Amy Berg’s controversial documentary An Open Secret, which addresses allegations of teen sexual molestation in Hollywood, performed poorly in its initial runs in nine theaters this weekend in Denver and Seattle, distributor Rocky Mountain Pictures said today.
“In 26 years, it’s the lowest-grossing film we’ve ever had,” Rocky Mountain’s Ron Rodgers said by phone this morning. “We knew it would be challenging subject matter.” Rodgers said one of the film’s “best showings” was in Seattle, where it grossed about $200. Beyond that, Rodgers declined to provide specific figures for the movie, a version of which screened at last year’s DocNYC festival.
“I don’t think we’ve had any interference from Hollywood and I don’t jump onto conspiracy theories,” said Rodgers. “We’ve faced controversy before” with Dinesh D’Souza’s 2016: Obama’s America. “Hollywood tried to ignore it, but then it did so much business, they had to eventually address it. But I don’t see any indication there was any interference now.”
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Rocky Mountain released 2016: Obama’s America in 2012, riding election year momentum in the U.S., eventually grossing nearly $33.5M.
An Open Secret will head to New York next weekend, playing the Regal E-Walk. Rodgers said an L.A. run will likely depend the film’s performance next week. “Hopefully we can turn it around in New York.”
This is an important topic. A film that needs to be seen.
Well, apparently there aren’t too many people who feel the same need that you feel.
Movies like this should be released to streaming, where the audience that wants to see documentaries on controversial topics can find it, in the “Controversial Topic Documentary” category or whatever it gets called.
Even if the audience for this movie is small, so what? Everything is for niche audiences now unless it’s about comic book characters.
The multiplex is for escapist entertainment. It’s a fool’s errand trying to release anything but blow-em-ups and sophomoric comedies there anymore.
That’s because they only want to see movies like “Spy” and “Transformers”.
Hey Louie, I agree. No surprise that it didn’t do well in theaters as it’s a documentary and one about a very uncomfortable subject. Very small advertising budget too I am sure. But it is an important topic and it does need to be seen. This will do well at HBO or Netflix and I am betting it will be Netflix. They have tons of docs there and it’s really the place to see this kind of project. I’ll wait and watch it then for sure.
rightfully a “made for HBO documentary” where I suspect it will get attention. Nothing I’d pay to see in a theater, and apparently neither will anyone else.
Exactly, no one is going to pay to see this in a theater. Had it premiered on HBO or Netflix, people would be talking.
Netflix has a whole category for documentaries like this, about the financial industry, the food industry, how bad the situation is with overfishing, etc etc. This doc would fit right in. There’s an audience that goes for that kind of thing. Not the majority, by any stretch of the imagination, but large enough to support documentary level budgets. But they need to be able to FIND it. They aren’t looking for it on the marquee between Mad Max and Avengers Age of Ultron.
It will probably make its way to Netflix or HBO where it will find a huge audience.
Netflix will by it. This is too hot button of a topic for it to just disappear. Many people in the Midwest and other areas of the country who despise Hollywood will go nuts for this.
Yeah, those Midwesterners (and other areas of the country) despise Hollywood soooooooo much that they flock to our movies via multiple delivery systems, talk endlessly about our stuff at home and work, and make people like myself (and many others) very wealthy. Got it.
I can’t wait for it to come out on HBO. LOL
I’m not trying to kick the hornet’s nest with this question, but why is this film tanking so badly? Is it a case of Hollywood blackballing the film because it doesn’t want its dirty laundry being aired, or is it because the subject matter is too uncomfortable/disturbing (which it SHOULD BE) for moviegoing audiences? Or is it a mixture of both?
Well, you could, y’know read the story before you comment:
“’I don’t think we’ve had any interference from Hollywood and I don’t jump onto conspiracy theories,” said Rodgers.'”
Now why would I ever want to pay to see this in a theater? It sounds like a worthwhile film but filmmakers and their partners should have thought of the best place to distribute this. I’m guessing it’s all about qualifying for the Academy Awards.
The problem is simple to guess – this is an interesting topic and my guess is it is well done, but it is the kind of movie you watch at home when you’re in the mood for something serious. If you’re going out for the evening, and spending good money to do so, child abuse is probably not what you want to hear or see for 2 hours.
If a film about a cultish ‘religion’ (Scientology) that shows revealing material about international superstars (Tom Cruise, John Travolta) opted for release to cable (HBO) then I don’t know why the filmmakers and distributors chose the theatre route first for this. I assume they thought the controversy would sell, maybe it will or not. It will catch eyes on cable, Netflix and Vimeo.
Very poorly made.
Sell it to Netflix – it should do well there.
Wow but I am not shocked . The nature of the subject would be hard to sell in a theater . Would HBO buy it or Netflix ? Both are still very connected to Hollywood . Poorly made film by Amy Berg I think not . I have seen all of her documentaries and they are well made and bring only the truth out . What would happen if this documentary went straight to DVD or even YouTube or Amazon ? We are use to hearing abuse and casting couch for girls . Never thought about little boys ……Exposing parties with young boys and drugs and alcohol present .
I have to commend the bravery that Amy Berg has shown in exposing behind the scenes in Hollywood and not backing down .
As far as run-in with politics and documentaries . There is always one studio backing either republican or democratic parties . The Sony Hack was proof of that .
If there was ever a film that should have opened in Los Angeles and New Yprk, it was this one. Whoever decided otherwise should reconsider their career path.
I am a person whose story the fedl govt is suppressing. As an adult I was criminally harassed by the same kind of elite people in Ohio govt. Ed Snowden can’t help me, but seeing Amy’s movie might help othersw to understand my plight.
Is it possible that it ‘tanked’ because it had limited resources (no budget to advertise this and promote it)? I only found out about this because I happened to be reading an article on Corey Feldman and someone mentioned it in the comments. Yes, Deadline wrote about it but it really hasn’t been very well publicized. I agree with others that this should be released as a streaming film and they should pump up the social media campaign to get it out there. It’s an important topic and one that needs to be brought out in the open. Perhaps a channel like IFC or (as someone else mentioned) HBO would be ballsy enough to run it?