Televisa boosts U.S. plans
Distrob aims to conquer Latin pic challenges
The fast-growing bilingual urban Latino market is the most avid moviegoing segment in the U.S. -- so why haven't any of the plans to distribute Latino-themed films succeeded yet?
These smaller, Spanish-language pics are competing for the same auds that rush to see the next "Spiderman." In addition to prohibitive marketing costs, the distribs have had to convince exhibs to trust the viability of their product. Televisa Cine's "A Day without a Mexican" took in a respectable $4 million in the U.S, but follow-up releases have posed challenges.
Getting it right
"We didn't want to lose exhibitors' confidence with our next release so we wanted to make sure we got it right first. We were delayed by protracted negotiations over contracts and other internal issues," says Televisa Cine chief Eckehardt von Damm.
"Matando Cabos" opened in Mexico a year ago, racking up $5.5 million. Pic had its U.S. debut at Sundance in January where producers Billy and Fernando Rovzar of Lemon Films were hoping for a bidding war before accepting Televisa Cine's distribution offer.
Another Los Angeles-based company with similar ambitions, Arenas Entertainment, seems to have gone back to its roots as a Hispanic marketing service agency since the less-than-stellar box office takings of its Mexican dark comedy "Nicotina" last summer. It has licensed Buena Vista Home Ent. for a December direct-to-video release of its pickup, Spanish toon "The 3 Wise Men," with Martin Sheen, Emilio Estevez and Jose Luis Rodriguez (El Puma) voicing the English-lingo version. Other pickups last year, "La Otra Conquista" and Colombian pic "Como el gato y el raton," are still waiting in the wings. Arenas' marketing prexy Amorette Jones ankled Aug. 1.
Miami-based Venevision International has released on selected screens a few titles, including Carlos Sorin's acclaimed "Bom Bon El Perro." It is focusing more on consolidating and growing its presence in other windows, releasing five DVD titles a month. "We're still dedicated to keeping our theatrical distribution business going but we have to be careful with wide releases for our kind of niche cinema where the actors are not well known and the marketing costs are high," says company prexy and CEO Luis Villanueva.
Fall releases
For now, it looks like Televisa Cine is the only major player servicing this niche. Distrib plans a simultaneous Mexican-U.S. release of Fernando Kalife's "Siete Dias" (Seven Days) in September. Story about a concert promoter who will stop at nothing to get U2 to perform in Mexico features music from top Latino talent. "Ladies Night," the first Mexican production of Disney Latino label Miravista, comes out in October and "El Vacilon: The Movie," based on a popular U.S. Hispanic radio show in New York, debuts the same month in the East coast.
