During Produced By conference over the weekend, the actor also dished out how he cut the 'Neighbors' budget to avoid interference from studio execs.
- Jun 9, 2014
AceShowbiz - "Neighbors" exceeded expectations when taking $51.1 million in its opening weekend last month. Seth Rogen, who produced and stars in the movie, said they were considering a sequel. During the Saturday, June 7 panel of Produced By conference at the Warner Bros. lot, Rogen told the audience, "We are having a lot of discussions."
Rogen also revealed that they had to cut the "Neighbors" budget in half to $18 million so that there were little interference from studio execs. "On Neighbors we played the studio game, and continually received notes and waited for the call that movie would go forward. We stopped, had a real moment, and cut the budget in half - which it turns out was the factor stopping the project (from proceeding forward) in the first place," Rogen explained.
The actor added, "At least we didn't make a movie we hate and had to work on for a year and a half." He took the example of "The Green Hornet" which was made on a $120 million budget but was a box office flop, saying he and longtime producer partner Evan Goldberg did not enjoy it. "We learned not to make $200 million movies," he said. "Neighbors", which also stars Zac Efron, went on grossing $137 million at the U.S. box office this weekend.
During the occasion, Rogen also slammed the MPAA Ratings system, calling it "weird" and "stupid." He said, "Why even enter a system that stupid? ...There's nothing more frustrating than being on set and coming up with a joke and being told you can't do it because it's a PG movie. It's like boxing with your hands tied behind your back ...because of some weird ratings structure."
