Self-study
Big-budget movies often gross two or three times the cost of their production and marketing. ████████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██████████ █████ ███████ █████ ████ ██████████ ███████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why does most of the movie industry’s total revenue come from low-budget movies when big-budget movies often gross two to three times their cost of production and marketing?
Objective
The correct answer must help to explain why the majority of the movie industry’s revenue comes from low-budget films when big-budget films often gross multiple times their cost of production and marketing. The answer must identify how low-budget movies can generate more revenue than big-budget movies even though low-budget movies gross very little money individually.
1.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██████
a
Big-budget movies need ██ ████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ████ ██ ██████ █████ ██████████ ██████
It doesn’t matter how many more tickets big-budget movies must sell than low-budget movies to achieve profitability. The stimulus confirmed that big-budget movies often gross two or three times the cost of their production and marketing, so (A) is irrelevant.
b
There are many ████ ██████████ ██████ ████████ ████ █████ ███ ████ ███ █████████████ ███████
If this is true, low-budget movies could generate the movie industry more revenue than big-budget movies even if individual big-budget movies tend to net more profit than individual low-budget movies. There would be more low-budget movies generating profit than big-budget movies.
c
The movie industry's █████████ ████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██████
It doesn’t matter if the movie industry’s overall revenues have decreased in the last 30 years. We’re only concerned with why most of the movie industry’s revenue comes from low-budget movies.
d
Big-budget movies, because ██ █████ █████████ ███████ ████████ ████ ████ ██ █████████ ████████ ████ ██████████ ██████ ███
It doesn’t matter how much big-budget movie insurance premiums cost compared to low-budget movie premiums. The stimulus confirmed that big-budget movies often gross two or three times the cost of their production and marketing, so (D) is irrelevant.
e
The more time █ ███████ ██████ ██ ██████ █ █████ ███ ████ █████████ ███ █████ ███
The stimulus never discusses how long it takes to produce big-budget or low-budget movies. This information doesn’t help us.