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Forum namePass The Popcorn
Topic subjectBut I think the public, to some degree, WILL spend on good films too.
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=6&topic_id=521652&mesg_id=521792
521792, But I think the public, to some degree, WILL spend on good films too.
Posted by Frank Longo, Tue Jun-08-10 07:03 PM
They have to be accessible, sure. But good films make money. Coraline only cost 60 mil to make, and grossed 75 mil domestic, before international tickets or DVD sales. Not a huge hit but it'll turn profit.

Films from my Top 25 of last year that were original and turned a good profit thanks to mass distribution include Up In The Air, Up, District 9, Avatar, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, and the aforementioned Coraline. All of these have either big stars, special effects, or aim at children, it's true. But all felt to me like a unique experience-- and movies like District 9, Cloudy with a Chance, and yes, even Avatar, could have debuted big and busted if people weren't leaving the theater saying, "That shit was GREAT!" Others like Zombieland and (500) Days of Summer weren't huge hits with big stars, but they turned big profit, largely because the people who saw them loved them.

There is an argument that refusing to patronize can hurt films, ESPECIALLY those aimed at kids-- Where the Wild Things Are was slow and moody, Harry Potter 6 was the darkest yet (and I think the lowest grossing), and Coraline was downright disturbing. People will always prefer a happy ending. People will always prefer the couple getting together at the end. People do want the cliche, it's true.

But a WELL-TOLD film with good distribution will make money. I couldn't believe The Brothers Bloom never made it into more than 200 theaters at a time. Every lame con flick is guaranteed at least 15-20 mil at the box office with even a quasi-wide release... instead, Brothers Bloom only made 3 mil. Pathetic.

There's a great book which is called (I believe) The Gross that covers an entire summer, the stress behind the making of the films and the promotion of them, and how literally the culture has turned so that studios want one big weekend and then don't give much of a shit after that... any legs a film has are a bonus. Because it's all about getting people to see your film all in one weekend, there is a degree of conformity-- a film must be good in a trailer, must have something catchy that creates interest in society, etc. Something like The Brothers Bloom won't ever really have that, so of course it's easy to dump (in May! The same weekend as Angels and Demons, in between Star Trek and Terminator 4! Of COURSE no one saw that shit, lol).

Sorry I've been rambling in this post... the art of how movies make money and why certain movies catch on fascinates me.