Why did the 'N Sync movie flop? -- Execs at Miramax and Lance Bass' production company disagree about why audiences didn't line up for ''On the Line''
by Brian Hiatt
Just like Lance Bass and Joey Fatone in ''On the Line,'' the executives behind the 'N Sync dudes' film debut are on a missing-persons hunt. But unlike their bubblegum heartthrobs, the execs aren't trying to track down that cute girl they met on the train -- they're wondering where 'N Sync's formidable fan base went when ''On the Line'' hit theaters Oct. 26. The movie grossed a measly $2.3 million in its first weekend, landing at a very un-'N Sync-like No. 11. It fared even worse in its second weekend.
''We are scratching our heads,'' says David Brooks, cohead of marketing for Miramax, the film's distributor. ''We know that the young-girl audience was aware of this movie and had a strong interest. But that first-choice drive to come see the movie never really got there. It just never was quite big as we thought.''
But ''On the Line'' producer Wendy Thorlakson, one of Bass' partners in his film production company, A Happy Place, suggests that some of the blame lies with Miramax. She says the studio didn't advertise the movie enough and erred in opening it on just 900 screens (films in wider release such as ''Monsters, Inc.'' and ''K-PAX'' typically open at more than twice that number of screens).
''Miramax underestimated what this film could've done,'' Thorlakson says. ''I think they believed that the core audience for this movie would be just 'N Sync fans, and I think they don't believe there are as many [of those] as there are. We were really disappointed with the [number] of screens and the lack of ad buys, because people didn't know it was out there, and even if they did, they couldn't find it.''
For example, Thorlakson says that when two squealing teenage girls approached Bass for autographs last week during a trip to Las Vegas, they had no idea that their hero's movie had hit theaters. ''They asked, 'Is it out?''' she says.
But ''On the Line'' coproducer Joe Anderson, Thorlakson's partner in A Happy Place, downplays any disagreement between Miramax and the production company and says that Thorlakson's comments do not represent the company's official position. ''It's true that we would've liked more screens -- you ask any producer in town what they wanted for their screen count, most of 'em will say a few more screens would've been nice,'' he says. ''But it's not a big deal. And it's certainly not like we're blaming Miramax for the fact that we had a disappointing opening. We could blame Halloween weekend, we could blame any number of things just as easily, and all of those things collectively were to blame.''
Anderson and Miramax execs say they had hoped that the movie would be a slow-building hit along the lines of another Miramax release: the Nicole Kidman horror flick ''The Others,'' which has grossed nearly $100 million since its release in August. ''The plan all along was if this movie was a huge success opening weekend and had a huge per-screen average, we expand -- add the screens and keep going,'' says Miramax senior marketing VP David Kaminow. ''Obviously, we're all disappointed that the film didn't perform to the level that I think a lot of people thought it could.''
Equally surprising is that Bass and Fatone's musical touch failed them. The ''On the Line'' soundtrack -- which Miramax and A Happy Place expected to buoy the movie's success -- has performed below expectations, despite the new 'N Sync songs it boasts. It debuted at No. 35 on the Billboard 200 album chart and dropped to No. 47 the following week.
Still, Miramax and the film's producers expect ''On The Line'' to turn a profit, in part, according to Thorlakson, because it cost even less than its reported $10 million budget. There's money to be made from foreign sales, of course, and it should be a sizeable hit as a home video release early next year. ''We think it's a success because the fans like it, it's going to turn a profit, and we had a blast doing it,'' Thorlakson says.
Bass and Fatone, meanwhile, are excited about continuing their acting careers. ''I've been getting calls from so many people -- especially about Joey's performance,'' says Thorlakson. ''They're comparing him to John Belushi.'' Let's hope that's not the John Belushi who starred in ''1941.''
