Twenty-three days into the month of January, Michael Moore is getting proactive about his New Year’s resolution: he wants one screen in every multiplex in America reserved for foreign films and documentaries. So, how’s your newly implemented exercise regime going so far, everybody? Here’s Moore…
“People want to see documentaries, but there’s a disconnect between that desire and the exhibitors out there,” Moore tells the Hollywood Reporter. “We’re not asking for charity. …This could be on the 15th screen of a multiplex that would otherwise have the sixth showing of the new Harry Potter movie. Some of these films make $200 or $300 per screen.”
If you’re saying to yourself, “Well Michael, I’d like to see that too, and I’d also like to see my college loans turn into Ferraris,” you should know that Moore says he’s spoken to board members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as well as unnamed documentary directors, industry publicists and marketers in hopes of setting his resolution in motion. His next step is to sit down with the heads of theater chains to get down to what a QT character might call brass tax. No word on whether he’ll sit down with a video camera on his shoulder, but I’d say one of his trusty hats is a lock for a cameo.
And hey, if the theater chains’ top suits won’t give him one screen per cineplex, he says Mondays, which draw reliably weak box office, are ideal common ground. Who else sees Mark Cuban getting involved in this shortly, because I’m getting visions like The Dead Zone? Moore’s ultimate goal is to see foreign films and documentaries unleashed from the “art house ghetto” and into the glorious pits of suburbia, where Diablo Cody once wrote the script to Juno inside a Starbucks nestled inside a Target (or so she says, I’ll go ahead and save you the comment, thanks).
Now, I think Moore’s mission is commendable. My mom needs something to do on Monday nights besides calling me up to fuss over election coverage and personally I don’t give a damn what Hollywood Elsewhere spews, Americans are more open to indie films and foreign films than ever. Unfortunately (but semi-fortunately), the torrent boom plays a huge part in this, but I’ll save that aspect for another post that is a longtime coming. But, yes, the distribution is out-of-whack, too. If Sicko, Moore’s doc about the health-care crisis in America, can gross $25 million, his ideas on documentary and indie distribbing deserve to be heard and pondered. Imagine Tony Kaye’s Lake of Fire playing five miles away from you next Monday.
There is nothing like walking out of a movie into the night and hitting an aloof stride on the parking lot with a wedgie in your ideologies. To adjust or not to adjust. That is the question we need more of.
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Do me a favor… next time: smaller picture of Moore. Next time you do a big close up like that make sure it’s Jessica Alba.
Thanks,
Vic
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:07 pm
as must as i dislike Moore after watching, “Michael Moore Hates America,” he has a point. Or may this is his way to make more money on his documentries.
January 24th, 2008 at 3:31 am
He may be plans to produce documentaries in Europe!
January 24th, 2008 at 7:17 am
Moore’s comment “People want to see documentaries” may be true. But they can see many, many, many of them on TV. So the question is: do enough people want to see documentaries in theaters? His recent movies certainly showed that potentially there’s enough people, but he’s just one person (and he was riding a tide of fame or infamy, depending on your viewpoint). Would other such people have similar luck?
I know I personally don’t want to see documentaries in the theater. But, that’s just me. The question is: would it be worthwhile and effective for a theater to devote one screen to just these films? I have doubts about that, but, admittedly, my reaction is more instinctual than based on any sort of hard facts and figures. The question for me isn’t about the veracity of the documentary-type film, but rather the veracity of the venue that Moore is talking about.
That’s just the documentary angle. As far as foreign and/or independent films, I can definitely see his point and see some benefits to this. The question is: do enough people want to see these films? I think probably they would, if they knew they were out there. So Moore’s notion of publicizing this campaign is a good one.
That said, if a given theater chain is only devoting one screen to this, what if there are three foreign films and an American documentary vying for that space? Which one wins? Do they just alternate the showings? At any one time there can be a slew of independent films (and if Moore’s campaign is successful, probably many more), so a selection process potentially becomes inevitable.
Overall, though, it’s an interesting mission to take on and I’ll be curious to see how far he can take this.
January 24th, 2008 at 10:12 am
He should lobby for a salad every once in a while.
Am I right folks?
I’ll be here all week.