TRYST OF BLUE

DISTRIBUTION STRATEGIES 

 “I am restless. I am athirst for far-away things. My soul goes out in a longing to touch the skirt of the dim distance.” – Rabindranath Tagore

Due to the United States’ stranglehold on virtually every film market in the world, countries that do not have the financial resources or the high end visual technology to compete with Hollywood’s blockbusters are scrambling to put together films that can keep their national cinema history alive. Theaters in most European countries are able to show homemade films on only 25% of their screens. The rest are monopolized by Hollywood’s asteroids and sinking luxury liners. One could imagine that dwindling cinematic prospects might cause worry amongst these filmgoers that wish to experience their indigenous fare. All over the world, the artistic language, culture and national voice are slowly being eclipsed.

By using the speech, locations, cast and crew of each country the cultural integrity will be maintained. This should translate to palpable attendance in each of these countries. While not sinking Hollywood’s share in these foreign markets, a film set in the country’s borders should provoke the desired interest in buying tickets and watching the film. For example, you are an active filmgoer in Calcutta and an international film set near your home in your native language comes to your theater. While you would probably patronize the American blockbuster, you would definitely take in the locally produced film. (In 2000, the projected population of Calcutta is 12.7 million, Tokyo is at 27.9 million. If one-tenth of the people in these two cities bought tickets, there would be over four million tickets sold here alone.)

Now let’s take it from the point of view of non-resident aliens living and working outside of their home countries. In New York City the Dominican population now ranks as the greatest immigrant influx, their population is estimated at over 650,000. For a community that does not have an acknowledged national cinema, the interest should be great in just seeing the rare glimpse of their own soil. The UK has a large proportion of immigrants from India and Bangladesh, whose national language is Bengali (used in the SOUND segment.) ‘Bollywood’ films in England are now ranking in the top-ten weekly grosses on a regular basis. This is not even to mention the large population of Irish immigrants here on the East Coast. If properly marketed in these and other communities, the potentiality of a return on this film is very good.

Theatrical release is not the only venue to attract audiences. Domestic cable and pay-TV outlets offer probable revenue after initial release. In Europe, many top-notch filmmakers show their films first on television before releasing them into the theaters. This is because often the television companies in Europe help finance the cinema. Ingmar Bergman, Fedrico Fellini and Lars von Trier have used this method to great success showing features and episodic series before going to theaters. TRYST OF BLUE is custom made for possible multi-night series due to its segmented design. By showing one segment a night for a five night run, additional revenue could be collected with Europe’s higher quality and more provocative network and satellite T.V.

Finally, the ever-important video and DVD market. After a theatrical release, rentals have the best chance of making money for the film. Domestically and especially internationally, this film will have wide appeal to the video market due to the aforementioned cultural attributes.

There are tangible similarities of the above films to TRYST OF BLUE. By Hollywood standards, these films are considered ‘no-budget’ at the bottom of the list to ‘low-medium budget’ at the top. None of the films here are ‘star-vehicles’. Many ‘name actors’ worked at cut rates in order to get the films made. Those films with recognizable casts were produced with an eye to keeping the costs minimal. Even though some of the films are not in English, the rewards are evident.

Just as gratifying, each of these stories are told in original ways that do not fall back on trying to appease the lowest common denominator. Many take risks that pay off due to the mature public’s desire to be moved, to see a fresh story, to learn something and to be entertained in a way suitable to their sensibilities. TRYST OF BLUE is such a film.  

The figures above are the Gross Box Office of which typically one half is returned to the distributor. These numbers are strictly from theatrical release. They do not include other venues such as T.V. broadcast revenue, DVD/Video rental or sales. There can be no assurance that TRYST OF BLUE will achieve the success of the aforementioned films.