Hollywood Reporter on Netflix & Independent Films

The Hollywood Reporter covers Netflix, independent films, and the future of digital delivery, Mailboxes, Etc.

"What Netflix has been able to do in the short term has been very vital to the independent film business," says IFC Entertainment president Jonathan Sehring, who recently inked a deal with Netflix's new Red Envelope Entertainment division to co-distribute Laurie Collyer's Sundance Film Festival hit "Sherrybaby" theatrically. "If anything, their recommendation model has in some ways taken the place of what college film societies did in the '60s and '70s, when they turned audiences on to new European films and old masters."

Comments

[WeaselBuddha]

Segues nicely with the WSJ article, Netflix is putting money where their mouth is ( mouth and hopefully pocketbook )

In view of this and the WSJ article, the one thing not touched upon is the sheer capital that goes into marketing, er making a hit - if that money was put behind movies like Somersault, or Wondrous Oblivion they'd be hits too. Then we could hold them in disdain.

Weird how that works, ain't it?

[NetflixShill]

I don't like or dislike films based on their marketing budget. I pay very little (if any) attention to their marketing. After I watch the movie on DVD, I might watch the teasers, trailers and TV spots on the DVD. I watched Somersault against my better judgment and it was nothing special. I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it either. Movies become hits by delivering what the audience wants. If mere marketing were enough, then films like Last Action Hero and Waterwolrd would be hits.

[NetflixShill]

Most people use online DVD services to watch new or popular fare. NFLX tries to hide this fact by changing the definition of "popular" - the Top 50 movies hyped by the studios are called "popular." Everything else is called "archive." With a different definition, we'd see that most people are renting main-stream movies and TV shows. Very few are film buffs going through the output of Godard or Franju or Melville. Those who are were into it long before they ever heard about Netflix.

Netflix doesn't create the market for films. They just increase the supply and marketing. The Long Tail theory is a fallacy, like one of Zeno's Paradoxes. The 80/20 rule tells us more. In short, 20% of films (or less) make 80% of the money (or more). NFLX and Amazon have shown ZERO indication of being able to change this reality. The majority of people LIKE commercial Hollywood junk.

[WeaselBuddha]

Shill -

Sorry you didn't enjoy Somersault, I thought it brilliant with some outstanding performances, especially by Abbie Cornish ( also very good in Candy(2006) ).

There is a phenom associated with hits called front loading, alot of hits are only hits during the first two weeks, this front loading is an affect of the marketing. They are not great or even very good movies on their own merits. Sin City is an example of this, as is MI3. They don't have a long box office life because they are not real hits, ersatz hits created by artifical means.

You seem to be claiming that marketing doesn't generate hits, that is incredibly naive isn't it? Certainly you don't fall into the trap of believing the black and white thinking that all of everything is something.

Now there are other movies, that are hits, but not in the theater, movies like Donnie Darko, Army of Darkness, Shaun of the Dead and alike. These are promoted almost exclusively by word of mouth.

[corey3rd]

First off - Waterworld was a hit. It made $225 million theatrically and has found steady income in home video and cable reruns. Also I scored with the gal I took to a preview of Waterworld - thus every million dollars spent on that film was well worth it. Last Action Hero is also not close to a CutThroat Island box office disaster. These two films did market themselves out of the dog house.

Marketing is essential in the promotion of films. How else will we care enough to leave our house and pay to stare at a wall that's black half the time? How exactly do you even know about a movie coming out if you avoid all marketing? You just show up at a random theater on Friday night and blindly point at the poster you will eventually see?

What Netflix does is allow people upon hearing the buzz about a film to put it in their queue so that they don't have to keep up with what's playing at the local art house. Seems like the average indie film in my town lasts two weeks at best. Releasing an indie film is a very expensive thing - striking prints, shipping, setting up a screening for the local critics - the house nut. What if you're busy that week when the film comes and goes like the Bettie Page flick did in my town. So when I first hear about a film, I'll put it on the queue in case I don't make it to the theater.

It's just easier for the theater to come to you in the mail.

[WeaselBuddha]

Corey,

Hit the nail on the head, I was thinking the same thing, if marketing isn't effective, then why an entire industry dedicated to it? I sure that the marketing firms that flog some of the dogs that become hits use that in their own marketing! "We are the marketing firm that made 'Little Man' a hit."


Shill,

You've dodged Corey's question two, three times now, to repeat it a fourth time, as posed in another thread:

".... where is the compelling content? And how do you tell when it is there? Director? Reviews? Friends? All of them?"

Your response: "I don't rely on any of those...."

You beg the question, How do you choose the movies you see if not through the standard vectors? Chicken innard divination? Directed Visions from Cthulhu? Darts? Corey's poster picking process?

You claim to really like Stilman's Last Days of Disco, how did you figure out that it might be worth watching? Channel surfing?

How do you decide what movies to see?

There is a funny story about this, I had a video store customer that used the criteria of length - he rented only very long movies, he had no idea what the movies were about, just that they had to be multivolume (back in the days of VHS ). Sorrow & The Pity and QB VII were favs of his.

I can sort of see this, being able to zone out for hours at a time. Of course we now have entire seasons of TV shows in boxsets now. He must be in hog heaven.


By the way, those who took the recommendation to see Somersault, whatcha think? You can mail me through my typepad non-profile.