The other day, Chris blogged about a new form of grey marketing. Blitzkrieg
Cinema.

Blitzkreig marketing is to commit all of your troops, with
an in-place supply chain to ensure that the troops have a steady stream of
ammunition (in this instance Movies from America).

And it seems to be paying off for America.
This year, according to box
office Mojo, the cinema ticket sales for just the top 40 Movie Blockbusters
in Cinemas has netted $4,921,638,018
for Uncle Sam – and of course, that’s after the Stichting
“costs”.

Chris is quite right, if all the Cinema chains are booked
out with plastic based formula movies (Strong Leading man, spunky female
sidekick versus fifty bad guys with two car chases, one sex scene and high
quality panoramic landscape scenery shots); then how can movies like Mad Max,
The Blair Witch Project get an airing in front of the public?

They can’t. That’s the plan – here’s the list of screening
revenues for last weekend (31^st July-2^nd August).

Country of origin = unknown? OK – just enter the tax haven
of your choice – but it’s probably not Australia.

Unfortunately, according to the AFC, based on the following
criteria:

Source: Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia
(based on MPDAA theatre and screens data accessed on 6 February 2009).

Notes:
Includes drive-ins.
n.a. Not available.
1. ‘City’ refers to cinemas in the CBDs of Sydney,
Melbourne, Brisbane,
Adelaide and Perth.
2. ‘Suburban’ refers to cinemas in non-CBD areas of Sydney,
Melbourne, Brisbane,
Adelaide and Perth.
3. ‘Country’ refers to cinemas outside Sydney,
Melbourne, Brisbane,
Adelaide and Perth.
4. ‘Non-commercial’ refers to cinemas not generally open to the public, such as
those at army, naval and airforce bases, mining camps, film societies, colleges
and universities. Not available from 2004, but included in totals.

……. Australia
has only 1980 cinema screens, so it’s no wonder that there isn’t any room in
Australia Cinemas for Australian Independent Films.

I make that 707 screens minus or overbooked. So what chance
has an Australian film-maker got to have his masterpiece aired?

And what – if any chance do the investors of Australians
movies have of recovering their investments?

But there is a small light shining on the Broadcasting front:

In Australia,
we have a mandated local content on Free to air or Cable TV. This is a good
thing.

In the USA,
they have it a little bit better. Independent film studio Sundance have
organized the “Sundance channel” to ensure equal time viewing opportunities for
the public.

The Government could mandate that the cinema chains devote
equal “air time” to local content, but of course, the cinema owners would
scream blue murder – unless we made half-price Tuesday, the Australian movie
day.

However, the foregoing concept notwithstanding, unless the
Government offers tax breaks to cinema owners who are prepared to show indie
films, the indie film industry, unless it finds another form of publicity and
distribution might be out of luck.

A list of some indie films to cogitate about:

Unfortunately, indie films when they strike gold, return a
far higher return for their investors than the Hollywood Blockbusters – that scares
Hollywood and thus they fill up the
Cinemas.

Make a resolution this year. For every five Hollywood
Blockbusters, view one Indie film.

After all where would we be with no indie films?

References:

Number of screens by type of location, 1985−2008

http://www.afc.gov.au/gtp/wcstlocation.html

How the Recession Hits Independent Film

http://www.independent-magazine.org/magazine/2009/04/recession

Independent
Christian Film, Hollywood’s Best Investment in ‘08 by S.T. Karnick

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