Hollywood Babble On & On #273: Dear Harvey

AN OPEN
LETTER TO
HARVEY WEINSTEIN
(head of The Weinstein Co.)

Dear Harvey.

The downward spiral of the Weinstein Co. goes on unabated as you masterfully exploited the excitement behind Mickey Rourke's comeback, and dumped the movie Killshot (starring him and Diane Lane) in 5 theatres in Arizona, for a total box-office of $18,000 before a trip to the 2 for $10 bin at Wal-Mart.

$18,000.

Wow, Harvey, I'm sure your investors are just dancing with over that one. I mean, Killshot had to cost at least a few million, Diane Lane, Mickey Rourke, Thomas Jane, and that guy from 3rd Rock From The Sun, don't work for free, and I'm sure the director, and screenwriter also had to be paid, and I'm pretty certain Elmore Leonard had to be paid, he's not exactly a Hollywood neophyte. Then we've got crew, sets, locations, props, costumes, post-production, etc.... etc....

Which makes me wonder what percentage of these costs were covered by this stellar box-office performance?

My guess is somewhere around 0.4%, which is the best I can do without knowing the budget.

I have to say that this decision to not even try to recoup the costs on this film, one of many TWC "releases" to meet this fate, is puzzling me and compels me to ask you a very important question:

Are you even in the movie business anymore?

Really, I would like to know, because even if a film sucks donkey balls, I am willing to give it some recognition if the company that made it puts some effort into selling it, but I'm just not seeing that effort from your company. Movies only sell if you at least try to sell them, because without putting some hustle on, you're just pissing away money.

Now I'm willing to consider that I might be wrong and that this caused by some sort of misunderstanding you are having about the fundamentals of the movie business. Then please, allow me to explain something.

Movies are works of art, that is a fact.

Paintings by great master artists are works of art as well.

Great paintings are valuable because they are rare, and hard to get.

Movies that are rare and hard to see, are worthless. Because movies are expensive, and while some people pay will pay millions to own a painting, folks will only pay around $10 to see it in a theatre, and $25 at most to own the DVD (and even then, only when it comes with a truckload of extras).

Rarity does not make movies more valuable, the opposite is true.

Which is why I can't understand what you're doing with the company, and why your investors are standing by and letting it happen.

Harvey, I've gone beyond thinking that you're making bad business decisions, I'm starting to worry about your mental health.

Sincerely
-Furious D