Evan Almighty may have been #1 at the Box Office this weekend with $32 million, but even at a very good $8,900 per screen average, it was not #1 in that category. /Film has already posted a story about the #1 per screen movie of the weekend, Michael Moore’s documentary, Sicko which had an incredible $70,000 per screen average (in that it made $70,000 on one screen). But I want to look at what was #2 per screen this weekend. No, it wasn’t Evan Almighty or the other big opening film 1408. No, it wasn’t another big blockbuster like Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. It was a small independent film that I mentioned in my Box Office Predictions article last week called Colma: The Musical and it made $9,000 on its one screen.

I have to say upfront that this is not a review of the film. I feel that it would be a conflict of interest to really review the film because the producer, Paul Kolsanoff (who also has a small part in the film) is a long time close friend of mine who I went to high school and college with (he even acted in my student film, and I have worked on several of his own short films in the past). So I am a little biassed here in wishing him luck and hoping that this film finds a larger audience. So far it has done very well for a true independent picture in that it opened this past weekend in San Francisco and opens in New York on July 6th, then in Los Angeles, Portland, and Austin in August.

What really excites me about the film is that as I said above, it is a true independent film. When people hear that term, they often think of directors like Quentin Tarantino and the Coen Brothers who work outside of Hollywood. But they still find very large budgets and get very well known stars. Colma: The Musical was made for $15,000. That’s $15,000, not $15 million! It was made by unknowns and stars unknowns. It was filmed in Colma which for those of you not in the Bay Area is a small suburb just South of San Francisco by guys who grew up there. Everyone praised Ben Afleck and Matt Damon for capturing the essence of life in Boston when they wrote Good Will Hunting. I would contend that H.P. Mendoza found the same essence in his screenplay, not just capturing life in Colma CA, but capturing life in any small town suburb. Mendoza by the way, not only wrote the screenplay, but also the music and costarred as Rodel, one of the main characters in the film. He collaborated with his long time friend, Richard Wong who directed the picture and even received a nomination for the “Someone To Watch” award at the Independent Spirit Awards for his directorial debut.

That leads to something else that excites me about the movie. It didn’t play in the big festivals. It wasn’t at Sundance or Toronto or even the more local but still large San Francisco International Film Festival. So while it didn’t make it there, it made it into over 30 small to medium sized festivals throughout the last few years. The filmmakers really took it to the people across the country in these festivals and the people responded in a very positive way. In fact, it won the “Special Jury Prize” at three different festivals in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego, meaning that the voting members of those festivals may not have given it an award, but the audience did. Watching the movie on Saturday night reminded me of seeing it at a festival. There was even a question and answer session afterwards with Kolsanoff, Wong, Mendoza and two other members of the cast. But this is not a festival. This is a theatrical release which will get wider as I mentioned above.

It was filmed in the Bay Area by Bay Area filmmakers and first screened publicly at a Bay Area festival (San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival) where it sold out a 700 seat theater. So it is no wonder that the film’s opening weekend took place in San Francisco. But when the audience in attendance was asked who had seen the film before, only a few people raised their hands, meaning that most of the sold out crowd was seeing it for the first time which was exciting to be a part of. And really, this is what my article is about. It is about my excitement over a true independent film getting a theatrical release (even if it is only to be in five cities). I am curious to know how it will play outside of San Francisco. It played in festivals all over the country and got a good response, which I think points to the universality of the story. But how will it play outside of San Francisco in a non-festival atmosphere? Will crowds sell out the theater when it opens in New York in two weeks? Will they sell out in Los Angeles, Portland, and Austin in August?

I hope so. In fact, I hope the response is so overwhelming that it garners enough attention to open in more cities across America. Not just because I wish my friend luck and success. But because it may serve as a reminder to Hollywood (and the so called “independent film” studios) that there is an audience for this type of film. They don’t have to spend millions and millions of dollars to make a movie. Evan Almighty had a huge budget, and even with $32 million its opening weekend, it will likely lose money. Colma: The Musical cost $15,000 to make and brought in $9,000 at one theater in three days. In a summer that has been very disappointing where blockbusters are concerned, here is a small musical, with drama, lots of laughs, great music, real heart, good acting, and great characters that is definitely worth seeing. Like I said, I think there is a message here for film studios.