What separates the My Big Fat Greek Wedding’s from the Big Girls Don’t Cry’s? Why are some independent films so much more lucrative and so much more marketable then others? In the above example one movie is a wildly successful romantic comedy while the other is a dark revenge story which also explores teenage sexuality and alternative life styles and was filmed in German. For the record My Big Fat Greek Wedding took in over $240 million in domestic box office while Big Girls Don’t Cry took in exactly $1,238.
To be fair this is an extreme example but it illustrates that although there are no guarantees that a movie will find an audience making an educated decision about what kind of movie to invest in greatly reduces your risks. Greek Wedding separated itself from other independent movies by avoiding the typically dark and bleak subject matters that are staples of art-house/indie films.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding’s winning formula was the combination of a good script and good execution in a genre that has proven popular with both audiences and studios. This is the same winning formula that worked for The Blair Witch Project (Horror), Napoleon Dynamite (Comedy), the Full Monty (Comedy), and Little Miss Sunshine (Comedy), all of which were financially successful.
Over the years studios have learned that it is far easier to market comedies, horror movies and family films than it is to market esoteric or foreign films. This isn’t to say that art-house/indie films aren’t wonderful films; it just means that decades of box office data shows they’re not wonderful investments.
Title: Domestic Box Office:
My Big Fat Greek Wedding $240 million
The Blair Witch Project $140 million
Napoleon Dynamite $44.5 million
The Full Monty $45.9 million
Little Miss Sunshine $59.8 million
3 comments:
Its difficult to find extended lists of indie films, box office mojo doesn't list films by production budget but it does have some films grouped by themes. Gay/lesbian and Bisexaul themes are dominated by indie films. With a few notable excpetions like Brokeback Mountain, the grouping has down exceedingly poorly. Of the 221 movies since 1980 involving GLB themes only 16 gained wide release.
an scott has seen all of them because they involved gay dinosaurs. Hey remember that song everyone's doing the dinosaur?
Yeh I remember that song. It was by Was Not Was or something stupid like that. Chu, should have his own gay/lesbian indie movie to star in.
Post a Comment