The Salacious Tastes at Newmarket

It seems that Newmarket has usurped Lion's Gate as the standard-bearer for controversial works. Beginning with Monster and continuing with The Passion and their recent Sundance pick-up The Woodsman, Newmarket has shown a penchant for acquiring films that both provoke visceral emotions and stoke media buzz. A case in point: how many filmmakers out there would kill to have this guy helping you get press attention?

As we all know too well, the controversy angle isn't anything new. Lion's Gate has always had a special place in their heart (and release schedule) for films like Irreversible and Dogma, and up to the mid-nineties, Miramax couldn't resist films like Kids.

So what's different about Newmarket? They identify elements that, when combined with the controversy, provide a one-two press punch that drives public curiosity, builds buzz and eventually gets butts in the seats.

With films like Monster or Woodsman, it's really an updated version of the ol' Oscar bait strategy – a sympathetic, mentally impaired character played by a comely Hollywood type. In this case, substitute a sociopath for the mentally impaired, and it's Rain Man Redux.

More compelling is Newmarket's competence with affinity marketing, and in particular, their penchant for identifying films with crossover appeal. Bob Berney, head honcho of Newmarket, masterfully used this technique at IFC Films with My Big Fat Greek Wedding and to a lesser extent with last summer's Whale Rider. Now it looks like Passion could far exceed his previous efforts. According to the Los Angeles Times:

In Plano, Texas, two members of a Baptist mega-church bought out a 20-screen multiplex so 6,000 people could watch the premiere of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" next month. In Costa Mesa, a nondenominational church is canceling services on opening weekend and has rented 10 movie theaters. In Dallas, a NASCAR sponsor plans to redesign its race car's exterior to promote the film. In Riverside, another Baptist church, energized by the film's coming, designed an ad ("You've got questions. We've got the answer.") to be shown on all 18 screens of a multiplex for three months.

Just what kind of box office "The Passion" will do when it opens Feb. 25 is impossible to predict. But it is clear that Gibson has tapped into a network of Christian church-based marketing that has been maturing for decades and that has been waiting, with almost biblical patience, for a high-profile, celebrity-backed religious picture to capture the nation's attention.

Related Links:
A Tie-In Made in Heaven (subscription required)
Newmarket Films
Lion's Gate Films