If You Were Summit, What Would You Spend That Wad of Cash On?
Filed under: Executive shifts, RumorMonger, Box Office
You're this small company, and one day, after MTV Films* and other studios pass on this little young adult vampire romance series, you pick it up. You spend roughly $40 million to make the feature, slip it onto the big screen, and suddenly, you've fostered a phenomenon. Your opening weekend alone pays for the film and then some. You score $191 million domestic, and another $192 million from the foreign box office. You find yourself at the heart of a film and marketing goldmine.So what do you do with the money? You've blown off Lionsgate. You've given your stars sweet pay raises. But there's still a whole lot left over. Nikki Finke has thrown up an in-house memo that discusses talks with Morgan Stanley and how it's time to "look beyond the initial goals we have achieved and plan the next chapter in the studio's journey." Finke's sources say that means "looking mostly for libraries to acquire." Not to mention rumors of a Weinstein takeover.
Between my must-save nature and the number of studios that grabbed big success only to fall into oblivion a short time later, I'm hoping they take it easy and don't go on a Gimme! Gimme! shopping spree. But even then, there will be decisions to make. Stick with books? Youth fare? Stretch the boundaries? Continue to score the projects everyone else leaves behind? If it were up to you, what would you do?
*Gotta love a company that passes up a property, then becomes its most fervent supporter.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-30-2009 @ 5:39PM
Scott Nye said...
New Line made the Lord of the Rings trilogy and was all but absolutely demolished five years later. I think Summit would be wise to think very carefully about what kind of money they spend over the next few years.
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9-30-2009 @ 6:16PM
Dan L said...
Like Scott above and you Monika, I think they'd be smart to not do anything too drastic. This is them counting on future wealth right now, you know? Yeah they have a chunk of change from the first Twilight, but you never know how things can go. Even if it doesn't completely go belly-up, just say it goes sideways on 'em like a Narnia-type situation, what happens if they've pretty much played their hand based on money that never materialized?
Like, you know, the banks. :)
I'd say - stick with the smaller business model, through to maybe the big finale of Twilight. See how the next two do. Then make your move. Pay the actors what they deserve, grow the budget overall by what's necessary, but this is a fan-base that is going to come see your shitty vampire movie regardless of whether you up the special effects ante from one picture to the next, so don't go crazy.
You will then have all the money in the world to make the films you want with material you can afford to option and sit on if need be, and you wont have bogged yourself down with any under-performing appendages.
Though who knows, maybe the Weinsteins own a bunch of great stuff.
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Personally, what I'd love is if they became THE production company of every Palahniuk book that should have been made a film by now but hasn't. They'd have the money to a)take the risks on something like Survivor that no one is willing to, and b)get the directing/writing/star power to do it right. Don't let these all become little indies. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but, come on!
I know they've pretty much all been optioned but they'd have the money to probably buy these up and do them RIGHT.
That's what I'd want to happen in my little fantasy-scenario.
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10-01-2009 @ 2:26AM
Jenni Miller said...
I hope Summit uses that wad of cash to continue producing and/or distributing indie gems like Happy-Go-Lucky (distributed by Miramax), The Brothers Bloom, and Penelope -- some of my most favorite recent movies! Not to mention The Hurt Locker.
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