The Informers
Rate Movie[Total: 6 Average: 2.7]
- Directed By: Gregor Jordan
- Written By: Bret Easton Ellis, Nicholas Jarecki
- Release Date: April 24, 2009
- Domestic Distributor: Senator Distribution
- Cast: Mickey Rourke, Kim Basinger, Billy Bob Thornton, Winona Ryder, Amber Heard
Box Office Info:
| Budget: $18 million | Financed by: Senator Entertainment |
|---|---|
| Domestic Gross: $300,000 | Overseas Gross: $82,174 |
Senator Entertainment, a German based company branched out into the US with a full financing and distribution arm called Senator Distribution and The Informers was their first US production. Senator optioned the rights to Bret Easton Ellis’ novel in September 2006 and the author was hired to pen the screenplay with Nicholas Jarecki, who would also direct. Just before The Informers was set to go into production Senator removed both Ellis and Jarecki from the project, carved up the screenplay into an incoherent mess and hired Gregor Jordan to direct this fiasco.
Senator Entertainment fully financed The Informers for $18 million and mitigated some risk by selling off overseas rights to distributors. They screened some footage for buyers at the American Film Market just weeks after filming began.
Senator made the unwise decision to premiere The Informers at Sundance, which was not looking for distribution, since the company was handling the domestic release, but land exposure for the upcoming release on April 24, 2009. The Informers received tons of free publicity after it screened, as it was regarded as the disaster of the festival and reviews were abysmal.
Going into release, The Informers had radioactive buzz, but Senator still went along as planned with a small, but still ambitious release. It was booked into 482 theaters and the film posted some of the worst opening numbers with an estimated $300,000 opening weekend and a $622 per screen average. The numbers were so awful and humiliating, that Senator refused to release the actual weekend numbers on Monday and never reported the weekday box office numbers — and pulled the film completely out of release before the end of the week. This was the end of the US distribution arm for Senator, they closed it down, went through bankruptcy and had to put the film Splice which they were planning on distributing, back onto the market.
The Informers was given a tiny theatrical release in the UK, Russia and Portugal to $82,174 and went straight to video in the few markets it was picked up by distributors.