You're this small company, and one day, after MTV Films* and other studios pass on this little young adult vampire romance series, you pick it up. You spend roughly $40 million to make the feature, slip it onto the big screen, and suddenly, you've fostered a phenomenon. Your opening weekend alone pays for the film and then some. You score $191 million domestic, and another $192 million from the foreign box office. You find yourself at the heart of a film and marketing goldmine.So what do you do with the money? You've blown off Lionsgate. You've given your stars sweet pay raises. But there's still a whole lot left over. Nikki Finke has thrown up an in-house memo that discusses talks with Morgan Stanley and how it's time to "look beyond the initial goals we have achieved and plan the next chapter in the studio's journey." Finke's sources say that means "looking mostly for libraries to acquire." Not to mention rumors of a Weinstein takeover.
Between my must-save nature and the number of studios that grabbed big success only to fall into oblivion a short time later, I'm hoping they take it easy and don't go on a Gimme! Gimme! shopping spree. But even then, there will be decisions to make. Stick with books? Youth fare? Stretch the boundaries? Continue to score the projects everyone else leaves behind? If it were up to you, what would you do?
*Gotta love a company that passes up a property, then becomes its most fervent supporter.
1. New Line made the Lord of the Rings trilogy and was all but absolutely demolished five years later. I think Summit would be wise to think very carefully about what kind of money they spend over the next few years.
Posted at 5:39PM on Sep 30th 2009 by Scott Nye