Slumdog: Marketed to be Best in Show
I recently went to see Slumdog Millionaire; it’s a wonderful movie about an Indian teen named Jalim, who has grown up in the slums of Mumbai, and who we quickly find out is a contestant on India’s version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. He’s managed to do well on the show but due to his underprivileged background, hes accused of cheating. The movie asks if his success is due to cheating or ‘if it is written’, i.e. is it destined.
Well, this little movie, with a mere product budget of $15 million seems to be destined to achieve greatness. The movie recently won four Golden Globes including Best Drama and Best Director, and today was nominated today for 10 Academy Awards, all while already grossing close to $45 million domestically.
Originally the film was to be distributed by Warner Independent Pictures but that division of Warner Bros. was shuttered in early May. Fortunately the movie was later picked up by Fox Searchlight Pictures, who worked out a distribution deal with Warner Bros. As early as September, as noted in this LA Times article, the film was deemed to be of high quality, have the potential to attract audiences, and considered to be a strong contender for the Oscars.
All this indicates that Fox knew the caliber of film they were dealing with, and handled the distribution in a way to allow for positive reviews and word of mouth to carry the movie higher and higher. The film began being show at only 10 theaters on November 12, gradually expanding to over 580 theaters by December 19. This method of distribution has also been utilized for other independent films including recent releases such as Changeling and Gran Torino, with varying degrees of success.
Looking at the daily gross per theater for Slumdog Millionaire it is more obvious to note how there was a concentration of audiences during the first month. The spikes in the line are the weekends. I am thus providing running 7-day average in dark blue to indicate a clearer trend.
Its also interesting to note that following the Golden Globes on January 11 the movies gross per the theater reflected a marked rise. I expect this to continue in the following weeks and perhaps even increase after the Oscars.
In terms of its total gross, the film is currently standing at close to $45 million.
On the day of its wide release on December 19 the movie had grossed around $9 million. In the 33 days since then, it has grossed over $35 million. Given that there are another 32 days until the Oscars, I expect the movie to pass the $100 million mark before the end of its U.S. run. Moreover, as a Latin American, and given the movie’s strong reception in Britain, I strongly believe that Slumdog Millionaire will be well received by various foreign audiences and achieve comparable success overseas.
Finally, although the movie may be labeled as an underdog in the coming weeks by many commentators, I hesitate to use the phrase in its case because Fox knew from the beginning the pedigree of movie Slumdog Millionaire was, and thus executed a proper distribution and marketing plan to realize its full potential.