Screendollars About Films, the Film Industry No
For Exhibitors October 12, 2020 Screendollars About Films, the Film Industry No. 138 Newsletter and Cinema Advertising Sparked by this year’s renewed interest in independent distributors and genre films, we celebrate the creativity of American International Pictures, the pioneer of mass-production, low-budget film making. AIP was founded in 1954 as American Releasing Corporation (ARC) by Samuel Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer, and James Nicholson, a former sales manager for Realart Pictures. They soon expanded into production so they could take full control of their product, both creatively and financially. AIP developed a checklist of creative elements to ensure a film’s appeal to their target youth audience, largely overlooked by studios of the day. Their ARKOFF formula, named after the founder, included these elements: Action, Revolution, Killing, Oratory, Fantasy and Fornication. AIP would frequently bundle multiple pictures to play as double features at the nearly 4000 drive-ins (Click to Play) operating in the US in the 50’s and 60’s. One of AIP’s famously prolific and successful directors, was Roger Corman, "The Pope of Pop Cinema", who established a cult following for himself and AIP through his adaptions of Edgar Allen Poe tales as horror films. Famously, AIP’s new project development began by creating the film’s title and movie poster, which was then market-tested to confirm interest before the screenwriter, director and cast were hired. Today’s independent producers have many lessons they can learn from the film entrepreneurs
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