Six Days in August D.O.A.?

[drumdude]

What a wonderful cherry on top. Dan has been noting that the low turnout for his film must be due to BYU’s stellar football season. They have been undefeated, you know. Because they’re God’s team. So the low turnout is because God has other priorities.

Until now. Losing to a 6 loss team.

Mormon God sure has a fun sense of humor.

[I Have Questions]

After 36 days 6DIA has further dropped to only 52% of Witnesses at the same point, It might limp its way to 50% of Witnesses by the end of its run. It’s a truly awful performance.

[I Have Questions]

On the success of the film “Heretic”

Of course, it never so much as entered my mind that our Six Days in August, an indie film aimed at a niche market and backed by a modest budget, would compete with national Hollywood releases

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/

6DIA didn’t even compete with another indie film aimed at a niche market with an even more modest budget. After 38 days 6DIA has further declined in run rate to the film “Witnesses”. It has now taken a mere 52% of Witnesses at the same point, with only 5 theatres dumb enough to still be showing it. It took less than $1,000 in those five theatres last weekend.

The Producer is baffled…

I continue to be puzzled by the film’s failure at the box office. I’ve been disappointed to hear from more than a few people in my own neighborhood and among my own acquaintances that, well, they had vaguely kinda heard of Six Days in August and had sorta thought about maybe going to see it sometime but, well, they just don’t go to movies very often and just hadn’t gotten around to it. We always knew that our window of theatrical opportunity for the film was going to be small, and now it has closed.

If the window has now closed then 6DIA finished with a take of $385,000. Witnesses, also a box office bomb, finished its theatre run with $856,000, and it cost half as much.

So 6DIA didn’t even deliver 50% of Witnesses box office performance, despite spending twice as much. What an unmitigated failure of epic proportions. I fully expect Peterson to claim the film a success, somehow.

I remain proud of the effort, though. Six Days in August is a solid, good film about an important story. Our filmmakers did a superb job with it. I hope that many out there will stream it when it becomes available and/or that they will buy it on DVD or Blu-ray when the formats are out. (If Latter-day Saint cinema is ever going to be economically viable, Latter-day Saint audiences will need to spend some money on it.)

So the problem is not the terrible choice of film subject, it’s that Mormons are too tight to spend money supporting Peterson’s vanity projects. Got it. Peterson is like a bad Wall Street trader who holds on to losing stocks rather than reacting quickly to the error, taking the smaller loss, and investing in something better performing. Peterson is too frightened of crystallising the “loss” - that making movies is a mistake, and so continues to repeat the error - pumping more money into loss making stocks (films) rather than moving his invested funds (donations and time) into something that will deliver a greater return for The Kingdom - serving a senior mission for instance.

[I Have Questions]

Prior to the films launch…

The Afore writes that these coming days are "vitally important"! Yes, indeed! I predict that this film is going to be the biggest Mopologetic embarrassment since the "purging" of classic-FARMS from the Maxwell Institute. The concept for the movie is quite possibly the stupidest, most boring idea imaginable. I'm not normally a betting man, but if I were, I'd wager that the movie will not make back even 25% of its budget at the box office. I think that pretty much the totality of its audience has already seen it in the "sneak peaks" that happened last week or whenever it was.

On a sidenote: I see that the Afore has referred to Beto O'Rourke as a "shallow phony." Oh, my, the irony is rich indeed!

Prescient comments once again from the B. H. Roberts Chair of Mopologetic Studies. Timely as we draw close to the seasons Top Ten Happenings announcement…

[drumdude]

If Joseph Smith gets credit for his bullseyes, surely Dan’s malevolent stalker should get credit as well.

Dan, how do you explain how this son of perdition possesses such a powerfully accurate gift of prophesy and revelation? You have to crawl over, around, and under it!

[Bond]

What a wonderful cherry on top. Dan has been noting that the low turnout for his film must be due to BYU’s stellar football season. They have been undefeated, you know. Because they’re God’s team. So the low turnout is because God has other priorities.

Until now. Losing to a 6 loss team.

Mormon God sure has a fun sense of humor.

They should make it into the College Football playoff assuming they beat two losing teams to finish out the season. Then they're going to get absolutely trucked by someone from the SEC or Big Ten.

[malkie]

What a wonderful cherry on top. Dan has been noting that the low turnout for his film must be due to BYU’s stellar football season. They have been undefeated, you know. Because they’re God’s team. So the low turnout is because God has other priorities.

Until now. Losing to a 6 loss team.

Mormon God sure has a fun sense of humor.

They should make it into the College Football playoff assuming they beat two losing teams to finish out the season. Then they're going to get absolutely trucked by someone from the SEC or Big Ten.

Has 6DiA missed a marketing opportunity? Should they be showing the trailer at half-time?

Perhaps they can increase viewership by giving away DVDs, or coupons for streaming, at the games.

[Everybody Wang Chung]

Here is a very revealing and interesting exchange that highlights the Afore's utter incompetence in handling the marketing for Six Days.

JA: " You should have started advertising the film several months earlier than you did."

AFORE: That would have been an extremely inefficient and ineffective use of a very limited advertising budget.

JA: "It also could be that people don’t really care about this film."

AFORE: That could be, of course. But I see little or no evidence to suggest it.

http://disq.us/p/30o5z2x

[I Have Questions]

Here is a very revealing and interesting exchange that highlights the Afore's utter incompetence in handling the marketing for Six Days.

JA: " You should have started advertising the film several months earlier than you did."

AFORE: That would have been an extremely inefficient and ineffective use of a very limited advertising budget.

JA: "It also could be that people don’t really care about this film."

AFORE: That could be, of course. But I see little or no evidence to suggest it.

http://disq.us/p/30o5z2x

The Afore has already said he thinks his film failed miserably because Mormon cinema goers are too tight to support it by buying tickets. What evidence could be presented that might convince him that people really don’t care about his latest vanity project?

[malkie]

Here is a very revealing and interesting exchange that highlights the Afore's utter incompetence in handling the marketing for Six Days.

http://disq.us/p/30o5z2x

The Afore has already said he thinks his film failed miserably because Mormon cinema goers are too tight to support it by buying tickets. What evidence could be presented that might convince him that people really don’t care about his latest vanity project?

Doesn't the fact that Mormon cinema goers are not buying tickets for 6DiA, regardless of the reason, not indicate at least that Mormons really don’t care enough about his latest vanity project?

Put it another way: Mormons who are likely paying $thousands a year in tithing are apparently unwilling to fork out another $10-15 to see the movie. I'd call that pretty much unmotivated and uncaring.

There must be exceptions, of course, in that some tithe-paying members are so strapped for cash - or so tight - that even the best of movies could not persuade them to part with another few dollars. But is that likely to be true of the large percentage of members who are staying away?