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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Topic: Anybody else getting screwed on Slumdog?
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Randy Stankey
Film God
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Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 03-18-2009 01:55 PM
We had "Slumdog Millionaire" booked for next week. We made our booking many moons ago, BEFORE the film hit the big time at the Oscars.
We called up the distributor (Criterion) just today to confirm the booking. The guy hemmed and hawed around and made vague statements like "I can't guarantee..." Finally, when the boss pinned him down, he admitted that he didn't have a print of the movie to let out and that he wasn't going to get one. We are now on our own and we only have one week to book a replacement.
Let me make it clear: We understand that we are a non-theatrical booking. We know that there are often changes and cancellations, especially when a movie hits it big like "Slumdog" has. That's the way the ball bounces.
What the problem is that this guy made the booking, full-well knowing that he was unlikely to get the film. He didn't tell us anything. And to top it all off, he was going to just sit there and let us be on the hook for a movie that he was never intending to send out in the first place. If we hadn't called him, he would have been content to say and do nothing.
We have had continual problems with this particular place. They have been slow on the draw on more than one occasion. We constantly have to call him and chase down prints and tracking information on prints. On several occasions, he would have left us on the hook for prints that he sent out late or would not have been sent out at all if we hadn't called and pestered him.
Again, we know that studios are basically greedy and they won't release prints to non-theatrical until they think they have wrung all they can from the product. As much as that peeves us off, that is not our main complaint.
But we have ads placed in newspapers. We have printed fliers and full color brochures printed and mailed out. We have tickets sold. We have spent quite a lot of money promoting and preparing, months in advance, for a movie that we believed would be played.
I know there are others getting screwed on this print. We have had phone calls with others who have been screwed by the same company. Anybody else have a story to tell?
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John Hawkinson
Film God
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Posts: 2273
From: Cambridge, MA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 03-18-2009 09:53 PM
Umm.
Generally speaking the studios are not willing to deal with colleges and universities as regular clients. They have contractual arrangements requiring that colleges and universities book indirectly through Swank and Criterion. It's not a simple matter of convincing the studio to treat you on second-run terms, or of simply reclassifying you. There are contractual terms.
(Additionally, when a movie is this close, first-run or second-run terms may imply minimum number of shows/day, and other things that Randy can't offer Fox.)
To address Randy more directly, we were in a similar boat, but we were more aggressive about confirming it right after the Oscars. I'm not sure if we called Criterion or if they called us, but we definitely knew the first week in March. On the other hand, our original date was 3/13, so we were probably a more urgent issue than you were.
Randy, note that there was a discussion here on F-T about the Slumdog's DVD date being moved to 3/31, and that was definitely an indicator that something was up.
You make it sound like Criterion ships around prints to you. Does that actually happen? For us, they just pass the order up to Fox who directs DFS to send us a print from the local depot.
--jhawk
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John Hawkinson
Film God
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Posts: 2273
From: Cambridge, MA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 03-19-2009 08:41 AM
Well, I doubt it. If Criterion's customers are unhappy enough, Fox might do something, but chances are they would do what New Line did (leave Criterion for Swank) rather than what Universal did (do their own nontheatrical 35mm booking).
It is probably a good thing that there is at least some competition in the nontheatrical booking market, and I would feel uncomfortable with Swank being closer to a monopoly than they already are.
Also, if you did book directly through Fox, you'd probably be in a similar situation with regard to playdates, and you wouldn't have anything confirmed until two weeks beforehand. That is, those months-out confirmations from Swank and Criterion are just their "best guesses," and don't reflect real availability information. Sure, it would be better to know for sure and not be jerked around.
It will be interesting to see if SPC continues to do their own nontheatrical booking (as they are doing now, since New Yorker went under).
--jhawk
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Frank Angel
Film God
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Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 03-19-2009 10:27 AM
At this point in time Randy probably will not be able to change his status -- the fact that the college has established booking history with the non-theatrical vendors would make it very difficult to switch to theatrical only because whereas years ago the determining factor which defined whether or not you were theatrical or not was pretty much if you were booking 35mm prints, you went to the studios. Nowadays the non-theatrical vendors (Swank, Criterion, New Yorker Films -- if there are any more, I don't know of them), because the 16mm market has dried up for them, they hold on tenatiously to any exhibitor that falls under the catagories that they have defined in their contracts with the studios: colleges, univerities, museums and any other exhibitor that isn't running a commercial operation. Today non-theatrical is defined not by the film gauge you are using, but by your affiliation, and it's that definition that will force you to deal with the subdistribs and not the studios. If you are a college, by contract, Swank or Criterion can insist you book thru them EVEN WHEN THEY DON'T HAVE A PRINT! It's nonsense, of course, but it's the deal they eeked out for themselves with the studios and most orgs that fall under those arbitrary definitions don't have much of a choice.
We have gotten around it for decades because since day one (way back in 1984 when I started Brooklyn Center Cinema) even though our Performing Arts Center was physically on a college campus, we were lucky enough to be setup as a separate entity with our own acounts, our own stationery, our own professional staff. I was well aware of the theatrical/non-theatrical quagmire from my time at college so I was very careful to present our operation to the studios as an art house, having nothing to do with the college campus. Not a single piece of promotional material, nor the newpaper or radio ads, or even the checks with which we paid our overages mentioned Brooklyn College anywhere. Everything said Brooklyn Center Cinema. I established a rapport with the bookers of the studios, on a first name basis with many of them so booking titles was just a matter of picking up the phone and calling Warners or Columbia or whoever. As far as the studios were concerned, we were as theatrical as any other art and we played second run off the break and only had to occasionally deal with Swank when a student org from the college wanted to use our theatre to run a film. And back then most of the studios had "classics" departments for their older libraries, so it was much easier. Even now, off the break, studios have no problem booking for a three day weekend engagement (that was our usual run) or even for a single day -- many art houses would play different titles every day of the week, so studios were not adverse to that; they get their guarantee and in years past, art houses could actually make money with a single day run playing classic titles -- imagine that!
That said, today I think it would be more difficult to establish ones' self as a theatrical if you had any connection whatsoever to a college or museum because that's the non-theatricals' bread and butter and they will fight tooth and nail to stop you.
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