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Scrutiny Week
NZ film What We Do in the Shadows did healthy business during its first week online, US trade publication Variety reports.
The low-budget vampire mockumentary was filmed in Wellington and written and directed by Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) and Taika Waititi (Boy). It saw cinema release last year, grossing $US3.3 million in the US and $US6.1 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.
Online, it's setting the pace on two fronts, Variety says. First, it's US distributor is being open about on-demand revenue. Second, at $US462,862 that revenue is "healthy" for an independent release, Variety says.
Since getting released on-demand and digitally on May 5, Shadows has been iTunes’ most popular comedy and horror film, its second-biggest indie title and the sixth top rented and sold movie among all releases, putting it in the company of Fifty Shades of Grey and American Sniper, Variety notes.
It benefited from being named the Indie Spotlighted title this month across Time Warner Cable, raising its visibility among cable subscribers, the trade publication says.
The film is renting for $US5 on average and selling for $US13 on average, with a third of all revenue coming from electronic purchases.
Variety says Jermaine Clement's active Twitter presence has been a factor in Shadow's success.
With limited figures available, it's hard to say whose been the champ for streaming video on-demand sales, but Sony Pictures' The Interview is notable for generating $US15 million in online sales in its first week on the back of the Korean hacker controversy that kept it out of many theatres. The Seth Rogan flick has now generated more than $US31 million from online sales, far eclipsing its miserable $US5 million box office.
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NZ film 'What We Do in the Shadows' does healthy online business in the US
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