Before
I went to bed last night, I headed over to Moviefone to have a look at Friday's
midday schedule. I have a busy weekend ahead of me, you see, and the only
opportunity I would have to make it to the theater would be the first showings
of the day. To say that I was excited to see Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy would
be an understatement. The prospect of Gary Oldman in a rare leading role, and
one that promised to provide serious award consideration, has been bounding
around in my mind grapes and I've been looking forward to this film for the
better part of the year. I based my work schedule around seeing this film, for
goodness sake, and if that seems sad, well...so be it. But to my surprise,
Moviefone (and really the entire movie industry) let me down. TTSS wasn't
showing at any of the theaters I frequent, nor was it available at the arthouse
theaters in Dallas. What the what?!, I thought to myself. I Googled
the subject and found a release schedule from Focus Features, the studio behind TTSS,
and discovered that the film was only opening on four US screens this weekend,
all of which are, of course, in Los Angeles or New York. To make this injustice
even worse, the release schedule informed me that TTSS would
not be available near me until the 23rd and even then, only at a single
arthouse theater 45 miles away. Considering the advertising campaign TTSS has
received for the last six months, this move is unbelievably short sited and
goes to prove a deeper issue within the movie industry as a whole.
Let's
rewind a few months, back to the September release of Drive.
Nothing about Drive suggested that it should receive a wide
release, at least as far as the typical distributor rules go. It's a
hyper-violent, artsy-action mix backed by a synth-pop soundtrack, made by a
foreign director (Nicolas Winding Refn) who has no mainstream credits to his
name, and starring an actor (Ryan Gosling) who is certainly well-respected but
hardly the type of guy who draws the average moviegoer. It also happens to be a
near-masterpiece and the best movie of the year in my book (thus far, anyway).
And remarkably, Drive was given a nation-wide release that
didn't require interested viewers to make a trek to an out-of-the-way arthouse
theater or wait until it came to DVD (or steal it off the Internet). And guess
what: people went to see it. Despite it's challenging subject matter, Drive pulled
in a hearty $34 million domestically (and another $30 million overseas). While
that number may not seem like a huge breakthrough, remember that this film cost
$15 million to make and was shown on only 2,900 screens (compare that to 4,375
screens for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2). That's a
wildly successful release. Likewise, 50/50, another indie film that
I absolutely loved and that received a wide-release, pulled in $34 million
domestically while showing on 2,479 screens and working from a budget of only
$8 million. So in summary: both of these movies were independent films, both
received a reasonable release, both made a considerable amount of money, and
both were available in a theater three miles from my office, allowing me to see
them in the middle of a slow day.
Now
compare those numbers to those of Take Shelter. If you haven't
heard of Take Shelter, don't worry, it's not your fault. Starring
Michael Shannon (one of the kings of obscure, challenging roles), Take
Shelter focuses on a family man who has hallucinations about an
apocalyptic world event and begins building a shelter to protect his family,
though it is unclear whether he wishes to protect them from the coming events or
from himself. Mark Harris of Entertainment Weekly (more on him in a moment)
said of Michael Shannon's performance, "...the more people see this movie,
the more votes he gets. It's that simple." That's a powerful statement
coming from a leader in the critical community. The problem is, no one is going
to see this movie. To date, it has earned $1.5 million (against a $5 million
budget) through its release on a whopping 91 screens. Right now, the most
important time for an independent film like this, it is available on 55
screens. No one has seen this movie and when it comes time for
"educated voters" to make their lists of nominees for Best Actor, you
can bet most of them will not have seen Michael Shannon's portrayal. And maybe
more importantly, even if they have been given the opportunity to
see Take Shelter, I haven't and neither have you. So even if
Shannon or the film itself gets nominated for an Oscar, why would any average
moviegoer care to root for it when most have never heard of it, let alone been given
the chance to see it?
In a
recent column for Grantland, Harris listed out the likely candidates for a Best
Picture nomination (a list that includes a couple of independent films but is,
overall, dominated by bigger features) and asked his readers to Tweet in their
picks for which other films deserved to be included on the list. Today he
released the results and unsurprisingly, the list was topped by Drive,
a film that, by traditional Hollywood standards, should never have been
given a wide-release. Moreover, every other film on the list (including 50/50 and Take
Shelter) was an independent film.
I
highlight this because it illustrates two trends. 1.) In spite of what
Hollywood big wigs would have us believe, viewers are willing to see smaller films;
and 2.) Hollywood is doing a crappy job of giving their viewers what they want.
This industry is fixated, even obsessed, with online piracy as well as
preserving the box office and DVD rental/sales returns. To make this happen,
the studios have gone to extremes to limit the viability of On Demand and
streaming services while consistently raising ticket prices, effectively
pricing-out a number of would-be customers. (Side note: I recently held a
Family Movie Night event for the participants of my youth sports program. You
would be SHOCKED at the number of kids/parents who came up to me afterward and
informed me that they'd never been to a movie before because they couldn't
afford it.) At the same time, studios have dictated what the average moviegoer
can and cannot see, and have thereby cut out a fairly significant profit margin
based solely on a single assumption: that viewers are too stupid, too
unsophisticated, to buy into indie films.
That's
exactly what is playing out with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy; Universal/Focus
Features is telling you and I that because this is a slow-burn of a film that
will feature far more dense dialogue than it will action sequences, we won't
get it and therefore, won't like it. In doing so, Universal has not only ensured
that their film will not turn a profit on these shores (a $31 million budget
can't possibly be recovered with a 40 screen release), they've also relegated
moviegoers to the host of horrible, stupid selections that await us at the
local theater. I do not want to see New Year's Eve because I'm
not a moron and I do not want to see The Sitter because I'm
not stoned but these are my choices in terms of new releases since both TTSS and Young
Adult are only being given the "limited release" treatment.
Don't get me wrong, I love mainstream, big budget, popcorn films and my record
as a proponent of comic book movies and dumb comedies speaks for itself. But
I am proof that there are in fact moviegoers out there (and recent box office
numbers suggest there are a lot of them) who can thoroughly enjoy both Drive and Captain
America, both 50/50 and Super 8, both Tree
of Life and X-Men: First Class. Yet despite the trends
suggesting that viewers are ready and willing to take on smaller films and
despite the fact that I live in the fifth-largest media market in the country
(let that sink in for a moment), Hollywood continues to look down upon the average
moviegoer and deprive middle America of the opportunity to avoid Twilight or Jack
and Jill. It is a crappy, elitist, short-sited mentality that is costing
Hollywood money, films cross-country notoriety, and moviegoers themselves a
chance to see some outstanding films. Something needs to change and never
should that be more obvious than this coming Sunday when we see New
Year's Eve top $40 million despite its atrocious reviews. We didn't
have a choice, Hollywood, and the blame falls squarely on you.
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