MGM Washed Its Hands of ‘Stigmata’ a Little Too Soon

Underscoring screenwriter William Goldman’s famously profound observation that in Hollywood “nobody knows anything,” “Stigmata,” the top-grossing film in the country this weekend, was written off both by critics and the studio that made the film, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

The supernatural thriller, directed by Rupert Wainwright and starring Gabriel Byrne and Patricia Arquette, took in more than $18 million in its debut, enough to knock “The Sixth Sense” off the top box-office perch it had occupied for five consecutive weekends.

But when the new management of MGM came aboard in April, it took write-downs on various upcoming movies that it believed had little or no commercial potential. Among them was the $32-million “Stigmata,” produced by Frank Mancuso Jr., son of the studio’s ousted chairman.

Recalling that he first learned of the write-off by reading The Times, the producer said: “It was really disappointing. It’s not pleasant.”

Mancuso said he then spoke with MGM Vice Chairman Chris McGurk, “who told me he didn’t really like the film, that it didn’t work, that he liked the idea but didn’t think it would play to a broad audience.”

It’s common for new management to clear the decks by writing down the value of selected projects that executives believe will ultimately result in a loss, after estimating theatrical box office and all other markets. That typically triggers poor results in one quarter, which the new executives can blame on the prior regime.

If a movie turns out to be a hit--as “Stigmata” presumably will--the studio benefits from reversing the write-down in a future quarter and booking the profit over the life of the film.

Mancuso said MGM had so little faith in his movie that it sought a financial partner to share the risk, to no avail. Sources confirmed that Paramount Pictures was interested in buying the foreign rights to “Stigmata” but backed away when MGM insisted that the studio also co-finance Walter Hill’s $70-million sci-fi adventure “Supernova,” which is yet to be released.

McGurk, who said the studio never comments on what films it does or doesn’t write down, said, “We always knew we had a marketable concept, but you never know whether the public is going to react in a positive way until they see your materials, which obviously worked perfectly.”

Sources said early test screenings of the movie did not go well, though more recent exhibitor screenings and tracking indicated strong audience interest.

McGurk believes “Stigmata” benefited from MGM’s decision to move the film out of the original release date of July 9, “when it would have gotten lost in the competitive shuffle, and we spent significantly less in media costs to open the movie in September.”

When it looked like the film could do some business, MGM also increased the number of screens it had booked from about 1,800 to nearly 2,900.

McGurk also attributed the film’s strong opening to the efforts of Marketing President Gerry Rich and Distribution Chief Larry Gleason. “They did a terrific job,” McGurk said.

What nobody could figure was that the public’s demand and appetite for scary movies was still whetted from summer blockbusters “The Sixth Sense” and “The Blair Witch Project”--both of which turned out to be unexpected hits.

Exit polls conducted this weekend showed audiences were predisposed to “Stigmata” because of the recent horror film craze.

Another unknown factor going into the weekend was how “The Sixth Sense” would fare once a direct competitor like “Stigmata” came into the marketplace, and how much business could be done on a typically lackluster box-office weekend after the start of a new school year and a new football season.

“The Sixth Sense,” another psychological thriller, which has grossed nearly $200 million to date, came in a strong second last weekend with more than $16 million.

“It’s great timing and great luck,” said Rich, noting how much the film was helped by the fact that the trailer played with “The Sixth Sense” and “Blair Witch.” (While distributors lobby theater owners to play their trailers with specific movies, they get no guarantees.)

The advantage this gave “Stigmata” was not lost on MGM.

“It’s like buying advertising on the Super Bowl for a football movie,” Rich said. “You can’t find a better place to merchandise a film like this.”

It also was helpful that the trailer was first seen earlier in the summer playing in front of the season’s first big hit, “The Mummy,” Rich said.

“The trailer is so important in building early momentum,” he said.

Gleason noted that while conventional wisdom says, “you should be the first out, as opposed to being a follower” in the same genre, it turned out that “Stigmata” benefited from being last in line.

Originally, the film was to be released before any of the summer’s horror/thriller films, including DreamWorks’ “The Haunting,” “Blair Witch” and “Sixth Sense.”

“It was a prudent decision to move the film,” Gleason said.

“We would have gotten clobbered on the July 9 date in the middle of the summer madness,” Rich said. He estimated that by not having to compete with the $30-million-plus marketing campaigns spent for big summer movies, MGM saved “a minimum of $8 million.”

MGM will probably wind up with total marketing expenditures of about $20 million now that it has to support a potential hit.

“All I know is it would have cost us a lot more and in all likelihood would not have generated the same gross,” Rich said.

Of course, there is the argument that “Stigmata” could have grossed more by playing throughout the summer.

Acknowledging that it’s impossible to know if things would have worked that way, Mancuso said, “The only thing I know for sure is that more people are available on July 9 to see a movie than on Sept. 10.”

The producer, whose deal at MGM was recently shuttered by McGurk and studio Chairman Alex Yemenidjian, said he was amused by what one rival distribution executive said of his film, calling it the best opening ever on the worst weekend of the year and suggesting that from here on in, this will be known as “the ‘Stigmata’ weekend.”