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Truly Free Film

The Really Good Things In FilmBiz 2014

Let's look at the bright side!
Let’s look at the bright side!

Some rituals help keep us focused throughout the year. This marks the 4th time I have looked back at all the good things that occurred in the film biz and listed them out for all of us. Tracking them through year, keeps me from abandoning hope. Sometimes they may just be the silver lining in the storm cloud, but nonetheless they keep me going, keep me convinced that in fact we truly are: building it better together. I hope they do something close to that for you. It’s been a good year, and I have thirty two morsels to tempt you with. And of course the year’s not through yet, so perhaps you have some to add to this too. 

If you’ve encountered elements of this list earlier on my postings in Film Comment and on Keyframe, pay careful attention as I have weaved some new points into all for your reading pleasure. And if you like a little of the bitter to wash down the sweet, don’t forget the list of 30 Bad Things In 2014’s Film Biz here.

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Truly Free Film

The Box Office Numbers for Favor

By Paul Osborne

TeaserPoster_WebSizedSmallThere’s been a recent battle-cry within the independent film community – lead by folks like Ted Hope and Jon Reiss – urging us filmmakers to publish the revenue generated by our movies, specifically in regard to new forms of distribution.  Unlike the weekly box office reports of studio films, the actual figures for indies, particularly those using newer release methods such as Video-On-Demand, are hard to come by.  Without them, and subsequently without any way of determining the success or failure of specific releases, it makes perfecting and improving new avenues of distribution quite difficult.   How do you know what’s working, and what’s not, if you don’t see the results?

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Truly Free Film

Nobody Knows Anything #3: What Makes A Film Successful?

By Charles Peirce  

Nobody3-300There’s a certain watercooler betting-pool mentality that accompanies the box office results of movies, as though their success were completely encapsulated in a single opening weekend’s results. This despite the fact that everybody knows Hollywood accounting is particularly slippery, that budgets never reveal the accompanying marketing costs of films, that foreign market revenue is increasingly important to the success of many films, and that ancillarly sales can be a primary rather than secondary revenue stream. Nonetheless, we seem to equate box office numbers with whether a film worked, whether it’s worth anyone’s time, and whether it’s going to ruin somebody’s career or save it.

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Truly Free Film

What Do The Top Grossing INDIE Films Of 2000s Reveal?

I think I may have posted this before.  I just recently came across it again.  This list was compiled by the good folks at Indiewire.  I stare at it and think it must reveal some greater truth.

What does it say about our culture, about what people want to see?  What does it say about the mainstream industry and what they will buy or promote?

Top Grossing Independent Films of the 2000s

1. The Passion of the Christ, 2004 (Newmarket)  $370,274,604
2. My Big Fat Greek Wedding, 2003 (IFC Films)  $241,438,208
3. Juno, 2007 (Fox Searchlight)  $143,395,265
4. Slumdog Millionaire, 2008 (Fox Searchlight)  $141,319,928
5. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2000 (Sony Pictures Classics) $128,078,872
6. Traffic, 2000 (USA) $124,115,725
7. Fahrenheit 9/11, 2004 (Lionsgate) $119,194,771
8. Paranormal Activity, 2009 (Paramount)  $107,753,000
9. Brokeback Mountain, 2005 (Focus Features)  $83,043,761
10. March of the Penguins, 2005 (Warner Independent) $77,437,223
11. Coraline, 2009 (Focus Features)  $75,286,229
12. Sideways, 2004 (Fox Searchlight)  $71,503,593
13. Burn After Reading, 2008 (Focus Features)  $60,355,347
14. Little Miss Sunshine, 2006 (Fox Searchlight)  $59,891,098
15. Hero, 2004 (Miramax) $53,710,019
16. Atonement, 2007 (Focus Features) $50,927,067
17. 28 Days Later, 2003 (Fox Searchlight)  $45,064,915
18. Lost In Translation, 2003 (Focus Features)  $44,585,453
19. Napoleon Dynamite, 2004 (Fox Searchlight)  $44,540,956
20. Precious: Based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire, 2009 (Lionsgate)  $42,004,270

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Truly Free Film

Is This What You Mean By "Indie"?

Deadline Hollywood published a great list of the “Indie” Box Office. I think this underscores why I was looking for some new nomenclature when I started this blog.

TOP 20 INDEPENDENTLY FINANCED FILMS
Weekend of October 23–25, 2009
Exclusive To Deadline Hollywood

TITLE, DISTRIB, COMPANY, WKD BOX OFFICE, SCREENS/AVERAGE, CUME

1. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (Par/IM Global) $21.1M [1,945/$10,850] $61.5M
2. SAW VI (Lionsgate) $14.1M [3,036/$4,650]
3. LAW ABIDING CITIZEN (Overture) $12.4M [2,890/$4,292] $40.0M
4. ASTRO BOY (Summit/Imagi) $6.7M [3,014/$2,224] $6.7M
5. A SERIOUS MAN (Focus) $1.0M [176/$6,211] $3.1M
6. GOOD HAIR (Roadside Attractions) $945K [466/$2,030] $2.8M
7. CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY (Overture) $726K [636/$1,142] $12.9M
8. WHIP IT (Fox Searchlight/Mandate) $466K [435/$1,071] $12.2M
9. AN EDUCATION (SPC/BBC/Odyssey) $367K [31/$11,851] $940K
10. COCO AVANT CHANEL (SPC/Canal+) $272K [63/$4,321] $1.7M
11. NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU (Vivendi) $230K [110/$2,092] $747K
12. FAME (MGM/Lakeshore) $212K [445/$477] $22.0M
13. BRIGHT STAR (Apparition/TVA) $212K [209/$1,015] $3.9M
14. TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE** (Warner/New Line) $203K [284/$718] $62.8M
15. I CAN DO BAD ALL BY MYSELF (Lionsgate) $178K [273/$655] $51.6M
16. INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (Weinstein/Uni) $176K [206/$857] $119.3M
17. DISTRICT 9 (Sony/QED) $148K [232/$638] $115.5M
18. 5150, RUE DES ORMES (Alliance Films) $107K [55/$1,955] $787K
19. MORE THAN A GAME (Lionsgate) $99K [107/$929] $749K
20. THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE (Roadside0 $89K [61/$1,469] $3.4M

** A New Line production distributed through Warner Brothers.