"2004 ANALYSIS - Part 2: Roadshow Distributors"
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. First up is United International Pictures and Roadshow.
Village Roadshow Distributors
Distributors for: Warner Bros, New Line Cinema, Focus Features and Roadshow Film along with independent financed films and several Australian productions.
Estimated Total for 2004: $176.3m
Roadshow has yet another strong year capped with 37 releases, many of which did expected strong business. Still, one wonders how much the distributor would thrive without its deal with Warner Bros which posted the biggest hits of the year in sequels to 'Oceans 12', 'Harry Potter' and 'Scooby Doo 2'. In fact, the biggest non-WB collaboration was New Line's 'Blade: Trinity', which was #42 and was an end-of-year release. Since losing its output deal with Miramax a few years back, Roadshow has been less of a force in the marketplace, but as long as their partnership with Warner's continues, they will remain always healthy in the marketplace monopoly.
The Top Dog: The third sequel in the 'Harry Potter' series 'Prisoner of Azkaban' was an expected winner despite a new director and a shift in release date. The changes didn't do anything to tarnish the incredible power of the franchise and it eventually beat out 'Spider Man 2', which was competing with it, although it couldn't top 'Shrek 2' at the time. 'Azakban' raked in $33m after a stunning $11.9m opening, the fifth biggest in Australian history. 'Potter' finished up at #15 on the all-time ladder behind its predecessors (#7 and #10 respectively), but Roadshow couldn't be more happier with its performance and will continue to thrive with the fourth in the series due out later in the year.
Winners and Grinners: It might have come up a little short in the US, but Brad Pitt's epic 'Troy' was a force of destruction in Australia with $23.4m after a $6.6m opening. Minimal competition, Pitt's always star quality and local support by Eric Bana helped shape 'Troy' into one of the year's bigger hits, finishing the year at #5. Roadshow's promotion was without a doubt fantastic. Their third biggest film and the last of their $15m milestone achievers was pick-up 'Something's Gotta Give', which Warner's took distribution for overseas from Sony. The Jack Nicholson romantic comedy was incredibly durable with $15.6m and it had very strong longevity. Sony would have been upset at losing overseas ancillaries. Also passing the $10m milestone was a couple of Warner smashes - Tom Cruise's 'The Last Samurai' ($12.6m) and guaranteed sequel 'Scooby Doo 2' ($10.7m) that both outperformed on expectations.
The success didn't stop there though: Warner's 'The Polar Express' opened with just $1.1m but finished with a terrific $8.8m enjoying excellent longevity and defying the trend of Christmas movies not doing well in Australia. New Line's 'Blade: Trinity' performed very potent with $6.2m over Christmas and was the strongest performer for Roadshow outside of the WB label, even though New Line is co-owned by Warner's. The success of 'Blade' was also notable since it was achieved in just three weeks. New Line's 'The Notebook' was also potent with $5.9m enjoying spectacularly strong word-of-mouth during the spring while Roadshow took distribution for 'The Grudge' ($5.6m), which didn't do nowhere near as strong as its $100m US run, but the Columbia pick-up did well nevertheless and horror is a hard genre for success in Oz.
Roadshow had decent success with smaller titles too: Hilary Duff teen romp 'A Cinderella Story' ($4.4m) was durable as was Sean Penn/Naomi Watts drama '21 Grams' ($3.7m). Critical indie hits like 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' ($3.5m), 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' ($2.9m), 'A Very Long Engagement' ($1.2m) 'House of Sand and Fog' ($1.2m) and 'Before Sunset' ($0.75k) are also in the winners circle.
Depending on how you look at it, Roadshow stumbled slightly with a few co-produced films that should have performed better like Angelina Jolie's thriller 'Taking Lives' ($3.4m), action flick 'Torque' ($2.7m) and Olsen Twins comedy 'New York Minute' ($2.8m), but they still did reasonable nevertheless and didn't cost too much to produce or release.
Losers: It's hard to pass 'Catwoman', which was a nightmare that didn't end for any territory. The Halle Berry action flick was widely promoted but managed just $2.5m and lost the distributor a bit of money. Still, nobody can blame Roadshow for not trying here and they plugged the film well. Also in the major losers category was Jackie Chan's 'Around the World in 80 Days' with just $1.6m despite solid efforts to promote the comedy.
Roadshow tried with pick-up 'Connie and Carla' with local girl Toni Collette but $1.9m wasn't acceptable enough for the odd comedy. They also couldn't get any mileage from such unmarketable films as animated toon 'Yu-Gi-Oh!' ($1.8m); teen comedy 'Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle' ($1.5m), Aussie offering 'One Perfect Day' ($1.1m) and the ill-fated sequel 'Exorcist: Beginning' ($1m). All films were risks to begin with so their failed performance wasn't too noteworthy.
In the under $1m range, Roadshow bombed with Kevin Costner's western 'Open Range' ($0.53k), a hit in the US; Pierce Brosnan romantic comedy 'Laws of Attraction' ($0.51k) and Owen Wilson's 'The Big Bounce' ($0.32k). Meanwhile Angelina Jolie's drama 'Beyond Borders' was a major bust with just $0.049k and 'Secondhand Lions', a slight hit in the US went unnoticed here with $0.036k.
In the world of independents, films like 'A Touch of Spice' ($0.42k), 'The Company' ($0.29k), 'Highwaymen' ($0.038k), 'Suzie Gold' ($0.023k) and 'Clifford's Big Movie' ($0.012k) didn't have advertising strong enough to warrant interest.
Lessons Learnt: Roadshow did a good job this year, even with their flops like 'Catwoman', which was promoted hard. Roadshow too has been smart enough to release many of their bigger and even smaller films close to their US release date to maintain awareness, buzz and hype plus to limit the film being copied on DVD in the bootlegged markets.
On the Horizon in 2005: Roadshow has a strong plate on offer in 2005. The big guns include: Oscar frontrunners 'The Aviator' and 'Million Dollar Baby' next month; Keanu Reeves' horror pic 'Constantine', sequel 'Miss Congeniality 2' and summer films like 'Batman Begins', JLo's 'Monster-in-Law', horror remake of 'House of Wax' and Johnny Depp in 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. There's also 'Son of the Mask 2' and films with Ethan Hawke, Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Costner and the end of year blockbuster with the latest 'Harry Potter' sequel. Should be another massive year for Roadshow!
Next Up: Columbia TriStar, Buena Vista, Fox
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
- Analysis of the Indies! - Icon, Hoyts and more!
- The 2004 Chart
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