Venting on Twitter – just another day at the office for Kevin Smith. (But then again, what else is Twitter for, really?)
You’ll recall we reported earlier that Kevin bought the rights to his own film, Red State, at Sundance over the weekend, closing out the opportunity for any other distributors to snag the flick. He’s gotten a lot of backlash for the decision, mainly from people who think he cheated and led on other distributors into thinking they had a shot at buying the film. But Kevin’s unapologetic about it and took to his Twitter to explain why he’s decided to take on the financial responsibility himself and why he’s taking the movie on tour instead of wide releasing it. He explained, in multiple tweets:
” [I’m]just reaching back to an old model from Hollywood’s glory days: we’re taking our show on the road. “GONE WITH THE WIND (which this movie certainly ain’t) didn’t open on 2600 screens; it opened on one. And played there for awhile. Then packed up & moved to another screen in another city to play there for awhile. We’re compressing that process, of course, doing only one screening per night on the tour, but it’s their idea, not mine. Taking our show on the road isn’t a new idea. I’ve taken all of my movies on the road for promotional tours. Only difference is, this time around, we’re charging for tickets. And if that price is too high for you, don’t worry: you’ll be able to see the flick for a lot less on October 19th. But with this tour, our aim is to get financially whole. I want to use actual, recognizable math on our little $4mil flick. Once we clear $4mil (off the tours, the merch, the ViewAskew Garage Sale), we’re able to give our investors their money back. So long as we don’t spend on marketing, every penny after that becomes profit. No more of this “The movie cost $4mil to make but needs to earn $50mil at the box office to break even.” That ALWAYS bugged me: I’d got out of my way to make flicks for as little as possible, then watch folks spend more to market it. But that’s how the business works: EVERYBODY does that. It is the standard. And I’ve done it, too; for 9 films now. So after doing it the same way for 9 times, you start to think about how you’d do it differently: is it possible to sell a flick WITHOUT spending any of that money?”
An old/new wave of marketing a film. Interesting.
The real question is will it work? Will it be worth all the trouble and mayhem its cause the last few days. If it does, bigger movies could start employing this gimmick to make even more money. (Though we realize this isn’t Kevin’s intention)
Think of all the Twi-Hards who would line up around the block to see the movie first! Think of all the Potterheads who would clear out their Gringotts accounts to watch the movie alongside David Yates! This ideas makes going to see a movie more of an experience than just a lazy day to pass an afternoon.
Pretty genius, Kev.
[Image via WENN.]
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