Showing posts with label VOD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label VOD. Show all posts

Friday, January 3, 2014

‘Paranormal Activity’ to scare up weekend business

Though 2013 ended on a high note earlier this week – domestic sales tallied out at almost $11 billion for the year – the first weekend of 2014 will likely be a quiet one.  The Marked Ones, the fifth installment in the popular Paranormal Activity horror franchise, is the only new release opening today. The first PA film was a surprise hit and a testament to the power of word-of-mouth buzz. The micro-budgeted flick, released in 2007, earned $107.9 million and is still the series’ most successful movie. Paranormal Activity 2 grossed $84.8 million in 2010, while Paranormal 3 has come the closest yet to matching the first film’s haul, raking in $104 million in 2011. Paranormal Activity 4, however, which opened in 2012, took in roughly half its predecessor’s total, earning just $53.9 million.


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This time around, the filmmakers are hoping to utilize the power of demographics. The lead actors in The Marked Ones are Latino, perhaps a direct casting nod to the series’ fans: Latinos tend to make up a large percentage of horror-movie audiences. Not to mention, with the success of recent films targeted toward Latino viewers, such as Instructions Not Included, Hollywood in general seems to be wising up to the power (i.e. the willingness to spend) of this previously underserved group. Besides a shift in players, though, it’s supernatural business as usual, with previews emphasizing unsettling video footage, the franchise’s hallmark.


Pundits are predicting a haul of just under $25 million for Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones. Expectations have been softened by the weekend’s Northeastern snowstorm, which many believe will keep viewers inside, where their VOD, DVDs and Netflix are more readily accessible.


A good portion of those who are brave enough to weather the elements in search of off-the-couch entertainment, though, will in all likelihood opt for Disney’s grand success story, Frozen. This weekend will mark the animated musical’s sixth in theatres, and it’s still going strong. Strong enough to win the No. 2 slot just beneath The Marked Ones, according to those in the know. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug will probably clock in at No. 3, followed by Oscar and fan favorite American Hustle, with Anchorman 2 rounding out the top 5. Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street may be able to leverage recent controversy and prurient interest in its subject matter to sneak its way into the No. 5 slot, just ahead of Burgundy and his much more harmless coterie of buffoons, but given Street’s low Cinemascore rating  of a “C”, that seems unlikely.


 



Wednesday, August 15, 2012

'Bachelorette' finds success by releasing on VOD before theatrical release

Theatre owners and moviegoers take note: Bachelorette has earned a half-million dollars, and it hasn't even opened in theatres yet. The Sundance Film Festival-approved comedy has been available on VOD and iTunes since August 10th, but it won't reach theatres until September 7th. On iTunes, rentals cost $9.99, and the movie debuted at #1, a first for a VOD release.


Normally, distributors don't disclose how much they earn from VOD releases, though it can equal and even exceed the theatrical portion. However, Radius-TWC, a new VOD-focused section of The Bachelorette Kirsten Dunst Lizzy Caplan Isla FisherWeinstein Co., is likely releasing these figures to drum up more publicity for the movie when it hits theatres. In fact, the co-head of Radius, Tom Quinn, says just that, explaining that the company views VOD as a "revenue-generating word-of-mouth screening program." I think there's some truth to that. The Internet encourages impulse buys. Early adopters who looked at star Kirsten Dunst's Twitter, for example, would have been clued into the release and, if they rented it, could have tweeted their own recommendations to people who ended up seeing the raunchy comedy in either theatre or on VOD. Because the film was produced by Gary Sanchez Productions, a co-creator of FunnyorDie.com, the red-band trailer had prime placement on the site, making it very easy for people to click "buy," which is a lot easier than gathering up a group of friends to go to the movie theatre.


While early word-of-mouth can help drive a movie to a successful release in theatres, bad buzz can hurt. Among the "most helpful" comments on Bachelorette's iTunes rental page are a number of comments that say "bad Hangover," "rip-off of Bridesmaids," and "don't let the cast fool you." Of course, comments like ayshleyo3's "Great movie--many laughs along the way! I will probably go see this again in theatres with my girlfriends" even out the criticism.


Although a number of indies like IFC and Magnolia have long been in the VOD-theatrical combo game, The Weinstein Co. (and by extension Radius) is known for its marketing acumen. With their highly publicized release of the movie's success so far, they're showing they're a force in the VOD game, and I'm sure they'll have more tricks up their sleeve in capitalizing on the VOD-to-theatrical release plan.


 



Thursday, October 6, 2011

'Tower Heist' to be available for just $59.99 three weeks after opening


By Sarah Sluis

If most city dwellers pay at least $10 for a movie ticket, it would take six people just to equal the price of watching Tower Heist on-demand for $59.99. The fee, which is more than six months of Netflix's streaming services, is part of a test being carried out by Universal and its parent company, Comcast. For that price, viewers can watch the film three weeks after its theatrical release in the comfort of their own homes. But who's buying?



A lot of people don't even have six comfortable seats on their couch, let alone the ability to wrangle so many friends together to watch a movie and share the cost. Do executives at Universal and Comcast expect people will invite friends over to watch the movie? Will couples gather older children (the movie will be rated PG-13) around the television? Will the teens themselves hit the "buy" button to the consternation of their parents? Or will this be a status thing for the people on MTV's "Cribs" with home theatres?



Tower heist Comcast plans to test the VOD concept in two markets, Atlanta and Portland. Atlanta, with its high population of affluent black citizens and ex-pro sports players, seems like a good fit for the test, especially since Tower Heist has a couple of prominent black cast members (Eddie Murphy and Gabby Sidibe of Precious fame). Portland may be the counterpoint to that test, with a liberal, tech-savvy populace but not as much of a reputation for McMansions. Because the McMansion segment, presumably, has enough money to rent a movie for ten times what it used to cost at Blockbuster.



It's doubtful that Universal and Comcast would release the data from the test, so the best indication of this working would be if this idea of high-priced on-demand continues to flourish. So far, the exhibition industry and NATO have not spoken out on this issue. The audience for high-priced on-demands is probably small. It's hard to see the value proposition in paying so much to see a movie at home when a theatre provides more of a guarantee of good technical specs and an "event"-like experience.



Is this high-priced product intended to figure out the upper limit people will pay to watch a movie? Or is it simply a bit of a bait-and-switch? If the industry plans on offering more reasonably priced, $29.99 on-demands in the future, maybe this is just a way to gain a foothold and flout current windowing guidelines without prompting the ire of the exhibition industry.



Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Indie film execs ponder the future at BAFTA East Coast panel


By Sarah Sluis
FJI writer Doris Toumarkine reports exclusively for Screener on a May 27 gathering of leading New York-based film executives.

Indie veteran Mark Gill famously suggested at the height of gloom that "the sky is falling" on the specialized movie business. That prognosis got an encouraging if hardly conclusive update from a panel of high-level New York-based executives in the thick of the action at a May 27 BAFTA East Coast event at Scandinavia House in Manhattan.

The good news they reported is: The sky is still up there, although the forecast remains uncertain and evolving. The nominal topic�"Has Distribution Been Democratized at the Expense of Capitalism?"�was not resolved except for the politically inclined Focus Features CEO James Schamus drolly noting that "the Chinese have proven that capitalism can happen without democracy."

But the focus of the event was on indie film in our democracy and how that business might heal itself and make capitalism proud. Observations abounded, if not answers.

Concurring with the notion that the pipelines for movie consumption have indeed opened up, speakers pondered which new business models might also have profits running through those pipelines for content creators and deployers.

Journalist Anthony Kaufman, who has followed the independent scene for years and served as moderator, got the discussion going with the proclamation that "the [specialized] industry is in transition, not in decline." So far, so good.

Reminding that ticket, DVD and foreign sales are down and online distribution and video-on-demand activity haven't made up for the loss in revenues, he challenged the panel�Sony Pictures Classics co-chair Michael Barker, National Geographic Films president Daniel Battsek, Focus Features' Schamus, Cinetic Media founder and lawyer/sales agent/distributor John Sloss, and CAA agent Daniel Steinman�to come up with ideas for what can be done to get things on track.

Battsek, referring to his native U.K. where the emergence of multiplexes helped turn things around for independents, suggested "good movies in good theatres" might be a solution, that building more quality theatres stateside might get more people in seats. And Barker cited exhibitors like Cinemark and Regal that have screens dedicated to specialized product, making it easier for art-house fans to find them.

Regarding the so-so profitability, if any, of films on VOD, at least as seen by filmmakers and their sellers, Steinman, who sells films to distributors, suggested that the on-demand films need better marketing to viewers. The problem, as he sees it, is that there are just so many titles available and it's hard and confusing for consumers to find what they want.

Panelists referred to a number of other pressures, including piracy. In fact, Sloss proclaimed piracy "the real problem, as all we're going through a reorientation." Schamus pointed to Spain and Korea as the worst piracy offenders and Sloss backed this up with his observation that in Spain pirating movies is almost a badge of honor, that it's a "cultural" inclination that people "enjoy" and has become a "frightening habit."

Barker too called for a secure digital platform to guard against piracy, but also said there needs to be "a meeting of the minds on DVD price points."

Panelists pointed to the economic inefficiencies of the pricing of content, which does not reflect the true supply-to-demand ratio.

The conundrum of windows reared its head, with Sloss opining, "It's ridiculous having to wait so long after theatrical" for other outlets to be available, a delay viewed, right or wrongly, as fueling piracy. Others noted that there's no guarantee that getting ancillaries out earlier will counter piracy.

The strategy of day-and-date releasing got mixed notices. Some panelists agreed that simultaneous releases would be appropriate for certain, narrowly targeted films like the upcoming Restrepo or Alex Gibney's new documentary about Elliot Spitzer. With regard to the latter, Sloss said it might work first going into VOD, then theatrical, as "it has built-in awareness." And Battsek even suggested that to better understand day-and-date, "maybe we should take some risks and sacrifice a few movies to find the way to do this."

Barker agreed that perhaps the strategy could work for some films but explained that "the goal is for [Sony Pictures Classics] films to become evergreens, and day-and-date cuts off that opportunity." In other words, good films need a lot of exclusive time in theatres to generate the needed word of mouth and the revenues this produces.

CAA's Steinman agreed. "We don't put movies together thinking of the IFC or Magnolia [VOD] model. The way that money gets made for filmmakers is with theatrical happening first." Barker concurred, saying that "for a fair shake, filmmakers need theatrical," but he admitted that "if it seemed right, we would even experiment with a day-and-date situation."

And there's still the murky business of where and how much revenue there is in the VOD business, critical information that trickles back to filmmakers as rarely as the money does. And because VOD and DVD titles are so numerous, panelists joked that there is a clear advantage to films beginning with the letter "a" or a number to put them at the head of the long availability lists consumers must pore through.

Of course, the lower the budget for a film, the better, at least in terms of seeing a return. Kaufman suggested that the "bright budget" these days for indies is about $450,000. And while the trend is that directors and actors are cutting their fees, Steinman said that agents advise their clients not to work on spec.

The importance of P&A money these days was also addressed, as financiers also need to raise that cash, especially when no domestic distribution deal is in place for their projects. "We're more in the P&A business than ever before," declared Steinman.

As for the importance of marketing films to young audiences via Facebook or Twitter and other online sites, Barker observed that the studios, as opposed to the smaller distributors, are dealing with the Net the way they deal with TV. But Battsek pointed to the fact that using the Net is difficult because "everyone is pushing their products there, so it's more difficult than taking out a New York Times ad."

Overall, guarded optimism in spite of so many unanswered questions permeated the discussion, as did an acknowledgement that change will be inevitable if not yet identifiable. The somewhat upbeat vibe was also assuring, as these big guns of the indie sector seem less prone to the cheerleading done by their counterparts atop the studios and corporate conglomerates�a reflection of the indie films themselves, which tend to be more in touch with reality than mainstream fare.

But then, certain big-gun producers in the BAFTA audience like John Heyman and David Picker, known for their big-budget tentpoles and studio affiliations, might beg to differ.