A reader writes, apropos of my posting on the box-office “failure” of Master and Commander:
The thing that always occurs to me when I read about the “failure” of
some ambitious new film is this – how much of the cycle of fast consumption
and a very narrow definition of success sets up failure as an inevitability?
I’m not phrasing this correctly. Modern movie “success” is predicated on
getting butts in the seats right away – and that’s not how adults see
movies, for the most part.
Who has time? You’ve got to work, and clean the house, rake the leaves, fix
the toilet, make time for your spouse and children, or friends and family,
find a babysitter – or wait for your married friends to find one – go to the
gym, feed your mind and spirit in whatever fashion pleases you – arts, news,
theater, athletics, cooking, sex, all of the above. Going to the movies is
terrific, but not really a communal act and as such falls a little further
down in my list of priorities – and I suspect I’m not alone here. Does
Hollywood know this?
Maybe it is different in the city, where there is a more logical flow from
theater to restaurant to conversation, but out here in the hinterlands, you
go, and then you stand in the parking lot dragging out the moment before you
go to your separate cars and depart. Maybe you go to dinner after, but by
the time you figure out where, get into your separate vehicles and drive
there, the immediacy of the experience has changed. Everyone lives 20 or 30
minutes away from each other, so it is not that easy to travel together –
and the babysitter dollar factor can not be discounted. I also think there
is a 9/11 aspect to movie going, just in terms of where people prioritize
their time these days.
When the success or failure of a movie is measured in weeks and instant
gratification dollars, most films (adult or otherwise) disappear from the
multiplex before I can see them. The perfect exception is My Big Fat Greek
Wedding – which, I know, had a tiny budget – a terrific, funny film.
Because it was slow building it got to hang around for a while, giving adult
people with complex scheduling challenges a chance to find the time to see
it, recommend it and sometimes see it again. I probably don’t understand the
economics of cinemas well enough, but it just seems to me that the “failure”
of a film is, in many cases, less about its ultimate audience, its ultimate
financial and critical achievements, and more about who’s willing to rush
out and see it right away. And since that definition of success is skewed
towards exploding things and the people who rush out to see them explode, a
catch-22 emerges. What’s wrong with a slow building success? Is it somehow
un-American? Or something to be less proud of? I really don’t get it – the
elevation of immediacy over the celebration of quality. And the lesson
seems to have been lost on the movie business, particularly when it comes to
so-called adult oriented movies.
This summer I had hoped to see the documentary Spellbound – it played in the
next town over for a week. I barely knew it was there before it was gone –
and I just don’t understand how that’s good marketing, or marketing that has
any understanding of the demands of daily life. Movie advertising focuses
on the opening week and then peters away to make room for the next
thing….Over half the space in the multiplex is devoted to only one or two
films, with everything else crammed into the leftover spaces, with more
limited show schedules….bragging rights dependent on opening grosses, not
total grosses. It encourages the production of shoddy, cheap and exciting
movies, endless sequels and safe bets, which will make a lot of money right
away and then disappear without leaving any kind of lasting impression and
sets up a cycle of expectation where there is no room for any other style or
approach.
Gosh, I’m cranky today. Reading about the film industry definition of
success always pushes my buttons, particularly after having sat through
Matrix Reloaded (I refuse to see Revolutions on the “fool me once”
principal). Master & Commander was very expensive, true, but I don’t doubt
it will make money – ultimately. Foreign rights, DVD, and the audience that
will read the reviews, hear their friends say good things and go see it as
long as its in the theater. I don’t know if that will qualify as success
by current standards, but I think its pretty OK. Let’s check again in a
year.
To all of which I have just two things to say:
(1) This explains why I look forward to the day when (as I argued in my original posting) “the adventurous indie flicks of the not-so-distant future…find their audiences not in theatrical release, but via such new-media distribution routes as direct-to-DVD and on-demand digital cable.”
(2) Thanks for writing. I couldn’t have put it better if I’d stayed up all night.