Monday, October 16, 2006

Trendwatch

Joel Silver announced he has $240M in funding from investment banking firms for a slate of 15 films. Warner Bros is on board to distribute. You can read about the details here courtesy Variety.

Note the math: 15 films for $240M. First eight films are being produced. Investors paid back and profits plowed into the rest of the slate.
Note the financing: From outside Hollywood. Warners is distributing only.
Note the frequency: Lots of films produced at once. A Library of sorts.
Note the genre: These movies are being produced under Silver's Dark Castle banner which has given us HOUSE OF WAX, THIRTEEN GHOSTS and HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL - all considered "teen horror" movies.
Note: These movies have done okay at the box office, but killed on DVD.

My question:

Has Hollywood rediscovered the "AIP formula" from the fifties and sixties?

2 comments:

wcdixon said...

Okay - I'll be the stupid one and ask what the AIP formula of the 50's 60's was?

Ross Pruden said...

American International Pictures was a leading film production company that churned out hundreds of low-budget horror films for teens in the 50s and 60s.

And no honest question is a stupid question—I didn't know either until I did the Wiki search! :)