Pix take slow road to B.O. success
'Tenenbaums,' 'Gosford' hold a platform party
Instead of pushing the usual buttons to launch in 3,000-plus theaters, a platform calls for a hand-crafted action plan and constant vigilance. To gain a foothold, executives must monitor grosses on every show, schmooze with theater owners in the sticks and unfurl a marketing campaign that slowly crescendos.
Get a little too hasty with any of those details and you end up with a misfire like last year's "State and Main."
December acid test
December is often the greatest test of platform performance, with Oscar glory upping the stakes. This year, with major late-year titles like "Ali" and "The Majestic" underperforming, a few platforms have grabbed the spotlight. Chief among them: Disney's "The Royal Tenenbaums" and USA Films' "Gosford Park."
Miramax's "In the Bedroom" and Lions Gate's "Monster's Ball" are still posting healthy numbers. Warner Bros.' "Charlotte Gray" and Miramax's "The Shipping News" are starting to fade.
It should be noted that Sony/Revolution's "Black Hawk Down" and Universal/DreamWorks' "A Beautiful Mind" are huge hits that some would call platforms. But their rapid ramp-ups to 3,100 and 2,200 runs, respectively, place them in a different category.
No matter the precise definition of a platform, it offers no shortage of stimulation to the staff trying to get it off the ground, notes Chuck Viane, distrib chief at Disney.
"These films, honestly, are more fun for us because they are very hands-on," he says. "You are not dominated by New York and L.A. You are hand-picking theaters in Santa Fe and Albuquerque."
Before opening "Tenenbaums," Disney set a goal of reaching the same gross neighborhood as last year's "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" That surprise hit leveraged a platinum soundtrack and Oscar buzz to post $45.5 million, tops for any Coen brothers release.
Matching that feat would hardly be a cinch. Helmer Wes Anderson's previous two outings, "Bottle Rocket" and "Rushmore," which Disney distributed, were both critically hailed but commercially mediocre.
Modest beginnings
On Dec. 14, "Tenenbaums" opened on five screens: two in New York and three in L.A. With stellar advance word plus a recognizable cast, the first-weekend screen average hit nearly $100,000. The next week, the film widened to 40 runs, enjoying similar results.
The critical juncture, as it is with many platforms, was Week 3. On Dec. 28, having spent two weeks fortifying itself against the assault of "Ali," which exploded with a record $10 million Christmas, "Tenenbaums" climbed to 290 theaters in the top 25 markets.
When Viane saw the $8.8 million tally and $30,000 per-screen average, he knew the pic would be much more than a bicoastal critics' darling.
Spreading out
In the next three weeks, the film moved up to its current level of 996 runs -- a remarkable 800 of which Viane says were booked before the pic's initial launch. With its cume of $38 million, the pic should have no problem reaching $50 million, and Oscar noms could boost that figure.
Like Disney, USA Films is enjoying an awards season adrenaline shot thanks to a hit from an unlikely source. Its man of the hour is director Robert Altman, whose "Gosford Park" has collected $12.5 million domestically.
With a few breaks in the coming weeks, "Gosford" could take a run at Altman's career B.O. bests, "MASH" ($73.2 million) and "Popeye" ($49.8 million).
One lift came Jan. 20 with Altman's Golden Globe directing win, though that momentum slowed a bit days later when the helmer was overlooked by the Directors Guild of America.
Whether or not "Gosford Park" strikes Oscar gold, the path it has traveled has already been a winding but rewarding one.
Sudden strategy
When Greenstein and his colleagues first saw a cut of the period satire last fall, they immediately grasped its potential both on the arthouse circuit and for broader audiences.
"As opposed to hiding it or keeping it under wraps," Greenstein recalls, "we decided we love this thing and we're going to put it out there."
A rough cut was extensively screened for press and critics in October, more than two months ahead of the Dec. 26 release.
In the usual crowded holiday landscape, "Gosford" immediately distinguished itself with stellar reviews and grosses to match. Debuting in nine theaters in New York and L.A., it rang up $395,162, or $43,907 per screen.
The next weekend, it widened to 131 runs, reaching the top 20 North American markets and taking in $1.6 million, nearly $12,000 a screen. The key expansion arrived Jan. 11, when the pic bulked up to 518 engagements.
At that level, "Gosford" had to click with auds in smaller cities -- a tough task for a sophisticated pic whose polyphonic dialogue and British flavor made it an unlikely crossover.
USA distrib prexy Jack Foley, a specialty biz veteran who distribbed Altman's "Ready to Wear" while at Miramax, was relieved at the encouraging figures coming in from such cities as Anchorage, Alaska, and Boise, Idaho.
Breakout numbers
"The numbers we got in the suburbs of New York and L.A. were the first indication that the film could break out," Foley says. "Then, when it held up in markets like Portland, Maine, we knew it was something special."
The following weekend, the film widened to 658 runs, reaping another $4.2 million. It added another 100 theaters after the Globe victory for Altman, who hopes to celebrate his 77th birthday in February with an early Oscar wake-up call.
