Small Budget Films
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The making of a motion picture is a very expensive proposition in today's market, and the distribution and marketing of the film once it is made is an endeavor fraught with perils. Producers attempt to hedge their bets, as it were, by following certain ideas they have of what will sell, including which stars will bring people into the theater. When the film was being developed as an entertainment medium in the early 1900s, producers deliberately kept the names of the actors from the public based on the belief that if the actors grew too popular, they would want more money, which is precisely what happened. However, both sides benefited in that the producers discovered certain stars could attract a following and bring in an audience in film after film, thus serving as a sort of insurance for the costs of a film The star system was the result, and that system has changed in the favor of the actors as the studio system has disappeared. Today, stars that can attract an audience can also command huge salaries. Even producers of small films try to find way to hedge their bets and turn to personalities to bring in an audience. This is a method that sometimes works and sometimes does not, as can be seen from recent films such as The Pallbearer and The Truth about Cats and Dogs. Both films would be called small-budget films and yet still need whatever advantage they can gain in a competitive marketplace. Neither of these two films features a major star, though both have sta
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the weekend, for a cumulative total of $14,536,681. The per-screen average for the second weekend was $3,633 ("Film Box Office Report," May 7, 1996).
Clearly, the Uma Thurman movie is doing better in its second weekend than the Schwimmer movie in its first. Indeed, the drop-off in grosses for the second weekend was only 14 percent for The Truth About Cats and Dogs, and that is a very good sign. Whether the Schwimmer film drops off by that much or not, it has little chance of increasing its grosses significantly enough to rival the other film. The difference may be that Uma Thurman is better known to film audiences than is Schwimmer, and in any case his television popularity has not carried over to this film.
The Truth About Cats and Dogs has been a success in part because of the growing appeal to audiences of Janeane Garofalo, and critics elevated her in their writing about the film and cited her and her performance as one of the reasons to see the film. David Ansen in Newsweek cited her and stated that her story in this film is a form of Cyrano de Bergerac, made more appealing because of Garofalo:
Garofalo, a standout in "Reality Bites," may be the most welcome new romantic comedienne since Diane Keaton stole our hear
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Approximate Word count = 1725
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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