BIZ TIP TUESDAY:
OPENING WEEKENDS & HIGH CONCEPTS
Here's the reality of the film business:
You can have the greatest dialogue, most fantastic scenes, and
amazing characters of any film ever made... but the audience
won't know that until AFTER they've paid their $11 and stood in
line for two hours. How do you convince them to pay the $11 and
stand in line in the first place? All you have is a poster and a
trailer... both can't do much more than give you the basic idea
behind the film.
So the opening weekend audience is really paying for the
idea... and the opening weekend audience is 25% of all the money
a film will make! If a movie that cost $100 million only makes
$20 million in its opening weekend, it will probably only make
$80 million - that's $20 million less than it cost to make! Are
you starting to see how important that idea is?
The average film cost $106.7 million * to make, and big event
movies like TRANSFORMERS 2 can cost over $200 million. That's a *big* investment. At the
Words Into Pictures Conference a couple of years ago TWISTER
producer Kathleen Kennedy said, "If a movie doesn't make
$200-$300 million they consider it a failure." That means the
IDEA for your script needs to be worth at least $50 million! If
you can't get millions of people to stand in line on the opening
weekend to see the IDEA your script is DOA. A couple of years ago THE 300
opened with over $70 million in it's first weekend - those are
the kind of numbers producers EXPECT to get from a film that
opens in summer... Hey, 300 didn't even open in summer! This summer we have all kinds
of big movies: TERMINATOR: SALVATION and STAR TREK and TRANSFORMERS 2 and HARRY POTTER & WHATEVER. Not
to mention movies like HANGOVER which might spawn a couple of sequels in
coming years. Your script is up against those films!
TRANSFORMERS 2 has made over $200 million since it opened less than a week ago. I secretly hoped it would fail, but it's on course to get close to DARK KNIGHT's total box office.
A great movie begins with a great idea. Who would want to see
a well crafted screenplay about a boring subject? Most of you
probably know what "High Concept" means, but for those of you who
don't: High Concept is STORY as star. The central idea of the
script is exciting, fascinating, intriguing, and DIFFERENT. The
kind of big idea that's worth over $70 million - so exciting
people just can't wait to see the movie on opening day. High
Concept films can usually be summed up in a single sentence or a
single image. Last week I had a meeting with a movie producer who
told me they were looking for movies they could advertise on the
side of a bus. In major markets like LA and New York studios buy
lots of bus ads - if your story can't be summed up in a single
image that commuters will understand as it zooms by them on a
bus, this producer won't be interested in your script.
Of course, once people have paid their $11 they tell their
friends what they thought about the film. If the script was
poorly written, the dialogue was forced, and the characters
weren't engaging they will warn their friends... and that opening
weekend may be the only money the film makes! Last year SPEED RACER took a
major nosedive in its second weekend... these days with
text messaging and cell phones, movies as bad as STEALTH and THE ISLAND don't even
manage to last their opening weekend - bad word of mouth kills them on opening day!
The great
idea gets them into the theater the first weekend, but it takes
a good movie to get them into the theater the second weekend.
Will that happen next weekend with TRANSFORMERS 2? We'll soon find out.
When high concept films fail because they are poorly executed - check out THE ISLAND. The first half is okay, the second half is mindless action that works *against* its concept.
But there are other factors involved in a film's failure - if you ask the producers of THE ISLAND they will tell you the film flopped due to lack of starpower... and that might be a legitimate factor. Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johanson can easily draw an indie crowd, but might not have been big enough to draw a crowd *and* make up for the story problems. Lots of high concept films with poor execution make money... but they have stars in the lead roles (which lure people into the theater). And there are also films that succeed as car wrecks - people can't believe a big name star could be in a film that everyone says is that bad... so you just have to see it for yourself. This doesn't give you permssion to write a "car wreck script" - most of those scripts began okay and were developed into crap.
No stars in TRANSFORMERS 2... and no stars in HANGOVER, which is closing in on $200 million.
Any argument against high concept is just plain silly - why would anyone want a script with a
dull and uncreative idea? The importance of having a great idea dates back to the begining of film
- long before the term high concept was coined. Look at the best picture nominees for 1939...
WIZARD OF OZ and MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON are both high concept ideas... and movies like
CAPTAIN BLOOD aren't just high concept, they're also in popular genres and have a strong social
message. A geat script *begins* with a great idea.
The thing is - it's not *only* a great idea... you need great execution and great scenes and great characters and great dialogue and great visual storytelling and... well, EVERYTHING has to be great. When people ask which is more important in screemwriting, idea or execution, my answer is always - BOTH!
And the other thing seems to be people love spectacle more than they love stories... so make sure your high concept story has some of that, too.
So, what's the opening weekend like for *your* script?
Does your story have an idea that can be summed up in a single
strong image? Are there enough amazing scenes to cut a great trailer, and still have a bunch more amazing scenes that will be surprises in the movie?
Is that idea behind your script juicy enough to get
people to line up BEFORE they've seen the film? Does your script
deliver - will the audience for the first weekend recommend it to
the audience that will make up the second weekend?
MY BLOG!
SCRIPT SECRETS STORE - time to monkey around!
Was TRANSFORMERS 2 better that the first TRANSFORMERS movie but not as good as the cartoon?
Can't wait to see Pixar's UP again in 3D?
Is your favorite movie about robots this summer... MOON?
Be heard:
Movie Discussion!
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