posted 01-10-2006 04:22 AM                    

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Vidgame adaptation "BloodRayne" has apparently turned out to be a debacle for new indie distrib Romar. Company didn't report grosses or return calls, but word from sources is that it came in at around $1.2 million. After promising to play 1,915 theaters Thursday, pic ended up on 985. Word is that exhibs received hundreds of prints that they didn't order and refused to play. Per play average looks to be a little over $1,000.

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posted 01-10-2006 09:24 AM                    

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A projectionist from UltraStar Cinemas has revealed to Shacknews a rather huge error made with the distribution of Uwe Boll's latest cinematic endeavor, the BloodRayne adaptation featuring such well-regarded thespians as Ben Kingsley and Michael Madsen. The UltraStar employee explained that when he got into work last week, he noticed that the theater had received a copy of BloodRayne. This seemed odd because his particular theater generally shows films aimed more at the arthouse set. "I didn't want to build this and put it in my theater," he said, so he checked up with UltraStar higher-ups. It turns out that a computer error resulted in the print being sent to 5,500 more theaters nationwide than was intended. "The computer that placed the order, instead of selecting just the correct theatres, it also selected 5,500 additional theaters, so they made that many extra copies." Whoops.

I asked how much each print costs, and he said that in total, it costs about $5,000 to have each set of reels delivered to a theater, meaning that as a very rough estimate the total costs incurred may be upwards of $27 million. "And that's 27 million that didn't go into production, didn't go into marketing, it's just expenditure that's sitting there," he said. "I mean, I know Ben Kingsley was in Ghandi, but nobody gets to just throw away that much money for nothing."

The situation is exacerbated by the fact that, according to Variety, the film is only showing on 985 screens, just over half of the original target of 1,900--and that's separate from the thousands of accidental extra copies. Now, the film is already millions in the hole and it earned only $1.2 million during its opening weekend, failing to place it in the top ten. Uwe Boll has had a lot of second chances, but might this spell the beginning of the end for the self-described misunderstood director?

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posted 01-10-2006 10:05 AM                       

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A projectionist from UltraStar Cinemas has revealed to Shacknews

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posted 01-10-2006 12:00 PM                    

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"The computer that placed the order, instead of selecting just the correct theatres, it also selected 5,500 additional theaters, so they made that many extra copies." Whoops.

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posted 01-10-2006 04:49 PM                    

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After reading a FilmJerk.com piece that suggested that the release of Bloodrayne was in trouble already (it launched today) and that its first-time-out distributor, Romar Entertainment might sink with it, I called up Romar to see what they had to say.

I spoke to Jim Schramm (Founder, CEO, and President of the company) about the situation with the 3-month-old company that offers to handle distribution, marketing, and publicity for indie filmmakers for just 20% or so of the rentals. Schramm, who has partnered on the company with actor Billy Zane and his distribution VP Rizza Magsayo, is an affable enough guy and was very positive about the future for both Bloodrayne and Romar.

Mr. Schramm acknowledged that the original release plan for a 2000 screen release was reduced to just 985 playdates this weekend when in recent days, some of the major chains reduced the number of screens they were willing to give the action thriller. As FilmJerk reported, many prints went to theaters that weren’t playing the film. But according to Schramm, this was because Romar struck 1600 prints and still hope to expand to 1600 screens in an expansion next weekend. In addition, they expect to take the film to Canada on 500 screens on February 3.

Schram says that Romar has spent $22 million in P&A on Bloodrayne, including four thousand 30-second TV spot buys and one thousand in-theater ad buys at AMC and Regal Theaters.

That said, Schramm and Magsayo did book this movie themselves. They are in the process of hiring an experienced booker in the immediate future. And given that Schramm says Romar has 15 more films awaiting distribution, they better hurry up.

In the meanwhile, with its 985 screens, Bloodrayne ranks #17 on Rentrak as of 2pm today.

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