Based on his grade for this film and one previous one, I have declared Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman "The Worst Film Critic of All Time," here: [misterhippity.tumblr.com]
@MisterHippity: I've learned to subtract two letter grades from any OG review that concerns a movie that includes boobs (didn't he give that piece of shit surfer chick movie an A?), and two letter grades from any LS review of a foreign film. They both have their kryptonite.
My best friend saw it against her will. I asked her for her response and she said "I didn't know it was possible to be completely offended and totally bored at the same time."
I'm glad Gawker is able to see this as a negative, because when I look at the numbers I see disappointingly good figures. I suspect it will do very well when it goes into wide release, because I have no faith in people.
@jrhys: Right! Movies in limited release (small number of screens) should in fact have a higher per screen average than say something released on 3,000 screens. It's basic supply and demand. Typically movies released on few or fewer screens have a significantly higher per screen average, upwards of $8-10K per screen, and even higher. For example, Milk's opening weekend was on 36 screens last Nov, with a per screen average of $40K (i know i know.. clearly this movie is not of the same caliber). The fact that this movie had such a tepid per screen average on opening weekend does not bode well.
@Heywoodjablome: Yeah he's screwed. I was just at the IFP where everyone was talking about the hellish state of theatrical distribution right now. Its funny because technically he's doing everything right - he has a preexisting fan base, with presence on twitter, facebook,blog with updates, grassroots screening/ events with tie ins all around the country - but he blames poor showings on the word not being out. Theatrical is REALLY hard right now, but what he left out is that his film sucks. Even his fans hate it: [www.northernstar.info]
@jrhys: YES - and the distribution company is actually advertising this film on the teevee and in the right places (!), e.g. on Comedy Central which has the same demo as this movie (presumably). So the word is out there, but no one is listening and/or no one cares. (Except apparently those of us on Gawker).
Tucker Max on his projected gross: "depending on what facts I want to assume, I could make a very good argument for it making anything from 20 million all the way up to 200 million." [www.ihopetheyservebeerinhell.com]
OK I'm stopping now.
Tucker's strategy in his own words: "Darko was able to independently raise the P&A we needed to distribute the movie ourselves. This is a very risky strategy–if the movie bombs, the investors lose everything and we get literally no money. With a deal with a major, we at least get some guaranteed money upfront. Doing it this way, there is NO guarantee. Plus, a huge distributor like Warners has 20 movies a year to mitigate risk–Darko and Rudius don’t have that luxury. We have to be right that this thing will do really well or we are in a world of fuck. But the upside is huge–if the movie is even a mild hit, we make ALL the money...On even a 40 million dollar box office with this movie, we are all swimming in money, whereas with a major distributor, we might have to hit 60 million before we start to see even pennies...Anytime I can bet on myself, I am down. It was ballsy and brilliant and I fucking loved it."
Fun fact: this film is being released as a service deal, which means that rather than selling the film to a distributor up front, filmmakers pay distribution costs themselves in hopes of keeping the profits. Indie film distribution is a bit of a mess right now, and a lot of people are doing this with 'niche' films, "The Passion of the Christ" being the highest grossing example of this model. By opening small Tucker was obviously counting on a niche hit to fuel enthusiasm for his wide release. This model has failed.
So: 1. If the 10/16 wide release is really wide, I'll eat my hat. At this point, I doubt it'll even happen.
2. Tucker is personally losing money on this thing by the minute. 3. His only hope of recouping costs is DVD, download, and VOD sales, which are very unlikely to net him any cash once his unscrupulous and tech savvy target audience rips it and puts it online for free.Poor baby!
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[www.riskybusinessblog.com]
[johnaugust.com]
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OK I'm stopping now.
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"EVEN a 40 million dollar box office" Ha!
[www.ihopetheyservebeerinhell.com]
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So: 1. If the 10/16 wide release is really wide, I'll eat my hat. At this point, I doubt it'll even happen.
2. Tucker is personally losing money on this thing by the minute. 3. His only hope of recouping costs is DVD, download, and VOD sales, which are very unlikely to net him any cash once his unscrupulous and tech savvy target audience rips it and puts it online for free.Poor baby!
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I hope you are right and fear you are wrong. There are a lot of real-life Borats out there.
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