This issue even reared its head on Guillermo del Toro’s most recent film, The Shape of Water, which cost a fraction of his Crimson Peak budget.
Specifically, del Toro planned to make The Shape of Water for $12 million in black and white, but Fox Searchlight offered him a budget of $19.6 million to produce the film in color.
That figure is reportedly shoestring compared to what he managed to accomplish, so for many fans of del Toro’s work, hope remains high that it can make enough money in its theatrical run to achieve mainstream success.