Read David Mamet's excellent book: Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business. He addresses this topic and just about everything else with regards to the way studios operate. Really good read.
Peter Contarino From: MoPo List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Kirby McDaniel Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2011 12:17 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [MOPO] OT: Movie crowds dip to 16-year low as apathy lingers Very good post. Even when the truth is hiding in plain sight, it's easy to look at things from an old model. Kirby On Dec 29, 2011, at 11:03 AM, Phillip W. Ayling wrote: Bruce, The article is interesting and I agree with your comments as well. I also want to offer some additional thoughts. "Hollywood" (whatever that is) once focused only on domestic Box Office. In the early days of cinema - while movies were made in many places - US cinema got a boost, not only because of talent here (including many British Music Hall performers) but because there was a worldwide fascination with what Hollywood and the US looked like. After the advent of talkies, you had the gritty speak of Humphrey Bogart and Jimmy Cagney, Cowboy-talk of the Old West, and American and British "stage speech" in films. Every mob in every town of every horror film, spoke mild Cockney instead of some type of Transylvania middle European accent, save for Maria Ouspenskaya. People with strong foreign accents were generally relegated to character roles as Hollywood was most focused on U.S and perhaps "English speaking" Box Office. Even though films were dubbed, that was generally a very secondary consideration in the casting or the nature of the film to be made. Arnold "Terminator" wasn't even allowed to speak English in his first film. Movies done by US producers are now made, cast and greenlit with an eye to International Box Office. Casts are often put together not just on their ability to gel, but also on the basis of what worldwide markets that can deliver. It is possible that this year's total worldwide revenue will once again hit an all time high. While producers are concerned about the drop in Domestic Box Office, they are not going to put that at risk while they have found a formula that has driven International and total Box-Office growth for the last 25 years. International press tours and local market TV appearances are important to ticket sales in a way that they never were before. More and more films are cast with an eye to the ability of some of the stars to dub their own voices and to have built in "local recognition" in certain marketplaces. Can you say "The Expendables"? Pirates of the Caribbean 4 (with more sequels to come) was originally built around a ride at Disneyland. It earned 80% of its 1 billion dollars overseas. Johnny Depp is an international star who speaks some French. Penelope Cruz was added to the cast not just because she is a fine actress, but also because she is an international star who speaks Spanish and Italian, does her own dubbing and is a smashing asset on foreign press tours. Every producer knows that Mila Kunis speaks Russian; a place where Hollywood is trying to build audiences. Viggo Mortensen does dubbing and tours in a host of languages. I could go on and on. Tintin probably won't do nearly as well in the US as it will do in Europe. Steven Spielberg and New Zealander Peter Jackson (who is one of the producers) could not have made that film as a Columbia -Paramount co-production 25 years ago. It would have been made by a European producer, probably in French, and been relegated to a small US release. Spielberg was directing his first animated film and he wanted it to have world-wide appeal. Though Frank Capra was born in Sicily, you would never know it from any film he ever made. I'm not passing judgment and not trying to be xenophobic. The U.S. film business has just changed.The French, Spanish, Italian and other film businesses generally are making better films in my opinion because telling a story is more important than how wide an International release they will be able to get. Hollywood is trying to make films where every marketplace will see someone that they can relate to onscreen and call their own. I'm not saying that means that Hollywood has to make crappy films, but that seems to be a by-product of making films as marketing deals rather than as story telling vehicles. ----- Original Message ----- From: Bruce Hershenson <mailto:[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2011 6:31 AM Subject: [MOPO] OT: Movie crowds dip to 16-year low as apathy lingers http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/53195051-79/billion-million-movie-2011.ht ml.csp My thinking is that most current movies aren't very good, and that they are too expensive, too much trouble to go to, and there are a million good alternatives that are far cheaper and just as entertaining. Many current releases look like they started with a cutesy title and built a completely unnecessary movie around it ("Chipwrecked", etc). MAKE GOOD MOVIES AND THE AUDIENCES WILL COME BACK! -- Bruce Hershenson and the other 24 members of the eMoviePoster.com team P.O. 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Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
