NADIE SABE NADA---las lecciones de BORAT

El cine es una industria, sin dudas. Entre otras cosas xq cuesta dinero hacer las peliculas y mas dinero distribuirlas, publicitarlas, etc. Pero tb es un arte (nada nuevo ahi). O sea, se tiene q fusionar, por decirlo de una manera torpe, la intuición con la planilla Excel. Esta hermandad es delicada. Cada vez más se insiste en que se puede predecir lo que pasará con una película o, peor aún, que hay fórmulas para "defender" o "proteger" una pelicula. No creo. Si existiera una fórmula, todo el mundo la usaría. Tampoco se puede "crear" un éxito.

El caso de BORAT es fascinante y la película será recordada x años por decenas de motivos, partiendo por lo inteligente y cómica que es, hasta la ineptitud de la FOX para manejar la joya q nunca entendio tenía en sus manos. Basicamente, por ser tan "rara" (BORAT es una comedia cruda para adultos, q tiene algo de documental y mucho de sátira, sin actores conocidos, etc) decidieron "festivalearla", partiendo por Toronto hasta pasando por Varsovia (donde la vi). BORAT mató. Salas llenas, histeria colectiva, risas imparables y, de yapa, estupenda crítica hasta de los críticos más duros.

Fox entonces, confiada, optó por abrirla en 2 mil salas americanas. Hasta q algunos "expertos" comenzaron a dudar. No podía ser que BORAT pudiera ser un éxito pues no se parece a nada, no hay estadísticas q la apoyan. Fox se asustó y para estar más seguro, comenzó a hacer encuestas y focus groups. Resultado? La America profunda, la vota x Bush, no sabían de la existencia de Borat y aquellos a que se la mostaron, les parecio cómica pero rara. En resumen, FOX se asustó y optó por no estrenarla en 2 mil salas sino en 800 en caso q todo fuera un fracaso. Quizas BORAT era solo algo para "gente q va a festivales".

Pues la semana pasada se estrenó y fue número uno. Los 12 millones que esperaba Fox sumaron 26. Pero lo más impresionante es q hizo esa cifra en 837 salas, lo q da un promedio de US$31.500 x sala. La cinta q los expertos pensaron iba a matar, una franqucia ligada a Santa Claus, sumó 20 millones,pero en 3458 salas, o sea, el tarado de Tim Allen hizo 5700 dólares x sala (casi 5 veces menos). Fox ahora "decidió" ampliar la cantidad de salas donde se está exhibiendo BORAT.

Moraleja? A veces es bueno dejarse llevar x los instinctos y no todo es focus groups o encuestas.


'Borat' Make Benefit for Box Office

Theater owners and 20th Century Fox discovered over the weekend that Santa Claus doesn't come from the North Pole but from Kazakhstan, that he doesn't wear a beard but a mustache, and that his name is not really Tim Allen but Sacha Baron Cohen. Cohen's Borat rang up an estimated $26.1 million at the box office despite playing in just 837 theaters -- that's $31,500 in each theater. By contrast Allen's The Santa Clause 3, which finished in second place, took in $20 million on 3,458 screens -- or $5,780 per screen. Most analysts -- and tracking surveys -- had predicted that the Disney film would be the big winner at the box office. Some industry observers questioned the wisdom of Fox's decision to cut back on the number of theaters showing Borat following poor tracking surveys. In an interview with today's (Monday) Los Angeles Times, Borat producer Jay Roach commented, "It's amazing that tracking is so important to the industry when it's frequently way off." The movie faces weak competition next week when it is scheduled to expand. Meanwhile, the animated Flushed Away performed better than expected, placing third with about $19.1 million and giving Aardman Animation its biggest opening ever.



For 'Borat,' a glorious open
The mock doc packs its few venues, besting 'Santa Clause 3' and possibly setting a trend.

By Josh Friedman, Times Staff Writer
November 6, 2006

Americans turned out in force to see "Borat," the long-awaited mock documentary starring Sacha Baron Cohen as a boorish Kazakh journalist who offends everyone in sight while touring the U.S. seeking cultural enlightenment and Pamela Anderson.

As the wacky Borat himself might say: Why not? They like!

The movie topped the weekend box office with record-setting ticket sales of $26.4 million in the U.S. and Canada at only 837 theaters, according to estimates Sunday from 20th Century Fox.

"Borat" broke the box-office record for a movie opening at fewer than 1,000 locations. It bested Michael Moore's documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," which opened at $23.9 million in 2004.

"It was like a rock concert atmosphere — pandemonium," said "Borat" producer Jay Roach, who attended three sold-out shows in Hollywood and West L.A. on Friday night.

"During the naked wrestling scene, people were thrashing around and laughing so hard they couldn't breathe," he said.

Walt Disney Co.'s "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause," which most prerelease consumer surveys had indicated would finish first, came in at No. 2 with an estimated gross of $20 million.

The huge haul for "Borat" was especially surprising given Fox's recent decision to sharply scale back the release in response to surveys showing limited awareness of the film.

The R-rated movie, whose full title is "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," averaged $31,511 per theater.

So-called tracking surveys had pointed to an opening in the $15-million range. But they failed to capture the intensity of the "Borat" phenomenon stoked by enthusiastic screening audiences and a carefully scripted publicity campaign that started in the spring, Roach said.

"It's amazing that tracking is so important to the industry when it's frequently way off," Roach said.

"The 'Borat' virus has been out there spreading, but not among the people who answer the surveys," he added.

Since May, Cohen has been appearing only in character as Borat Sagdiyev, and entertainment journalists have obligingly played along with the gag.

During the Cannes Film Festival, they photographed him at the beach in what would become his trademark green thong bikini alongside two models. This fall they followed him from the Kazakh Embassy in Washington to the White House gates, where he tried to invite "Premier George Walter Bush" to a screening.

Though analysts have questioned the relevance of movie critics in today's marketplace, rave reviews clearly gave "Borat" a big boost. The movie has an unusually high 96% rating at Rotten Tomatoes, a website that summarizes critics' opinions.

"Having the acknowledgment of critics helped audiences see the value of taking a chance on something that's so different from what they are used to being fed," said Hutch Parker, Fox's production president.