The Wall Street Journal has an article online on the importance of international audiences to the profitability of films these days, particularly focusing on Paramount, and suggests that the tiny portion of the total gross for the original “Anchorman” brought in by foreign ticket buyers (slightly over $5 million, only 6% of the complete haul) was one of the reasons that the film wasn’t green lit. Director Adam McKay comments “At the end of the day, the economics of the business has changed — there is so much more pressure to play globally, and we couldn’t fight that.”
We suppose that’s fair enough; Comedy is traditionally the genre that translates the least well overseas, with even something like “The Hangover” making 60% of its money domestically. But it also ignores a number of factors. Firstly, when the original film was released, few of its stars had any profile whatsoever outside the States (the likes of “Saturday Night Live” or “The Daily Show” rarely air outside America), so Will Ferrell was simply ‘that guy from that kid’s Christmas movie,’ if anyone recognized him at all — it’s likely that him, Paul Rudd and Steve Carell are all more recognizable internationally than they were before.
Furthermore, the film’s huge following on DVD and cable would have undoubtedly lead to the sequel increasing its box office exponentially, and we’re almost certain it would have more than covered its costs, including marketing, from the domestic haul alone. And it’s not like McKay wasn’t willing to make concessions: the same article reports that there were attempts to reshoot Derek Jeter’s part in “The Other Guys” with David Beckham or Cristiano Ronaldo for international audiences, although it proved unworkable in the end (the practice is fairly common with animation: British TV chef Jamie Oliver voiced the health inspector in the UK release of “Ratatouille,” for example).
McKay doesn’t sound entirely sold however, sardonically adding “Rather than trying to veer your audience toward the film, just tweak your film to the audience. Next, I’d like to start tweaking movies by region, one version for the Midwest, another for the East Coast, and the South.”
But you know, whatever, Paramount. We hope “The Last Airbender” makes you a shitload of Euros.