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June 04, 2008
Hot Button - Deja Vantage
John Lesher’s 28 month tenure at Paramount Vantage (nee’ Classics), then the move to “Big” Paramount is remarkably similar to Tom Rothman’s move from Searchlight to “Big” Fox (and then, to sharing Bill Mechanic‘s job with Jim Gianopulos).
Lesher’s first release at/as Vantage was the Sundance pick-up, An Inconvenient Truth, released about six months after he took the job. The film was a publicity bonanza, and in spite of a huge amount of spending to get all that attention, the film grossed a remarkable $24 million, making it the third highest grossing domestic doc of all time. (It’s now #4 with Sicko surpassing it by a small amount.) It would turn out to be the only profitable film of the extremely high profile Lesher regime.
Posted by dpoland at June 4, 2008 12:42 AM
Comments
Why Sony Classics can still has its own unique set of goals and expectations? I think it is because while many Dependents try to make more lower-budgeted mainstream movies, Sony already has Screen Gems to make lower-budgeted mainstream movies; so Sony Classics has better freedom to make/release smaller arthouse/foreign-language movies.....
Posted by: marychan ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/nav-commenters.gif)
at June 4, 2008 02:16 AM
know it all, i'm not sure what i'd do without you
Posted by: T. Holly at June 4, 2008 01:40 PM
Both Lesher and Rothman came to speak at my school for the Ivy Film Festival this April. I didn't know much about them then, and it's interesting to read your comparison of them.
Posted by: counthaku at June 4, 2008 05:01 PM
According to Anne, "Son of Rambow" is actually profitable for Paramount.
http://weblogs.variety.com/thompsononhollywood/2008/06/paramount-vanta.html
Posted by: marychan at June 4, 2008 08:54 PM
yeah. people tell her a lot of things.
some are true.
and marychan, the goals for sony classics is different than any of the other companies and how barker & bernard came to the party is different. they have held their water, with a few recent exceptions, satisfied with profitability year in and year out, with fewer attempts at home runs. by columbia standards, their revenue profile is a speck... but they satisfy a taste for quality and don't lose money (thanks to the lack of other dependents competing in much of their playing field allowing them to acquire many titles that are really just small-but-solid-profit DVD titles ahead of some of the true indies because of the big company behind them). screen gems is not in any way the same business or relevant.
Posted by: David Poland at June 5, 2008 12:32 AM
The clearout means Par Vantage becomes a niche imprint just like New Line or United Artists.
As for distribution? Vantage piggybacked on regular Par, which helped get even the duds like "Son of Rambow" into megaplexes. Compare that to how SPC handled "The Counterfeiters".
Posted by: Chucky in Jersey at June 5, 2008 04:13 PM
The Counterfeiters has outgrossed Son of Rambow despite being on fewer screens at that point in its run. Rambow's run isn't finished yet but SPC's slower rollout strategy contained costs and probably maximized profits. However the Counterfeiters has actually expanded wider than Rambow with 170 theaters against a total of 152 for Rambow So I am not sure how this is a success for Vantage.
Posted by: hcat at June 6, 2008 10:34 AM
SPC has its own distribution apart from Columbia/Screen Gems/TriStar. That may be great if you deal with small artsy-fartsy theaters but not if you want your movies in megaplexes.
"The Counterfeiters" has commercial hooks galore -- WWII, Nazis, concentration camp. Would have grossed more had SPC not been so obstinate on where the film would play.
Grosses, profits and theater counts have nothing to do with it.
Posted by: Chucky in Jersey at June 6, 2008 01:31 PM
Even though The Counterfeiters was from the director of "The Academy Award-Winning The Counterfeiters"?
Posted by: jeffmcm at June 6, 2008 01:46 PM
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