Jack Neo Says It’s “Really Difficult” To Make Money From Movies, Explains Why His Films Are Filled With Product Placements
11 FEB 2022 10:15
The 62-year-old director, who is the guest on this week’s Hear U Out, wants everyone to know that moviemaking isn't as lucrative as many assume it to be.
2-min read
Jack Neo, 67, is one of Singapore’s most prominent filmmakers, but public opinion on his movies is often polarised, to say the least.
One thing everyone can agree on is that his films are filled with product placements, which has led some to complain that his movies are just feature-length commercials.
Among his most famous works are 1998’s Money No Enough, 2002’s I Not Stupid, along with the hugely popular Ah Boys To Men (ABTM) franchise.
Jack shared on this week’s episode of Hear U Out that contrary to popular belief, moviemaking isn’t the cash cow people assume it to be.
“Movies are the most difficult to make (…) I never expected that [Money No Enough] would do so well… but I didn’t really earn a lot from it. I earned the basic amount, but we didn’t get any bonuses.”
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Jack on set of his latest movie, Ah Girls Go Army
"I’ve always had the same problem — we don’t think too much [before making a movie],” the director recounted. “At that time, I just told the people in my talent agency that we should make a movie regardless of how it does in the box office. We were so happy to see our faces on the big screen and we weren’t calculative over anything else.”
Sharing that he found it challenging to secure funding when he first started making movies, Jack added that things only got better after he proved himself in the box office with his first few films.
“ABTM was a huge production —MINDEF supported us so guns, cannons and the like were from them,” he continued. “It was the 45th anniversary of National Service (NS) so MINDEF approached me to turn a YouTube [documentary] named Every Singaporean Son into a movie. I told them that it would be difficult to edit a movie based on the footage they had, and suggested that we produce it from scratch.”
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ABTM 1 & 2 were about the army, while Frogmen was about the navy
Jack mused, “I told them that I would get the funding but they had to provide the equipment (…) I was in the army for six years so I have a pretty good understanding of how things work in there, and I believe that they also trusted me because of my experience.”
Jack signed on with the army at the age of 17 and once served as the platoon commander of the 1st Battalion Singapore Infantry Regiment's Charlie Company at Guillemard Camp before transferring to the Music & Drama Company. He left the army in 1986 as a lieutenant.
Even with MINDEF’s backing, making ABTM wasn’t a walk in the park as Jack had to work with a limited budget.
The first and second installments in ABTM were shot with a S$1.5mil budget each, which Jack said was “very little”, and ABTM 3: Frogmen proved more challenging as it was “even more complex” to make.
“Honestly, it’s really difficult to make money from movies,” he said. “If you spend S$1mil on production, you need S$3mil to break even, and you only start earning from that point onwards. That’s why the chances of making money from movies is very low, and that’s why many productions are supported by the government.”
“That’s why we also tend to have more product placements. Where else would the production budget come from if not from sponsors? They’re the ones that balance things out, or we’d never be able to make [movies].”
Catch the rest of Jack's interview on Hear U Out on meWATCH. Click here to watch Part 1 and here to watch Part 2.
