Biz
Five reasons "Pirate Radio" flopped.
By Vadim Rizov on 11/16/2009
Filed under: Biz
As you're doubtless aware, the weekend saw "Precious" making $6.1 million from a measly 174 screens, doing well on its probable journey towards Best Picture; "Fantastic Mr. Fox" did well too, pulling roughly the same per-theater average as "The Darjeeling Limited" in its first weekend, which means Wes Anderson may or may not still be too cool for the mainstream. Less remarked upon was the crash-and-burn failure of "Pirate Radio," Richard Curtis' tepidly-awaited follow-up to "Love Actually." Considering the latter is a dorm-room staple of deluded pseudo-romantic girls everywhere, why might this be? And no, "bad reviews" is not an... MORE »
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On the underserved ballet/dance audience.
By Vadim Rizov on 11/10/2009
Filed under: Biz
Two (or three, if you squint) dance movies scored big over the weekend: Michael Jackson's last stand "This Is It" continued to score overseas with $29 million; meanwhile, in New York, Frederick Wiseman's documentary "La Danse" took in $21,000 in one weekend, better than any per-screen average in the U.S. box office (save, predictably, $100,000/screen for "Precious"), and Maureen Dowd felt the need to write a totally pointless column about "The Red Shoes" -- playing alongside "La Danse" at New York's Film Forum -- and when I saw it on Saturday, it was about ten seats away from being sold... MORE »
"Gentlemen Broncos" gets corralled.
By Vadim Rizov on 11/04/2009
Filed under: Biz
Fox Searchlight has become to the '00s what Miramax was to the '90s: a company that gets known for putting out "niche" movies that aren't honestly the toughest of sells. With the trifecta of "Napoleon Dynamite," "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Juno," they basically cracked open the window for the mainstreaming of Sundance quirk. But they've hit a wall this year, with the exception of "(500) Days of Summer": "Amelia" is tanking, "Whip It!" collapsed down some hole and hardly anyone noticed that "Adam" came out. And now they're canceling "Gentlemen Broncos"' national roll-out. The words "From the director of 'Napoleon... MORE »
India, coming to a theater near you.
By Vadim Rizov on 10/27/2009
Filed under: Biz
India's Reliance Entertainment doesn't just own a chunk of DreamWorks, they're also now the 25th-largest movie theater operator in the U.S. Welcome to the globalized future! In the last 18 months, Reliance has snapped up 18 cinemas across the country; they control 181 screens. Not all of the theaters are devoted to Bollywood movies; some mix them in with Hollywood product, others have none at all. But the goal is a chain of Indian-oriented cinemas. The Indian American community numbers more than 2.5 million, and members have proven to be happy to pay $12 for a ticket and -- more... MORE »
Ghosts of Christmas movie "traditions."
By Vadim Rizov on 10/27/2009
Filed under: Biz
"A Christmas Carol" arrives next Friday, and I'm actually a little excited, being a fan of the perversity of "Beowulf," Robert Zemeckis' last motion-capture experiment. But by now we're as overstocked on cinematic Scrooges as we are on Jane Eyre adaptations. No matter, Disney's betting $175 million on the film itself, and lord knows how much on the marketing. The Dickens classic has been made into movies so many times that the adaptations have their own Wikipedia entry. Notable Scrooges include Bill Murray, Scrooge McDuck, Michael Caine, Barbie, Fred on an episode of "Sanford & Son," Henry Winkler and, of... MORE »
The future's so bright, it deserves a letter grade.
By Vadim Rizov on 10/13/2009
Filed under: Biz
It may be based in Vegas, but market research firm CinemaScore is one of the most feared organizations in Hollywood. Not feared in the style of a Harvey Weinstein or Nikki Finke -- feared because the company's proven frighteningly good at predicting accurate box-office grosses. Over at his "Big Picture" blog, Patrick Goldstein profiles Ed Mintz, the head of CinemaScore. He works like this: Opening night audiences are asked a few simple questions about what they just saw, like what letter grade they'd give it, whether they'd rent or buy the DVD, and why they showed up ("Was it the... MORE »
How to get horror fans to do your work for you.
By Vadim Rizov on 10/12/2009
Filed under: Biz
"Paranormal Activity" -- the low-budget heir apparent to "The Blair Witch Project," allegedly terrifying audiences into fleeing midway in fear, as opposed to the usual disgust -- has won itself a nationwide release this weekend. Paramount's marketing campaign had fanboys clicking on a petition to "demand" the movie be shown in their city; when it hit a million people, the studio announced that, thanks to those fans, "Paranormal Activity" would go wide. The triumph of the little people! Except not really: as The Playlist reports, Paramount's been telling local theater managers that the film was headed their way long before... MORE »
Queen of the closed loop of Hollywood news.
By Vadim Rizov on 10/05/2009
Filed under: Biz
What makes Tad Friend's massive New Yorker piece on Nikki Finke a must-read is its angle of genial observation. Finke is the feared, acerbic queen of the hermetic world of Hollywood industry reporting and blogging, but Friend's sympathetic depiction levels the playing field, presenting her to a wider audience in the same way the magazine would profile a respected city-planning engineer or an obscure author. She's no omniscient power-broker, just another curiosity, and Friend admirably unpacks a nuanced portrait of her and what she means to Hollywood. A key quote: "Unlike most Web-based journalists who cover Hollywood, Finke is not... MORE »
How to be good.
By Vadim Rizov on 09/28/2009
Filed under: Biz
This past Friday, 60-odd representatives of indie film gathered at MoMA for a state of the nation meeting about what's going on in the world of indie film, whether there is a true crisis and how it can be fixed. Unlike earlier provocations like Mark Gill's "The Sky Is Falling" speech from last summer, the Indie Film Summit was a private gathering, unpublicized, with attendees encouraged to speak off the record. As Gill said in his speech, "it's fashionable to bitch in the independent film world. It's what we do." Coming up with actionable fixes has proven more elusive. The... MORE »
Free range product placement.
By Vadim Rizov on 09/28/2009
Filed under: Biz
Brett Ratner, modelizer, man about town and hack director responsible for such fare as "X3" and the "Rush Hour" movies, has always been best at marketing himself as the face of smooth Hollywood craftsmanship. So his talent as an adman is no surprise. Speaking Thursday at New York's Advertising Week on "consumer attention in a media-saturated world," Ratner offered advice on product placement and how to do it right. Ratner's working on "Beverly Hills IV," and -- since Eddie Murphy will obviously drive a car -- he has to figure out which one. But rather than cut a deal first... MORE »
Why Wisconsin won't be the next Hollywood.
By Vadim Rizov on 09/23/2009
Filed under: Biz
A few years ago, states were playing tax incentive chicken with each other to see who could offer the best deals to lure film and TV productions away from the familiar confines of California and Toronto to shoot in their neck of the woods. And now they're paying for it. As the Los Angeles Times reports, some of those states are starting to find that those tax breaks don't always add up. When Wisconsin's Department of Commerce looked at the 32 days "Public Enemies" spent shooting in Oshkosh, Columbus and Madison, they concluded the production had received $4.6 in tax... MORE »
Monday morning massacre?
By Vadim Rizov on 09/21/2009
Filed under: Biz
The recession is officially fading and box-office grosses are as strong as ever, but the entire film industry seems to contracting in pain today, from major to micro. Variety reports that Universal has frozen development for the rest of the year -- if your project wasn't already realistically getting made, there'll be no more cash for rewrites and meetings. Disney's allegedly doing the same, and Warner Bros. is dealing with its financial woes by stiffing writers. Meanwhile, indieWIRE's Anne Thompson calls this year's Toronto an "indie bloodbath," with only one big-name title sold for seven figures -- Tom Ford's "A... MORE »
3D rules, OK?
By Vadim Rizov on 09/17/2009
Filed under: Biz
Turns out, Jeffrey Katzenberg was right all along. Two years ago, the Dreamworks Animation CEO was confidently predicting that they're be 12-18 full 3D movies in the year 2010. At the time, it seemed like a huge gamble. And now he wins: next year there will be something like 30 3D features. And that's going to be a problem. Because, as Variety reports from the 3D Entertainment Summit in (natch) L.A. (an event Variety also happens to be co-presenting), 3D movies have been too successful too fast, and now there aren't enough screens to go around. Katzenberg was wrong about... MORE »
Disney loyalty in Tomorrowland.
By Vadim Rizov on 09/11/2009
Filed under: Biz
Today is day two of the first ever D23 Expo, one of the weirdest flexings of corporate muscle I've ever seen. D23 is like Comic-Con for Disney fans. Adults are invited to pay $90 for a four-day pass or $30 for one (kids get in for $66/$22) to go listen to an extended sales-pitch. Well, some of the time: the schedule is vast and unwieldy, with something for everyone (...who is rabidly into Disney). Just like in Disneyland, you can take a photo with a widely beloved character. The type of person who wishes he were a business reporter can... MORE »
It takes a village to release a Zac Efron movie.
By Vadim Rizov on 09/10/2009
Filed under: Biz
Richard Linklater's "Me And Orson Welles" -- which has been kicking around for a year since its premiere at Toronto 2008 -- finally has a distribution deal in place, and it's a doozy. The company that funded it -- Cinemanx, based on the Isle of Man -- has partnered with no less than four others to put the film out. Cinetic Media is managing sales, Freestyle Releasing will handle theatrical, Pandemic Marketing will tackle the (duh) marketing, and Warner Bros. will put out the DVD. Phew. Obviously, this is not how things are usually done. And on the surface, it's... MORE »
Walt Disney's covert mission in Latin America.
By Stephen Saito on 09/08/2009
Filed under: Biz
Last week's purchase of Marvel Entertainment signified the start of a new era at Disney, but the studio has quietly spent much of this year commemorating their past with a series of feature documentaries that have not only provided insight into the nooks and crannies behind the Mouse House, but have been among the year's most compelling docs, period. This week is a particularly notable one for documentary fans, Disney devotees, and history buffs in general with the release of "Walt and El Grupo," a recreation of Walt Disney's trip to South America in 1941 when the U.S. government asked... MORE »
What made "Sammy" stop running and other never-were adaptations.
By Vadim Rizov on 09/01/2009
Filed under: Biz
In what's easily the best thing he's done since, uh, guest star on "Undeclared," Ben Stiller took time out from mugging, shrieking and frittering away his talent to pay affectionate tribute to the late Budd Schulberg, who died August 5th. For the past few years, Stiller's evident frustration with Hollywood has been erupting in odd ways -- spending $90 million on "Tropic Thunder" to prove how much he hates other blockbusters, mocking studios for having the gall to work with him -- so it's not really a surprise that for over a decade, he and screenwriting partner Jerry Stahl sweated... MORE »
Summer 2009: but what does it *mean*?
By Vadim Rizov on 08/31/2009
Filed under: Biz
Clearly someone at Variety was crunching numbers every Sunday night and waiting for the moment they could announce that this was the highest-grossing summer EVER; late Monday afternoon, with all the box office estimates confirmed, it was time to drop the good news. Yes, this summer set records all over. $4.17 billion grossed over last summer's $4.16 billion, with Labor Day weekend still to come! The highest-grossing summer romantic comedy ever ("The Proposal," with $160.2 million)! And many other memories to take home with us over the cold, frigid months until next summer's warm, lovely explosions. Has anyone bothered to... MORE »
"Transformers 2" M&Ms will corrupt your children.
By Vadim Rizov on 08/27/2009
Filed under: Biz
Long ago, when the ratings system was new, its standards wouldn't necessarily make a whole lot of sense to today's zealous parents. In 1968, "Planet of The Apes," was a G movie, and in 1976 "The Bad News Bears" was PG -- alleged family fare with enough beer consumption and racial tension to make Paul Haggis blush. Over the years, parents got pickier; mild profanity got elided from the "G," and the gap between "PG" and "R" got too broad. After "Gremlins" and "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" came out in 1984, scaring the holy crap out of... MORE »
Where are all the big stars? Documentaries.
By Stephen Saito on 08/26/2009
Filed under: Biz
Last week, there was plenty of attention given to the fall of the Hollywood star system, but there is one realm of filmmaking that seems to be unquestionably benefiting from marquee attractions -- documentaries. While others ponder the value of Julia Roberts and Russell Crowe in this day and age, the doc world is gearing up for a fall loaded with stars... from other fields. It's a trend that actually started earlier this year with the release of "Valentino: The Last Emperor," the Matt Tyrnauer doc about the Italian fashion designer that's been going strong theatrically since March, even though... MORE »
"Inglourious Basterds" promotes English language domination.
By Vadim Rizov on 08/25/2009
Filed under: Biz
Over the weekend, "Inglourious Basterds" went from a film with a mixed Cannes reputation as Tarantino's least-productively talky to being a box office conqueror. If critics are still split, the general public seems surprisingly united in loving it. As Sharon Waxman reports, the Weinsteins marketed a kick-ass action movie, and somehow, remarkably, didn't alienate theatergoers who actually got two-and-a-half hours of subtitled conversations. CinemaScore (which polls crowds on their way out) puts the film at an unexpected A-. Typically, audiences who show up for one thing and get another are annoyed (the explanation given for "Funny People"'s failure). The most... MORE »
Movie listings go the way of the cassette tape.
By Vadim Rizov on 08/24/2009
Filed under: Biz
I'm one of those horrible people personally responsible for the death of newspapers: I haven't bought one in years now. And, like my news, I get my movie times online. Clearly, I'm not the only one: according to an AP news report, the country's two biggest multiplex chains -- Regal and AMC -- have stopped paying for small-print listings in newspapers across the country with hardly anyone but the papers' long-suffering editors noticing. For those of you who haven't picked up a paper for even longer than me, small-print listings are the showtimes that aren't boxed off and clearly demarcated... MORE »
"In every 'Hamlet' in America..."
By Vadim Rizov on 08/19/2009
Filed under: Biz
The Redbox legal saga started off complicated and dull, but it's becoming nutty and hilarious. To recap: Redbox rents $1/day DVDs at automated kiosks at 7-Eleven, Walgreens, etc, also selling the used discs for as little as $7, sometimes as soon as 12 days after release, which is far cheaper, far faster than anyone else and will result in THE END OF MOVIES AS WE KNOW THEM. Or so a few major studios who've tried to cut off the company from their wholesalers believe. Universal, in particular, attempted to secure a 45-day pre-Redbox window for its DVDs, Redbox sued, and... MORE »
"Ice Age 3" is the new "Titanic."
By Vadim Rizov on 08/18/2009
Filed under: Biz
Yesterday the internet had a freak-out about "Avatar Day," James Cameron's attempt to turn the entire country into Comic-Con this Friday. The film's website was down for hours as it was flooded by eager fanboys trying to get tickets for the privilege of being able to see 16 minutes of footage from a movie that's not out until December. This is the kind of mania and demand you can only create when you're the self-professed King Of The World, pushing the boundaries of blockbuster technology with every feature. Or you could just make a movie with a sloth that talks... MORE »
The Weinsteins go all in.
By Vadim Rizov on 08/17/2009
Filed under: Biz
Given Hollywood's deathless creative conservatism, it's no surprise that people still root for the Weinstein brothers; relatively speaking, they're bold revolutionaries, icons of the heyday of American indie film. After months of silence in the face of media speculation about the stability of the (latest) house that Harvey and Bob built, the brothers have crawled out of the woodwork to tell everyone that yup, by February -- when, uh, "Hoodwinked 2" comes out -- they'll either be back big or dead and gone. David Segal's New York Times profile of the Weinsteins is many things, most of them interesting. Amid... MORE »
A Tale of Two Logos
By Stephen Saito on 08/15/2009
Filed under: Biz
The past two years have been filled with plenty of bad news for the indie film sector, so it was nice to see the introductions of two new companies over the weekend -- first in the trailer for the Jamie Foxx-Gerard Butler thriller "Law Abiding Citizen," the first film from Mark Gill's Film Department, and then on the press notes for Jane Campion's romantic drama "Bright Star," the maiden voyage for Bob Berney's Apparition. Sure, they're just logos, but they also mark the return of two of indie film's smartest executives. Gill is the former head of Warner Independent who... MORE »
Hollywood is really, really ready to invade China.
By Vadim Rizov on 08/13/2009
Filed under: Biz
China doesn't need the rest of the world to make money on its movies, because it has 1.3 billion potential viewers all by itself. It's also done a remarkably good job of protecting its own filmmakers, even if it endlessly censors and harasses them; Hollywood gets blamed for wrecking culture everywhere, but China only lets in 20 foreign films a year, it has its own state-run distributor to do it and tends to abruptly pull films mid-run. And as a result, as Grady Hendrix reports at Slate, Chinese films have topped their native box office for the last five years,... MORE »
Beware the big red box.
By Vadim Rizov on 08/12/2009
Filed under: Biz
Say hello to Redbox, the scariest thing in the film industry, at least for today. If you've never heard of this Netflix-for-supermarkets, it can take a while to put together how a shiny red DVD dispenser can make studio execs quake in their last season loafers, so here's the gist: Redbox rents movies for $1 a day through automated kiosks. If you've never seen them, it's entirely possible you haven't been to 7-11 in the last year. Or Walgreens. Or Kroger's. They stock about 40 titles, which they switch up weekly (you can also browse films online), and the emphasis... MORE »
Hollywood is falling down.
By Vadim Rizov on 08/11/2009
Filed under: Biz
Culver City is one of the world's more recognizable non-places. It's surrounded by L.A., but has its own mayor; the population, technically, hovers below 40,000. It's been a hotbed for Hollywood film production ever since the '20s, when Hal Roach and MGM built studios there. "Gone With The Wind"'s old South was located there, as was Tarzan's jungle; later, it was Andy Griffith's Mayberry. Culver Studios itself -- a big mansion building used in "Gone With The Wind"'s opening credits -- is still standing, but, like the rest of California's film industry, it's in trouble. NPR reports that Studios head... MORE »
The "Marc Pease" predicament.
By Stephen Saito on 08/11/2009
Filed under: Biz
As someone who spends plenty of time trolling the coming soon calendar for our seasonal previews, I'll see many films that look intriguing, but are pulled at the last minute by their distributor. Or worse -- they end up like "The Marc Pease Experience," a Ben Stiller-Jason Schwartzman comedy that has seen release dates come and go and that'll finally be dumped into a handful of theaters in cities other than New York and L.A. this Friday by its now-defunct specialty label Paramount Vantage. Over at The Playlist, director Todd Louiso (of "Love Liza") explains that the film was hit... MORE »
SXSW 2009: Reinventing the distribution wheel.
By Alison Willmore on 03/14/2009
Filed under: Biz
Times are tough everywhere right now, but they've been tough in the indie distribution world long before the current economic downturn. Too many films, too high advertising costs, not enough arthouse screens, not enough time for titles to build up buzz before they're bumped to make room for next week's offerings -- people bemoan the shift away from theatergoing, but theatrical releases have largely become just a glorified means of marketing a film's DVD or digital release. There are several attempts to break away from the traditional release method kicking off here in Austin this week: "The Least of These"... MORE »
Product placement.
By Alison Willmore on 08/28/2008
Filed under: BizThere's an interesting piece at the Guardian from David Cox, who sees end times-signs in the fact that Shane Meadows' "Somers Town" (which, I know, enough already) was paid for by Eurostar: "A fateful Rubicon has been crossed," he declares. Meadows didn't extract money from Eurostar to facilitate a project of his own. He agreed to place his skills at the service of one of theirs. Of course, plenty of directors make commercials, and there's nothing wrong with that. Advertising tries to sell us something, and it doesn't pretend otherwise. Somers Town, however, carries no warning message, like the 'Advertorial'... MORE »
Palisades pledges to remain extremely Extreme.
By Alison Willmore on 07/31/2008
Filed under: BizEveryone's been eyeing Palisades Media since the company bought up the defunct Tartan's highly covetable UK and US film libraries and proclaimed they'd keep right on acquiring and distributing films (on DVD, with the possibility of occasional theatrical releases) in the Tartan tradition. Why would a print and advertising financing firm get into indie film distribution right around the time that everyone else is fleeing the industry like it's a loft party that's out of liquor? It seems, mostly, because they were Tartan's major US creditor and foreclosed on their assets. Grady Hendrix at Kaiju Shakedown tries to get clarification... MORE »
Red Envelope is sealed.
By Alison Willmore on 07/23/2008
Filed under: BizRed Envelope Entertainment, Netflix's acquisition and distribution arm, is no more. Reports Anthony Kaufman at indieWIRE: In its short life, Red Envelope acquired 126 films, including the Golden Globe nominated "Sherrybaby," co-produced a slate of movies for IFC TV (including Kirby Dick's "This Film is Not Yet Rated") and partnered on theatrical distribution for such micro-hits as "2 Days in Paris" with Samuel Goldwyn, "No End in Sight" with Magnolia Pictures, "The Puffy Chair" with Roadside Attractions, and "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" with IFC Films. Due to changing marketplace conditions and the natural evolution of Netflix, according... MORE »
Stardom, by the numbers.
By Alison Willmore on 07/23/2008
Filed under: Biz"In an era where risk-averse studio executives have declared men the more reliable movie stars--and the more desirable moviegoers--perhaps it's no surprise that they are also the medium's top earners. The reality: Hollywood's 10 best-paid actors out-earned Hollywood's 10 best-paid actresses 2-to-1 over the course of the year... "Will Smith leads the pack of Hollywood's best-paid actors, banking an estimated $80 million over the course of the year. Frequently called the hardest-working man in Hollywood, Smith has proved that no matter the genre--be it sci-fi thriller (Warner Bros.' I Am Legend) or sappy drama (Sony's The Pursuit of Happyness)--he can... MORE »
Picturehouse goes dark, and so does Warner Independent.
By Alison Willmore on 05/08/2008
Filed under: BizNew Line for the win (I guess). From the Hollywood Reporter: In a surprising move, Warner Bros. has decided to shutter both Picturehouse and Warner Independent Pictures. "With New Line now a key part of Warner Bros., we're able to handle films across the entire spectrum of genres and budgets without overlapping production, marketing and distribution infrastructures," announced Warner Bros. president and COO Alan Horn. "After much painstaking analysis, this was a difficult decision to make, but it reflects the reality of a changing marketplace and our need to prudently run our businesses with increased efficiencies. We're confident that the... MORE »
Sundance Channel acquired by Cablevision.
By Alison Willmore on 05/07/2008
Filed under: BizFresh off the wires — Rainbow Media, the company that owns IFC as well as AMC and WE, has purchased the Sundance Channel. Here's the press release. + Cablevision's Rainbow Media Holdings to Acquire Sundance Channel (Yahoo) MORE »
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