MovieChat Forums > O Xangô de Baker Street (2001) Discussion > This is why you don't release movies onl...

This is why you don't release movies only in Brazil...

posted 17 years ago by Bladerunner
3 replies | jump to latest

Total admissions in Brazil were just over 350,000, which translates into less than $1.5 million dollars (U.S.). The budget was obviously more than that, so it lost money. Also, they didn't release the DVD anywhere (that I can see) outside Brazil, even though it was a good movie and people (like me) want it. I had to buy this movie in a Region 2 (or whatever) format, which means I had to hack my DVD player to play this disk. If you don't own a "hackable" DVD player, you're sh!t outta luck. You could play it on a Mac or a PC, but then you get a change counted and when you get five the player freezes to that region (unless you know how to hack the counter, which most savvy computer users do, but that's not the point).

It seems really sad that the author is the one who probably demanded it be made in Portuguese, and then his own countrymen (and women) stayed away in droves. So it seems that Portuguese-speaking people have no desire to support the film industry in their country. I would think that the author and the makers of this film have now learned their lesson, that if you want to make a film with a budget over $500,000 you have to market the film to a larger audience. There are some countries that can support native-spoken films, like Germany and France, Spain and so forth, but even those countries market their films outside their borders. Even movies made in the U.S., which has a movie going public that can easily make a big budget movie profitable, market films overseas very aggressively - with all films being subbed and many being dubbed and marketing campaigns specifically targeted for those foreign countries.

Why the filmmakers of Xango decided to just release this in Brazil, I have no idea. They could have had an international sleeper hit on their hands, which would have funded more Portuguese-language films. Instead they have a film that lost money and hurt the future of anymore larger budgeted Portuguese-language films. I don't understand the logic behind that, unless they were so disappointed by the low Brazilian turnout that they just decided to cut their losses and only release the DVD in Brazil. Either way it certainly doesn't speak well for the Brazilian movie-going public. It just illustrates how blessed a country like France is, where the public very zealously supports their filmmaking sons and daughters.

"...nothing is left of me, each time I see her..." - Catullus

[–] wiltvid 17 years ago

I own a lot of brazilian and latino movies, imported from all over the globe.
Diffrent region codes PAL, Secam , should no longer frustrate any world cinema conoisseur. Because region free DVD player have become widely available everywhere. So when you purchase your next DVD player make sure it plays region free.
They are available for up to $65.00.
And for your computer, you can get a zone free dvd download from dvdidle.com
for just $19.99, or just a month free for trial.
I noticed after my free trial was up, that I could no longer use dvdidle,
but all of a sudden, my build in DVD player started to play region free.
The dvdidle installation must have removed the regional bloc.

[–] Jep_Gambardella 14 years ago

Normally I wouldn't respond to a post written over three years ago, but I will make an exception in this case since your post is so full of misconceptions.

Why the filmmakers of Xango decided to just release this in Brazil, I have no idea.

It's not their decision to make! It's the distributors that release films, not the filmmakers or producers. I am sure that the Brazilian and Portuguese producers must have tried very hard to sell the film to international distributors, but they just couldn't find any buyers!

It seems really sad that the author is the one who probably demanded it be made in Portuguese

What would have been really sad is if the producers have made a Brazilian film based on a Brazilian book with a story set in Brazil spoken in English in an attempt to please American audiences that wouldn't have watched it anyway. The only way they could be sure to get a wide international audience is if they had had the budget to hire some stars, which obviously wasn't the case.

Don't give me songs
Give me something to sing about

[–] Bladerunner 14 years ago

It is rude and bad form to respond to a post so old, but what the heck... I forgive you. ;-)

It's not their decision to make! It's the distributors that release films, not the filmmakers or producers. I am sure that the Brazilian and Portuguese producers must have tried very hard to sell the film to international distributors, but they just couldn't find any buyers!

Uh, wrong. The filmmakers have all the say in the world about how it is to be distributed, as is their film! They sell the film to the distributor and they make the deal with the distributor concerning it's distribution. Columbia TriStar distributes films all over the world, they could have easily orchestrated a U.S. DVD release (and elsewhere) if the filmmakers had worked that deal out with them as a condition of the sale of the film.

What would have been really sad is if the producers have made a Brazilian film based on a Brazilian book with a story set in Brazil spoken in English in an attempt to please American audiences that wouldn't have watched it anyway.

Who said anything about that? You totally misunderstood what I said. THIS is what I said:

It seems really sad that the author is the one who probably demanded it be made in Portuguese, and then his own countrymen (and women) stayed away in droves. So it seems that Portuguese-speaking people have no desire to support the film industry in their country.

My point was, it is sad that such a good film was not patronized by the Portuguese movie-going public. I certainly did not mean that the film should have been made in English. Don't throw up straw men. Instead, argue what I write.

There have been plenty of small, foreign, independent films that have done well outside of their own country and have gotten international DVD releases without "stars" or a big budget. Besides, Joaquim de Almeida *is* a pretty big star. He is a recognizable actor in the U.S. He has starred in some pretty big budget features, including Clear and Present Danger with Harrison Ford and Desperado with Antonio Banderas, so your assumption is simply wrong.

"...nothing is left of me, each time I see her..." - Catullus