As with so many successful screenwriters, John August's work might be more familiar to you than his name. He wrote Go, Charlie's Angels, and a trio of Tim Burton films -- Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Corpse Bride -- before making the mind-bending indie flick The Nines (pictured). He directed it, too (his first feature in that capacity), so he had even more personal attachment to it when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007.A few days ago, August posted an entry on his blog in which he dissects his experience with The Nines and uses it to shine some light on the nerve-racking, dog-eat-dog world of independent filmmaking. Clearly this business is not for the faint of heart. He lists what he calls "the Graduating Class of 2007," 21 buzz-generating films from Sundance that year, including his own. All but one were bought by distributors ... and almost all of them totally tanked at the box office.
That's not very encouraging, especially considering these were the cream of the Sundance crop. Only five on his list made more than $1 million in theaters, and many didn't even crack $100,000. The Nines (which was pretty decent, by the way, definitely worth checking out) got a cursory theatrical release in a couple cities, where it made a paltry $63,165, then eventually found its way to DVD.
Hindsight being 20/20, August has some ideas on what could have helped The Nines, and what might help other films like it. In a marketplace where 20-screen multiplexes only play seven different blockbuster films, and where films make most of their money opening weekend, small-budget indies can't compete by using the same business model. August even suggests that a little illegal pirating of his movie at just the right time might have helped -- and it's hard to argue with him.
What do you think about his ideas? How can smaller movies get seen by bigger audiences?
(By the way, if you're at all interested in the mechanics of screenwriting and you're not already familiar with August's blog, you must remedy that situation at once. His insight and advice are fantastic. Also, thanks to my old pal Sean P. Means at the Salt Lake Tribune for calling attention to this particular August essay.)
1. I don't think it's really about small-market films competing with big-market films. The goal of the entertainment industry is to sell movie tickets ("industry"), and most people go to the movie theater to be entertained ("entertainment").
If you make an indy flick for $50,000 and it only does $100,000 in ticket sales, then that gross doesn't seem quite as bad. Or cut a zero off each of those numbers.
As John says, you should make a movie to make a movie, not to make money. It's awfully hard to make money in the movie industry even if you're trying to cater to a mass audience, plenty of rich businessmen have had their asses handed to them this way.
Posted at 3:38PM on Jul 7th 2008 by Stephen Lang