Yes Virginia, There is an Independent Film Business
Posted by Jim on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 in Author • Gary Rubin - President, First Independent Pictures • Film Blogs • Film Revenue & ROI • (0) Comments • Permalink •
For those who believe the independent film business is dead, the theatre business is dead, 
or at the very least, “It will never be the same again”, I point you to the some recent examples of per screen averages, the industry barometer for theatrical success.
• PRECIOUS, the Lion’s Gate Sundance pickup, had a first weekend per screen of $105,000, a record for a film opening on 18 screens or more. Currently over $35 mil, the film has far from completed its theatrical run, and continues to be discussed as an Oscar contender.
• As I sat in a café in NY last August, watching the grosses for our own BIG FAN, we were pleased with its eventual $18k we received at NY’s Angelika Theatre, until we started to look at competitive numbers. Roadside Attractions’ THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE was pulling in stunning figures on its way to an outrageous- for- a -documentary –opening- on –multiple- screens –with- a- somewhat- limited- advertising -budget, $40k per screen. The film is approaching $4 mil, one of the best performing docs of the year.
• PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, one can argue, was released by Paramount, a major studio, and has Steven Spielberg’s fingerprints all over it. And yet the film premiered not in Sundance or any other top notch film festival, but in Sundance’s little cousin, Slamdance, and that was in 2008, not 2009. Yes, it languished for almost 2 years before it caught on like no low budget horror thriller since THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT ten years ago, receiving the low advertising, high grassroots approach, unheard of for a studio and standard for an indie. And that is what it was just like- an indie.
The latter was such a shock, that Paramount has just made an unprecendented announcement where 10-20 films a year will be produced for UNDER $100,000 in a new program where they are sure to be bombarded by every single filmmaker wannabe in the country that owns a video camera. And even though there are many bugs surely to be worked out (I can’t imagine that IATSE, the below the line union, won’t have something to say about this), Paramount is to be applauded for this revolutionary step.
Does this sound like a dead business to you?
Gary Rubin, President - First Independent Pictures , has over twenty years of experience in the motion picture and television businesses, having held an array of positions that cross the entire gamut of distribution, acquisitions/ production and management. Prior to forming First Independent Pictures, Rubin served as Executive Vice President, Sales and Acquisitions, for Artisan Entertainment (since merged with Lion's Gate). Prior to that, Rubin was employed by October Films, (since merged with Focus Features), where he held the dual position of VP, Ancillary Distribution and Library Acquisitions, as well as Sr. VP, Millenium Films. Residing in Los Angeles/Santa Monica, Rubin teaches a course on the independent film business at UCLA. He graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Michigan.
