The Last Lullaby continues to tour. So far, so good. We’re at least breaking even every week and have three great stops ahead of us: A week at the Fleur Cinema in Des Moines (June 5-11), a slot in the Brooklyn International Film Festival (June 7 and 8) and a week at the Camera 3 Cinema in San Jose (June 12-18).
We’re four weeks into the tour. What can I say so far? First off, there are no rules. We took a week off last week, which normally is taboo in the world of distribution. Normally, the only time you take a week off is when your run has ended. But I needed a break and we didn’t have a city lined up so I figured why not take the week to rest and regroup. I’m so glad that I did this.
Lesson learned. As with so much of this, there are no rules. Look at your movie, determine the best way of presenting it to the world and do it even if there’s no other exact precedent out there.
Next thing I wanted to mention is our numbers. It’s very difficult to track most independent movies. You hear about their release and then never see the results. I have listed our movie with Rentrak and Nielsen EDI, the two main agencies that monitor box office. However, unless you’re a paid member of one of these services, you can’t access the box office numbers.
For public viewing, I usually rely on Box Office Mojo or IMDb. However, as of right now (although I have tried), neither has registered my box office numbers. So to give you all a sense of where we are right now, I wanted to share our numbers.
After four weeks, we have grossed $26,116.75.
I’m happy with these numbers. For those of you only accustomed to viewing the studio movies’ box office each week, you might be aghast at these numbers. However, for those of you who track indie movies, you’ll know that for four weeks on one screen a week, these are very solid numbers.
We are at a vital crossroads, though. I don’t know where to take the movie after June 18. And I think, unless we break into some more major markets (New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Chicago) soon, I might have to wrap up the tour before too long.
I am hoping to make DVDs soon. As soon as I have them, I’ll begin selling them off of our Website using Neoflix as the fulfillment house (Neoflix gives moviemakers 88 percent of the DVD sales). Eventually, I will also need to make a domestic cable/DVD deal for the movie. But, for now, I’m focused on seeing if I can get someone (a top critic?) in one of these major markets to see the movie and champion it. That way, I can afford to open it in one of these larger cities.
Until then, I still feel that I’m doing exactly the right thing for the movie. It’s a tough road, but we all already knew that, right?
After living in Los Angeles for seven years, Jeffrey Goodman returned to his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana to direct The Last Lullaby. Co-written by the creator of Road to Perdition, and starring Tom Sizemore and Sasha Alexander, The Last Lullaby was filmed entirely in and around Shreveport and financed by 48 local investors.