Gigantic. Truly Indie? (And Save the Brattle)

In our ongoing debate on Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's newly announced Truly Indie, my pal Joe asks "if "Truly Indie" was an option when you were getting ready to release Gigantic, would you have considered it over a traditional distributor, or do you see it as a last resort for films that can't get into theatres any other way?"

I'm not sure I know the answer to this question. From our first screening at South by Southwest, we actively pursued (the dear departed) Cowboy Pictures to release our film. [We also pursued a number of other distributors who had expressed a vague, non-defined interest.] It took us months to get Cowboy guru John Vanco to see the film, at which point we found out he was interested in releasing it.

In the meantime, we received a number of offers from DVD companies who were interested in releasing Gigantic. We could have skipped a theatrical release altogether and gone straight to DVD, but we knew that a theatrical release of some kind was imperative. Our thought was, if you walk into your local video store and you see a DVD about They Might Be Giants that you've never heard of, you're probably going to assume, oh, this must be a concert video or a collection of videos that the band put out.

But if you see Gigantic and you say, oh yeah, that played at the Coolidge or the Music Box or the Tivoli or the Sunset 5, and you pick it up and see review quotes from the Washington Post and the NY Times and Premiere Magazine and the New Yorker, you might actually think about buying/renting/putting it in your queue.

So, we knew we had to have a theatrical. And during the months of waiting for John Vanco to see the film, we talked to independent distributors who proposed various models for a release, everything from all-digital to the 10 biggest markets to just New York and Los Angeles (for the press). Each of these independent distributor models proposed at least a $50,000 minimum cost, primarily for what tradition said you HAD to spend in New York.

Now, if I'm sitting there in the late summer of 2002, still waiting on Cowboy, with 3 or 4 DVD company offers on the table and I have to choose between spending 50K minimum on an independent distributor (on which I see a return of say 20 cents on the dollar) or spending 40K and up on Truly Indie (on which I see a return of somewhere close to all of the box office take), I'd have to say that Truly Indie would look more appealing. My fear at this point would be that I wouldn't want to be the first film out of the box for them, but if it was something that existed and seemed to work, I'd definitely consider it.

Because ultimately the theatrical may end up being a bit of a loss so that you can get your DVD into more markets and interest someone like the Sundance Channel to pay you a small sum for the TV rights. The question I'd have as a filmmaker is how much can I afford to lose per market so that I can possibly get the later benefits of a limited theatrical. I think Gigantic averaged about 6-8K in its opening week in the top 15 markets. Under the Truly Indie model, assuming they give you the entire box office, which is far from clear, that means I'd break even or lose around a grand or two per city. Is a cost of 10-20K an acceptable loss if it sells you more DVDs or boosts your TV sale? I'd say it probably is, if you have the money to do it.

Further there is the question of whether this is an all-digital release. If so, you can eliminate the 30-40K cost of striking a print, which would certainly make the investment more enticing.

There are clearly other questions about Truly Indie that have yet to be defined. Will successful films be held over? If not, can you arrange a move over to another theater. Can you play independent venues like the Ragtag in Columbia, Missouri? Or is it an exclusive arrangement with Landmark? If you can use Truly Indie to four-wall/secure your top 15 markets and then personally arrange college & museum screenings and independent art houses in smaller markets, it might be an attractive enterprise.

I do want to note something that my friend Michael Colford wrote in the comments. He confirmed some of the anonymous postings on the anti-Mark Cuban site that the new managers of the Kendall Square in Boston have led many Boston alt-film fans to feel like they're "selling their souls to the devil" when they go to movies there. I note this in light of the recent articles in the Boston Globe (pointed out by Chlotrudis and the IFC Blog) that the great Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square may be in trouble.

According to Ty Burr at the Boston Globe:

     "With attendance dropping and government grants
     withering, though, Hinkle and Moylan have been
     forced to turn to the audiences who patronize the
     theater and other investors. The foundation recently
     announced a fund drive aimed at raising $400,000
     by the end of 2005. If that goal isn't met, they say,
     the Brattle will close.

     "Theirs is an increasingly quixotic labor of love. The
     Brattle Theatre is one of two remaining single-screen
     picture palaces in the Boston area (Belmont's Studio
     Cinema is the other), an economic dinosaur at a time
     when any fool knows you need at least three screens
     to stay in business. Even so, multiple-screen theaters
     themselves are against the ropes, battered by a
     combination of economic and cultural factors.

     "One of those factors is that multiplex movies --
     meaning current Hollywood movies -- are uninspiring,
     if not actively dreadful. Everyone seems to agree on
     this point. The Brattle's purpose has always been to
     offer an alternative, and it has always relied on the
     classic repertory formula of great old films and
     challenging new ones. A look at a recent schedule
     shows the ''Greta Garbo Centennial" festival winding
     down and the Boston Fantastic Film Festival starting
     up, ''Recent Raves" like Ingmar Bergman's ''Saraband"
     getting second-run exposure, and the dreamy,
     acclaimed Thai headtrip ''Tropical Malady" making its
     area premiere."

Gigantic had a great run in Boston at the Brattle, as well as runs at the Museum of Fine Arts and Coolidge Corner. I think we made more money in Boston than in any other city in the US (in fact I'm sure of it). And no matter what one thinks of Mark Cuban or Landmark or any other large scale art house chain/model, we clearly need these (truly) independent theaters, where the audience can benefit from the vision/curation of an someone like Ned Hinkle to create a venue where Greta Garbo, Evil Dead and They Might Be Giants can live in harmony.

Comments

[Michael C.]

AJ - Thanks so much for the very kind words about me and Chlotrudis, and especially the great comments about the Brattle Theatre, and Boston's indie film community in general. I've always been proud of Boston and the indie film scene here, and if the Brattle should ever close, I just feel a huge hole would emerge where some truly unique and truly independent films are currently screened.

I encourage anyone who reads this, loves independent film, or has any connections with the Brattle of Cambridge, to spread the word about the Brattle's ambitious campaign to preserve their legacy. You can find out more about the Brattle's efforts at their website (http://www.brattlefilm.org), or at the Chlotrudis site, which you have graciously linked to.

Love your blog... you've got such great insights on so many topics. And thanks again for the support!

[AJ Schnack]

Thanks Michael. I have a warm spot in my heart for Chlotrudis and the indie film community in Boston.

I think it bears further mention that each of the three venues Gigantic played in Boston (the MFA, the Coolidge and the Brattle), was/is independent. While we played in Landmark Theatres in other cities, we had our greatest success in Boston, in these independent venues.

Clearly it is important to filmmakers and patrons that venues like the Brattle continue to flourish, just as it is that groups like Chlotrudis, which celebrate indie film separate of, say, the local film fest organizers.

I hope that folks in Boston realize their good fortune on both counts and move to get organized and involved on the Brattle's behalf.