Update: Adult dramas
Hey, guess what? I was right!
I’m ready to call it: Adult dramas are back! Pulled from the brink! Resurrected from the dead!
As evidence, I posted this from BoxOfficeMojo:
BEST PICTURE NOMINEES
Lincoln $173,621,006
Django Unchained $154,516,627
Les Miserables (2012) $143,983,705
Argo $123,608,957
Life of Pi $108,530,249
Silver Linings Playbook $89,519,510
Zero Dark Thirty $83,567,450
Beasts of the Southern Wild $12,062,576
Amour $3,019,111
7 of the 9 movies will hit $100M in B.O. And while we can quibble about Django being a Tarantino movie [what genre would you call it] and Les Mis being a musical, all 7 of those movies fall within the broad perimeters of what I would call ‘adult drama’.
And now this:
BERLIN — The aging gun-toting action hero is being taken down by a stealthy, fragrant-fresh adversary as adult-themed movies, particularly those designed to reach social media-savvy women, clamor for market attention.
The European Film Market here has plenty to offer buyers looking to shore up distribution slates with movies targeting grown-ups as the box-office appeal wanes for more macho action fare.
Adult dramas have been beating projections both in the U.S. and internationally, while old-school action movies, once the bread and butter of markets, have been in a dogfight to secure audiences.
— —
“If you program for older audiences, they will go,” said Lisa Wilson, who sold Arbitrage overseas via her sales and finance banner The Solution Entertainment Group. “Now, with all the technology, older moviegoers are more likely to go.” Arbitrage, starring Richard Gere, overindexed in a number of markets, including Russia, Australia and Latin America.
Happy, happy, joy, joy! But then a cold dagger of reality in the form of a tweet from @bstepansky:
@GoIntoTheStory Not sure. If I even mention the word “drama” in a meeting, the executive closes his ears and sings the Twilight tune.
Okay, all right. I know that Hollywood’s conventional wisdom is that adult dramas are DOA. Then again some supposed sages persist in denying the rebound of the spec script market, two years after the fact.
So all I’m saying is, Hollywood strap it on! Adult dramas are the next big thing. Or… nearly big thing. Okay, okay, there’s a sizable, but not huge target demo out there who will turn out for a quality movie aimed at them, so if you are smart about the subject matter, script development and budget, you can take that money to the bank.
More movies like this, please!
http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=zDJy2
http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=WTg6
http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=xHM3s