New Trends

Be it Hollywood or Bollywood, 2002 was the year of the niche-buster. Films such as Bowling for Columbine, One Hour Photo, Monsoon Wedding, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, (which was the highest-grossing independent film ever with US $228 million in box office receipts, taking only US $5 million to produce), Empire, Y Tu Mamá También" (This Mexican film unfortunately lost out against El Crimen Del Padre Amaro for a chance of Oscar nomination in the foreign film category due to the controversial practice of the Academy to include only one nominated film per country) made 2002 one of the most successful years ever for specialized fare and has given studios the financial incentive to make and distribute more small-budget films.

Of course, the year's blockbusters, like Spiderman, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones, were the dominant players at the box office, and no one expects Hollywood to retreat from its heavy reliance on sequels and big-budget films.

In 2002, specialized films⁶² accounted for nearly 7% of the market a 3% increase from 2001. While Greek Wedding accounted for most of that jump, each of the top 10 specialized films grossed more than US $10 million. Despite their modest size or "indie" style, most of the year's successful, specialized films each had a big studio behind them. The diverse array of potential audiences is what prompted the studios to form their specialty divisions in the first place.⁶³

The film industry is also taking advantage of the proliferation of cable-TV outlets to reach niche audiences. Audiences are now going to see more of the higher-concept-marketable-lower-budget-niche films being made.

MGM's Barbershop, which cost only US $12 million to make and an additional US $10 million to market, made more than US $75 million. Universal, along with its Latino specialty arm, Arenas Entertainment, made a bundle on the urban drama Empire, which cost US $650,000 to acquire and has gone on to make more than US $15 million.⁶⁴

As Jeff Blake⁶⁵ said, "If they are made at the right cost, then that is a very good business and a satisfying business to be in.”

Similarly, Bollywood also has been witnessing the rise of non-mainstream cinema with Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding grossing about US $14 million in North America. Gurinder Chaddha's Bend it like Beckham emerged as the event picture of the year and continues to run in theaters to date, with audiences and critics being bowled over with this winning film's charm. Worldwide, Bend it like Beckham grossed US $25million. Similarly, Deepa Mehta's English film Bollywood Hollywood caught the attention of mainstream audiences and the mainstream media in Canada and the film grossed an impressive US $1.2 million on about 40 screens in four weeks and grossed US $250,000 in the United States.⁶⁶