Coming Soon To Cinemas Near You: The Attack Of The Killer Blockbusters

The Age

Saturday December 22, 2007

Daniel Ziffer

Films are having a shorter run thanks to the cult of the blockbuster, writes Daniel Ziffer.

BLOCKBUSTER films are soaking up hundreds of screens, but the overall number of films released remains steady.

The squeeze means that films have shorter runs at cinemas, and just a brief chance to become successful.

Actor Daniel Radcliffe is at both ends of the equation. His fifth boy wizard adventure, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, opened on 500 screens and was the most popular film of 2007, selling $35.5 million worth of tickets.

His starring role in December Boys, an Australian film, did not fare as well.

It opened on 70 screens across the nation, which is "wide" for a local release, but grossed just $633,328.

At the premiere of the film, about a group of orphans growing up, he reflected on how it felt to be in large and small productions.

"It feels good," he said. "It feels that I don't have to feel so guilty about squeezing the indie movies out."

According to the Australian Film Commission, there were 1964 screens in Australia at the end of last year, a number which has been stable over the past five years.

Depending on whose figures you take, either 315 or 288 films were screened in Australian cinemas last year, slightly down on the five-year average of 317 titles. A burgeoning independent sector led by Palace Cinemas is credited with keeping the numbers up.

But the blockbusters rule. Mightily.

During one week this year, more than half the cinema screens in Australia were showing either Spider-Man 3 or Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

Barely a month later four films engulfed three-quarters of Australian screens. The Simpsons Movie opened on 442 screens, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix held 485 in its third week, Knocked Up used 258 and Transformers filled 281 screens - more than a month after it was released.

Shortly after that, five dominant films soaked up all but 300 screens in the whole country.

Roadshow Pictures national marketing manager Phil Oneile helped push The Lord of the Rings and Oceans' trilogy, and said the pace of releases had increased.

"Films are not lasting in cinemas for the period they used to last 20 or even 10 years ago," he said.

Runs still operated on a case-by-case basis, he said, but film-goers were aware of the generally shorter runs. "They are getting out to see the films earlier in their release, in the first week or two."

Managing director of Network Interactive, David Hynes, has a unique view from the back of the industry, running a large group of independent video retailers. Film companies operate to a simple formula, he said: "If you can't take a mill(ion) you're not going to make money out of it."

In Melbourne to promote Hairspray, actor Zac Efron agreed blockbusters were swamping cinemas, but thought the tide would turn.

"You know, it's a shame it's happening . . . it's all blockbusters these days," he said.

Efron's big break never got a wide release, with pay TV and DVD sales of High School Musical catapulting him to become one of the most famous heart-throbs on the globe.

"Hopefully in the next few years, the industry will broaden out again," he said.

Distribution of blockbuster films will get even easier, and cheaper, when the film industry converts from showing expensive prints of films on projectors to digital projectors showing downloaded files.

© 2007 The Age

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