FILMONOMICS: Warming Up The New Year - January 3, 2014
Mary C. avatar
Written by Mary C.
Updated over a week ago

As we wish everyone a healthy, wealthy and wise 2014 our thoughts turn to what has become as much of an American New Year’s tradition as that ball-drop on Times Square. We’re talking bone-chillers and spine-tinglers here. Each of the past three years has kicked off at the box office with a horror film: Season of the Witch in 2011, followed by The Devil Inside and then Texas Chainsaw 3D. The two years prior to that it was vampire films. Now comes the turn of Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, a Latino-themed spin-off from the franchise phenomenon created by Oren Peli that remains one of the high-water marks for what low-budget cinema can achieve in terms of outsized profitability.

Early tracking and first-night receipts suggest that The Marked Ones, which Oren produced alongside Jason Blum for around $6 million, will come this close to unseating The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and Frozen from their box office perches with a weekend gross of between $15-20 million – further winter storms permitting, of course. Even after Paramount’s marketing costs are taken into account, this is already shaping up to be another profitable chapter in the found footage catalogue of horror films – heartening news for the several films listed on Slated that have also incorporated this storytelling device. They include both NO MAN'S RIDGE, a Bigfoot tale that has secured half its financing, as well as REPOSSESSED, now in post after shooting in Romania last year.

A fifth Paranormal Activity is also scheduled for release just ahead of Hallowe’en this year. And New Year 2015 will be ushered in with the release ofAmityville, a – you’ve guessed it – found-footage reworking of the original horror story that helped inspire cinema’s profitable obsession with pseudo-real paranormal stories. In the meantime, the Hispanic twist to The Marked Ones, which applies the shaky camera technique to a bilingual story of Mexican mysticism that takes place in East Los Angeles with a predominantly Latino cast, is intriguing. Latino ticket buyers accounted for about 11% of the domestic gross of the first Paranormal Activity in 2009, rising to an estimated 19% for the last sequel. Another reminder of this growing box office clout came last year when Instructions Not Included raked in $44 million for Lionsgate, overtaking Guillermo Del Toro Pan’s Labyrinth, produced by Frida Torresblanco, as the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever in North America. The $15-million horror thriller Mama, executive produced by Del Toro, also had serious pull with Latino audiences when it debuted last January on the way to eventual $72 million gross.

As all these groundbreakers illustrate, independent films are so often the ones that that keep raising the ceiling on revenue expectations and to keep challenging film business norms. This weekend serves up another stellar example of just such a revolutionary milestone, one that makes us particularly proud. DAYS AND NIGHTS was one of the very first films to raise a substantial slice of its production budget as a direct result of being listed on Slated. Now, a year or so later, the star-studded film receives its world premiere 7pm Saturday at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Our congratulations go to director Christian Camargo, to his producers Juliet Rylance, Barbara Romer and Ed Vassalo, to executive producer Suzy Francszak Davis, to their mouthwatering cast, and to the many Slated members who invested in this modern New England interpretation of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, among them David M. Milch, Barry Silbert, Mark Stewart, Jason Hirsch and Zachary Aarons. What a heartwarming way to ring in the New Year. May there be many more pioneering days and nights in the year ahead.

CRASH REEL, THE SQUARE ON OSCAR SHORTLIST

15 documentary features appear on the shortlist for the Oscar nominations that will be announced on January 16th. They include: Lucy Walker’s THE CRASH REEL; Cutie and the Boxer, produced by Lydia Dean Pilcher; Dirty Wars, executive produced by Jess Search; God Loves Uganda, produced byJulie Goldman; Life According to Sam, executive produced by Nancy Abraham; Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer, directed and produced by Mike Lernerand executive produced by Martin Herring; Jehane Noujaim’s THE SQUARE, which was recently acquired by Netflix; 20 Feet from Stardom, associate produced by Caryn Capotosto; and Which Way Is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington, for which Joel Goodman is the composer.

CAHILL WINS SUNDANCE/DOLBY GRANT

Writer-director Mike Cahill has become the inaugural recipient of the Dolby Family Sound Fellowship for I Origins, his latest sci-fi drama that receives its world premiere at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival. The fellowship, which provides a range of post-production resources, is the creation ofSundance Institute and the Dolby Institute, along with the Ray and Dagmar Dolby Family Fund. The film was chosen for its impactful use of sound technology.

SMITH & MOSIER EMBARK ON THE CRAPTURE

Kevin Smith and longtime collaborator Scott Mosier have started writingHelena Handbag that will find ”mankind teaming up with Hell to save existence from extinction at the hands of a Rapturing giant Jesus,” according to the filmmaker’s Facebook page, “which means the budget has to be low, because nobody’s gonna wanna make that movie. At all.” Smith also intends to start filming Clerks III in May.

BRIT INDIE AWARDS FOR SLATED ACTING DUO

Two fast-rising stars that appear in film projects listed on Slated each walked away with statuettes at the recent British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) in London. Imogen Poots, one of the co-stars in THE BELOVED, won best supporting actress for The Look of Love. Ben Mendelsohn, who headlinesTHE CAR THIEF, won best supporting actor for Starred Up.

SFFS SUPPORTS 7 SUNDANCE WORLD PREMIERES

Seven films that received support from the San Francisco Film Society's Filmmaker360 program will have their world premieres at the Sundance Film Festival. They are: Hellion, Little Accidents, Obvious Child, Marmato, The Overnighters and two films that were also listed on Slated, Ira Sachs' LOVE IS STRANGE and Michael Tully's PING PONG SUMMER. Last year’s batch of SFFS-supported films included Ryan Coogler's Fruitvale Station, which went on to win both the festival's Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award.

ECHO LAKE LOOKS TO OSCARS

Nebraska, the latest film to be financed by Blue Lake Media, the fund co-managed by Echo Lake Entertainment, has enhanced its Academy Awards credentials by being nominated for the Producers Guild of America Awards for best picture. Seven of the past ten PGA winners have gone on to win the Best Picture Oscar, including the past 6 in a row. The black-and-white film is also nominated for six Independent Spirit Awards and five Golden Globe categories.

AGING ROCKER FILM HITS THE ROAD

Louisville filmmaker Archie Borders signed a deal with Virgil Films & Entertainment for all North American distribution rights to his musical comedy PLEASED TO MEET ME. The film, whose cast includes musicians John Doe, Loudon Wainwright III and Aimee Mann, is scheduled to be released April 22nd this year – which also happens to be Archie's birthday.

ANGELS CIRCLE WELSH MURDER BALLAD

Executive producer Philip Palmer says he is now in discussions with a syndicate of British angel investors with a view to drawing down the full production finance for INFERNO by early April. The drama stars John Hurt,Aidan Turner, who can be currently seen playing one of the youngest dwarves in The Hobbit franchise, and Alexandra Roach, who portrayed the young Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.

SLATED FILMS HIT PRODUCTION MILESTONES

And, finally, several other Slated films have reached meaningful benchmarks their own. Director Ryan Bonder has completed principal photography on his London crime thriller THE BROTHER... Director George LaVoo says his JUVIE has raised $150,000 in private equity... Tatiana Chekhova reports all CGI and visual effects are now done on PRIVATE NUMBER... Prakash Nambiar is days away from starting the second shoot on THE PERFECT GIRL... Paul Schnee, the casting director riding high on the back of Dallas Buyers Club and August: Osage County, has come aboard NIXON'S DAUGHTERS... Writer-director Partho Sen-Gupta has engaged sound designer & foley artist Nicolas Becker (Gravity) on his SUNRISE अरुणोदय that is being post-produced in Paris... Shrihari Sathe, who invested in Sunrise as a direct result of being introduced on Slated is now attached as co-producer on another listed project DUKHTAR (DAUGHTER). And so it goes around in one virtuous circle.

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