After years of scooping up awards, and having microbudgeted films go on to mainstream success, the specialty divisions en masse are having a down cycle.
So far, 2007 has not borne any breakouts like “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Brokeback Mountain” or “The Queen.”
“We’re all suffering. It’s the entire business,” says Focus Features Chief Executive James Schamus. “At least someone should be succeeding. It’s as bad a fall as I’ve ever seen.”
Why haven’t more people shown up to see “A Mighty Heart” and “In the Valley of Elah”? Some films – such as Richard Gere’s “The Hunting Party” and Kenneth Branagh’s “Sleuth” – haven’t even made $1 million. And even classy star vehicles from studios – essentially art films with bigger budgets – has been flailing. George Clooney’s “Michael Clayton” has earned only $21 million. Cate Blanchett’s “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” has taken in $11 million, and Brad Pitt’s “The Assassination of Jesse James” has earned only $2 million, according to Boxofficemojo.com.
“At any other times these films would be lasting longer and doing better. It is very scary,” says Picturehouse President Bob Berney.
Indeed, part of the problem is that the art sector of the market is getting the blow-back from its previous success.
“There are too many movies,” Miramax chief Daniel Battsek says. “Even if your movie is the best of the bunch, the fact that there are several other movies released on that date all chipping away at the audience is bound to have an overall reducing effect on your movie.”
He notes that in days past a mini-studio could open a movie in February and keep it on-screen until September, allowing its audience to steadily grow.
That’s not possible in this environment. Explains Berney, “If your film is in the 20-complex, and if you’re in the bottom five (grossing films of the week), you’re out, no matter what. There’s literally no space.”
Adds former Warner Independent topper-turned-producer Mark Gill: “A frequent moviegoer is defined as someone who goes to one movie every three to four months. It’s impossible to have enough upscale audiences to go to these movies.”
As the studios jostle for attention, more specialty units have tried going wide with their films, bombarding audiences with advertising and mainstream attention-getting techniques. This doesn’t always work with the art-house crowd, which prefers to discover movies on its own. Berney says his most successful films (which include “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and “Pan’s Labyrinth”) “were films where word of mouth was the driving influence.”
“A certain zone of the art-house and smart-suburban consumer likes to be part of a conversation. Now it has to work before they start talking about it,” says Schamus, noting the change in consumer consciousness.
What no one in the specialty market wants to contemplate is the possibility of a wholesale change in audience taste. Given the war in Iraq, the housing slump, global warming – are audiences just tired of challenging fare?
Schamus half-jokes, “In two years, as a result of this fall, there will be not one single drama on the slate. The market will be flooded by lousy comedies, and consumers will be howling with disappointment.”
