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Sunday, August 31, 2003 |
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Industry brief: Movies 5 Part 1 2 3 4 6 More screens, fewer choices To get a detailed idea about how the movie industry distribution model affects shelf life and how shelf space works, let's take a look at the motion picture bookings for a representative weekend. The stats we look at are the weekend sales fugures that are the standrd for measurment in the movie industry. The weekend of August 15-17, 2003 was pretty typical, outside the summer and Christmas holiday seasons. This was not a week full of super blockbusters, but most of the big studio films were launched with almost the same multi-million dollar media blitz and the same type of media buzz as some bigger films. (It might prove an interesting exercise to see how many of these films you remember, even by name, after one or two years.) Most weekends, like this one, the really big shows open at 2,500 to 3,250 screens. As we've already noted, it's not untypical that almost 90% of all screens nationwide show the same 25 movies. In this week it seems closer to 95%. It's typical that half show the same ten movies in any given week; in this week it's about 70%. Only one of the top ten movies in this weekend had been in release for over five weeks, and it is significant that only three films have been in the theaters for over seven weeks. One, Whale Rider, is a "quality" movie, given very limited release at first, and one, Finding Nemo, is a children's animated movie. On this particular weekend, there were four major new releases, pretty typical. One (Freddy vs. Jason) was the clear winner, and it had the marketing budget and commitment, while the three other openings were more modestly presented. This is a frequent occurrence, in that studios hate to have major releases clash over the same opening weekend, and they tend to warn each other away by giving strong territorial signals. With a take of $35.4 million, Freddy vs. Jason was a very good hit for Warner, though not a record-setting blockbuster. But it did not have major star expenses, exotic locations, or Star Wars-type digital magic, so it doubtless had a relatively modest production budget (all the more money for marketing.) When a movie opens super-big, other films in release suffer. Yet Open Range, which opened in fewer theaters and is not aimed at adolescents, did pretty well, considering it was opened on a third fewer screens. Two independent studios landed on the list, which is perhaps a little better than average. Both Newmarket's Whale Rider and Manhattan's Secret Lives of Dentists did pretty well per screen, but they were clearly only released to art houses, and not, in general, to suburban theaters. Eight of the films, including American Wedding, are sequels, with Freddy vs. Jason the sequel of two movie series. One (Freaky Friday) is a remake; one (Pirates) is based on an amusement park ride. It's also notable that two formerly "prestige" studios now owned by bigger companies, Miramax and New Line, are releasing movies that resemble and compete against those created bymainstream studios. The basic issue is that no matter where you live in the United States, no matter how many theaters there are within 15 miles of your house, these films and very few others were playing. The films that didn't get on the selves almost don't exist. Because they have no shelf space, they get no mind space, and with no mind space, they can get no further shelf space. And, by and large, if you don't catch the film within four weeks of release, you'll have trouble finding it in the theater. You'll have to wait six months for the DVD. Note also that all of the top 16 films, and 23 of the top 25, come from members of the film studio oligopoly. You can break into the top ten if your film is not distributed by a big media company, but the chances are pretty slim.
5:07:32 PM 
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Last update: 9/4/2007; 8:54:40 PM .
