UNITED STATES
Chicago Tribune
Christopher Palmeri
2016, Bloomberg
The newspaper drama “Spotlight” pulled off a surprise win over frontier saga “The Revenant” for best picture honors at the Academy Awards Sunday night. The bigger plot twist, though, may be that the film ever made it into theaters in the first place.
The back story of how the movie got done shows the perilous and often winding road films without obvious commercial appeal face and the crucial role independent financiers can play in keeping such projects going forward. “Spotlight” had the added challenge about covering a topic that could make audiences squeamish — the cover-up of a pedophilia scandal in the Catholic church.
“It wasn’t ever going to be a movie for the big studios,” said Jonathan King, an executive at Participant Media, which backed the film. “Major studios are interested in ‘Deadpool,'” he said, referring to the 21st Century Fox Inc. superhero film that has led the U.S. box office for the past three weekends. “That’s their business model.”
A critically acclaimed film like “Spotlight,” which had already won several honors before its victory on Oscar night, can produce returns for its investors. The movie. which cost $20 million to make, has taken in $61.8 million worldwide since its release in November, according to Box Office Mojo. Last year’s winner “Birdman” cost $18 million to make and ended up with $103 million in box office returns. Box office receipts must be split with theaters, and movie budgets don’t include expenses for marketing.
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