"2004 ANALYSIS - Part 6: The Indies"

2004 has now and truly closed and we are already in the heat of the 2005 madness, but which films dominated last year? Which did bigger than expected? Which totally tanked? Here is a guide to 2004's Hits and Misses at the Australian box-office.

2004 was surprisingly quieter than recent years. 21 films crossed the $10m mark while 12 films went past the $15m milestone. That represents a downward spiral from 2003, which netted 23 $10m winners and 14 that achieved past $15m. In 2002, 24 films earned $10m and over with 12 films past $15m. In 2001, 28 films reached $10m, 13 of which also passed $15m. Take into account, these three years also were the years that 'Lord of the Rings' achieved massive feats. All up, in 2004 286 films opened in some capacity in Australian cinemas, down from 293 in 2003 but up from 257 released in 2002.

For the next week, we will present a guide to each Australian distributor's success in 2004 followed by a recap of the Best and the Worst B.O results from the year. This will give everyone a wrap-up at the Australian B.O in 2004. Here is The indies!.



Hoyts Distribution
Estimated Total for 2004: $8.1m

Hoyts Distribution released 10 films in 2004 and could only manage one hit from the group - 'Saw', which was by far their top grosser. But even it's performance was met with some indifference considering the hype for the horror pic. To Hoyts credit, they did try and make the most of what they had on offer and most of their slate was very hard to sell to begin with like 'Godsend', 'Spartan', 'Wonderland' and 'Evelyn'.

The Top Dog: 'Saw' was their lone hit in 2004 collecting $4.1m in December, which was solid considering horror is a tough sell in Oz, but at the same time the massive hype and fact it was helmed by two young Aussies who plugged it here should have helped it do a little better.

Winners and Grinners: None

Losers: They had 9 films do abysmal in 2004: The thriller 'Godsend' ($1.1m) was their next best film but even with a solid cast including Greg Kinnear and Robert De Niro, it failed to connect. Similarly, Pierce Brosnan's drama 'Evelyn' ($0.804k), much controversial 'House of 1000 Corpses' ($0.700k), Colin Farrell drama 'Intermission' ($0.379k), two Val Kilmer duds - 'Spartan' ($0.304k) and 'Wonderland' ($0.279k) and critically acclaimed flick 'Shattered Glass' ($0.250k) weren't much to brag about, although to Hoyts credit, many of the releases were small independent films that they tried to branch out to mainstream. Also a major loss was Aussie comedy 'Under the Radar' ($0.127k), which continued the curse of Australian comedies while Robin Williams' drama 'Final Cut' ($0.029k) was a quick miss.

Lessons Learnt: Quite simply, they need better options to release other than films that have absolutely no commercial appeal.

On the Horizon in 2005: 2005 started off OK with Hilary Duff drama 'Raise Your Voice' and they have Delta Goodrem's feature film 'Hating Allison Ashley' along with Kevin Costner drama 'The Upside of Anger', Adrien Brody's 'The Jacket' and summer hopeful 'Lord of War' with Nicolas Cage and Ethan Hawke. Still, there's a lot of B-grade possibilities with films with Wesley Snipes, Ryan Phillipe and Heather Graham lurking in the shadows.



Icon
Estimated Total for 2004: $34m

Icon proved to be what Hoyts isn't - a force to be reckoned with in the marketplace. They seem to have the smaller films, Hoyts need. Although the distributor had their best year ever thanks to Mel Gibson's 'The Passion of the Christ', they also collected strong figures from a heap of titles that were risks. All up, they released 17 films in 2004, 3 of which grossed over $3m. Not bad for a mini-major.

The Top Dog: Since he formed the company, it's best fitted that he would have the highest grosser of the company and Mel Gibson did that with his controversial epic 'The Passion of the Christ', which was an unprecedented blockbuster with $15.1m in Australia and incredible staying power. Although it finished at #11 on the end-of-year figures and was a monstrous smash, it still didn't come near the spectacularly lofty heights of its US performance.

Winners and Grinners: In addition to 'Passion', Icon got some excellent responses from Ashton Kutcher's thriller 'The Butterfly Effect', which pulled $4.9m over March and also had strong word-of-mouth power. Oscar winning drama 'Monster' ($3m) was also very leggy and benefited from Charlize Theron's award winning performance. Also solid was Julia Stiles' romantic comedy 'The Prince and Me', which did a decent $2.7m in June in the midst of heavy competition. Also solid was Geoffrey Rush' award winning drama 'The Life and Death of Peter Sellers', which roused $1.3m in August and did well for an independent drama.

Losers: The much-hyped shark pic 'Open Water' was average at $2.3m and didn't feed off the massive word-of-mouth, which was a major disappointment considering it was expected to do better. Also disappointing was Reese Witherspoon's 'Vanity Fair' ($0.93k), which failed to be an Oscar contender while Aussie films continued to disappoint with 'Thunderstuck' at just $0.906k.

Indies fared OK, but the fact that they weren't as prominent as competing titles. Does anyone even remember 'In My Father's Den' ($0.644k), 'Wondrous Oblivion' ($0.619k), 'Billabong Odyssey' ($0.427k) or 'Sylvia' ($0.354k)? Teen comedy 'Camp' ($0.113k) was advertised but didn't get noticed either.

The three bigger flops go to the more advertised films: long-shelved star studded 'The Singing Detective' ($0.075k), thriller 'Paparazzi' ($0.030k) and Michael Caine's 'The Actors' ($0.025k). Gibson contributed to the former two by appearing in cameos.

Lessons Learnt: They are doing tremendously well and had a banner year, can 2005 measure up even without 'Passion of the Christ'?

On the Horizon in 2005: Icon hasn't firmed their 2005 schedule yet.



And the true indies... some of the highlights from the other releases from distributors
Hopscotch: They got on the map thanks to 'Fahrenheit 9/11', which was a runaway surprise with $8.1m in Australia fed off incredible word-of-mouth. Also strong was fellow documentary 'Touching the Void' ($2.7m) while Aussie acclaimed hit 'Somersault' ($1.8m), which was enough for it to be the top Aussie drama grosser in 2004. Also finding an audience was 'The Barbarian Invasions' ($1.1m), which benefited from awards attention.

Dendy: The art-house major hit a mainstream hit with documentary 'Super Size Me', which grossed $2.8m over winter and benefited from great word-of-mouth. Also strong was award-winning 'The Motorcycle Diaries' ($1.8m), 'The Weeping Camel' ($0.739k). Not up to scratch was the well-advertised drama 'Stage Beauty' ($0.200k), which didn't benefit from Claire Danes starpower.

Palace: Solid results from 'To Be and to Have' ($0.89k) and Adam Garcia led drama 'Love's Brother' ($0.863k) along with a decent result for 'Undertaking Betty' ($0.589k). Also released to unnoticed scores were: 'My Life Without Me', 'Facing Windows', 'Tom White' and 'Remember Me'.

Becker: The once-dynamite distributor had a soft year helped by the Paul Hogan Aussie comedy 'Strange Bedfellows' ($4.8m), which critically panned but had enough fans for it to be a hit. Still, bringing Mandy Moore to Australia to plug US critical hit 'Saved!' ($0.275k) was a bust as was skateboarding pic 'Grind' ($0.018k) and Macaulay Culkin comedy 'Party Monster' ($0.0398k).

By Chris Cappola

Please Note that Distributor totals are estimates and not exact data but are rounded off


OTHER DISTRIBUTOR ANALYSIS:
- Analysis of 20th Century Fox
- Analysis of Buena Vista International
- Analysis of Columbia TriStar Distributors
- Analysis of United International Pictures
- Analysis of Village Roadshow Distributors

- The 2004 Chart


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