A-List vs. Ensemble Casting

Whether you are producing your low budget indie film or high budget hollywood blockbuster, one of the major first steps in putting together your movie is casting. Of course you want to cast the best most talented biggest actors but that is easier said than done. A tough decision in casting is whether to spread your money to create a cool ensemble cast of B+ or A- actors (I wont list them but you can find examples by going to Blockbuster or Netflix and looking at films that had big actors but didn't get theatrical releases) OR you can put all of your money into an A-list actor/actress (think Brad Pitt or Leonardo DiCaprio). I cannot advise you on the creative choice as to who is right for the role or who has the most talent but if you put that aside and look at it from a movie budget and film sales perspective I recommend that you always put all of your money towards one A-list actor instead of a few B-list actors.

In the current climate of foreign sales and film studios/domestic distributors buying films, a spreading your money across a bunch of B-list actors will deem your film a direct to dvd film whereas giving nearly all of your casting money to one A-list star will give it consideration for a theatrical release and bigger film sale prices ($$$).

In past years, ensemble casting was a great trick that would get you the same sales numbers as one A-list star. Even David O. Selznick wrote about using this trick in his memos. But times have changed and casting has changed with it. The gap between an A-list star and a B-list star has grown which is reflective of theater audiences and their taste in ticket purchases.

Look at www.quickfilmbudget.com for a guideline on how much to budget for actors and actresses given your film budget and genre.

-Adam