Adult moviegoers may be craving a serious drama after overdosing on a steady diet of mindless sequels that has driven this year's box-office sales.
But whether they'll rush out to see a sobering, ripped-from-the-headlines story set in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks remains an open question for the distributor of next Friday's release "A Mighty Heart."
Paramount Vantage is taking a risk releasing its emotionally charged movie about slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl just as audiences are poised for another round of escapist fare that includes "Transformers" and sequels to "Fantastic Four" and "Die Hard."
People haven't exactly lined up for films with themes related to 9/11. They gave cool receptions to last year's "United 93" and "Reign Over Me," about a man devastated by the loss of his family in the attacks. "World Trade Center," released last summer by Vantage's big-sister studio, Paramount Pictures, fared better but was not a runaway hit.
"Serious movies in the summer can be problematic," said Jeff Blake, head of worldwide marketing and distribution for Sony Pictures, which has "Spider-Man 3" in theaters. "People do seem to be in the mood for something lighter."
Unlike "Spider-Man," which cost nearly $300 million to produce, "A Mighty Heart" doesn't have to be a blockbuster to turn a profit. It was made for just $16 million.
Executives at Paramount Vantage, the specialty label of the Melrose Avenue studio, are hoping the movie will be the perfect antidote to the fluff in the marketplace, banking on the counterprogramming strategy of serving up sophisticated fare to upscale, adult audiences when they are starved for something meaty.
"There are a lot of fast-food blockbusters out there and this is a powerful story," Vantage President John Lesher said. "Our hope is that this is the first Oscar movie of the year."
Typically, studios release what they consider their most promising Oscar contenders in the fall, when audiences are more receptive to sophisticated films. But "A Mighty Heart" could have been lost amid an onslaught of serious dramas this fall that include Vantage's highly anticipated release "The Kite Runner," based on the bestselling novel.
"There's an advantage to being ahead of the pack," said Lesher, who successfully bucked convention last year by releasing Al Gore's global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" over the Memorial Day weekend.
