Monday Morning Quarterback: Borat Shocker
By BOP Staff
November 8, 2006
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Kim Hollis: One of the biggest surprises in box office history occurred this past weekend as Borat earned $26.5 million in only 837 venues. How did this happen?
Reagen Sulewski: I expected this to do really well on the screens it had, but this was just flabbergasting. This was close to a wide release per screen record. Chalk one up for guerrilla marketing.
Joel Corcoran: I think it's a combination of a Sacha Baron Cohen's very strong fanbase, some brilliant marketing, and good timing for the release.
Tim Briody: It was marketed perfectly. Even with the limit of clips that could be shown on television, the guerrilla advertising and general nuttiness of it all just clicked with viewers.
Joel Corcoran: Though I was completely blown away by the extraordinary totals the movie received.
Kim Hollis: Borat was in magazines, on television, on the radio, standing on your front doorstep. It was the perfect storm of buzz.
Tim Briody: Well, *now* he has a fanbase, even if nobody could pick the real him out of a lineup since he's always in a character.
David Mumpower: Fox is getting assailed for the way they handled Borat's release, but the reality is that they made a savvy business decision. They saw that the film wasn't tracking well in mainstream America. Rather than release it ultra-wide and get empty auditoriums there, they sagely followed the Blair Witch Project release pattern. This was masterful.
Joel Corcoran: Cohen has always struck me as having a smaller fan-base, but very dedicated - and I'm one of them. His work as Ali G was just spot-on perfect satirical social commentary.
Kim Hollis: Yeah, but I really don't think he had $26.5 million worth of small fan-base. This was something more spectacular than that.
David Mumpower: I have never seen an episode of Ali G in Da House, but I did watch Borat opening weekend. The reason was because it looked new and fresh. The promise of a unique movie going experience was tantalizing.
Joel Corcoran: Oh, I totally agree, Kim. The marketing drove this movie, but I think the fanbase gave it a good starting point.
Please see my movie. If it is not success, I will be execute.
Kim Hollis: And truly, the commercials and clips were just hilarious. I hadn't seen a (new) movie in theaters since Talladega Nights, but Borat really piqued my interest. I guess I unconsiously just want to see Sacha Baron Cohen.
Reagen Sulewski: This got out to the same people that were huge fans of Jackass. It's a new breed of semi-documentary filmmaking that those demos relate to. It also didn't hurt that it's in the running for best reviewed film of the year.
David Mumpower: What I liked about the commercials was the "less is more" theory of showing just a couple of spots. Borat could have seemed overbearing otherwise.
Joel Corcoran: I think it also appealed to the same type of people who like the Andy Kaufman style of comedy - very avant garde, biting, and untraditional. The enticing commercials that promised "more than we can show you on TV" were just a superb advertising technique, too.
Reagen Sulewski: Avant garde usually translates into cult video hit, though.
David Mumpower: See, I disagree with that, Joel. The reason why is because I don't think there are a lot of people out there who like the Andy Kaufman style of comedy. If there were, he would have been more famous. Borat has struck a chord as having mainstream rather than cult appeal.
Joel Corcoran: It does, but Kaufman bridged that gap by appearing in Taxi. I think Cohen essentially is doing the same thing through Borat and Ali G. He hits that very rare sweet spot of being highly entertaining and very satirical at the same time. He appeals to mass audiences with the goofiness and shtick, but underneath, the text of what he says is completely outside the mainstream.
Tim Briody: I think there's something to that. This is pretty much lightning in a bottle. There can't be another Borat movie because everyone knows him now.
Kim Hollis: He's partly struck a chord because his message is timely, too. I'm sure it's no accident that the film was released days before an election.
Tim Briody: The people not knowing how to act around him is most of the appeal.
David Mumpower: And yet Bruno set off a bidding war in recent weeks before Universal eventually won.
Reagen Sulewski: They're going to try with Bruno, but it's going to be a trickier sell.
Joel Corcoran: I hate to give away even a minor spoiler, but David, I can't see how tricking a bar full of people into singing "Throw the Jew Down the Well" can be considered mainstream comedy.
David Mumpower: For starters, you don't show it in the trailer. How they sell Borat is a different beast from what Borat is. There is a scene similar to that one from the television show in the movie, but it's not advertised for a reason. Let's separate what Borat is from what people are led to believe it is.
Joel Corcoran: Which is exactly my point. That scene has been mentioned by at least a few reviewers and publicly mentioned. And while it's satirical gold on so many levels, it's also pretty damn funny watching a bunch of people getting tricked into singing along. It's like Lewis Black hosting "Candid Camera."
Reagen Sulewski: I think he would definitely come off as entirely too mean in a 30 second spot if you showed some of those scenes, versus letting people get into the movie and seeing just how ridiculous his racism is.
Kim Hollis: Honestly, I was uncomfortable with some of the meanness in the film. Though I certainly got the point.
David Mumpower: I find the entire juxtaposition odd. I can understand why Jewish groups were so uncomfortable with the film. Cohen is Jewish himself, but much of the "comedy" in his film is strongly anti-Semetic. How should they handle that disconnect and its attempt to bring extreme, irrational prejudices to life? I don't know the answer to that.
Reagen Sulewski: I think it's so over the top that it's impossible to take seriously.
Joel Corcoran: I think Reagen has it. The statements are so outlandish and absurd that it illuminates how utterly ridiculous any form of anti-semitism is. I think Cohen's character in Talladega Nights, Jean Girard, did the same thing for homophobia in a couple brief scenes in that movie.
Borat is hoping to steal some tears from Gypsy Jack Sparrow
Kim Hollis: Which opening do you find more surprising, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest or Borat?
Reagen Sulewski: Borat, by a mile. Pirates had the benefit of building on one of the biggest hits in recent memory.
Tim Briody: Borat, easily. We only started mentioning it around the time of Talladega Nights' release in August, but I don't think it was really on the radar until maybe a month ago.
David Mumpower: They are much different kinds of surprises. The site projected Dead Man's Chest would break the record for biggest opening of all-time. The degree of it was shocking, but I don't think it approaches this. Borat has the third largest venue count of all time. You couldn't find anyone last week who thought it would win the weekend. This is the closest thing to The Blair Witch Project we've seen in the seven plus years since its release.
Joel Corcoran: Definitely Borat. The success of Pirates was very surprising, but still within the realm of possibility. But before this weekend, I would've considered Borat's opening performance about as likely as Ryan Phillippe returning my phone calls.
Kim Hollis: No question, it's Borat. I still don't think most people I know even have a clue what Borat is.
Borat likes you! Borat likes sex!
Kim Hollis: Though we know that people in the film signed releases, what do you think is the chance that some lawsuits (other than Mahir the I Kiss You Guy) come about as a result of Borat?
Tim Briody: I'm sure there's boxes and boxes of release forms. At least, Fox hopes there are.
Joel Corcoran: About 100%. Trust me, people will sue over anything, and I'm sure there are some attorneys out there willing to prepare the papers.
Reagen Sulewski: I think there may be a number of people that try, considering the oodles of cash that are present now, but these people needed to read their consent forms better.
David Mumpower: The film has an $18 million budget and appears likely to surpass $100 million. All of the creative accounting in the world can't hide those profits and some of these people are right to feel like victims. The woman who was fired as a tv producer in Jackson, Mississippi in particular has a case.
Reagen Sulewski: I feel for her to an extent, but as a producer, you're hired to be savvy and make things run smoothly.
Joel Corcoran: That is probably the strongest case out there, David, at least from what I'm aware of. But even then, if she signed the consent and release, she signed the consent and release. About the only argument she would have is that she was pressured into signing the form or deceptively was tricked into signing a consent and release disguised as some other document.
David Mumpower: How much vetting should a happy talk noon news show producer be expected to do? If you have seen the footage, you can see how outrageous his behavior was. It was reasonable of her to expect him to behave acceptably and she shouldn't be the fall guy for his actions. He got her fired and now he's making millions from the video.
Reagen Sulewski: if you read her story though, she was not directly fired because of this incident. There were several months between then and now. Now, if I were Cohen, I'd probably feel bad about the situation, but the buck ultimately stopped with her.
Joel Corcoran: I'm not saying it's right, but it's probably legal, David. If she signed the agreement, she signed it. If Fox used the typical film-maker's consent and release (which I'm sure they did), then she probably signed away any right to any recourse for any fall-out from the film.
David Mumpower: It was the starting point of the decline, the moment from which her every move became questionable to her bosses. These guerilla video situations create troubling legal questions and I can easily see Borat losing this one.
Kim Hollis: Right, Reagen. We have no idea what the whole story with the producer was, and I would imagine that the TV station has documented it well for legal purposes. There may be things there she wouldn't want to come out.