This week, Neil Calloway was badgered by PR emails …
I don’t know where it came from; I certainly didn’t ask for it, didn’t sign up to it, had never heard of the person who sent it me, but it popped into my inbox at 9.45 on Monday morning.
It was a press release, telling me how well the latest Hunger Games had done at the UK box office. It was the biggest opening weekend of the year, taking in £12.6 million. Impressive business, which any film would be proud of. The email continued “This figure is a 4% increase on the franchise’s prior instalment marking a record-breaking opening for Lionsgate UK as well as being their widest release to date. The film also accounted for 2 of every 3 cinema tickets sold this weekend.”
Something seemed odd. The percentage increase, the “2 of every 3”, these seemed like words a soulless financial company would use to describe their quarterly figures, not how you’d want to talk about your film. When did you last see “two thirds of tickets sold were for this film” on a poster?
The press release continued, with a quote from Zygi Kamasas, CEO of Lionsgate UK, and therefore one of the most powerful people in the British film industry (or he would be, if Britain had a film industry). Kamasas said, “We are thrilled with the weekend’s results. Mockingjay pt1 is a film that has resonated with UK cinema goers and has helped us to achieve continued record-breaking numbers for the franchise as a whole. We’re excited to see how audiences will respond to the final installment – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 – next November.”
I really don’t know where to begin (we’ll gloss over the use of the American spelling of “instalment”). I raised an eyebrow when I read that the film has “resonated with UK cinema goers.” Resonated? It’s been out for a weekend. It hasn’t had time to resonate. If, in a month or so, the film is still top of the box office, if people are still talking about it after Christmas, then tell me the film has resonated. When a film has been out for a weekend and you talk about it “resonating” I think of Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride “that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
I don’t mind the phrase “record breaking numbers for the franchise”. That is, I don’t mind it if the person speaking is the manager of a fast food restaurant talking about a successful year at the staff Christmas party. Films should aspire to be art; they shouldn’t be a franchise (what’s wrong with saying “series”?), and they certainly are not only about the bottom line.
In a similar trend, I’ve just read an article in Variety that talked about the Oscar hopes for various films, and mentioned their “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s a tool we all use, but just a film isn’t about how much money is made at the box office, it’s not about what some algorithm based on how critics rate the film. Boiling down films to numbers misses the point. Last time you had a conversation about your favourite films, did you talk about its opening weekend box office? Did you mention what percentage of critics rated it as a fresh? I’d also bet that one of your favourite films, or a film that sparked your love for cinema, hardly did any business at the box office, or was sneered at by critics. In the film 24 Hour Party People (which didn’t make much money but has an 86% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes) Tony Wilson, played by Steve Coogan, points out that there were 12 people at the last supper, half a dozen at Kitty Hawk and Archimedes was on his own in the bath. The same is often true of films.
Lionsgate should be proud of their film’s success, but I’d have more respect for them if they talked about the actual film, rather than the business it has done.
Neil Calloway is a pub quiz extraordinaire and Top Gun obsessive. Check back here every Sunday for future installments.
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Originally published November 30, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
