Six Days in August D.O.A.?

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drumdude
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Re: Six Days in August D.O.A.?

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Tom wrote:
Wed Nov 20, 2024 10:20 pm
Doctor Scratch wrote:
Wed Nov 20, 2024 1:15 am
Thank you for the kind words, IHAQ. But anyone with half a brain for the aesthetics of cinema should have been able to see this outcome from a mile away. The Afore is expressing bafflement over the idea that “loyal” LDS might not care about his terrible, inherently boring film, but he ought to bear in mind that 6DIA got its ass kicked by *other* LDS films at the box office. He claimed at one point that Purdie Distribution was *the* game in town for LDS movies, but they seem to have parted ways. What a shocker, right? I imagine Brandon Purdie—or others at the company—looked at this and knew immediately that it didn’t have a shot in hell of making back its production budget.
I hope that the Proprietor will comment on his blog about why he went with Susan Tuckett Media rather than Brandon Purdie, who “is, by universal consent, the expert on the distribution of LDS-oriented theatrical films” (using the Proprietor’s words). It’s clear that it was a mistake to release the film during BYU’s football season. Does the Proprietor view hiring Susan Tuckett Media as the film’s distributor as another mistake?
The Afore may not have made a dime from the film but that doesn’t stop him from funneling donor money to his friends who helped make it.
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Re: Six Days in August D.O.A.?

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After 40 days , 6DIA is now down to 51% of Witnesses at the same point. Will it get to $400,000? Possibly. But it would need to run for another two weeks I think to get there. The take looks set to finish at below 50% of Witnesses - and Witnesses was a box office bomb.
1. Eye witness testimony is notoriously unreliable. 2. The best evidence for The Book of Mormon is eye witness testimony, therefore… 3.The best evidence for the Book of Mormon is a type of evidence that is notoriously unreliable.
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Tom
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Re: Six Days in August D.O.A.?

Post by Tom »

I Have Questions wrote:
Wed Nov 20, 2024 11:01 pm
After 40 days , 6DIA is now down to 51% of Witnesses at the same point. Will it get to $400,000? Possibly. But it would need to run for another two weeks I think to get there. The take looks set to finish at below 50% of Witnesses - and Witnesses was a box office bomb.
Unless the Proprietor begins spending thousands of dollars to arrange private showings, I don’t see the film reaching $400,000.
“But if you are told by your leader to do a thing, do it. None of your business whether it is right or wrong.” Heber C. Kimball, 8 Nov. 1857
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Doctor Scratch
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Re: Six Days in August D.O.A.?

Post by Doctor Scratch »

Tom wrote:
Wed Nov 20, 2024 10:20 pm
Doctor Scratch wrote:
Wed Nov 20, 2024 1:15 am
Thank you for the kind words, IHAQ. But anyone with half a brain for the aesthetics of cinema should have been able to see this outcome from a mile away. The Afore is expressing bafflement over the idea that “loyal” LDS might not care about his terrible, inherently boring film, but he ought to bear in mind that 6DIA got its ass kicked by *other* LDS films at the box office. He claimed at one point that Purdie Distribution was *the* game in town for LDS movies, but they seem to have parted ways. What a shocker, right? I imagine Brandon Purdie—or others at the company—looked at this and knew immediately that it didn’t have a shot in hell of making back its production budget.
I hope that the Proprietor will comment on his blog about why he went with Susan Tuckett Media rather than Brandon Purdie, who “is, by universal consent, the expert on the distribution of LDS-oriented theatrical films” (using the Proprietor’s words). It’s clear that it was a mistake to release the film during BYU’s football season. Does the Proprietor view hiring Susan Tuckett Media as the film’s distributor as another mistake?
I hope so too, Tom. But the Proprietor has been remarkably tight-lipped on details related to the film. I have gotten the sense that he views these movies as an attempt at “redemption” from his past life as a vindictive, smarmy, malicious Mopologist. But that is not a reputation that he can simply “shed” in the way that a butterfly emerges from a cocoon. Plus, his penchant for mockery and insult has never really gone away. Is it reduced in intensity? Yes. But it’s not gone. And he’s done nothing to atone for the decades’ worth of behavior, nor the egging on of others to engage in the same sort of thing. (Feel free to ask Mike Parker how it worked out.)

To be honest, I think that going with Susan Tuckett was not really a “choice.” I would imagine that, after “Witnesses,” Purdie Distribution would have seen the writing on the wall and would have come to the conclusion that working with the Mopologists wasn’t in their best interest.
"If, while hoping that everybody else will be honest and so forth, I can personally prosper through unethical and immoral acts without being detected and without risk, why should I not?." --Daniel Peterson, 6/4/14
drumdude
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Re: Six Days in August D.O.A.?

Post by drumdude »

I just saw Heretic. I think I’m one of a very, very small number of people who have had the pleasure of seeing both Six Days in August and Heretic.

One really makes you think, the other leaves almost no room for thought.
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Re: Six Days in August D.O.A.?

Post by I Have Questions »

Doctor Scratch wrote:
Thu Nov 21, 2024 1:37 am
Tom wrote:
Wed Nov 20, 2024 10:20 pm
I hope that the Proprietor will comment on his blog about why he went with Susan Tuckett Media rather than Brandon Purdie, who “is, by universal consent, the expert on the distribution of LDS-oriented theatrical films” (using the Proprietor’s words). It’s clear that it was a mistake to release the film during BYU’s football season. Does the Proprietor view hiring Susan Tuckett Media as the film’s distributor as another mistake?
I hope so too, Tom. But the Proprietor has been remarkably tight-lipped on details related to the film. I have gotten the sense that he views these movies as an attempt at “redemption” from his past life as a vindictive, smarmy, malicious Mopologist. But that is not a reputation that he can simply “shed” in the way that a butterfly emerges from a cocoon. Plus, his penchant for mockery and insult has never really gone away. Is it reduced in intensity? Yes. But it’s not gone. And he’s done nothing to atone for the decades’ worth of behavior, nor the egging on of others to engage in the same sort of thing. (Feel free to ask Mike Parker how it worked out.)

To be honest, I think that going with Susan Tuckett was not really a “choice.” I would imagine that, after “Witnesses,” Purdie Distribution would have seen the writing on the wall and would have come to the conclusion that working with the Mopologists wasn’t in their best interest.
Has Peterson explained why he changed distributor?
1. Eye witness testimony is notoriously unreliable. 2. The best evidence for The Book of Mormon is eye witness testimony, therefore… 3.The best evidence for the Book of Mormon is a type of evidence that is notoriously unreliable.
Marcus
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Re: Six Days in August D.O.A.?

Post by Marcus »

Maybe Purdie passed, still smarting from hits to their reputation such as this review in 2014, when they promoted Mormon racism:
“Meet the Mormons” is a slick, upbeat Church of Latter Day Saints-backed documentary that aims to answer the image of the church and its members “shaped by the media and popular culture.”

...But from the cherry-picked “stereotypes” to the sins of omission that follow, “Meet the Mormons” is nothing but propaganda. The film addresses the church’s reputation for “racism” without mentioning the long history in which that was true. The same gloss-it-over approach is used on the church’s sexist, patriarchal heritage.

And nobody brings up the homophobia that stormed out of the closet when Mormon money and organizers pushed California’s anti-gay Proposition 8 — “Proposition Hate,” it was nicknamed.

There have been Mormon-made movies that approach the religion, its history and reputation with a more open mind — Richard Dutcher’s “God’s Army” is the best of those.

But by being, in essence, a wholesome, sugar-coated recruiting film, “Meet the Mormons” — in 250 theaters this weekend — seems destined to preach only to the choir, the most famous of which is in that Salt Lake City Tabernacle.

...Credits: Written and directed by Blair Treu. A Purdie release.

https://rogersmovienation.com/2014/10/0 ... e-Mormons/
Or, maybe Purdie had a conflict of interest. They distributed "Go West" last summer:
GO WEST
Directors: Stephen Meek | Jeremy Warner

Jenn Kamp STUDIOS

Starring, Natalie Madsen, Matt Meese, Whitney Call, Stephen Meek, Adam Berg, Stacey Harkey, Mallory Everton, James Perry, Jeremy Warner & Jason Gray

A crazy group of pioneers brave the harsh elements and numerous mishaps to travel thousands of miles out west to find a place to call home.

https://purdiedistribution.com/movies
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Doctor Scratch
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Re: Six Days in August D.O.A.?

Post by Doctor Scratch »

I Have Questions wrote:
Thu Nov 21, 2024 8:11 am
Doctor Scratch wrote:
Thu Nov 21, 2024 1:37 am
I hope so too, Tom. But the Proprietor has been remarkably tight-lipped on details related to the film. I have gotten the sense that he views these movies as an attempt at “redemption” from his past life as a vindictive, smarmy, malicious Mopologist. But that is not a reputation that he can simply “shed” in the way that a butterfly emerges from a cocoon. Plus, his penchant for mockery and insult has never really gone away. Is it reduced in intensity? Yes. But it’s not gone. And he’s done nothing to atone for the decades’ worth of behavior, nor the egging on of others to engage in the same sort of thing. (Feel free to ask Mike Parker how it worked out.)

To be honest, I think that going with Susan Tuckett was not really a “choice.” I would imagine that, after “Witnesses,” Purdie Distribution would have seen the writing on the wall and would have come to the conclusion that working with the Mopologists wasn’t in their best interest.
Has Peterson explained why he changed distributor?
No, he hasn't. I can't help but wonder, though.... You may remember that there were rumors swirling that he and his fundraising team had essentially "stolen" a list of wealthy donor names from BYU. I was told by a reliable source that them doing this--and their subsequent unwelcome pestering of these donors--wound up pissing off some very powerful people. Could it be that these "annoyed donors" pulled strings such that the top LDS movie distribution company was no longer willing to work with Interpreter?
"If, while hoping that everybody else will be honest and so forth, I can personally prosper through unethical and immoral acts without being detected and without risk, why should I not?." --Daniel Peterson, 6/4/14
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Re: Six Days in August D.O.A.?

Post by I Have Questions »

Doctor Scratch wrote:
Thu Nov 21, 2024 9:07 pm
I Have Questions wrote:
Thu Nov 21, 2024 8:11 am
Has Peterson explained why he changed distributor?
No, he hasn't. I can't help but wonder, though.... You may remember that there were rumors swirling that he and his fundraising team had essentially "stolen" a list of wealthy donor names from BYU. I was told by a reliable source that them doing this--and their subsequent unwelcome pestering of these donors--wound up pissing off some very powerful people. Could it be that these "annoyed donors" pulled strings such that the top LDS movie distribution company was no longer willing to work with Interpreter?
Perhaps Purdie didn’t want to be associated with people who would pull dirty tricks like stealing donor lists.
1. Eye witness testimony is notoriously unreliable. 2. The best evidence for The Book of Mormon is eye witness testimony, therefore… 3.The best evidence for the Book of Mormon is a type of evidence that is notoriously unreliable.
I Have Questions
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Re: Six Days in August D.O.A.?

Post by I Have Questions »

I Have Questions wrote:
Thu Nov 21, 2024 10:08 pm
Doctor Scratch wrote:
Thu Nov 21, 2024 9:07 pm
No, he hasn't. I can't help but wonder, though.... You may remember that there were rumors swirling that he and his fundraising team had essentially "stolen" a list of wealthy donor names from BYU. I was told by a reliable source that them doing this--and their subsequent unwelcome pestering of these donors--wound up pissing off some very powerful people. Could it be that these "annoyed donors" pulled strings such that the top LDS movie distribution company was no longer willing to work with Interpreter?
Perhaps Purdie didn’t want to be associated with people who would pull dirty tricks like stealing donor lists.
We have a little clarity…
Those who stick around for the credits — as a still relatively newly-minted movie mogul, I always do — might notice that the name Brandon Purdie appears in the list at the end of the film. Brandon oversaw distribution for Witnesses back in 2021 — but, in the interim since then, he sold his company, Purdie Distribution, to the twin brothers Adam and Donovan Montierth, who now serve as co-presidents of the company that continues to bear his name. He left in order to sign on as Executive Vice President and Global Head of Theatrical Distribution for Angel Studios.

So, to the perpetually over-eager young pups over at the Peterson Obsession Board who have been wondering why Six Days in August wasn’t distributed by Purdie Distribution — did Brandon refuse to work with us? did he refuse because he had grown tired of my comic-book villainy and my stunning incompetence? did he recognize that our films will inevitably be pathetically amateurish and badly made? — the answer is that Brandon now works with Angel Studios. Although he attended the premiere of Six Days in August, he is no longer in the Latter-day Saint movie business. (Angel Studios aims to reach the larger film market beyond Latter-day Saints.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeters ... movie.html

So not only did the new owners of Purdie distribution not want to touch 6DIA, Brandon didn’t want to distribute it via his new role of Global Head of Theatrical Distribution for Angel Studios. It’s a double snub.
We seriously considered the Montierth brothers and their continuation (still under the same name) of Purdie Distribution. They were a real option for us and, I think, would have been a good one. I certainly wish them well. In the end, though, we opted to go with Susan Tuckett Media, Inc., which had just experienced very good success with T. C. Christensen’s Escape from Germany.

There is, alas, no gratifying corruption to be found here. No financial fraud. No conspiracy. No juicy scandal. No embarrassing buffoonery. Better luck next time!
I’ll bet the Montierth Brothers are devastated. Did Peterson pray about which distributer to use? If he didn’t, why didn’t he do so for such an important decision? If he did, is the dismal performance an answer to that prayer? Is God giving him the answer he needs rather than the answer he wants?
1. Eye witness testimony is notoriously unreliable. 2. The best evidence for The Book of Mormon is eye witness testimony, therefore… 3.The best evidence for the Book of Mormon is a type of evidence that is notoriously unreliable.
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