptcy in 2010, however the film was released as one of MGM's last pre-Spyglass films in development at the time.
• The extremely large number of creatures used in production for the film, an estimation of around one thousand people were used to create one of around sixty types of monster. 60 people were recruited to create the monsters and they began before the film's initial start date in terms of production. It was completed in time as a result of each person having at least two jobs at a time. 
• The underground location featured multiple elevators and the control room was just simply a set, however for a few of the wide shots used in the production, the British Columbia Institute of Technology allowed use of the their Aerospace building.

Distribution

• The Cabin In The Woods initially struggled for around 2 years before finding a distribution company, Lions Gate. 
• Even though the film possessed a distribution company, there was little advertising released in terms of conventional methods such as posters, trailers or even a website, so little was known about the film itself. Despite this, however, there was a lot of hype surrounding the film.
• Goddard stated Lions Gate to be the ideal distribution company for Cabin In The Woods, judging from the films they had previously distributed. 
• There were many failed attempts to release the film prior to its final release date in 2012. Lions Gate made use of these unfortunate circumstances by turning it into a form of advertising. This aided the build up to the final release.