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Posted on Thu, Mar. 23, 2006
ON SCREEN ‘Brokeback’ blazes trails to small towns By ROBERT W. BUTLERThe Kansas City Star
Now that the Oscar upset is behind us and supporters of “Brokeback Mountain” have quit grumbling that they were robbed, it’s time to take a dispassionate look at what Ang Lee’s “gay cowboy” movie actually accomplished.
First (because Hollywood measures success not in art but in cold, hard cash), “Brokeback” made a load of money on a modest investment. It cost a measly $14 million to produce and has earned nearly $81 million in the U.S. alone.
It’s playing on 506 screens, down significantly from the 1,200 it held a couple of weeks ago but way ahead of what your typical art film or gay-themed movie can boast. And after more than three months in release it’s still the 20th most popular film in America.
When you factor in the movie’s worldwide ticket sales, “Brokeback” has grossed $140 million.
No film makes that sort of green by catering to a limited target audience. Those figures say that lots of people — straight as well as gay — have plunked down their money to experience this movie.
And not just the decadent urban types who you would expect to patronize a sad movie about two conflicted men who want to love one another but can’t be themselves in a suffocating environment. The real news about “Brokeback Mountain” is that it made a lot of its money in the sticks.
“Brokeback” did particularly well in college towns, according to Brad Bills, whose Independent Film Services books movies into 300 small-town theaters in several Midwestern states. “Brokeback” did particularly well in college towns.
Cities with populations of less than 10,000 generally didn’t play the movie, he said, explaining that a theater operator needs at least six screens at a location to justify booking a “specialty” film like “Brokeback.” That way the remaining five screens still can be dedicated to the mainstream Hollywood fare that are a small theater’s bread and butter: family pictures, animated features, romantic comedies, action and horror.
Had “Brokeback” won the best picture Oscar, Bills said, it most likely would have played in even the smallest towns regardless of the subject matter.
Even so, Bills said, “Brokeback Mountain” saw more small-town action than best picture winner “Crash,” which was regarded as a film for city folk and never played in many rural communities. And it won’t now, since “Crash” was released on home video before its big Oscar win.
What interests me, though, isn’t “Brokeback’s” financial fallout but rather its emotional and cultural impact on those who viewed it. In a recent report from the Los Angeles Daily News, small-town theater operators attending last week’s ShoWest Convention in Las Vegas were asked whether their booking of the film had generated much controversy.
Remarkably, the answer was no. The movie played without incident. Undoubtedly there are people who prefer to live in small towns because, among other reasons, they’ve convinced themselves that there are no gay people in small towns. Perhaps they believed that ignoring the movie was the best way to combat it.
But the fact remains that the picture was seen. It was talked about. And because it’s a very well made production it had an emotional impact on people, many of whom had never before considered what it means to deny one’s own identity to fit in.
I’m not suggesting “Brokeback Mountain” has turned rural America into a bastion of liberalism and gay friendliness. But it got people thinking. And feeling. It took them where they’d never gone before.
And when small-town exhibitors at ShoWest were asked if they’d be open to showing other films with gay themes and characters, the answer was yes.
“Brokeback Mountain” didn’t win Hollywood’s highest honor. But it may have done something more important.
Link to original source.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/entertainment/columnists/robert_w_butler/14160402.htm
