Top Film Industry Stories of 2013: #8
Kickstarter becomes viable for filmmakers
By David Mumpower
January 8, 2014
BoxOfficeProphets.com
In 2013, Rob Thomas changed all of that.
Rob Thomas, not to be confused with the musician of the same name, is the creator of Veronica Mars. The short-lived series debuted on The UPN in 2004 and then survived long enough to become one of the launch programs for its successor, The CW. Never a ratings hit, even by the lowly standards of UPN and The CW, Veronica Mars generally claimed about 3 million viewers each week. Its high point was 3.58 million while the series finale had a modest 2.15 million. Veronica Mars was beloved, but it was never popular.
Even though the show was canceled in 2007, it has provided one lasting gift to Hollywood: actress Kristen Bell. She portrayed the eponymous private detective who happened to be a high school student on the side. Bell was a revelation in the role, and she has elevated her status in the industry as a feature film lead actress. To wit, Bell has achieved one of the ultimate goals in the industry. She provides the voice for a Disney princess in their animated blockbuster, Frozen.
Bell’s situation could have played out quite differently, though. In 2007, Thomas was desperate to save Veronica Mars. He boldly suggested a new version of the series that fast-forwarded the character several years down the line. Bell was 27 at the time so her portrayal of a college student possessed a 90210-esque element. Thomas’ idea would be move the character of Veronica Mars into the real world as an FBI agent fresh out of the academy. It was a great idea that demonstrated how much Thomas and Bell cared about the show and its fans.
When The CW declined in favor of a fall schedule featuring such notables as Aliens in America and Life Is Wild, Bell suddenly discovered herself in demand in Hollywood. A star turn in Forgetting Sarah Marshall led to work in half a dozen other films over the next few years as well as a Showtime series co-starring Don Cheadle. Bell is a critical darling who walks the line between mainstream Hollywood fare such as Couples Retreat and buzz indie projects like Safety Not Guaranteed. She never forgot the character that made her famous, though.
For years, Thomas and Bell told any and all media outlets that they would love to stage a return for Veronica Mars. Given that the final five episodes averaged almost exactly two million viewers, nobody believed them. The only two major series that were resuscitated as movie titles were both science fiction epics, Star Trek and Firefly. Veronica Mars did not have such zealots staging an outcry of support for a new story. Nobody believed that a movie was in the cards. Thankfully, Rob Thomas ignored the naysayers. He was helped by an unexpected technological advance.
Kickstarter was founded in 2009 with a specific intention. The goal was to provide potential creators with a new avenue for financing. The traditional sources for capital investment had always been cautious with their outlays. The premise as stated by Kickstarter founder Perry Chen was to give everyday consumers a chance to vote with their wallets before a product actually existed. This form of meritocracy would provide potential businesses with the resources to fund everything including prototypes as long as the concept was popular.
What is Kickstarter? It is a social media society wherein people post their ideas for business ventures. Consumers who welcome the idea can donate money via Amazon Payments to support the entrepreneur. The bidding is structured in a way that people are not billed unless the project reaches its financial goal. There is a tiered level of support that rewards those who participate to larger degrees. In this manner, the more ardent backers get better prizes. They do not, however, receive any future revenues from the project, assuming it ever makes money.
Willing to try anything if it had even the slimmest margin of success, Thomas approached Warner Bros. with an unusual proposition. The Warner Bros. Home Video team almost exclusively handles straight-to-video releases. Thomas had something else in mind. He asked if they would be willing to back a Veronica Mars movie production if he could acquire $2 million in funding via this new resource, Kickstarter. Presumably, the company executives said yes because they had little cause to believe that such a project would be funded within 30 days. Asking movie fans to provide $2 million worth of money for a theatrical adaptation of a barely watched series must have sounded crazy.
On March 13, 2013, Thomas, Bell and several cast members from the television show participated in a video that was displayed on the Kickstarter page. It announced the grand intentions of the Veronica Mars film. If fans voted loudly enough with their wallets, a Veronica Mars movie would become a reality. Four hours and 24 minutes later, the project became the fastest Kickstarter campaign to reach a million dollars. Yes, the project reached the halfway point in its goal before people on the West Coast ate lunch.
Thomas’ desperate play proved successful beyond his wildest dreams. Approximately six hours later, the Veronica Mars Kickstarter campaign had fully funded. Over the course of 30 days, a project that had seemed unlikely to reach $2 million had gained $5.7 million, almost tripling the listed goal. The consumers were rewarded for their loyalty with incentives such as free DVDs of the yet to be filmed movie. What they really wanted is something that they have yet to receive, which is the movie itself.
Almost exactly 12 months after the Kickstarter for Veronica Mars, the film will be released in March of 2014. Whether it becomes a box office hit or not borders on irrelevant. Warner Bros. have invested no money of their own thus far although they will foot the bill for the marketing campaign. Instead, potential consumers paid for everything. In exchange for this gift, Thomas promised to put every dollar of the $5.7 million into the production, something he technically isn’t even required to do. Investing in a Kickstarter project is always a leap of faith in this regard.
For the studio, everything about the situation is a win. The people who paid for the movie will receive none of the profits since that is not the way that Kickstarter works. All Warner Bros. has to do is release Veronica Mars then reap the rewards.
Such a strange new business model obviously fostered interest in other corners of the internet. Joss Whedon all but threw up his hands and ran away screaming as he fended off questions about the newfound viability of a second Serenity movie. Zach Braff, the former star of Scrubs, announced that he wanted to film a follow-up to his critical darling, Garden State. Barely two months after Veronica Mars funded, Braff’s new project, Wish I Was Here posted on Kickstarter. He needed only three days to reach his goal of $2 million, eventually receiving $3.1 million from consumers.
Since then, a few other noteworthy projects have attempted to duplicate the success of Veronica Mars. Undoubtedly the most hypocritical attempt involves the production of Atlas Shrugged Part 3. The first two movies were both total bombs. In order to end the trilogy, the film’s producers asked for help, which causes the rest of us to wonder if they understand the philosophy of objectivism at all. On the plus side, they reached their goal, even if they did leave Ayn Rand spinning in her grave.
Remarkably, Atlas Shrugged Yet Again wasn’t even the funniest usage of Kickstarter for a movie project in 2013. Melissa Joan Hart, the star of Drive Me Crazy, Clarissa Explains It All and Sabrina the Teen Witch, wanted to make a movie of her own. She too asked for $2 million from her fans. Apparently, Melissa Joan Hart is no Zach Braff or Kristen Bell. Her project fell just a bit short of $2 million, by which I mean $1.95 million short. She canceled the Kickstarter after receiving a whopping $51,065 after almost a month. The key aspect of a meritocracy is that not everything has merit.
In less than a year, Kickstarter has gone from a novelty to a viable business strategy. Whether it proves to be a temporary curiosity or an industry standard in coming years remains to be seen. A lot depends upon whether the Veronica Mars and Zach Braff movies do well enough at the box office to justify their financial investments.
Obviously, nobody will lose any money on either project as the studios have invested no resources while the investors are already guaranteed what they wanted for their money. If the movies do poorly, exhibitors will not be inclined to provide screens for these projects in the future, though. So Kickstarter very well could reinvent the industry’s financing system or it could prove to be a passing fancy that quickly fades from the collective conscious. Either way, the Veronica Mars Kickstarter was a historic and fun story to track in 2013.