{"id":4396,"date":"2009-08-24T11:31:47","date_gmt":"2009-08-24T15:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=4396"},"modified":"2009-08-24T11:31:47","modified_gmt":"2009-08-24T15:31:47","slug":"inglourious-roi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/inglourious-roi","title":{"rendered":"Inglourious ROI"},"content":{"rendered":"

With their “media empire” on the verge of collapse, the Weinstein brothers were pulling out all the stops to promote the opening of Inglourious Basterds<\/em> last week. They’ve even played the contrition card in explaining to the NYTimes<\/a> that they lost their focus after leaving Disney and starting their own company, using investor money to buy a fashion line, invest in a TV channel and a social networking site, and other activities that don’t qualify as making movies people would pay to see. (Here’s a fun takedown of that article<\/a>, at the AV Club.)<\/p>\n

So it must be gratifying to them that the new Tarantino movie was #1 at the box office this weekend, with nearly $38 million in tickets sold. The marketing is a bit misleading, since the Basterds \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a squad of Jewish-American soldiers who ambush and scalp Nazis in occupied France \u00e2\u20ac\u201d don’t actually get much screen time. But that’s a minor quibble. I still enjoyed the heck out of the film; it just wasn’t the movie it was marketed as. (I’m assuming the 4-hour DVD version will have plenty more carnage.)<\/p>\n

Which leads me to this WSJ article about the movie’s performance and its marketing<\/a>. It highlights the problems the Weinstein Co. still faces, but the article also seems to have buried the lede:<\/p>\n

Part of the success of “Inglourious Basterds,” which was directed by Quentin Tarantino, comes from its $35 million marketing campaign,<\/em> which Weinstein Co. executives say Harvey Weinstein approached with a renewed focus after missing the mark of previous campaigns. Last year for example, the company used stick figure drawings to sell Kevin Smith’s “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” which underperformed at the box office.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let me see if I have this correct: the film grossed $38 million domestically and the marketing cost $35 million<\/em>? With another $27 million in overseas sales, the movie made $65 million last weekend.<\/p>\n

If that $35 mil. covers worldwide marketing, then they spent 54 cents for every dollar in ticket sales. If it was only for the domestic campaign, then it was almost 1 dollar spent for 1 dollar in sales (which are shared with the movie theaters).<\/p>\n

Between this marketing campaign and the movie’s production cost of $65-70 million, that means this big success is still $35-40 million behind the 8-ball. Sure, there a lot of other revenue streams to help them close the gap, but this is probably not a good model for running a business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With their “media empire” on the verge of collapse, the Weinstein brothers were pulling out all the stops to promote the opening of Inglourious Basterds last week. They’ve even played the contrition card in explaining to the NYTimes that they lost their focus after leaving Disney and starting their own company, using investor money to … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Inglourious ROI”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[833,832,699],"class_list":["post-4396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-business","tag-bob-weinstein","tag-harvey-weinstein","tag-quentin-tarantino"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-18U","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3585,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-3909","url_meta":{"origin":4396,"position":0},"title":"What It Is: 3\/9\/09","author":"Gil","date":"March 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: Montaigne, Cultural Amnesia, and Liar's Poker. What I'm listening to: \"Little Person,\" the theme song to Synecdoche, New York. A lot. What I'm watching: The first season of Breaking Bad. What I'm drinking: Miller's (Westbourne Strength!) & Q Tonic. What Rufus is up to: Celebrating his first\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-3909#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=039333354X","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4390,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-82409","url_meta":{"origin":4396,"position":1},"title":"What It Is: 8\/24\/09","author":"Gil","date":"August 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: Moby Dick and The Jew of New York. What I'm listening to: The Lexicon of Love, by ABC, and Give Up, by The Postal Service. What I'm watching: Inglourious Basterds at a 1:30 p.m. matinee on opening day. I enjoyed the heck out of it, but it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0199535728","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11232,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-256-lauren-weinstein","url_meta":{"origin":4396,"position":2},"title":"Episode 256 – Lauren Weinstein","author":"Gil","date":"February 13, 2018","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 256: Lauren Weinstein \"Comics are a way to process events in your life. You put it down on the page, and it has its own life, and you're able to move away from it.\" Village Voice cartoonist Lauren Weinstein joins the show to talk about the balancing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0646.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0646.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0646.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0646.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0646.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":69,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tuesday-morning-quarterback-gets-sacked","url_meta":{"origin":4396,"position":3},"title":"Tuesday Morning Quarterback gets sacked","author":"Gil","date":"October 20, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Ouch. Gregg Easterbrook -- whose essays I enjoy and whose Tuesday Morning Quarterback columns on ESPN Page 2 are always a hoot -- just got canned from the latter gig. I meant to write about his blog on The New Republic's site last week, because he wrote an entry that\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tuesday-morning-quarterback-gets-sacked#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2066,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-may-23-2008","url_meta":{"origin":4396,"position":4},"title":"Unrequired Reading: May 23, 2008","author":"Gil","date":"May 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It's the Memorial Day Weekend! Here are some links to check out in between grilling dogz and burgz! Have a great holiday, American readers! Seeing the LP for Who Are You in a bargain bin in 1993 made me nostalgic for the proportions of album covers; Subtraction is nostalgic for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12433,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-333-gil-roth","url_meta":{"origin":4396,"position":5},"title":"Episode 333 – Gil Roth","author":"Gil","date":"August 19, 2019","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 333: Gil Roth AMA Because of a last-minute guest cancellation, I had no show lined up for this week! Rather than take a second week off this summer, I decided it was time for another Gil Roth AMA episode, since the last one was almost 5 years\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/whygil.jpg?fit=1200%2C598&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/whygil.jpg?fit=1200%2C598&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/whygil.jpg?fit=1200%2C598&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/whygil.jpg?fit=1200%2C598&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/whygil.jpg?fit=1200%2C598&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4396"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4399,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4396\/revisions\/4399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}