Can the Venice Film Festival restart the auteur film business?

This year’s Cannes Film Festival marked the return of the cinematic blockbuster.

After her debut on the Croisette, Top Gun: Maverick s Elvis Helped boost post-COVID box office. The former grossed $1.4 billion worldwide, including over $700 million domestically. Baz Luhrman Elvis is nowhere to be found. It’s getting close to that level, but with $145 million domestically and $270 million worldwide to date, it’s clear that popcorn-hungry audiences are hungry to get back in theaters, at least for new releases. .

Can Venice give the independent industry a similar boost? The Venice Film Festival, which opens on Wednesday, August 31 and ends on September 10, kicks off the fall film season, traditionally the strongest quarter for “specialty” and art films. The Venice 2022 schedule has a lot to appeal to independent audiences, Darren Aronofsky Format With Brendan Fraser and Tilda Swinton by Johanna Hogg eternal daughterBoth A24 releases, for the Sackler family documentary of Neon Beauty and bloodshed Oscar winner Laura Poitras and the Walter Hill western for a dead dollar Starring Christoph Waltz and Willem Dafoe, distributed in the United States by Quiver Distribution.

Studio specialty labels are also well represented, with Sony Pictures Classics using Venice for both Florian Zeller’s releases. Dad Proceed son and Oliver Hermanus’ 1950s drama Life with Bill Nye; Presented by Fox’s Searchlight Inisherin’s Banshees starting Three billboards outside of Ebbing, Missouri directed by Martin McDonagh; and the Universal Focus Features label brought Todd Field TAR With Cate Blanchett and Mark Strong on the Lido red carpet.

“Venice will be a big test, Venice and what follows in September and October,” says Andrea Occhipinti, CEO of Lucky Red, one of Italy’s leading independent distributors. “This will be a great test to see if the art house audience is ready to go back to theaters, or scared again, or just fed up and prefer to stay home on the couch.”

Art house fans tend to be older, and it was initially speculated that a more vulnerable elderly population would be less willing to return to theaters due to the COVID pandemic. There was some anecdotal evidence of this. Most of this year’s blockbusters are aimed at a younger audience, whether that’s Universal Minions: The Rise of Gru ($350 million domestically, $830 million worldwide), Paramount’s sonic the hedgehog 2 ($191 million / $402 million) or Disney and Marvel titles Thor: love and thunder ($740 million worldwide to date) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (US$955 million).

It was a different story on the independent circuit, where niche dramas, period romantic comedies, and high-concept, low-budget thrillers failed to attract significant audiences. Diane Keaton’s Body Swap Comedy mac and ritaReleased by Gravitas Ventures, it made just $2 million, and period romantic comedy Bleecker Street Mr. Malcolm US$ 1.9 million. alex garland masculine and David Cronenberg crimes of the futureBoth Cannes titles grossed $7.5 million and $2.4 million for A24 and Neon, respectively. Up until northern manRobert Eggers’ highly anticipated Viking Age, starring Alexander Skarsgård and Nicole Kidman, struggled, grossing $34 million domestically and $64 million worldwide, despite support from Universal’s Focus Features specialist group and its department. advertising magic.

“The risk of Covid is higher for the elderly and they have not yet returned to theaters. [so] Fine art/prestige films continue to suffer and the box office has likely dropped by 30% to 40%,” says Mary Koyama, head of sales at Japanese studio Shochiku, which screens the thriller directed by Kei Ishikawa. Men In the sidebar of Venice Skylines, as well as a restored version of Yasujiro Ozu’s 1948 masterpiece A Hen in the Wind at the Venice Classic.

Koyama says the only art house in Japan that attracted a larger audience was Plan 75. Chi Hayakawa’s dystopian drama, the Cannes title, depicts a fictional government program that encourages elderly people in Japan to undergo voluntary euthanasia. Plan 75 To date, he has earned over $2 million in Japan.

In the United States, the only true independent hit since the reopening of theaters has been the A24. everything everywhere at the same time, which reached $70 million in North America and nearly $100 million worldwide. But much of its success can be attributed to its game for non-art audiences, A24 deftly adapted the Marvel blockbuster starring Michelle Yeoh, full of special effects and superpowers, and a multiverse-style story that Dr. Will will feel strangely at home

“everything everywhere at the same time It didn’t feel like an art film,” notes a US distribution executive familiar with the production of the A24. “It was much broader, it attracted a younger crowd and families.”

But, says the executive, success Top Gun: Maverick shows that older audiences are returning to theaters. “Can not [$700 million domestic] Without the old demographics,” he says. “It’s hard to say how healthy the art house market is right now, because since movie theaters reopened, we haven’t had many of these truly prestigious art house names available.”

Which makes Venice even more important as a champion of independent business. Cannes proved that the big festivals can still be a place to launch experimental titles. In Venice (and at the Toronto International Film Festival starting September 8), we’ll see if top-tier festivals can continue to do the same for art films.

“I think it’s still important to show artistic films at prestigious festivals,” says Chizu Ogiya, general manager of acquisitions at Japanese distribution giant Gaga. “It sheds light on small-but-big movies that aren’t blockbusters and [for the audience] It works as a guarantee of quality.”

Patrick Brzeski in Tokyo contributed to this report.