We live in a sad world when Twilight sequels sell out weeks before they are released. Fortunately for the film industry, however, a new generation of production and distribution companies has turned heads with the innovation of profitable art house films.
Megan Ellison, the 26-year-old heiress of multi-billionaire Larry Ellison’s fortune, founded Annapruna Pictures with a new approach to film production. This nascent company puts up serious money for films that Hollywood would categorize as “art house,” a genre usually deemed “independent.” Through this radical approach to filmmaking, Ellison takes these tentatively “low-budget” projects and pours money into them, breathing life into otherwise moribund creations.
Judging by their box office numbers, many of Ellison’s projects come across as inauspicious. To Ellison, however, one could presume that it is the quality of the project—not the box office outcome—that constitutes her criterion for a successful film. As an underwriter of contemporary art house auteurs such as Paul Thomas Anderson and Spike Jonze, Ellison has taken it upon herself to transform these filmmakers’ unconventional imaginations into filmic realities. In other words, it is a film’s artistic potential, not its potential profitability, that captures Annapurna Pictures’s interest.
While Ellison’s company has a noble undertaking, the sustainability of its approach to filmmaking is questionable. First of all, it’s not every day that a billionaire heiress decides to throw her money into experimental art forms–unless Paris Hilton’s perfume line could be considered an avant-garde cultural contribution. The risk severely outweighs a film’s chances of being solvent, so it takes someone with a skewed perception of money like Ellison to throw 10 million dollars into a Joaquin Phoenix Scientology satire like The Master.
That’s not to say Ellison hasn’t seen success, however. As the producer of Zero Dark Thirty and True Grit, she managed to gain back much more than would have been expected, but it is unlikely that profitability was her primary concern. With a willingness to expand, not constrain, budgets, Annapurna gives its projects unprecedented levels of flexibility. By transferring her power into the hands of the director, Ellison is single-handedly starting a big-budget art house revolution.
But let’s face it. One day, Ellison will either run out of money or die. The task of carrying on her legacy belongs to distributors and innovative marketing wizards, like the Weinstein brothers whose production company takes on smaller, higher-quality films. Recently, The Weinstein Co. distributed the critically acclaimed dramedy Silver Linings Playbook, managing to milk $70 million out of its $20 million budget. With the proper marketing tools, then, Hollywood production companies can fight the unrelenting tides of pop culture and make quality films profitable. Major studios have begun to take note of the profitability of properly marketed indie darlings.
Indie film distribution branches have emerged out of Fox (Fox Searchlight), Paramount (Paramount Vantage), and Sony Pictures (Sony Pictures Classics), leveling the industry’s playing field. These distributors have convinced troves of moviegoers that critically acclaimed films need not be oriented towards niche markets. People can finally enjoy the latest Lars von Trier feature without feeling the slightest bit pretentious.
While the sustainability of these profitable indie flicks is up in the air, the large distributors taking part in the trend could portend a promising future for a new phase of filmmaking. By putting trust in their filmmakers’ abilities, movers and shakers like Ellison are making room for more creative directors and screenwriters. In fact, a newfound respect for cinema’s artistic merit is a likely byproduct of this phase, so the reach of its vitality-pumping organs may be greater than initially expected. The day when movies like The Master vanquish Transformers-esque prequels may be dawning upon us. Okay, maybe not, but it could probably outdo some shitty Adam Sandler comedy about cross-dressing ninjas.
