"Slumdog Millionaire" appears best financial bet among "prestige" films

The Los Angeles Times Times conducted what I thought to be a fascinating survey by polling 12 prominent film studio executives, producers and marketers, asking them to pick from a list of "prestige" movies coming out at the end of this year that they would like to own a piece of. In other words, which prestige films had the best chance of turning the highest profit (which, of course, is not the same thing as which film will have the biggest box office). The panelists were not allowed to vote for a movie they helped make or distribute. The list of films they had to chose from was "Australia," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Defiance," "Doubt," "Frost/Nixon," "Gran Torino," "Milk," "The Reader," "Revolutionary Road," "Seven Pounds," "Slumdog Millionaire," and "The Wrestler." Nine of the 12 panelists picked "Slumdog Millionaire."

Many on the panel said "Slumdog" will be this year's "Juno," another film that received across-the-board rave reviews, attention from those that give out awards and crossed over from an "art-house flick" to a mainstream movie. Others were impressed by its early ticket sales -- it averaged a phenomenal $36,002 per screen its opening weekend (compared to "Quantum of Solace," the weekend's top grosser, which averaged $19,568 per screen).

No other film received more than one vote. The other three votes were spread among "Gran Torino" (Clint Eastwood comes up with another end-of-the-year winner), "Milk" and "Seven Pounds" (because of Will Smith's box office appeal).

The panel was also asked which film they would completely shy away from. "Benjamin Button" (because of its $175 million cost and a 2.5-hour running time) and "Australia" (poor marketing) led with three votes each. The executives also felt that both of these films need heavy support from older female filmgoers to make any money and the fear is that audience might opt this year for non-prestige films. "Revolutionary Road" (even though it reunites Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet) and "Doubt" each received two votes. The other two votes were split between "Seven Pounds" (even Will Smith can't sell the character he plays in this film, the executive said) and "Defiance" (who wants to see a Holocaust film around Christmas?).