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Last summer indieWIRE reported the winners and losers of the first half of 2010, generally suggesting things had taken a downward turn in comparison to the year before. A year later, it seems reasonable to exclude the “losers” element of a similar story as relatively there’s really quite few of them. Sure, there could be repetitive ramblings about the troubles of fallen distributors like Apparition or a few kick-em-while-they’re-down blurbs about the little engines that couldn’t. But let’s try some full-on optimism on for size instead.
This year’s overall domestic box office grosses are still tracking ahead of last year by a little over 1% - though early year receipts from “Avatar” and “Alice in Wonderland” remain large reasons why this is the case. Back in April, indieWIRE‘s report on the year’s first quarter of 2010 was tracking 10% ahead of 2009. A few months later, that number has dropped quite considerably thanks to a generally lackluster summer (though recent hit “Toy Story 3” and today’s release of “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” may turn those tides).
indieWIRE also noted in that report that “the specialty world has been having a tough time” in the shadow of Hollywood’s first-quarter success. That also seems to have changed.
“Since the Academy Award season we have out-performed the preceding year 15 out of 17 weeks,” Ted Mundorff, CEO of Landmark Theatres, the largest art house movie theater chain in the United States, told indieWIRE yesterday. “Last year at this time the majority of our top 10 were a result of the attention they received from Academy consideration. This year, the majority of the top performers have not as yet received Academy attention. This reinforces our view that there is a significant demand to see quality independent films.”
At this point last year, the top five specialty releases - “Sunshine Cleaning,” “Away We Go,” “The Class,” “The Brothers Bloom” and “Two Lovers” - had grossed roughly $26.5 million combined. This year, the top five - “The Ghost Writer,” “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” “Babies,” “The Last Station” and “City Island” - has taken in $45.2 million. In comparison to last year, there’s also quite a significant uptick in the amount of films reaching important specialty milestones:
2009 - 2 specialty films grossed $5 million+
2010 - 6 specialty films grossed $5 million+
2009 - 8 specialty films grossed $2 million+
2010 - 15 specialty films grossed $2 million+
2009 - 17 specialty films grossed $1 million+
2010 - 22 specialty films grossed $1 million+
The issue that might have some people suggesting there isn’t quite a reason to celebrate is that no film has really broken out above and beyond standard specialty grosses. Summit’s release of Roman Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer” is the only specialty platform release to take in over $10 million (though Fox Searchlight’s “Cyrus” expansion in the coming weeks should definitely change that).
”[Because of] the fact there isn’t some huge locomotive, people tend not to say things are great,” Sony Pictures Classics’ Michael Barker told indieWIRE earlier this week. “I think it will over the summer, there will be a locomotive, no question. But even without it, I believe that times are good… I see these major circuits spending more attention to these pictures than they have before.”
Instead of locomotives, there have been a very healthy number of smaller trains chugging along quite nicely. Beyond “The Ghost Writer,” there’s a $5 million club which includes Music Box Films’ “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” Focus Features’ “Babies,” Sony Pictures Classics’ “The Last Station” and “The Secret In Their Eyes” as well as Anchor Bay’s seemingly out-of-nowhere success story, “City Island.” There’s also a considerable number of summer films just starting out - from aforementioned “Cyrus” to films like “Winter’s Bone,” “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work” and “I Am Love” - all of which seem likely to end up with strong final numbers.
“The state of the independent film world is vibrant from a variety of perspectives,” IFC Films’ Mark Boxer toldindieWIRE. “The number of films reaching audiences has been consistent, and even in periods traditionally dominated by wide studio releases, the infusion of product is impressive. Further, apart from the traditional art house outlets, the country’s largest circuits have ramped up their commitment to specialized fare.”
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