Last week, there was a regular battle royal of a bidding contest at the Sundance Film Festival -- Park City, Utah, will never be the same. OK, so I'm having a bit of fun here via hyperbole. But according to an article in last week's Hollywood Reporter, Lions Gate Entertainment
The film, entitled Hard Candy, was given life by Vulcan Productions, in association with Launchpad Productions. Vulcan Productions is a movie concern created by one of the original co-founders of Microsoft
Lions Gate Films -- which will be distributing the movie everywhere except the U.K., Australia, and Spain -- had quite a bit of luck with another Sundance acquisition: last fall's cinematic shrine to debauched sadism, SAW, brought in over $55 million, according to boxofficemojo.com. That's a lot of bloody dollars, and shareholders watch every single acquisition that the company makes with a keen eye.
The Hollywood Reporter said that Lions Gate shelled out $2.25 million against 20% of Hard Candy's gross box-office haul: Relative to Hollywood standards, that's an economical deal for shareholders, especially if marketing costs can be kept to an efficient level and if the film performs reasonably well (the opening weekend needs to be strong). Sure, those with a stake in the company might pine for less participation on the part of the filmmakers, but competitive acquisitions always lead to a reality of concessions.
The biggest thing on a lot of people's minds these days is whether or not Lions Gate gets bought out by a larger media company; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's
For Takes on Lions Gate Entertainment and Paul Allen, see:
- Lions Gate Gets Twisted
- Opening the Lions' Floodgates
- Libraries Aren't Boring to Sony
- SpaceDev Burns Rubber
Fool contributor Steven Mallas doesn't own any of the companies mentioned.
