slumdog Millionaire's success

Slumdog Millionaire was a huge success of a film, this is evident primarily on the amount of money it generated compared to its extremely low budget. The budget for the film was $15 million but according to www.BoxOfficeMojo.com it generated $377.9 million that alone shows the film in its own rights is a blockbuster. This gross also is astounding considering the film can be seen as alternative and targets more of an explorer audience type rather than a mainstream. In addition to this Slumdog Millionaire was not going to be released into the cinemas due to money cuts and other factors meaning the film would have been a straight to DVD, however the fact they film was released to cinemas was a huge pay off as not only was it released to 69 countries alone but was shown in 2,943 theatres worldwide which is a huge amount considering the alternative narrative and the low budget of the film. These two factors alone reinforce the idea that the film was a huge success and did much better than first expected.

Another reason why this film can be considered a success is the amount of awards won by the film, overall the film won 151 awards and were nominated for another 120, this is extremely significant as it shows how known and well respected the film was, in addition to this eight of these wins were from the academy awards USA including, best picture, best cinematography and best director. These awards reinforce the global impact the film had as it was very well known by all people not just film buffs but the mainstream also attached to this film and it could be seen as the film created a trend as it was in the know and everybody was talking about an alternative film that was also for the mainstream.

One of the key signs that a film is successful is if it reached its target audience, Slumdog Millionaire did this and more as the film is seen to be for more of an explorer audience type however due to the publicity around the film it encouraged the mainstream audiences to watch and become intrigued and engrossed in the film and all the surrounding entertainment related to it. In addition to this the film also met the preferred reading by not only fans but critics, “Boyle takes his wildly high-energy visual aesthetic and applies it to a story that, at its core, is rather sweet and traditionally crowd pleasing” – Christy Lemire, a top critic from rotten tomatoes, “ heavy with humour, romance and suspense” – Jim Vejvoda from rotten tomatoes. Both of these reviews show that the film was a huge success, in addition to this according to rotten tomatoes the film has a 92% of positive feedback and the audience score is 90% suggesting in the audiences eyes the film was a success and due to its alternative nature but also very conventional narrative techniques the film was overall a crowd pleaser and an enjoyable film to watch and re-watch. 

However, although it is clear the film was a huge success not all audience members were pleased with the film saying it was “a film of clichés” and that the “characters are half drawn stereotypes”. The film is alternative in its nature and due to the fact it does target the explorer some audience members were not happy about how the film was extremely conventional in its narrative structure and typical character types. Many saw the film as conventional and not alternative in anyway, many believe the film is a huge advert for the game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire and had no real spine of its own.

Strangely even though the film won many awards and Oscars both the cast and crew did not do huge things with their carriers after the film, the most significant of them all was Danny Boyle directing the opening for the Olympics and Freida Pinto being in the film Rise of the Planet of the Apes aside from that other cast members have not been in many big films that compare to this.

To conclude Slumdog Millionaire is a success as it acceded expectations and was globally remounted and gained a lot of publicity and praise even with such a small budget and many problematic factors effecting it. Overall the film succeeded in its goals and grossed an astounding $377.9 million which is success in its own right.