As expected, last night’s Sundance screening of Red State has inspired some backlash from those who felt they’d been cheated, lied to, or swindled out of hours that could have been better spent elsewhere. Also as expected, Kevin Smith has taken to his Twitter account to address those critics—namely “angry bloggers” like Hitfix and Deadline, for example, both of whom harshly derided Smith for what they viewed as lying to and insulting his audience—as well as buyers who felt their valuable time had been wasted, all so Smith could surprise everyone by announcing a new self-distribution model. The gist of Smith’s defense: It was their fault for interpreting his plan to “pick my distributor in the room auction-style” as synonymous with selling it, something Smith views as proving his “whole point about the press.” From there, Smith talks further about his plan and offers his own account of last night’s premiere, unspooled over a mammoth, two-hour, 69-tweet essay that Vulture has been kind enough to assemble out of Smith’s 140-character bursts.
In the Tweet that launched a thousand angry bloggers, I VERY specifically said " … I plan to pick my distributor in the room — auction style…" Then, EVERYONE ELSE said I was selling the movie. But I never said that. Very specific wording. Then, I watched as lots of bloggers turned it into "He says he plans to sell the film in the room." So, if you're mad that I didn't live up to a story that I actually really didn't tell … well, that's kinda my whole point about the press. Ta-da … I'm just reaching back to an old model from Hollywood's glory days: we're taking our show on the road. GONE WITH THE WIND (which this movie certainly ain't) didn't open on 2600 screens; it opened on one. And played there for awhile. Then packed up & moved to another screen in another city to play there for awhile. We're compressing that process, of course, doing only one screening per night on the tour, but it's their idea, not mine. And the highlight of my light last night was talking to Bob Weinstein at the party after the screening. As @TheJonGordon & I explained our plan, Bob said "You're 4-walling. That's what me & Harvey did in the beginning." To which I said "That's why we call it The Harvey Boys." Then, in true Bob fashion, he instantly did the math on our Radio City Music Hall premiere to tell us we could have the highest per screen average ever. He saw the flick this morning & we spoke again. He loved it; said really nice things about me as a director. Then, in true Bob fashion, he added "If it were mine, I'd tell you take 10 minutes out." It was awesome. It was like being recognized as an adult by your Dad.
But taking our show on the road isn't a new idea. I've taken all of my movies on the road for promotional tours. Only difference is, this time around, we're charging for tickets. And if that price is too high for you, don't worry: you'll be able to see the flick for a lot less on October 19th. But with this tour, our aim is to get financially whole. I want to use actual, recognizable math on our little $4mil flick. Once we clear $4mil (off the tours, the merch, the ViewAskew Garage Sale), we're able to give our investors their money back. So long as we don't spend on marketing, every penny after that becomes profit. No more of this "The movie cost $4mil to make but needs to earn $50mil at the box office to break even." That ALWAYS bugged me: I'd got out of my way to make flicks for as little as possible, then watch folks spend more to market it. But that's how the business works: EVERYBODY does that. It is the standard. And I've done it, too; for 9 films now. So after doing it the same way for 9 times, you start to think about how you'd do it differently: is it possible to sell a flick WITHOUT spending any of that money? With a budget so low, why not try? Shit, just to change it up a bit. For years, bloggers told me I was tired for doing so many Askewniverse flicks. You hear that enough, it sinks in. No artist wants to be called tired, y'know?