{"id":1240,"date":"2012-02-03T13:54:04","date_gmt":"2012-02-03T19:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=1240"},"modified":"2012-02-03T13:54:04","modified_gmt":"2012-02-03T19:54:04","slug":"adieu-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=1240","title":{"rendered":"Adieu B"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When Speakeasy interviewed Roger Corman recently about the DVD release of a late-\u201970s sci-fi flick called \u201cStar Crash,\u201d we asked the legendary producer to explain why low-budget pictures have largely disappeared from theaters. In the \u201960s and \u201970s, B-movies and genre films like \u201cCockfighter\u201d or \u201cFoxy Brown\u201d had a theatrical release, especially in drive-ins but also at indoor \u201chard-top\u201d theaters. Now, it\u2019s usually straight to DVD and obscurity. Corman, who has produced classics like \u201cThe Trip\u201d and \u201cThe Wild Angels\u201d and who earned the nicknamed \u201cKing of the B\u2019s\u201d, broke down the changing dynamics of the industry.<\/p>\n

The Wall Street Journal: So why don\u2019t B movies play in theaters anymore?<\/p>\n

It started with \u201cJaws.\u201d Up until \u201cJaws,\u201d we could take pictures that did well for us \u2014 like \u201cDeathrace 2000,\u201d \u201cGrand Theft Auto\u201d and \u201cRock n\u2019 Roll High School\u201d \u2014 and we could compete with the major studios. People did not distribute nationally; you did not open in the entire country on the same Friday. You opened regionally. The majors, even though they released regionally, they bought nationally on television. We bought regionally on television. And we went into the independent television stations and made deals to get more television ads for less money by staying away from NBC, ABC. We could compete on the amount of money spent. And we could compete because we were working regionally and we didn\u2019t have to make two or three-thousand prints.<\/p>\n

So you had to be savvy in figuring out which films would do well in which part of the country.<\/p>\n

Yes. We also had the advantage that drive-ins blanketed the country. We would open in a combination of hardtops and drive-ins. In drive-ins, we could equal or outgross the majors. In the hard-tops, we\u2019d be a little less than the majors but the combination allowed us to stay in the game. The \u201860s, \u201870s and early \u201880s were the golden days for the independents. We knew the films we were making, which appealed to a drive-in audience more than a major studio, would do extremely well.<\/p>\n

So what changed?<\/p>\n

Drive-ins faded away and the cost of distribution got bigger. And then \u201cJaws.\u201d Vincent Canby wrote in the New York Times: \u201cWhat is \u2018Jaws\u2019 but a big-budget Roger Corman film?\u201d What he didn\u2019t say was it was not only bigger but better. I\u2019m perfectly willing to admit that. When I saw \u201cjaws,\u201d I thought, I\u2019ve made this picture. First picture I ever made was \u201cMonster From the Ocean Floor.\u201d This is the first time a major had gone into the type of picture that was bread-and-butter for me and the other independents. Shortly thereafter, \u201cStar Wars\u201d did the same thing. They took away a lot of the backbone of the picture we were making.<\/p>\n

How did you adapt and survive in the post-\u201dJaws\u201d film industry?<\/p>\n

I would still play my pictures theatrically, even though I wouldn\u2019t make very much money on them, because I felt the advertising and publicity and word-of-mouth of the pictures would make the video more profitable. I even got to the point for a little while where I was taking a slight loss at the end on my theatrical distribution, feeling this is the equivalent of advertising. It finally got to the point where the loss on theatrical was too much and than I and my competition all just dropped out of theatrical, except for an occasional film.<\/p>\n

How did you market the films so audiences could find them?<\/p>\n

We did advertising in Blockbuster and mom-and-pop video stores. We sent in posters and trailers into the stores in advance of our release. It was not particularly effective way of advertising but it was better than nothing.<\/p>\n

What is the state of the B movie now?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been making films for over 50 years. We are at the lowest point ever for low-budget and medium-budget independent films. We are making a little bit of money on DVD. We are making a fair amount of money on cable sales, and still making some money out of foreign. But the profit margins are the lowest they\u2019ve ever been. The only ray of hope I can see is the Internet. I think we\u2019re beginning to see it. It\u2019s not there yet. But we\u2019re seeing a little bit of money coming in from the Internet, and I think that will grow. So we\u2019re staying in there, taking our tiny profits now and hoping that we\u2019re building out libraries that will hopefully pay off in the near future.<\/p>\n

From the Wall Street Journal