LATINO FILM RELEASE BY ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS TODAY

Roadside Attractions is releasing both Good Hair and From Mexico with Love today. We all know about Good Hair, the Toronto premiering doc by Chris Rock inspired by his daughter’s hair styling concerns. Check out Roadside Attraction’s Facebook Page and you’ll see more on this hands-down, well-loved film.

It’s From Mexico with Love which offers the challenge and possible new insights into distribution to the niche Mexican audience. Starring Kuno Becker a big star in Mexico and known here for the Goal Films and costarring Danay Garcia, a well loved Mexican telenovela star who also has a regular role in Fox's upcoming series Prison Break, it will be released on 281 screens in California, New Mexico and Arizona. (Good Hair will go out on 185 screens.)

The film is a Rocky-esque inspirational story in which a washed-up trainer takes a self-destructive young boxer under his wing. It is receiving important radio notice on Latino stations. While A Day without a Mexican played in Sundance, this film played in the San Diego Latino Film Festival. Whether that impacts the film is interesting to speculate upon, though I don’t think Sundance is a relevant factor, and San Diego’s impact is uncertain. The film did quite well in Mexico which could mean it’s been seen already in US illegally or that its reputation will create interest here.

Most interesting is the chance to compare and perhaps replicate the success of A Day Without a Mexican whose opening weekend was $620,000. It played theatrically from May to November 2004 finally grossing $4.18 million in US. Very little has hit the Latino (primarily Mexican) market to that tune since -- with the exception of Fox Searchlight's 2007 Sundance pickup Under The Same Moon in 2008 which grossed $12,589,108 -- but the majors and their P&A budgets essentially take their films out of the league we are discussing here.

***Late posting: Opening weekend From Mexico with Love was $334,340 (#26 rank, 279 theaters, $1,198 average) % of Total Gross: 66.1%
Widest Release: 279 theaters In Release: 10 days / 1.4 weeks. Now at $505,606.

It doesn't compare with A Day Without a Mexican whose Opening Weekend:
$628,807 was in 56 theaters averaging$11,228 and ranking #15. % of Total Gross:
15.0% View All 31 Weekends

Latino programming has been out of the spotlight lately after its 2004 to 2007 whirlwind of activities by companies looking to cash in on the elusive Latino market and riding in on the wave of ADWOM. We haven’t heard much news of Lionsgate Latino programming section who in 2006 hired Arturo Chavez to head up its Latino video division. Jim McNamara was named non executive chairman in August 2008 of Cine Latino and in principle is continuing to run production company Panamax Films which has a distribution deal with Lionsgate. Its last credits were 2007's Ladron que roba el ladron (Robber of Robbers) released by Lionsgate and Univision and grossing $4m and Sangre de mi sangre, (Blood of My Blood), which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007, was released by IFC and grossed $54,000 and 2006's La mujer de mi hermano (My Brother's Wife) from Colombia which grossed $2.8m. The only news of other Latino oriented distributors was last summer's Latino showcase tour starting at the Aero and initiated by Maya's Moctezuma Esparza. Maya's 2009 releases, Casi divas, Máncora and Sleep Dealer grossed $46,200, $29,700 and $75,700 respectively.

LA Latino Film Festival (LALIFF) is featuring a panel discussion on distribution in these markets October 15 at 4pm at the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood, 3rd floor. I’ll be moderating it and panelists will include

• Ignacio Darnaude who is credited in IMDb for the idea and as exec producer of Casi Divas and whose day job is with Sony Pictures Releasing International as EVP International Creative Adverstising where he is responsible for the creation of international print and audiovisual marketing materials of all major Sony Pictures releases. He developed the international campaigns for some of the highest grossing pictures in Sony’s history, including “The Da Vinci Code”, “Spider Man 3” and “Casino Royale”. In addition to his marketing responsibilities, Mr. Darnaude initiated and executive produced two of the highest grossing films in Mexican history: “Ladies’ Night” and “Ninas Mal” (“Charm School”); “Ladies’ Night” was the first film produced in Spanish by the Walt Disney Company.
• Jim McNamara – CineLatino, discussed above as Founder and Chairman of Panamax Films, Chairman of Cine Latino, the leading premium Spanish-language movie channel in the U.S. McNamara was most recently President and Chief Executive Officer of Telemundo Communications Group, Inc., headquartered in Hialeah, Florida.
• Santiago Pozo, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ARENAS.
  Santiago is considered one of the foremost authorities on entertainment and film marketing to U.S. Latino audiences. Over the past 20 years, Pozo and the ARENAS team have worked on marketing over 300 films, including Transformers, Star Trek, Madagascar, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Chronicles of Narnia, Apocalypto, Shrek, Empire, Selena, and Like Water for Chocolate.

We will be discussing reaching the elusive Latino market which is by no means monolithic and whose members want to see mainstream films as much as the next guy. But the niche has recognized spending power. The big question is, what films will tap into that cash flow? For that reason we will be watching From Mexico With Love.

Downtown Film Festival Los Angeles Panel on Distribution

This Sunday Tristen Tuckfield from The Samuel Goldwyn Company, Dustin Smith from Roadside Attractions and Wyn Tran, a producers rep from The Institution discussed the topic
Film Distribution in a New Age at the Downtown Film Festival Los Angeles in a panel organized by local attorney Clifford Lo and moderated by yours truly.

Film distribution models and opportunities are constantly evolving. These days people are watching more and more films and videos on the Internet and their mobile devices. Thanks to blogs, web-videos, and social networking sites the online universe is becoming a valuable landscape for artists. However, most filmmakers are still making their films with their eye on the prize: theatrical distribution, DVD and TV sales for which they receive advances and minimum guarantees. The discussion will define a middle ground between the old and the new and attempt to help filmmakers find their footing in this new landscape.

The combination of Wyn, Dusty and Tristen was just right and I know the audience was very happy to have the chance not only to hear them and to speak with them afterward at a reception hosted by DFFLA.

For me, having the chance to see the “new generation” of acquisitions execs was rather eye opening. I don’t recall my generation having such spontaneity and camaraderie, though I know we did have a great esprit de corps which the succeeding generation was pressured out of having too much of because of the great competitiveness to acquire films (at top dollar). Their obviously passionate interest in the business and their sharp articulation of current issues was also very impressive. I learned a lot and have written some notes below about what was discussed at the panel. I hope this will help the reader. BTW, thanks to those who came up to me, took my card, and acknowledged where we met, how they follow my blog, and what their successes and questions were.

Tristen follows many projects from script stage which she finds in labs, etc. And of course all participants attend festivals and markets looking for their newest acquisitions. Though neither Goldwyn or Roadside has prebought projects, there is always an underlying possibility that is could happen because of their early tracking. Wyn too, tends to rep finished film, but his position is more fluid and could include producing along with repping and even distributing and licensing foreign rights.

To arrive at making an offer, everyone in the office must see the film and love it before an acquisition is made. That includes the distribution and financial executives.

Absolutely, all rights are acquired with the companies acquire a film. Sometimes the filmmaker raises P&A money and holds onto other rights and uses Roadside Attraction as a “for-lease” distributor, if all parties agree that a theatrical release is worthwhile strategically. But whatever permution in the acquisition is negotiated, both companies treat all their films as if they acquired them with their own money and put up their own P&A.

The Samuel Goldwyn Company acquires 10 to 12 films a year and releases them theatrically as does Roadside Attractions. Dustin said they would release in various ways, from 3 theaters to 1,000+ depending upon the film and the strategy. They tend to follow the traditional windows in releasing, in contrast to “aggregators” such as IFC which acquires many films, can release them in at least one owned NY based theater (Waverly) and plans put them on their channels. They are weaker on the DVD release front as they are not their own distributor but must sub license the film to other DVD distributors which in turn dilutes the share to be returned to the producer. The numbers on VOD or streaming are held closely and are not tracked so that revenue stream is not quantifiable. But if they are agregating and sell 10,000 films at $3-5 a shot, where they might make some money, the filmmaker makes very little.

Similarly, Magnolia can release VOD and streaming day and date with their theatrical release because they own the Landmark chain of theaters. However, when a Goldwyn or Roadside Attractions releases theatrically, theater owners with whom they must keep a long term relationship, do not want day and date release. This is particularly true of larger releases in the large theater chains who absolutely do not want day and date.

As it is, the producer begins to get a revenue share only after the costs of theatrical release and the marketing costs have been recouped by the distributor

Viral marketing, the use of Facebook and Twitter are in decidedly in place with these companies. Dusty at Roadside does it himself with smaller releases; larger releases use other marketing firms. Goldwyn’s recent letter from the director of ‘Cold Souls’ marked a unique and convincing marketing tool when it was sent out to an aggregated number of emails.

Being that theatrical release is a loss leader in the distribution chain and it not always even the best way to go, the panel forwarned the audience NEVER to take passes personally. It is not the “acquisition person’s fault” if a film is turned down. It is a team decision based on lots of issues besides whether the film is good or not. That point being made, that their film can be very good and still not get picked up for many other reasons known within the company who has a particular mission and scope; having completed a film is a great accomplishment and should be used to open the doors and used as the tool to acquaint the filmmakers with all the appropriate players in acquisitions and distribution as well as to show their talent to secure future commitments for their next moves in their career paths.