Just to clarify. The film Push that just won all the big awards at Sundance is not the same Push that is opening today. Two very different movies. The Push that I’ve been writing about is the film made by Lee Daniels based on the novel by Sapphire. It sold earlier this week to Lionsgate who will receive marketing help from Oprah and Tyler Perry to get the word out.
According to various reports it seems that The Weinstein Company believed that it had a deal for Push and has now sued to get the right to distribute the film.
I find this whole skirmish interesting because here are two companies fighting over a film starring a black, obese, sexually abused young women. Not your typical light Hollywood fare. This film will not be an easy sell even with Oprah as a NY Times story discusses: “One veteran studio marketer, who would speak only anonymously because he has ties to Lionsgate, said he saw almost no hope in selling it to a broad audience.” What does a broad audience mean? White 25 year old boys? They’re not going to see this film.
Keep in mind that Lionsgate is not known for handling difficult material that will require nuance and patience and outside the box thinking. That’s why they elicited marketing promises from Tyler Perry and Oprah. With Perry’s following the word will be out to the African American community, and Oprah has fans in all camps so she could conceivably get white women to see the film. But then the film has to be in enough theatres and given enough time so that people can find it. I would guess that the opening weekend numbers will not be huge, but if the film is as good as it seems to be, it will have good word of mouth and to be successful it will need time to build, which we know hardly ever happens.
The Weinstein’s clearly see Oscar potential in this and are really, really good at getting nominations and then turning those noms into box office dollars. Is this the kind of movie that no matter how much Oprah does will need nominations to get people to see it? Is it a movie that should start in five theatres, go to fifty and then go to 1,000? Or should it start at 1,000 and go to 2,000. I know that Lionsgate isn’t the type of studio that does platforming- they go for 2,000 screens and see what sticks.
In the early days of this fight for Push I just hope we keep the actual potential of the movie in perspective. No matter what I just don’t see it making a bundle on opening weekend, and of course whatever gross it makes is based on how many theatres it is in. So, what will success look like for Push? In my mind it is already a success. It was made for very little money, has sold for $5.5 million and two studios are fighting over the right to release it. Who would have thought this would be the main story coming out of Sundance?
Wrenching Film Poses Marketing Challenge (NY Times)
‘Push’ comes to shove in movie rights fight (LA Times)
I’m glad there’s even a “fight” over Push, which means that the film must be THAT good, eh?
I am SO looking forward to seeing this movie that focuses on something different than the usual Hollywood fare. I think it’s unfortunate that the action movie Push has the same name as it is confusing to those who have begun to get the first glimmer out of Sundance about this extraordinary film about this young woman. Let’s all do what we can to see that people hear about it and GO TO SEE IT!
This is great news. I cringed when I heard it was Tyler Perry because I think he is very dangerous to the image of Black women but this goes far in redeeming himself…but still I refuse to support his projects though I will DEF see this movie. Now if Sistah Soulja can finally get The Coldest Winter project completed and distributed! By the way your site feed isn’t working. I wanted to add you to my blog roll and got an error message from Feedburner.
I just hope Push doesn’t get lost in the shuffle.
Looking forward to seeing it and researching who had the guts to make it and if they are making more…That is the film making I want to be a part of.
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