Indie distributors discuss 'State of Theatrical' at DOC NYC

By Sarah Sluis

One thing quickly became clear at yesterday's "State of Theatrical" panel at DOC NYC. It's impossible to talk about theatrical releases today without also talking about digital. Even with a digital panel occurring directly after the theatrical discussion, talk of VOD, Netflix, Hulu, and upstarts like Constellation were used as reference and comparison points.

No one seemed ready to give up on theatrical in the panel, which included Mark Boxer from IFC, Emily Russo from Zeitgeist, Matt Cowal from Magnolia and Ryan Krivoshey from Cinema Guild. Russo noted several times throughout the discussion that Zeitgeist does not view theatrical as a loss leader for later television or DVD sales, as many in the industry do. Their small company, which releases just 5-6 titles a year, has to try to make money on each movie. It's about "managing expectations," she says, doing "what we feel we can spend to support" a release. Boxer also noted that spends can always be expanded later in the game, citing Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work as an example. IFC expected the documentary to do $1 million. It ended up brining in $3 million, and more support was given to the film as it exceeded expectations.

Documentaries just don't earn as much as feature films, so what constitutes success in the documentary market? It turns out, more are successful than you think. Russo stated that half-million is a great number for a documentary to receive on the theatrical market, and everyone else on the panel agreed. Zeitgeist's third-highest grossing movie ever, Bill Cunningham New York is still playing at the IFC Center where the discussion was held. It's been out 33 weeks. Russo attributed the movie's $1.5 million take to date to the "humanism" of Cunningham's character, and the fact that it showcased New York, New Yorkers, and lovers of fashion--the last a particularly easy-to-reach group online.

Bad reviews are the Achilles' heel for small docs that rely on positive critical response, but even worse is no review. The group talked about how they "die a little inside" every time a small town's film critic is laid off. When that happens, the paper will often reprint a review from another paper--most often The New York Times. For Magnolia's release Page One: Inside the New York Times, which was trashed by both that paper and the Los Angeles Times, that proved to be damaging. Cowal said they were able to get many other papers to run reprints of reviews besides the Times' for Page One, but a good review from the Times could have turned so-so business in the Big Apple into a blockbuster release.

Concurrent VOD/theatrical releaes are becoming more common. IFC does simultaneous VOD and theatrical releases for certain titles. Magnolia selects some releases to be available on VOD and iTunes one month before their theatrical release. When a documentary is only available in New York City anyway, this allows more viewers easy access to the title. It also provides lots of free advertising from cable companies and iTunes. The IFC and Magnolia reps talked about how titles that are "currently in theatres" or doing "pre-theatrical runs" get favorable placement and often free ads on the cable company's barker channel simply because they are using such a window. On the flip side, Boxer noted that they did not do simultaneous VOD for Cave of Forgotten Dreams and Buck because big theatre chains will not touch those movies if they're already on-demand. In general, Boxer felt that the big chains were more than willing to work with IFC. Since Cave of Forgotten Dreams was in 3D, Boxer's team had to ask a lot of theatres to give up a screen reserved for Justin Bieber: Never Say Never.

When it comes to simultaneous VOD/theatrical releases, these small distributors are the vanguard. Boxer cited the recent, failed attempt to release Tower Heist on VOD shortly after its release as an example of studios unable to do what these tiny distributors are already doing regularly. Though that failed due to pushback from major exhibitors, "in the future, they'll be in that space," Boxer said confidently. For many exhibitors, though, that reality is their worst fear.

DOC NYC continues through Nov. 10. Check the schedule of events here.