Independents Daze
Thanks
to kudo-spawned awareness and greater
screen availability, specialty movies seem to be more
popular than ever – even as the line separating ‘mainstream’ and ‘specialty’ begins
to blur and dissipate.
I. JUST WHAT
IS IT, ANYWAY?
Independent films are big – bigger probably than
they’ve ever been – but it’s nearly impossible
to quantify their popularity, simply because there’s
an appalling lack of agreement on what “independent
film” means.
Is a film judged “independent” because of its
budget? Its subject matter? Its distributor? The source
of its financing? The cinemas in which it plays? Or is “indie” status
perhaps just a function of a project’s star power
(or lack thereof)?
“Whale Rider” would comfortably fit almost anyone’s
definition of “indie.” The New Zealand drama
was relatively inexpensive to produce, lacks “marquee
names,” and was released by Newmarket Films, a distributor
with no ties to the big studios.
But what about the coming-of-age drama “Blue Car”?
Modestly budgeted and starpower-challenged, it feels to
many like an indie as well, but it was released by Miramax – and
Miramax inhabits a very gray area these days.
Fifteen years ago, when a big Miramax hit
was “sex,
lies, and videotape” (domestic theatrical gross:
$24.7 million), few would dispute the distibutor’s
status as an independent. But today Miramax is owned by
the Walt Disney Co., and releases movies like “She’s
All That,” “Scary Movie” and “Chicago” – projects
that might be as much at home at any of the biggest Hollywood
studios. How authentically can Miramax still declare its
independence? Similarly, can New Line Cinema, now owned
by AOL Time Warner, make a similar declaration – even
as it continues to bankroll big-budget actioners like the “Rush
Hour” and “Lord of the Rings” movies?
And how does one classify releases from
Sony Pictures Classics, Paramount Classics, Fox Searchlight,
Focus Features and
Fine Line Features (to say nothing of the boutique division
Warner Bros. is developing)? All are charged with generating
product for the specialty market, and all have direct ties
to major motion picture studios.
The lines grow blurrier still when the big
studios release their own quirky, low-budget efforts. Witness
Fox’s
$20 million “Transporter,” starring Jason Statham
(“Snatch”) and Hong Kong favorite Shu Qi. Or
Warner Bros.’ $12 million “Welcome to Collinwood,” headlined
by William H. Macy (“Fargo,” “The Cooler”)
and Sam Rockwell (“Confessions of A Dangerous Mind”).
Or Warner’s $6 million “Best in Show,” starring
the likes of Parker Posey, Eugene Levy and Fred Willard.
Leaving aside the issue of what constitutes
an “independent
distributor,” would a film like “The Sixth
Sense” have to be reclassified an arthouse film if
Bruce Willis’ character had been played by Aaron
Eckhart? Conversely, would “In the Bedroom” still
be earmarked as specialty fare if it starred as the vengeful
dad Tom Hanks instead of Tom Wilkinson?
II. THE EXPERTS WEIGH IN
Nielsen EDI, one of the world’s most recognized box
office trackers, doesn’t much bother with terms like “independent”;
it defines motion pictures instead according to their release
patterns. If a film has fewer than 600 consecutive runs
in a night, then that film is considered a “limited
release.” If that number exceeds 600 runs, then it
is considered a wide release. “Crossover hits,” such
as “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and “Crouching
Tiger Hidden Dragon,” can do both: start on a handful
of screens and build to more than 600.
Los Angeles-based Laemmle Theatres, one
of the nation’s
most prominent specialty chains, traces its arthouse roots
to the 1930s. Current owner and circuit chief Robert Laemmle
says the term “arthouse film” loses a lot of
its meaning when specialty titles like “The Piano” find
themselves on multiplex marquees alongside “Daddy
Day Care” and “Bruce Almighty.”
“Quite often a film will start out
as an arthouse film, and – because at some point along the way it goes
over 600 runs – it then is no longer an arthouse
film, or a limited release film,” notes Laemmle.
Mike Ogrodowski, head film buyer for Marcus
Theatres Corp., says his Milwaukee-based circuit has been
playing art pictures
at select locations since 1985. He explains that any picture
that appeals to a limited audience is considered a candidate
for the circuit’s art repertoire.
“Art films tend to tell more intimate
stories [and are] more personal in tone and scope,” he
notes. He adds that indies may often be defined by their
directors, as
well as certain stars.
Fox Searchlight distribution chief Steve
Gilula cites a modest budget as a defining indie characteristic.
Sony
Pictures Classics (SPC) co-president Tom Bernard says he
considers any film with a non-mainstream “vision” to
constitute an independent picture. When selecting films
for SPC, he says he looks for pictures with directors who
utilize a unique authorial style.
Director Stephen Frears (“High Fidelity”),
currently promoting the $10-million “Dirty Pretty
Things” (starring Audrey Tautou and Chiwetel Ejiofor)
as he preps the $50-million “Monkeyface” (starring
Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones), tells In Focus
even he has difficulty distinguishing between indie and
mainstream at times, though he has certainly made both
types of movie. “I don’t know what the line
is. I simply know that you read a script and you think, ‘This
film is worth spending this much money on or that much
money on.’ I can see that this can get an audience
of x, but not an audience of 10x. So you just try to work
from that.”
Every multiplex in America plays independent
films – if
one goes by the definition utilized by the American Film
Market Association (AFMA).
AFMA, whose membership is comprised mostly
of independent distributors and producers, placed the Paramount-released
Mel Gibson blockbuster “What Women Want” right
beneath New Line’s “Rush Hour 2” on its
recent list of high-grossing “independent films.” Other “independent” movies
on that AFMA list include Paramount releases “Hardball,” “The
Score” and “Rat Race,” Columbia release “The
Wedding Planner,” Universal release “K-PAX” and
Warner Bros. releases “Driven” and “Heist.”
Why does AFMA consider major studio releases
starring Mel Gibson, Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Lopez “independent”?
The association’s accompanying press release explains
that it all comes down to who ponied up the dough: “While
the term ‘independent’ is used loosely in the
film industry, the true definition is simply films from
companies, apart from the major studios, that assume the
majority of the financial risk for a production.”
III. BRAWN OF
THE GOLDEN GUY
Far less controversial is the growing importance in the
independent marketplace of awards and critical praise.
While good for any movie’s bottom line, kudos are
particularly useful in creating positive awareness for
specialty films, which often have to make do with smallish
marketing budgets.
One of the earliest indie beneficiaries
of Oscar’s
clout was tiny Island/Alive: in 1986 William Hurt won a
best actor Oscar for Island’s “Kiss of the
Spider Woman” while Geraldine Page took home the
best actress trophy for Island’s “The Trip
to Bountiful.”
In subsequent years, actors would much more
routinely take home Oscar gold for their work in indie
releases, among
them Daniel Day-Lewis (for Miramax’s “My Left
Foot”), Emma Thompson (Sony Pictures Classics’ “Howards
End”), Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin (Miramax’s “The
Piano”), Diane Weist (Miramax’s “Bullets
Over Broadway”), Kevin Spacey (Gramercy’s “The
Usual Suspects”), Susan Sarandon (Gramercy’s “Dead
Man Walking”), Mira Sorvino (Miramax’s “Mighty
Aphrodite”), Geoffrey Rush (Fine Line’s “Shine”),
Frances McDormand (Gramercy’s “Fargo”),
Juliet Binoche (Mira-max’s “The English Patient”)
and Robin Williams (Miramax’s “Good Will Hunting”).
In 1999, all four acting Oscars went to
people for their work in indies: Gwyneth Paltrow and Judi
Dench (Miramax’s “Shakespeare
in Love”), Roberto Begnini (Miramax’s “Life
is Beautiful”) and James Coburn (Lions Gate’s “Affliction”).
Each year since, at least one Oscar has found its way to
an actor for his or her work in an independently released
feature.
Landmark Theatres CEO Paul Richardson, who
presides over the world’s largest chain of specialty cinemas, is
aware of the extraordinary lift the Oscars have brought
to indie product of late. “We always say that the
film gods smiled on us when those pictures that we would
play anyway are also recognized on a wider appeal,” he
says.
Oscars generate sizeable earnings (over
the last 10 years the best picture winners have averaged
a 24-percent box
office bump for the weekend following the ceremony) and
award winners tend to enjoy much more staying power. Miramax’s
December release “Chicago,” the most recent
winner of the best picture Oscar, was still in the multis
six months later. (Having already pocketed more than $169
million domestically, the blockbuster musical was slated
to morph into a special expanded edition due in moviehouses
this July.) Following surprise Oscar wins for director
Roman Polanski, screenwriter Ronald Harwood and actor Adrien
Brody, Focus Features was able to expand “The Pianist” from
a pre-Oscars 540 screens to a post-Oscars 842.
Actors, too, are increasingly cognizant
of the specialty market’s growing clout with kudomeisters, and this
awareness helps explain why Oscar fave Woody Allen’s
low-budget projects routinely attract the likes of Julia
Roberts, Hugh Grant, Leonardo DiCaprio and Charlize Theron,
all working for a fraction of their studio salaries. It
also explains why John Travolta and Bruce Willis might
find themselves working for peanuts on a low-budget Miramax
project overseen by a highly lauded (if obscure) young
writer-director named Quentin Tarantino. And why George
Clooney might take a lot of post-”Batman” pay
cuts to work with award-heavy (if not-always-the-most-bankable)
filmmakers like Joel & Ethan Coen (“O Brother
Where Are Thou”), Stephen Soderbergh (“Out
of Sight”) and Charlie Kaufman (“Confessions
of a Dangerous Mind”).
“Movie stars like to get Oscars,” says Sony Pictures
Classics co-president Tom Bernard. “Movie stars are
now accepting roles in movies that would have been Sundance
material or non-mainstream content – it’s breaking
into the mainstream because of movie star appeal.”
IV. GROWTH INDUSTRY
“The mere fact that 20 years ago in L.A. we [Laemmle Theatres]
had 10 or 12 screens and now we have 39 screens – most
of which play arthouse product – speaks to the fact
that there is a growing audience,” says Robert Laemmle.
Marcus Theatres currently operates one site
dedicated to specialty fare, the Westgate Triple Art Theatre
in Madison,
Wis., and also consistently programs alternative product
in select multiplexes in Illinois and Wisconsin.
Although his circuit has been utilizing
indie product for 23 years, Marcus booking chief Ogrodowski
says that specialty
pictures that launch exclusively in arthouses – he
cites Fox Searchlight’s “The Full Monty,” Miramax’s “Life
is Beautiful,” and IFC’s “My Big Fat
Greek Wedding” as examples – are finding their
way to mainstream multis more and more frequently.
“
The audience is more dynamic in the sense that you can
get significant numbers of people to go to these [Oscar-winning
specialty] movies more now than in the past,” points
out Searchlight’s Gilula.
“
Bend it Like Beckham,” which Searchlight released
in March, deals with the antics of a London-based Indian
family and its soccer-loving teen daughter. In the United
States, the $3.5-million film grossed more than $25 million,
largely because it found a home on more than 550 screens
nationwide, and audiences in places like Florida, Arkansas
and Kansas.
Searchlight is currently battling behemoths
as its sprawling summer slate seeks screen space. The distributor
opened “The
Dancer Upstairs” two days before its parent company
unleashed “X2.” Searchlight’s first foreign-language
film, the zany, multi-lingual “L’Auberge Espagnole,” arrived
the day after “Matrix Reloaded.” “The
Hard Word” opened the same day as “Rugrats
Go Wild” and “Dumb and Dumberer.” “28
Days Later” took on the “Charlie’s Angels” sequel. “Garage
Days” arrived two days before the “Bad Boys” sequel. “Lucía
Lucía,” is going head-to-head against new “Spy
Kids” and “Tomb Raider” sequels. “Le
Divorce” springs into action the same weekend as “S.W.A.T.”
“
If you go to a multiplex now, you are going to get the
type of movie you want – from specialized, indie
offbeat to mainstream teen movie of the week,” says
SPC’s Bernard. He applauds many of the mainstream
circuits’ film buyers, who he says are learning that “if
you program, people will come.”
Loews Cineplex capitalizes on its metropolitan
locations where, according to senior film buying VP Steve
Bunnell,
most of the independent audience still dwells. “Manhattanites,
by their nature and because it’s a confining city,
go to the movies in droves,” he says. “They’re
more adventuresome and more aware of artistic things.”
Although the circuit operates 20 screens
at five sites dedicated to art product, most of its other
sites boast
the kind of audience demographics that facilitate, and
even encourage, screening an art title next to a mainstream
film. Bunnell says the circuit places great importance
on maintaining a consistency of product; people can wander
down to their neighborhood multiplex and know that alternative
cinema will be available.
Additionally, Loews rolls out in August
its Sundance Film Series, screening four independent films
exclusively at
Loews sites in at least 10 major markets. Loews managers
who work the festival (most already well-versed in cinematic
knowledge) will be specially trained, and special concession
fare will be brought in during the festival in an effort
to foster a unique atmosphere.
Encouraged by conversations with customers,
San Rafael, Calif.-based Century Theatres launched in 2000
its “CinéArts” specialty
chain’s first link, a six-plex in the Chicago suburb
of Evanston, Ill.
The circuit today operates five CinéArt plexes dedicated
to playing only “CinéArts-endorsed” films.
This year Century hired a marketing specialist charged
exclusively with promoting and nurturing its specialty
operations.
When developing CinéArts, circuit execs realized
the value of creating a unique, catered atmosphere for
its specialty audiences. “There is a more sophisticated
demographic that is going to seek out these [CinéArts]
films, and while they’re seeking them out, we want
to make sure we are presenting them with a first-class
moviegoing experience,” notes Century marketing VP
Nancy Klasky.
Century’s CinéArts 6 in Evanston
neighbors a separate Century 12-plex, and while the two
facilities
share a common entrance and grand staircase, the two plexes
maintain separate lobbies and box offices at the top of
those stairs.
Patrons make a right for CinéArts or a left for
Century, and once a customer enters “CinéArts
territory,” says Klasky, “it’s like you’re
in another world.” A CinéArts atmosphere is
created in numerous ways: patrons are greeted with live
jazz on weekends, “wall of posters” artwork
in the lobbies and a wider variety of concessions (including
gourmet teas, coffees and “a little more sophisticated
palette-oriented chocolates,” according to Klasky).
CinéArts sites also feature The Rhythm Room – a
full-service open-to-the-public bar serving light meals
and desserts.
Significantly, Century also plays specialty
product outside its five CinéArts plexes. When the 900-screen-plus
circuit exhibits “CinéArts-endorsed” films
at its Century multis, those films are accompanied by the
atmospheric details familiar to the CinéArts sites.
This is accomplished by “designating screens and
delineating the environment,” explains Klasky.
Regal Entertainment Group (REG), which operates
the world’s
largest cinema chain, began aggressively incorporating
specialty programming into its multiplexes in the late
1990s, with the creation of its “Regal Cinema Art” specialty
division.
Eleven REG sites currently exhibit only
specialty fare – defined
by the circuit as “critically acclaimed films, alternative
productions, restored classics and first-run foreign movies” – while
41 other REG multis regularly program alternative films
alongside the mainstream.
Dick Westerling, the circuit’s senior vice president
of marketing and advertising, notes that this kind of specialty
fare “might not be available in many towns if it
weren’t for Regal Cinema Art.”
V. SPECIAL NEEDS
In addition to dedicating a marketing representative to
oversee Regal Cinema Art promotion, REG trains managers
at select locations to pay special attention to the circuit’s
specialty fare.
There’s an understanding within REG that marketing
alternative features is different from marketing mainstream
selections. Most art films don’t benefit from big
Hollywood marketing budgets, so grass-roots promotions
and word-of-mouth become important to helping these films
find their audience.
Offering the widest variety of specialty
films is not always easy. Loews’ Bunnell cites as an example Lions Gate’s “Irreversible,” a
French dramatic thriller featuring a graphic 10-minute
rape scene. While the film received more than its share
of critical accolades, it might repel ill-prepared audiences.
“We have a pact with our audiences – we want to tell
them what the movies are and explain that they’re
not going to see an action, shoot-em-up Hollywood film,” says
Bunnell.
Searchlight’s Gilula says that although the amount
of screens available today improves the potential for a
film to reach a wider audience, the mere presence of an
art picture at a multiplex doesn’t guarantee a big
audience for that picture.
Circuit marketing execs and film buyers
responsible for specialty fare now frequent film festivals
to discover
new talent and learn the buzz surrounding certain pictures,
so that the circuits are more able to supply patrons with
first-hand knowledge of certain films.
Marcus’ Ogrodowski has been attending
the Cannes Film Festival since 1985, the year his circuit
began incorporating
art product into its multiplex programming. Bringing back
a wealth of specialty film information, he says the festivals
often allow him a chance to meet the people selling the
product he selects.
Often, with this kind of advance work, circuits
are able to put together newsletters, magazines, Websites
and film
clubs which work to educate and kindle a heightened audience
interest in smaller, less-advertised films.
Recognized industry-wide for its innovative and savvy grassroots
marketing techniques, Landmark was one of the first circuits
to publish free, elaborate playdate calendars, complete
with review quotes and concise synopses. These are made
available at all circuit sites, as well as local coffee
shops and bookstores. The calendars led to the creation
of the chain’s quarterly, FLM Magazine, which specializes
in previewing specialty product and interviewing the filmmakers
behind it. The magazine is available at all Landmark sites
as well as via subscription.
Much like Landmark’s magazine, CinéArts’ quarterly
Film Calendar features indie-related articles, interviews,
product descriptions and quotes from critics. Laemmle Theatres,
another pioneer in the film calendar arena, makes its calendar
available at all of its venues in and around Greater Los
Angeles.
As more people look to the Internet for
film information, many circuits are using the Web to communicate
with audiences.
By supplying specialty film information as well as links
to sites covering festivals and award ceremonies, cinema
owners can put accessible, easy-to-use details at moviegoer
fingertips. Landmark, Laemmle and Century all feature online
film clubs where members receive weekly updates, stories,
showtimes and more.
SPC’s Bernard says that one of the
most effective ways to market specialty product is by advertising
on cable,
and targeting audiences in different zip codes. He explains
that rather than buying an expensive national TV advertisement,
buying a specific zip code and catering to a niche audience
is a more effective way to promote smaller, low-budget
films.
However, he adds, one major difficulty for
specialty distributors is they often don’t know local
neighborhoods as well as cinema operators. On this front,
says the SPC chief,
coordination with cinema owners can prove invaluable.
Cleveland Cinemas honcho Jonathan Forman
says knowing the neighborhoods he serves is one advantage
he has in operating
exclusively in Northeastern Ohio. He can invest more time
in discovering the different ethnic groups in a community,
as well as courting overlooked local media, such as college
newspapers and radio stations (college kids, as a demographic,
rank among the nation’s most frequent moviegoers).
The downside to operating only 39 screens, he says, is
having to take greater risks; he has fewer screens than
some with which to experiment.
Programming one facility of his 6-site circuit
entirely with arthouse films, Forman operates two others
with mostly
specialty fare, and has been offering alternative features
at his cinemas for over a quarter of a century.
He says that showing indie films can be
very frustrating when a film flops for no apparent reason. “Either
[a film] gets a poor local review, or something isn’t
in the air that week … but I think that what attracts
all of us who show films to this business is that there
are always surprises,” he says.
Landmark’s Richardson agrees with Forman that a healthy
number of screens minimizes risk. “With a variety
of auditorium sizes in multis you have more flexibility,” he
says. “But with a 1-screener like the Nuart you have
to guess right, because if you guess wrong, you’re
stuck with the picture for some period of time until you
can get something similar.”
Many circuits have begun utilizing smaller
multi auditoriums to screen certain specialty films, catering
to the expected
size of the audience. Years ago Forman began experimenting
with smaller screening-room-style auditoriums, enabling
him to introduce a film he thinks may have limited appeal.
A smaller room can buy nurturing time — an opportunity
for word-of-mouth to spread. A mini-auditorium also allows
an exhibitor to hold certain films over that just don’t
want to die, he says.
VI. FOREIGN LEGION
SPC’s Bernard says that one of the most significant
trends among American moviegoers today is their increasing
willingness to embrace that cornerstone of the specialty
trade, the subtitled foreign-language feature.
With SPC’s 2001 release of the blockbuster fantasy-actioner “Crouching
Tiger Hidden Dragon” – in which all dialogue
was spoken in the Chinese dialect Mandarin – many
within the film industry began reconsidering the viability
of non-English-language cinema. “Crouching” not
only garnered more than $128 million at U.S. and Canadian
box offices, it picked up an Oscar win for best foreign-language
film and found itself playing more than 2,000 North American
engagements.
Warner Bros. execs may have been pondering “Crouching’s” success
when they announced this summer that the studio would finance “Un
long dimanche de fiançailles [A Very Long Engagement],” from “Amélie” writer-director
Jean-Pierre Jeunet. With a budget of $47 million, it is
the priciest French-language project an American studio
has ever backed.
Bernard credits cable news channels like
CNN, of all things, for acclimating a significant number
of American moviegoers
to subtitling. He theorizes that because TV news broadcasters
now routinely scroll text bands at the bottom of screens,
viewers have trained themselves in the discipline of visual
multi-tasking.
“There’s an older audience that did not grow up with
computers that couldn’t handle two different things
going on the screen – that [older audience group]
was missing from foreign films,” he says, noting
that box office successes such as “Crouching,” “Man
Without a Past” and “Talk to Her” are
now attracting these people.
VII. A LANDMARK EVOLUTION
Los Angeles-based Landmark Theatres showcases seriously
independent cinema, and has for decades. The Nuart, Landmark’s
longtime flagship in West Los Angeles, today exemplifies
how “off the beaten path” the circuit’s
attractions can be. None of the new films on the Nuart’s
May-July schedule comes from Miramax, Fine Line, Fox
Searchlight, Focus Features or classics divisions owned
by Sony or Viacom. Instead, all of the Nuart’s
new early-summer fare (at least if one ignores MGM’s
expanded-edition re-release of “The Good, the Bad
and the Ugly”) comes from wholly non-aligned distributors
with names like Glacier Field, JetFilms, Kino International,
Palm, Vitagraph and Zeitgeist.
Even so, Landmark CEO Richardson says
his circuit’s
bookers are far more attentive to each film’s artistic
viability than to how “indie” its distributor
is. “We are very concerned with quality – we
have a bond [with our audience] and that bond is that we
are going to only play pictures that have a certain kind
of merit,” he says.
He adds that education remains the
single most important thread that his 177-screen circuit’s
audience has and that art films continue to thrive best
in urban environments
and college towns.
Landmark acquired the Nuart, its first
arthouse, in 1974. Although the art-deco single has undergone
relatively
few changes to its façade in 29 years, the
site has updated sound systems, concessions, seats
and screen quality
in order to stay competitive in a town teeming with
luxury auditoria.
Richardson admits that single-screeners
are more expensive to operate, and not very efficient.
Economics
heavily
favor multiplexes, and so now does the specialty
chain.
Known for operating many an historic
single, Landmark signaled a sea-change for specialty
exhibition
when it opened no
fewer than three arthouse multis in 1995. Programming
aside, the new plexes boasted amenities familiar
to the era’s
newest mainsteam cinemas: stadium-style seating,
wall-to-wall screens and digital surround sound.
Today Landmark oversees a fleet of
specialty multis, including 10-plexes in Seattle and
Berkeley,
Calif.,
and a 9-plex
in Cambridge, Mass. Though Landmark already
operates a specialty 8-plex in Bethesda, Md., the circuit
just announced
it will have a second D.C.-area 8-plex completed
by year’s
end.
The circuit’s biggest multi yet, a specialty 12-plex
due to bow in West Los Angeles late next year, will be
situated about a 5-minute drive from the Nuart. Where it
all began. 
