'Bella' Is Surprise Small Scale Hit

By Katey Rich

Here's a heartwarming Hollywood parable for you as you head into the holiday weekend. A little movie made for little money charms audiences at a big film festival, but still no major studios are interested in picking it up. Believing in the movie, and in the dedicated people behind it, a small distributor takes the movie on, and spends the next year reaching out to all the audiences they believe will love it. The filmmakers and actors promote it relentlessly, and when this little movie made for little money finally makes it to theatres, it blows everyone away. For a solid month it does nothing but increase its business, and word starts to spread that the little movie has already made five million dollars on less than 400 screens, and only has plans to go bigger.

Bella's story is the kind of that every independent filmmaker dreams of happening with their little-indie-that-could. Even Eric D'Arbeloff, co-president of Bella's distributor Roadside Attractions, admits they've been surprised by Bella's success. "This film has defied everybody's expectations. I think if the industry ever expected it would be at $5 million halfway through its release, a studio would have picked it up."

Bella is the first feature from writer-director Alejandro Gomez Monteverde, about Jose (Eduardo Verstegui), a waiter who walks out of his job in solidarity with Nina, a waitress (Tammy Blanchard) who has been fired by his hot-tempered brother (Manny Perez) for being late while she took a pregnancy test. Jose and Nina spend the day wandering the city together, visiting Jose's family by the beach and discussing Nina's accidental pregnancy.

With its gentle pro-life message and Latino main character, Bella has appealed greatly both to religious and Hispanic communities, groups that are often targeted with specialty films but rarely at the same time. "I think what has really clicked with those audiences is that it's not the clichs of what you would expect movies for them would be. It is a real film and dealing with complex characters and not simple solutions."

D'Arbeloff described an experience creating the trailer, when Monteverde stepped in to ask they not include such stereotypical "Latino" music. "You can't talk down to [Hispanic communities]. They're interested in independent film and new voices in the same way that other filmgoers are."

Bella opened on 165 screens on Oct. 26, and notched a phenomenal $8,000 per-screen average, according to Box Office Mojo. Since then the movie has expanded to 457 screens and maintained a healthy $2,200 per-screen average. Bella's top markets remain coastal stalwarts Los Angeles and New York, but within the top 10 are also Dallas, Houston and Minneapolis. According to D'Arbeloff, Roadside Attractions plans to continue expanding into new markets and screens.

D'Arbeloff said it's hard to quantify the word-of-mouth effect on the film's success but notes, "I do think there's a lot of informal stuff going on"-- like e-mails sent to friends or conversations with family. A Google blog search indicates significant support for the movie on pro-life and Catholic websites; the activist organization Operation Rescue posted a message on its website with the title "Send Hollywood a message! Go See Bella Wednesday, Thursday." In it the group's president, shown in a photo with the movie's star Verstegui, tells readers, "While abortion is not directly mentioned, the pro-life theme of this heartwarming movie is unmistakable. We believe the life message in Bella is so powerfully and artfully presented, that it will save lives and change hearts."

On sites like Fandango and Yahoo! Movies, where readers are encouraged to submit their own ratings for films, Bella ranks well above critical favorite No Country for Old Men or even box-office behemoths like American Gangster. "It wasn't as Hollywood as the rest," wrote Fandango user m.perez. "I liked that they didn't dirty it up with sex and swearing. It was just a movie that stood on its own."

D'Arbeloff credits Monteverde, Verstegui, executive producer Shawn Wolfington and producer Leo Severino for coming into the distribution process with a distinct idea of where they wanted their film to go. "[Bella's success] goes to show this whole idea about the filmmakers really pulling through and finding different constituencies for a movie that obviously the industry didn't really respond to. I think it's really a great story�the industry doesn't always have the last word on things."