Splice is a movie about inspired and brilliant scientists working under the radar that bring together elements that don’t usually play well together to create something truly unique and groundbreaking. But of course they’re not as smart as they think they are and problems start to occur as they meddle in totally new domains looking for success.
Splice is also a movie made by an inspired and brilliant filmmaker Vincenzo Natali, working under the radar of the Canadian film industry and brought together elements of scientific experimentation and horror that hasn’t been seen since David Croenenberg’s The Fly, all to create something truly unique and groundbreaking. Warner Bros. ended up distributing the film and knew how to sell a horror movie, but they weren’t as smart as they thought they were and problems started to occur as they meddled in domains they didn’t totally understand looking for success.
Origin of the Species
Natali is a fairly well known filmmaker in Canada. With only a handful of very unique films, he stands out as was able to do something that so few Canadian filmmakers seem to be able to do: make movies with balls. He also did something that most Canadian filmmakers do best, and that’s make movies with brains. One needs only to compare Michael Bay’s Armegeddon with Don McKellar’s Last Night to see the enormous different of priority between our two countries in terms of storytelling.
For Splice, Natali sought studio financing, but was unable to find any in the US, mostly because of the sexual aspects of the film. So he was able to raise the $26m for the film via Canadian and French financing sources. Once the film was complete, he still needed distribution. It shouldn’t be hard with a movie as awesome as Splice, and staring hot stars like Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley. Brody in particular is also going to be in Predators this summer, so who doesn’t want to hop aboard that train? But we are in a recession and it’s a horrible climate in the film industry right now. So much so that two of the distributors Natali had planned to go with both ended up going bankrupt before they could release the film.
In flew a stout little hairy angel on a testosterone fueled jetpack. Say what you will about Joel Silver, this man has produced some of the biggest movies of the past 3 decades and is still around and kicking ass. To last that long as a producer in this business is a feat paralleled by few. Silver saw Splice at Sundace, loved it, and took it in hand to Warner Bros. and convinced them to give it a wide release.
And wide release it they did. Splice had a massive marketing campaign including online events, TV spots, etc. It opened on over 2400 screens (mega-sequel Sex & the City 2 opened on only 1000 screens more for comparison), and it received all the treatment you would expect from a big summer Hollywood movie. Pretty impressive for a little Canadian/French co-production that couldn’t find a distributor.
But Splice is not performing. It made only $7.3m in it’s opening weekend. So what went wrong.
Splice is not a monster movie…
The marketing for Splice was attrocious, especially in context with the final film. People who had seen it already were put off by how misleading the advertising was. I know when I saw the trailer in an audience filled with people, most laughed at it. The trailer made it look like a moronic update of Species. There was no reason from the trailers to expect that the film was anything more than a formulaic exercise of a monster running around killing people. “We created it, now we need to kill it!” Anyone buying a ticket for that movie would be sorely disappointed. Anyone already bored of such a simple premise wouldn’t even buy a ticket.
Natali had nothing but praise for Warner’s handling of the advertising. While he’s not going to bite the hand that feeds him, he commented that the marketing at studios is a science. They test things, tweak them, test them again and have the history, skills and expertise to as best as possible find an audience for a movie. The problem is when you concentrate solely on getting people’s butts in seats, you lose sight of the dangers of setting false expectations.
Check out the trailer at the end of the post and see for yoruself.
When I saw the film last night, the audience for the most part did not get it. It seemed clear they were there for one movie and got something else entirely, and all they knew about that something else was that it was fucked up.
Splice is not a summer movie…
The decision on the part of Warner Bros. to release and heavily market this movie now is a very curious choice. It’s a small movie to be sure. The cast list consists of about 8 people. It’s also not a stupid movie. It raises some real questions about the ethics of this science and is interested in the consequences and human fallout as a result. As a comparison, it’s up against Shrek 4, Sex & the City 2, Get Him to the Greek, and Marmaduke, brain childs one and all.
Splice is really the sort of movie that flourishes when released in the first months of the year where there isn’t a high demand for screens by other big name films ensuring it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle.
So what was the strategy here? Best I can tell, the hope was that because Splice was so radically different from everything released right now that it would stand out and be a success to for people looking for some horror action this summer. It’s not an entirely a stupid idea. It’s a gamble to be sure, but then every movie is. You throw the dice with your best educated guess and hope you get lucky.
Normally a movie like this would be thrown to the dumping grounds of a few art house theaters or be sent direct to video, so it makes me happy to see Splice get such a huge release like this, and that’s why so many critics were so behind this little gem. Unfortunately the box office results are not likely to make studios take a chance on intelligent little movies like this again in the near future. But make no mistake, this movie will find a rabidly loyal audience and will forever be held in esteem as a modern classic.
Someone told me that this movie will have legs and that they expect in the long run it will prove to be successful, and perhaps it will, but that’s a much harder feat to accomplish during the summer months when a slew of huge movies are coming out. With ticket prices rising and people able to see fewer movies, are people eventually going to find their way to Splice, or is that audience going to be captured by Christopher Nolan’s upcoming Inception?
I’m betting the latter.
You’re welcome,
Ashley
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