The July Newsletter

The NZ Film Commission brings out a monthly newsletter. It's an interesting one this month and I'll go into more detail in my next entry. But I want to quickly focus on a new list that has appeared in the newsletter that outlines how much Commission money was invested in recent films.

TITLE	AMOUNT INVESTED
The Ferryman	$1,000,000
Black Sheep	$3,518,214
Out of the Blue	$3,000,000
Eagle vs Shark	$1,661,669
The Devil Dared Me To	$859,314
Dean Spanley	$3,000,000
The Vintner’s Luck	$3,876,775
Strength of Water	$4,475,719
The Tattooist	$4,000,000
We’re Here to Help	$1,890,000
Rain of the Children	$1,411,820
Matariki	$2,500,000
Under the Mountain	$5,450,000
Separation City	$2,000,000
Second Hand Wedding	$714,450
Song of Good	$461,600
Apron Strings	$1,109,517
Show of Hands	$1,175,492
Rubbings from a Live Man	$720,000
Topp Twins	$624,406
The Volcano	$250,000
After the Waterfall	$2,500,000
Predicament	$2,500,000

At first glance this list seems pretty reasonable. We're Here To Help was a box office failure but there are a number of films here such as Out Of The Blue and Black Sheep that must be considered successful. The out and out failure here must be The Tattooist which shows an investment of $4,000,000 and it barely got a limited cinema release if any release at all. There may have been some boost from dvd and ancillary markets but it still appears to be a bomb.

Rubbings From A Live Man also strikes me as interesting case. I know the production budget of the film was a good deal lower than $700,000 so most of that money has gone into post production. The question would be why. I know the filmmakers would have liked more money upfront so they could have put it onto the screen. Florian Habicht is clearly a filmmaker to watch and there has already been a sizeable investment in him, so why not just give him the money upfront and let him get on with it?

Meanwhile news is coming through of a new board for the Commission... More next time!