Creative Wealth won a share of the project partly in exchange for a commitment to bring Warner Bros. ideas from Bron Studios in the future, Cloth said. “They need to distribute other things that are not their tent poles. They’re relying on companies like Bron to bring them top-end intellectual property.”
Curve Balls
Getting backing by well-established Hollywood powerhouses is key to surviving as streaming grows, Cloth said.
“The streamers are a real problem for the indie film space: if you’re not some sort of event, people would rather stay at home and watch it on their personal screen,” Cloth said. “If you don’t have that huge marketing push of a major marketing studio behind you, boy oh boy it’s a tough slug.”
So far this year, the top-five grossing films account for 33% of the box office ticket sales. In 2015, that sort of box office concentration was less than 25%.
The business can always throw up a surprise. Cloth was proud to back “The Birth of a Nation.” Then decades-old rape allegations against its director and lead actor, Nate Parker, resurfaced. Parker had been acquitted at trial. It drew only about $7 million at its opening weekend.
“It’s still one of my most proudest films, but it’s also a cautionary tale,” Cloth said. “You’ve got to dig into your filmmakers and stars and you have to have the fortitude to say if there’s smoke, you might want to stay away. Film is risky as it is.”
This article provided by Bloomberg News.