Why Does the LA Times Hate America? (Or: How to Use Selected Box Office Numbers to Validate Last Year's Theories)

My travel from the past week has prevented me from weighing on John Horn's piece in the LA Times last week.  Titled "Documentaries lose box office muscle", it was yet another of those "nonfiction sky is falling" pieces that conveniently ignores the current success that documentaries are having at the box office in an effort to paint the genre as truly hurting:

"Critically acclaimed films about provocative subjects struggle to make money all the time, but rarely have so many lauded documentaries consistently failed to connect at the box office. The recent nonfiction returns have been so bleak that several distributors are growing wary about taking on such highbrow works, an alarming development in a pop culture universe already dominated by "American Idol," James Frey and US Weekly."

I've often quarreled with the LA Times' coverage of documentaries, but Horn's piece is truly something for the archives.  For one, he posits the curious conclusion that YOUNG@HEART - a film that is well on its way to grossing 3.5 million - is yet another black eye on nonfiction box office performance.  It's a stretch, it is, but one that Horn continues to ride into a column yesterday, in which he exclaims that YOUNG@HEART was "dead on arrival".

Although Horn gets Steve Gilula, the COO of Fox Searchlight, to go on record saying that the distributor was disappointed given the acquisition deal (which Horn pegs at 1.5 million) and marketing costs, he closes with much seriousness on a capper from Gilula that is laughable to anyone who knows the history of Fox Searchlight's dabbling in doc features:

"I believe," says Gilula, "that we will be very cautious in considering future documentaries."

Yes, that's right kids, the company that hadn't bought a doc in more than a decade (Horn erroneously calls YOUNG@HEART Searchlight's first doc pickup) is officially now "very cautious" about acquiring nonfiction.  Someone alert the media.  (To his credit, at least Horn gets one fact right - YOUNG@HEART sold at LAFF last year, not Sundance, which the Times screwed up in an article earlier this year.)

Guess who else is skittish about documentaries? Why none other than Sony Pictures Classics' Michael Barker:

"'It's unlike anything I've seen before," says Michael Barker, whose Sony Pictures Classics has released the documentary duds STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE, JIMMY CARTER MAN FROM PLAINS and MY KID COULD PAINT THAT, none of which grossed more than $250,000 theatrically. "Unless you have movie stars like Michael Moore or Al Gore associated with your film, you can't sell tickets.'"

Not mentioned by Horn is the fact that SPC picked up not one but two nonfiction titles at Cannes - James Toback's TYSON biopic (a star certainly, but not an Al Gore kinda star) and the critically acclaimed animated film WALTZ WITH BASHIR.

In short, there's lots of issues to ponder in nonfiction - what happens if we lose THINKFilm?  why are political docs underperforming?  are there better avenues for release than the classic multi-tiered theatrical/dvd/cable model? - while still acknowledging that docs overall are having a much better than average year (In keeping with his meme, Horn fails to mention EXPELLED, U23D or SHINE A LIGHT in his piece).  And even a newspaper in the shadow of the mighty studio system - where $50 million can be a massive bomb - should know better than to call YOUNG@HEART DOA.

Comments

[Male Feminist]

Here is an article on the feud between Alex Gibney and ThinkFilm. He is accusing the company of not $ufficiently promoting "Taxi to the Darkside" which is why, in his view, it has made less than $250K theatrically so far.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/movies/26thin.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[sumadis]

so my smallish punk brain is wrapping itself around this: a bunch of companies and company leaders have declared that they can't crack a buck in the indie/doc market and therefore it is failed. because they couldn't figure it out, it's dead. sez them. taking the studio model, scaling it down (oh wait - streamlining) and acting hip(per) is not 'figuring it out', especially when (doh) it doesn't turn profit. or enough profit. whatever. independent. that's a pretty strong word, and the films coming truly out of that scratching, fighting, diy ethos are damn strong indeed. indie film isn't at risk here, it's the system that tried to control it that's bleeding out.

[stephen walker]

Hi there - as the guy who actually directed Young@Heart, I too was disappointed to read Horn's comments. I'm not sure where this DOA stuff has come from? The fact is, the film has been in theaters since it's initial platform release on April 9 - and still is, nearly 3 months later It is now at $3.6m and still climbing. A quick check on Box Office Mojo places it the 23rd highest grossing doc out of 550 odd since 1982 - and it's likely to climb higher. I would argue these are respectable figures at the very least.

Why this doco bashing in the press all of a sudden? I am currently at the Munich Film Fest with the movie (Heart is releasing in Europe and Asia - including Japan - in Oct) and I can't tell you how disheartened many of my doc colleagues who have films presenting here are. Now everybody thinks theatric release is impossible. It's very depressing - and so unnecessary when based on what I believe is a total misconception of the facts.

Thanks for your comments too. Believe it or not, we really DO read all the blogs and postings!

Stephen Walker
Director, 'Young@Heart'
Walker George Films Ltd