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Metallica Taking Long View on Movie Risk

10/15/2013
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Metallica reportedly spent $18 million dollars of their own money on their new movie "Through The Never" and the movie trade website Box Office Mojo reports that the film has brought in $3,168,000 since its release on September 27th.

While the film may not break even at the box office (but very well could after it is released on DVD and Blu-Ray) Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich doesn't appear concerned about the financial risk.

The Quietus spoke with Ulrich just prior to the release of the film and asked him if it was worth the financial risk. He responded, "That remains to be seen! Ask me when I come back and talk about the new record two years from now. I've no idea.

"I do know that we rarely consider other options, so compromise is not Metallica's major strength. And I think that the fans hopefully appreciate that if its got the word 'Metallica' written somewhere on or near it, that it comes from us; creative experiences aren't really ones we share with anyone other than the closest few that we sort of purposefully let in. So, to sit there and take a bunch of money from a bunch of people to then have them [be] involved in editing and controlling the movie and so on just seemed wrong.

"That of course was before the project ran amok, but they always run amok so it's nothing new. I hear myself say the same sh*t every couple of years in various ways. We'll have to see.

"In Metallica we don't look at things as� there's a word called 'cross-collaterizing'. You sort of put everything against everything else so it's not [a case of], 'How is the movie going to do, as itself?' It's not like an isolated entity�

"I think nowadays in media it's very much, 'What did it cost? What did they get back? Was it a success? Was it a failure?' It's slightly more complicated than that, and that kind of breaking it down to absolutes really doesn't interest me.

"This is another chapter in Metallica's existence, and I'm sure that if we don't make all the money back, then, I dunno, [we will in] T-Shirt sales seven years down the line. Something good will come in the wake of these projects. It's just sort of how we roll." Read the full interview here.

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