'Whip It' didn't need to get whipped at box office

My colleague Patrick Goldstein weighed in this morning on why Fox Searchlight's "Amelia" failed to catch on with viewers. Well, for starters, the length and the hideous reviews probably didn't help.

I'm more curious about "Whip It," also from Fox Searchlight. I saw it this weekend along with about six other people (not in my group, in the entire theater). The movie, which stars Ellen Page and marked the directorial debut Drew Barrymore (who also co-stars) got mostly favorable reviews. Although the basic plot -- girl comes of age in small town Texas, rebels against her controlling mother and finds happiness in the offbeat world of roller derby -- had its fair share of cliches, it also had enough humor and wit to carry it well beyond those flaws.

Yet it flopped. It opened at $4.6 million and fell fast. Through October 25 it had taken in about $12.3 million. With a production budget of only $15 million, it won't take much for the movie to break even, but this movie should have been nurtured with a limited release instead of being tossed out there on 1,700 screens to sink or swim.

There seems to have been some confusion as to whether the movie is a sports flick, hipster flick, or a chick flick. In reality, it is a little of all three and word-of-mouth would have been better at spreading that message than a marketing campaign that wouldn't be able to capture all the elements of the movie.

Furthermore, although "Whip It" is far from "Juno" on skates, that role has become the one with which Page is most identified. It is hard to see her without thinking about that, especially when she is playing basically a sarcastic outsider who's not quite a complete outcast but still miles away from the cool kids. Since the decision was to go with a wide release, perhaps the push for "Whip It" should have focused on the rest of the cast as well as Page. Certainly there were enough known names including Barrymore, Marcia Gay Harden, Eve, Juliette Lewis and the other Wilson brother (Andrew) to market. All were great, even Jimmy Fallon.

Of course, it's easy to say some of this in hindsight, but it seems a shame that instead of "Whip It" being a sleeper hit it's on its way fast-track to the DVD bin.

-- Joe Flint

Photo: "Whip It." Credit: Darren Michaels

Paramount may produce 'Paranormal Activity' sequel

Can lightning strike twice?

Paramount Pictures is hoping so, as the studio is actively considering producing a sequel to "Paranormal Activity," the out-of-the-blue horror flick that cost $15,000 to produce and has sold $62.5 million worth of tickets so far domestically.

"We have the rights on a worldwide basis to do 'Paranormal 2' and we're looking to see if that makes some sense," Paramount Chairman Brad Grey said in an interview today.

In an industry obsessed with building franchises, a second "Paranormal Activity" seems like a no-brainer. The studio acquired the movie for just $300,000 and has spent less than $10 million on marketing, relying primarily on word-of-mouth and Internet buzz. It is on track to gross more than $100 million domestically. That would make it, Grey said, the most profitable film for  Paramount since he took over in 2005 and, quite possibly, in the studio's history.

Producing follow-ups to low-cost movies that unexpectedly capture the nation's attention can be difficult, however, making a "Paranormal" sequel a potentially perilous task for the studio. "Book of Shadows," the 2000 follow-up to 1999's indie horror phenomenon "The Blair Witch Project," was very poorly received and grossed just $26.4 million domestically, compared to $140.6 million for the original.

Paramount has an extra reason to make a sequel to "Paranormal Activity" beyond trying to duplicate its success: Although the studio has only domestic rights to the current film, it would have worldwide rights to a follow-up, Grey noted.

If it owned the movie overseas as well, "Paranormal Activity" would be even more profitable for Paramount. The film, which starts playing in foreign countries Friday, is being sold to international distributors by IM Global.

-- Ben Fritz

Photo: Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat in "Paranormal Activity." Credit: Paramount Pictures

Lionsgate strikes partnership with online film production company Massify

Lionsgate has struck a partnership with an online community of filmmakers in hopes of finding new story ideas.

The newly formed Lionsgate Incubator Project will work with Massify -- a kind of Linked-in for the film world, with a network of 45,000 filmmakers, actors and crew -- to develop novel concepts for shorts and feature films. The first project is to come up with a male-focused comedy short, with the kind of appeal of films like "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "The Hangover." 

The professional filmmakers in Massify's network will conduct a virtual pitch session, developing brief plot summaries and shooting scripts. The community will vet the concepts and select the best of the submissions -- with Lionsgate overseeing development.

"We're casting as wide a net as possible, saying you can come in and have the opportunity to pitch one of the major players in Hollywood," said Massify Chief Executive Geoff Pitfield.

The project will be staffed from Massify's pool of directors, cast and crew. The studio hopes these concepts ultimately will become feature-length films.

"There is a revolution of new ideas in filmed entertainment online," Curt Marvis, president of digital for Lions Gate, said in a prepared statement. "We intend to be at the forefront of accessing this enormous and largely untapped source of fresh talent and original new voices."

Lions Gate isn't the only studio to seek to mine the Internet for new voices. Other companies in the  animation business have tried a similar approach of creating virtual pools of talent to make films.

-- Dawn C. Chmielewski

Photo: Curt Marvis. Credit: Berliner Photography.

'Crash' case takes bad turn for Yari

The two-year old lawsuit over profits from the best picture winner "Crash" took a turn for the worse for producer Bob Yari. 

Yari is being sued by "Crash" screenwriters Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco and actor Brendan Fraser, who claim they are owed millions in profits from the Academy-Award-winning film. 

Haggis, who also directed the film, contends that Yari applied a series of "bogus" deductions to deprive them of their share of the profits from the film, which generated about $100 million at the box office. Fraser also alleges that he was shortchanged by Yari's accounting of the film's profits.

Those claims got a boost on Tuesday when a court-appointed referee, Gerald F. Phillips, concluded after eight days of hearings that several of the deductions -- including payments to a third party German investor named Apollo ProScreen -- should not have been taken.

At one point in the 21-page report, Phillips said the manner in which Yari accounted for the film's revenue in 2006 "may be characterized as creative accounting."

Yari's attorney, Behzad Nahai, could not be reached for comment.

Such findings of fact are recommendations made to the court by a neutral third party. As such, they can carry considerable weight in the court's final ruling. The judge handling the Los Angeles Superior Court case is Helen I. Bendix, who will consider the recommendations when the second phase of the trial begins Dec. 2.

"We are pleased with the recommendations made by the referee,'' said Richard L. Charnley, attorney for the plaintiffs. "We believe that writers, directors, producers, actors and creative people who make motion pictures and who are getting paid less than their going rate should be entitled to their fair share of the profits of the film."

--Richard Verrier

Photo: Paul Haggis. Credit: Charley Gallay / Getty Images

Pricey tropical junket seems to have paid off for 'Couples Retreat'

One of the keys to the strong $35.3-million opening of "Couples Retreat" was that oldest of Hollywood marketing ploys: the glitzy media junket.

Universal flew dozens of journalists to Bora Bora for interviews with the cast in the same tropical setting where the film took place. As described by writer James Rocchi on MSN, the all-expenses-paid trip also included activities such as watching sharks and feeding stingrays.

Costly junkets used to be common in Hollywood as a way to generate tons of publicity. One of the most lavish examples was a $5-million-plus bash that Disney held for "Pearl Harbor" in 2001. Such lavish events are far less common in Hollywood today, as cost-conscious studios are not only cutting back on expenses, but also trying to avoid ostentatious signs of overspending. Modern-day junkets are usually in hotels, with cheap plastic backdrops built for on-camera interviews

However, Universal decided that lush tropical backgrounds were just what the PR doctor ordered for "Couples Retreat." A concerted publicity effort may have seemed particularly wise this week since there were no other new movies in wide release, leaving stars including Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman, Jon Favreau, Kristen Bell, Kristin Davis, Faizon Love and Malin Akerman as the only fresh faces for national entertainment media.

One source close to the film said the studio spent twice as much as it normally does on the "Couples Retreat" junket. The extra money was taken from spending that typically would have gone to other advertising and publicity.

The source felt confident that the investment was worth it, noting that the "Couples Retreat" junket generated around 10 times as much media coverage as such events typically do.

-- Ben Fritz

Photo: Faizon Love, Kali Hawk, Jon Favreau, Kristin Davis, Malin Akerman, Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell (left to right) in "Couples Retreat." Credit: John Johnson / Universal Pictures

Sony curtails development spending halfway through fiscal year

Sony Pictures has told the Hollywood creative community that it is all but halting spending on developing new movie projects until April 1, the start of its next fiscal year.

That means that for the next six months, the studio will largely hold off from buying new scripts or source material (such as books) to turn into movies and from cutting checks to writers to start work on projects recently set up at the studio.

As with all rules in Hollywood, of course, there are exceptions. Sony will still shell out for existing priority projects and new ones it deems irresistible, as it did this summer when it paid $60 million for the rights to the Michael Jackson documentary "This is It," which unexpectedly became available after the singer's death. The studio also recently engaged Gary Ross to rewrite and potentially direct "Spider-Man" spin-off "Venom."

"We have a healthy development roster and we know our slate for 2010 and well into 2011," Sony spokesperson Steve Elzer said. "In the future, given our needs, we will be buying less but will also step up to the plate when we believe there is great material to be acquired."

Sony is the second studio in the last month to curtail spending on development. In September, Universal Pictures decided to stop spending on new projects through the end of 2009. The fiscal year for Universal's parent company General Electric begins Jan. 1.

Though it's common for studios to run through their annual development budgets earlier than planned, it's somewhat surprising that Sony has done so halfway through its year.

The move comes as every studio is looking for ways to cut costs amid the ongoing decline in DVD sales, the reduced access to outside capital for production and the pressures of the economic downturn.

Sony has already set its releases for 2010 and identified a number of films it is putting into production for 2011. Like other studios, Sony has a pool of hundreds of projects already in development, from which it can pick and choose. With the industry's ongoing belt tightening, though, studios are looking to shrink the size of their project pools. Most are also looking to produce fewer films than they have in the last several years.

Unlike Universal, whose move to stop development spending came amid a dismal year at the box office, Sony has had a strong run recently with such hits as "Julie & Julia," "District 9" and "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs."

Sony is apparently looking to maximize profits from those films by not spending money on projects it might not need.

The studio is also hoping to rake in a fortune with "This is It," which starts a two-week run on Oct. 28 and has already sold out hundreds of screenings via online ticketing services.

-- Ben Fritz and Claudia Eller

Photo: The entrance gate to Sony Pictures' lot in Culver City. Credit: Jill Connelly / Associated Press

LA takes baby steps to keep Hollywood at home

Is Los Angeles finally trying to become a film friendly city?

Don't hold your breath. But the city council this morning unanimously approved a series of modest recommendations aimed at slowing the disturbing migration rate of TV and film production to other cities and states.

The 17 recommendations include having the city evaluate a business tax credit for building owners that make their properties available for filming at "reasonable rate," and a sales tax refund for purchases made for filming when at least 75 percent of the shooting is done within the city. The council also agreed to offer city parking lots for free to film crews that shoot after hours or on weekends to increase the availability of power nodes downtown that film production companies could use in lieu of generators.

The steps come amid mounting evidence that LA is losing jobs in film and TV to other cheaper locales. More than 40 states offer tax credits and rebates. The city's wake-up came last year when ABC moved its sitcom "Ugly Betty" from LA to New York, to take advantage of tax credits there. Earlier this year, California adopted its first ever film tax credits, which have helped keep some productions from leaving but are considered too narrow in scope to compete with what other states offer.

Local sales tax credits for filmmakers could help make LA more competitive, but it's unclear whether and how much the city is willing to subsidize the local entertainment industry given the city's severe budget crunch.

Councilman Richard Alarcon, who chaired the jobs and business development committee that crafted the recommendations, said the steps are long overdue.

"We are in competition with locations throughout the country as well as Canada and if we do not fight to keep filming in LA it could have a devastating effect on our economy,'' he said. "Some argue that it already has. It's critical that we recognized filming as significant part of our economy and that we need to grow and protect it."

-Richard Verrier

Photo Credit: Luis Sinco, Los Angeles Times

Rich Ross named chairman of Walt Disney Studios

Rich Ross, the television executive who helped revive the moribund Disney Channel, now has to prove he can work movie magic at Walt Disney Studios.

The 47-year-old former talent department head has been tapped by Disney Chief Executive Robert A. Iger to fill the post formerly held by Dick Cook, who was ousted last month after clashing with his boss and failing to deliver enough hits over the last year.

Iger will look to Ross to reinvigorate Disney’s flagging box-office fortunes and develop film franchises that can be sold across the entertainment giant’s lines of businesses — including theme parks, consumer products and television — as well as grapple with a host of technological issues that are quickly reshaping Hollywood.

“Rich has an outstanding record of creating high-quality family entertainment that delights audiences around the world,” Iger said in a prepared statement. “With his success in building the Disney brand across many of our businesses, his astute marketing sensibility, his proven ability in working effectively with talent and his skill at navigating complex global markets, I’m confident he’s the perfect leader for our studio group.”

By picking an executive from outside the clubby precincts of the movie business, Iger is signaling that he wants Ross to shake up a studio that the Disney chief views as entrenched in the past, from relying on high-priced, aging stars to open films to spending extravagantly on movie marketing.

To achieve this, Ross may be borrowing liberally from the playbook he followed to turn around Disney Channel, which has eclipsed the movie studio in recent years as a hothouse for talent and ideas that could be packaged and resold across the company’s various platforms. Ross has proved himself adept at turning entertainment into brands -- high profile examples include "Hannah Montana," which launched pop star Miley Cyrus' career, and "High School Musical,' which was created for television but quickly found life — and revenue — in recorded music, a big-screen blockbuster and a stage show.

Indeed, at a company that stresses team playing among its executives, Ross may be the ultimate team player.

Marc Shmuger, David Linde out at Universal Pictures [Updated]

After a prolonged box-office slump, too many high-cost movies and executive turmoil, Universal Pictures chairmen Marc Shmuger and David Linde have been ousted after their 3 1/2 year run as the studio’s top movie lieutenants.

Rather than recruit an outsider for the top movie job, Universal Studios President Ron Meyer has promoted two insiders to succeed the duo. The studio's marketing chief, Adam Fogelson, has been named chairman, and production president Donna Langley, co-chairman, reporting to Fogelson.

Meyer is banking on the pair to reverse the studio’s box office slump and end the infighting that's disrupted the studio’s executive suites for several months.

Shmuger and Linde’s removal is the fourth senior-level shake-up to hit one of Hollywood’s major studios in the last few months, coming on the heels of the abrupt departure of Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook two weeks ago. Earlier this month, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. chief executive Harry Sloan was pushed out, and a few weeks earlier Paramount Pictures removed its two top movie executives, John Lesher and Brad Weston.

Such upheaval comes at a particularly treacherous time for the movie industry when studios can no longer rely on once-robust DVD sales to prop up their business, making it increasingly difficult for them to recoup costs on their flops and make healthy returns on their more expensive hits.

The long-rumored management changes at Universal come as the studio’s parent company NBC Universal and owner General Electric are engaged in talks with cable giant Comcast Corp. to sell a 51% controlling stake in the media company.  A broader housecleaning at NBC Universal could come down if and when there is a change of ownership. This is the second major upheaval in recent months under the watch of NBC Universal chief executive Jeff Zucker following this summer’s departure of his hand-picked top television executive, Ben Silverman, who left after two tumultuous years

With the dismal box office year that Universal has had — capped by the poor showing of its current release “Love Happens” and this summer’s high-profile disappointments “Land of the Lost,” a costly misfire starring Will Ferrell, Judd Apatow’s “Funny People” starring Adam Sandler, “Public Enemies” with Johnny Depp, and Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Bruno” -- Meyer, Shmuger and Linde have been on the firing line of Zucker and NBC Universal’s owner General Electric

Universal currently ranks last among its rivals in market share so far this year, with just 8.6%, a poor standing also attributable to disappointing returns from such adult dramas as director Ron Howard’s “Frost/Nixon,” “State of Play” starring Russell Crowe, and “Duplicity” with Julia Roberts.

In light of the glaring downturn, the Universal executives were asked by NBC Universal chief executive Jeff Zucker and GE honcho Jeffrey Immelt to explain why their movies weren't clicking with audiences and costing so much, and what plans they had to get back on course.

Meyer’s ultimate decision to dismiss Shmuger and Linde was months in the making, and had been met with some initial resistance from Zucker, according to several people close to the situation.

Zucker, these people explained, leaned toward giving the pair a chance to change course, especially since they were the same executives who presided over two of Universal’s most profitable years in 2008 and 2007 with such hits as “Mama Mia!,” “The Bourne Ultimatum” and “Knocked Up.” Shmuger and Linde were also each given four-year contract extensions in January, which would mean that GE will be looking at hefty settlements.

But, in recent weeks, the pressure on Meyer to make a change began to mount as some of Universal’s biggest producers, including Marc Platt, Brian Grazer and Scott Stuber, continued to lodge complaints and frustration about a leadership vacuum, the lack of a clear strategy and decision-making that they found untenable.

Shmuger and Linde have also come under fire for the high costs of some of their big event movies, including “Land of The Lost,” which cost some $200 million to make and market and will lose about $70 million, according to people close to the matter. A number of the team’s 2010 releases, among them “Robin Hood,” “The Wolfman” and the Iraq War drama “The Green Zone,” each have production budgets that exceed $100 million.

But, in the end, Shmuger and Linde’s undoing was not limited to their ill-fated movie picks and budget overruns.

Meyer privately told close associates that he would not fire the pair over a bad slate of films, since no studio is immune to the vagaries of the movie business and difficult-to-gauge audience tastes. People close to the studio said Meyer became unhappy with Shmuger and Linde’s inability to sustain a spirit of teamwork and put a stop to the turmoil that has roiled the studio's executive suites.

Disney Channel's Rich Ross headed to the movies

Disney Channel chief Rich Ross will figure prominently in the new management structure at Walt Disney Studios following the ouster of former studio Chairman Dick Cook, according to people close to the situation.

It is unclear whether Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger will discuss Ross' appointment with the company's board of directors at their regularly scheduled meeting tomorrow on the Burbank lot. People believe the announcement could come as soon as next week.

Iger hasn't commented publicly about his plans for the studio, but industry observers speculate he may divvy up Cook's job among two or more executives.

A Disney spokeswoman declined comment.  

Ross' departure from Disney Channel, which he built over the last dozen years into a tween programming juggernaut that reaches nearly 100 million U.S. households, would leave a new management void that would need to be filled in short order.

A person familiar with Iger's thinking said the Disney chief, in naming a new studio head, is looking to create an openness that didn't exist under Cook.  

Iger has been publicly critical of the studio's movie picks and the high cost of some of the films, including Jerry Bruckheimer's money-losing summer 3-D family movie, "G-Force." The studio's most recent big-budget release, "Surrogates," starring Bruce Willis, debuted last weekend with a paltry $14.9 million.

This weekend, the company re-releases Pixar Animation's two "Toy Story" movies in 3-D in a two-week run, followed by the reissue of "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas" later this month.  

--Claudia Eller and Dawn C. Chmielewski

Photo: Rich Ross, left, president of Disney Channel pictured with "High School Musical" director and choreographer Kenny Ortega. Credit: Myung J.Chun / Los Angeles Times