BLAARGH! Kevin Smith's "Red State" Roadshow

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That link goes to a different article.

http://panelsonpages.com/?p=34735

Fixed. Good lookin' out, Doug.

So I read the Red State BLAARGH! this morning before work and have been turning it over in my head for a good portion of the day. I don’t mean to ruffle any feathers with this or anything but I wanted to put my opposing view on this whole affair out there.

Clerks – Budget $27,000 Domestic return $3.1 million
Mallrats – Budget $6.1 million Domestic Return $2.1 million
Chasing Amy – Budget $250,000 Domestic return $12 million
Dogma – Budget $10 million Worldwide return $30.6 million
Jay and Silent Bob Strike – Budget $22 million Worldwide return $33.7 million
Jersey Girl – Budget $35 million Worldwide return $36 million
Clerks 2 – Budget $5 million Worldwide return $26.9 million
Zack and Miri Make a Porno – Budget $24 million Worldwide return $42.1 million

Since Red State was wrote and directed by Kevin Smith I am focusing on just the other movies he has wrote and directed. Total budget over these 8 movies of $102,377,000 versus a return of $186,500,000 and with the exception of Mallrats Kevin Smith has made his budget back plus some before the film has left theaters. This is also not to mention that the studios make a ton of cash off of selling various rights to the film before it ever even comes out and I would think “eventually making a profit on DVD” goes right out the window.

The idea of financing the distribution by doing the cross country screening and Q&A is actually a pretty smart move on Smith’s part. He has already done several Q&A sessions and I believe each one has been a sold out event. The ticket prices for the Indianapolis screening that I got tickets to has a price range of $43 - $63. Clowes memorial Hall has a seating capacity of 2,096 so if we said average ticket price of $53 then Smith could pull in $111,088 from just this venue. If we figured the seating capacity for all 16 venues was roughly the same then Smith is looking to pocket just over $1.7 million or close to half of the initial $4 million (estimated) budget according to imdb.com. This is without figuring in any money made from selling various rights to the film which would still be an option. Even if going this route was to “blow up in his face” I’m sure he has made enough money so far in his career that he could afford to take the hit and learn from the experience.

As far as the “auction” for the distribution think about it, Smith is the king of whoring himself out and if he wants to start his own distribution company then why not start with a movie he knows will make its money back and give the new company a leg up. Then we can look at the publicity aspect of it. What better way could Smith have went about it? He was in the middle of Sundance where the word about his auction was already huge and considering it is a completely different way of doing things I’m sure there was a ridiculous amount of press there to cover it. Smith knew exactly what he was doing and had the media eating out of his hands for the announcement. You just can’t buy the amount of press coverage he got. Plus with the whole hockey talk and everything before the "auction" I can see that as Smith already shilling on his next movie Hit Somebody so if his company takes off well with Red State then hes already laying the ground work for his next movie which is only in Pre-Production currently.

I do agree that this is a ballsy move for anyone to do, however I think it is something that is long past due. Sooner or later someone was going to do this or something similar. Be it self distribution, forming a corporation and getting investors involved by selling stock in the film like it was just another company, or who knows pairing up with Google or Apple and completely bypassing the Hollywood system altogether by distributing on youtube or iTunes. Hollywood is overdue for a major overhaul and I for one am glad that someone who might be able to actually do something is finally doing it.

As for Smith becoming a distributor being hypocritical. This could be a possibility I will say that much. However until he actually starts distributing other peoples films we just don’t know. I’m sure he will want to make money off of the company but who is to say he isn’t fed up with the way things are and will be offering other film makers much better deal than they could if they went the usual Hollywood route. That is if the Hollywood studios would even put there movie out in the first place. Only time will actually tell on this one.

I personally can’t wait to see how this story unfolds. I think it is a major step into the future of movies and I wish the folks at Harvey Boys luck because they are going to need all they can get to go against all of Hollywood.

^ Those are all valid points, Brandon, and I agree that this mode of distribution might be a very good thing for Smith, but I took offense to the fact that he's painting himself as this "savior" of indie film. I just don't buy it.

Plus, no one seems to be talking much about the actual quality of Red State, which leads me to believe that he's doing all this as a smokescreen. I guess we won't know for sure until we've all seen the movie.

Yeah I haven't really seen a whole lot about the quality of Red State. Lori and I will be talking a little bit about it (not in detail spoilerish or anything) in the SYTYK episode after we go to the Indianapolis screening. I hope it turns out as at least as well as his other movies. While they aren't the greatest thing in cinematic history they have all been well worth watching and I have enjoyed them all. Even Jersey Girl to a point.