Articles and Stories

February 3, 2014

One thing I consider a “must” while visiting family and friends in Spain, is to go to the cinema to watch nationally produced films. These films can often be difficult for me to find living in the U.S. Being married to a local Atlantan that makes his living in the film and television industry rubs off in some ways, and needless to say, it does so reciprocally. We both love to watch films together that are produced where we’re from.

When my husband and I travel to Spain, we make sure to watch a Spanish production film in the theater. While those movies can be a hit nation-wide, they might not make it to the U.S.  market or other international markets, and one might wonder why.

Such was the case for the movie Agora, a Spanish English-language historical drama by Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar, who was already known for films such as The Sea Inside, Open Your Eyes and The Others. Agora was a spectacular production! Though however impressive the film was, my suspicion was that it wouldn’t make it to the U.S.  market, and if it did, would find some major obstacles.

The film touched heavily on the relationship between religion and science in ancient Alexandria and I felt certain that it would be perceived as controversial. Sadly, I was right. As intelligent, creative and profound this film was, the content proved to be one of the biggest deterrents for American film distributors. Though the film performed very well in Spain, the box office gross in the U.S.  equaled less than 1% of the film’s production budget. Remember, this was produced as an English-language film, which indicates that high hopes were placed for good box office returns in English-speaking markets.

Though I am not a film distributor, I have recently had the chance to collaborate with BlueLantern Films on their current production Beacon Point, a feature-length film directed by Eric Blue. I have been thrilled to be part of the project from its inception, to production, and now into editorial. During this last stage of post-production, we’ve continued many discussions regarding the distribution of the film, both domestic and internationally.

Even from the beginning, during pre-production, we discussed a key factor for the film’s hopeful success: it’s a horror film. This film genre has proven highly successful in the U.S.  and Spanish markets (not to mention many other markets abroad) and while the genre is not the only aspect that makes a winner internationally, one can agree that it is essential to localizing a product. You must appeal to the taste of your audience and, in order to do so, some considerations must be made for their culture. It is imperative to study foreign markets and cultures where distribution is to be executed before jumping into big productions, especially if you expect to make a big part of your return in those markets.

As for Beacon Point, which was independently produced by BlueLantern Films, the international marketability has remained a top priority. The project is currently planned for a summer 2014 release. Here’s a recently released teaser trailer we’ve been working on: