When Searchlight pushed “The French Dispatch” to 2021, after losing a Cannes berth and pulling it from fall festival consideration, many wondered if the film would ever open. For Searchlight the delay comes down to simple math: The year 2020 can’t accommodate an awards movie for adult audiences without severely compromising the robust theatrical rollout Disney’s newly acquired Fox specialty division is set up to deliver.
Remember: a studio division like Searchlight runs on a different set of metrics than its studio parent. The specialty companies aren’t tied by the same licensing and merchandising wide-release demands that hog-tie the majors. A $200-million movie like “Tenet” needs functioning theater chains with thousands of screens in order to open around the world and make back its negative and marketing costs.
Not so a Wes Anderson movie, which isn’t intended for initial online consumption, nor is its appeal limited to North America.
Remember: a studio division like Searchlight runs on a different set of metrics than its studio parent. The specialty companies aren’t tied by the same licensing and merchandising wide-release demands that hog-tie the majors. A $200-million movie like “Tenet” needs functioning theater chains with thousands of screens in order to open around the world and make back its negative and marketing costs.
Not so a Wes Anderson movie, which isn’t intended for initial online consumption, nor is its appeal limited to North America.
- 7/31/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
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