Election Night

I'm no politician, but I'm starting to have a better understanding for election eve and the actual election day.  The work has been done.  There's not a whole lot that he can do.  The ballots are what they're going to be.

So tomorrow, after four feature films, this fifth one is getting a real theatrical release.  It's been a real learning experience listening in our weekly teleconferences on all the things that go into it.  You've got viral marketing people, publicity, theaters and of course the distributor.  Tomorrow, we'll see how people respond.  Will they go and buy tickets in Nashville, Tulsa and Grand Rapids?  If they do, then we roll out bigger.  If they don't, it will be a short lived theatrical and we'll see how DVD does.

The trick here is time.  The stakes are high-- the distributor is putting out a lot of money.  So their patience won't be long.  This is standard in the industry.  Take the tv show shot in Dallas "Lone Star."  Critically acclaimed, but the network didn't give it much chance after the first two episodes failed to get the numbers.  Had they stuck with it, Lone Star could have done well.  But the stakes are just too high for network executives to gamble.

For instance, Arrested Development was critically acclaimed.  But like Lone Star, the numbers weren't there.  The network was going to cancel after one season but stuck with.  And then a third season.  But it never found a strong audience.

I think "Rising Stars" will have a good audience.  It's a very entertaining movie with a strong message about the dangers of competition.  The Survivor-generation is learning all about "me-first" social politics-- where to get ahead you have to beat your competition.  Rising Stars sends the message that you have a choice-- you can destroy in a dog-eat-dog manner, or you can come together and create.

So tomorrow, the ballots will be cast and on through the weekend.  There will be a conference call on Monday to see where the numbers are.  And based on that, the movie's release will grow hopefully. 

One last ditch appeal to voters-- if you know anyone in Nashville, Grand Rapids or Tulsa-- please tell them to go see Rising Stars this weekend.  Don't wait.

Click on these links for the info for each city:
Nashville
Tulsa
Grand Rapids