BoxOffice® Pro - October 2012

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BOOK IT! IMITATION IS THE MOST LUCRATIVE FORM OF FLATTERY When Jaws hit it big, multiple mockbusters came out to capitalize on its success: Piranha, Orca and Alligator. This month’s Book It! looks at commodities made hotter by their proximity to greatness, including our chart which ticks off five flicks whose financial potential is maximized by similar fan-favorite TV shows and movies. HOPE FOR INDIE FILM HE’S BEEN TASKED TO SAVE INDIE FILM. DOES THAT MEAN IT’S DYING? by Sara Maria Vizcarrondo ■ When Ted Hope (below) was offered the job as the executive director of the San Francisco Film Society, he was given the mandate to “save indie film.” Not only is that a perplexingly tall order, it also raises the question: is indie film dying? “Wonderful movies come out of the indie sector and do well in the business world. That was the case two years ago,” says Hope, citing Oscar winners The King’s Speech and Black Swan as new examples of the successful indie. Earlier films like Reservoir Dogs, Pi, Sex, Lies, and Videotape all defined “indie” and provided breakout success for makers who’d go on to become major players. Those titles are remembered in part because of their exciting legacy, and they heralded later indie hits like Safe, The Brothers McMullen and The Ice Storm, each of which involved names and breakouts (Todd Haynes, Edward Burns, Sigourney Weaver), became arthouse standards in their release, and were also, not coincidentally, produced by Ted Hope. “We’re at a place right now where good films don’t always get seen,” says Hope. “It’s a move to a culture of superabundant access while business remains stuck.” He attributes the stagnation to scarcity and control. Hope calculates that nationally, we’re only able to successfully consume and market 500 to 600 indie titles per year, while every year, some 50,000 indie films are produced. “That means the top consumption market in the world, America, handles one percent of the world’s supply—or that it’s going to take an entire century to consume what we produce in one year.” Those are the kinds of numbers you hear when people speak of crude oil or corn farming, not cultural product. Yet Hope believes he knows what can rescue filmmakers, audiences and theaters owners: super niches. As he explains, “We used to have to speak to everyone. Now we speak to certain special someones.” San Francisco boasts the oldest film festival in America and continues to be seen as a leader in the field. Hope’s predecessor at the SFFS, Graham Leggat, turned the society into a yearround educational and cultural nucleus, creating multiple small festivals and showcases as well as educational programs and competitions. And the area has also grown famous worldwide because of its technological dominance. Notes Hope, “We in indie film culture haven’t successfully worked well with technology.” While digital technologies are democratic and accessible, these two groups have yet to fully merge in a way that would innovate or boost indie markets. Before his big move west to accept his new mission, Hope founded the Cinema Research Institute at NYU, a think tank that pooled savvy cinema graduate students to devise strategies to, indeed, Save Indie Film. “That sort of big-idea thinking around media and finding ways to help facilitate it on a cultural level, and not just a privatized corporate level, is something I’m really interested in doing. [I want to find] the role that a film society can have to help conservation and solutions to business and creative issues so that we can hopefully incubate a better mousetrap.” Ultimately, Hope says, “I want to embrace the largest, most comprehensive definition of what cinema is. I see the future of film as a means of creative expression and a mode of doing business.” THE DOLLS OF LISBON SMOOTH CRIMINAL The street artist Banksy argues that for art to be public and provocative, it must skate close to crime. His doc Exit Through the Gift Shop won acclaim, attention and an Oscar nom by similarly skating the lines of truth and fiction, art and crime. This doc follows suit but trades Banksy’s celeb status for a semi-obscure art movement called the Antagonist Movement. The founder makes wire frame dolls wrapped in canvas and sends them to artists around the world, satisfying both the underground influence of these dolls and the general hunger artists have for resources. This doc’s super-indie soundtrack and rough composure are marks of its authenticity, and it’s just the kind of movie you pair with a party, concert or art show. CONTACT Ethan Minsker, antagonistart@ aol.com DIRECTOR Ethan H. Minsker GENRE Documentary RUNNING TIME 72 min. LATE BLOOMERS DIE HERBSTZEITLOSEN ALWAYS BUY LINGERIE FROM AN OLD LADY The Swiss entered Late Bloomers as their bid for the foreign-film Oscar, but it rarely played here until Efi Lubliner, last month’s interviewee for Book It!, resurrected it with his International Film Showcase to capitalize on the recent pop trend of foreign stories about middle-aged kooks. Martha’s husband Hans brings her to an idyllic town in Switzerland and insists she give up her lingerie-making, a skill he makes her hide from her church-dwelling neighbors. But when Hans dies, his empty grocery shop needs a new product—and no matter how loudly conservative the townies claim to be, everyone wants to feel sexy. If your town has a busy indie undie dealer, you’ve got what it takes for a fun crossover party. CONTACT Efraim Lubliner, 925-283-1700, efi@edcsystem.com CAST Stephanie Glaser, Annemarie Düringer, Heidi Maria Glössner DIRECTOR Bettina Oberli SCREEN- 48 BOXOFFICE PRO OCTOBER <strong>2012</strong>
WRITER Sabine Pochhammer PRODUCER Alfi Sinniger GENRE Comedy, Swiss German-language, subtitled RUNNING TIME 90 min. ¡VIVAN LAS ANTIPODAS! LIKE BEING THERE BUT ARTIER As the world is 70 percent water, finding two dry antipodes—places on precisely opposite parts of our spherical earth—is rare. Still, this doc by the director of the Russian city symphony Hush! finds eight of them, revolving from the stunning sunsets of El Rios, Argentina, to the upside-down superhighways of Shanghai. Sheep are shorn in Chile, and then the camera literally flips to see sheep run through a stretch of Russian brush. Farmers milk cows and pull carrots while on the exact other half of the world, cars, commuters and smokestacks huff and puff. For those who like art docs or films about sacred spaces—and Ron Fricke, director of Samsara is living proof they’re out there—these stunning spectacles become social talking points. And that’s when the film stops being a doc about landscapes and starts being a full-blown cultural touchstone—host a conversation after your screening and you’ll hear your audience respond. CONTACT Deckert Distribution, info@ deckert-distribution.com DIRECTOR Victor Kossakovsky PRODUCER Heino Deckert GENRE Documentary RUNNING TIME 108 min. TOP OF THE CHARTS TITLE AUDIENCE GENRE DISTRIBUTOR BOOKING CONTACT AT ELLEN'S AGE IM ALTER VON ELLEN BABNIK KATI WITH AN I ONE LUCKY ELEPHANT YOU'RE NEXT … IF YOU EVER HAD A BAD DAY AT WORK AND DREAMED OF BE- COMING THE NEXT CROCODILE HUNTER … … IF YOU FEAR THE RUSSIAN MAFIA AND DON’T BELIEVE WHAT YOU'RE HEAR- ING FROM CSI … … IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR AN ANTIDOTE TO THOSE TEEN PREGNANCY REALITY SHOWS … … IF YOU'RE NOT GETTING ENOUGH OF THIS EXOTIC PET CRAZE FROM ANI- MAL PLANET … … IF YOU WANT A SMARTER UPDATE OF SCREAM ... DRAMA SUSPENSE DOCUMENTARY DOCUMENTARY HORROR COMEDY UNDISTRIBUTED UNDISTRIBUTED ICARUS FILMS OWN DOCUMENTARY CLUB MAGNET RELEASING INFO@ MATCHFACTORY.DE 49-221-5397-090 ALEJANDRO ADAMS, 650-283-3622 ALEJANDROADAMS@ GMAIL.COM SUSAN BEDUSA 27 W. 20TH ST., STE. 1006, NEW YORK, NY 10011 212-974-0082, CRISTINA COLISSIMO 310-951-2995 CRISTINA@ONELUCKY- ELEPHANT.COM MICAH GREEN SALES@ CINETICMEDIA.COM PLAN NOW FOR BETTER PROFITS IN 2013! ASK US HOW AT SHOWEAST COBB THEATRES CLEARWEATER, FL WITH YOUR MONEY MAKER 1.800.221.3699 sales@proctorco.com www.proctorco.com OCTOBER <strong>2012</strong> BOXOFFICE PRO 49
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BoxOffice® Pro - October 2012

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