After declaring war on Universal Pictures over its release of the controversial movie The Last Temptation of Christ, Christian leaders have claimed victory in boycott efforts against the filmmaker and its parent company, MCA. But while the movie apparently did lose money during its theater run, the actual dollars-and-cents impact of those efforts remains unclear.
Last August, after Christian protests failed to prevent Universal from releasing The Last Temptation, leaders such as Jerry Falwell called for “an all-out effort to cripple Hollywood.” Other prominent Christian groups, including Focus on the Family, Campus Crusade for Christ, and the National Association of Evangelicals, joined in a boycott campaign that targeted Universal films, Universal Studios tours, Cineplex-Odeon theaters, and all business interests of MCA, which include MCA and Motown Records, the USA Cable Network, and Spencer gift shops. Leaders also asked concerned Christians not to buy the video E.T., a Universal product.
Tell-Tale Ticket Sales
Film industry observers agree that The Last Temptation was a box-office loser. Estimates of Universal’s gross income on the film range from $10 million to $12 million, while estimates of the total cost to make, distribute, and promote it run from $16 million to $20 million. (Universal has not released any figures.) But interpretations of those numbers differ.
“I don’t see how [the boycott] could have been any more successful than what it was,” said Don Wildmon, executive director of the American Family Association, citing the film’s losses. He also pointed to the fact that the movie ran in only about 130 of the nation’s 130,000 theaters.
Veteran Hollywood producer Ken Wales, however, believes that viewing profit-and-loss figures does not give an accurate picture of the movie’s failure or the boycott’s success.
“The film was not a financial success in any way,” said Wales, whose many screen credits include The Tamarind Seed and the Billy Graham film The Prodigal. “But money was not the issue.”
According to Wales, Universal signed director Martin Scorsese to a three-film deal, which allowed him to make one film of his choice. Scorsese chose his pet project, The Last Temptation.
“It was an art film,” Wales said. “It was made on a fairly low budget—about $6 or $7 million, compared with the average of $19 million. But [Universal] didn’t expect it to be a big commercial moneymaker.” The payoff for the studio, Wales explained, will come from the other two films, which are supposed to be more attractive to broader audiences.
Wales feels strongly that Christians should have objected to The Last Temptation. In fact, he was one of the speakers at a Los Angeles protest rally on August 11 that drew 25,000 demonstrators. But he was distressed by the antagonistic tone of other protest leaders.
“The protests probably added some to the box office, or at least made people go to see the film sooner,” Wales said. “That was an unavoidable side effect. But after that, we should have just let it go. Fait accompli. Done.”
Boycott efforts have only “perpetuated the confrontational spirit,” Wales said. They have not been successful in putting any financial pressure on Universal, and their spirit has further alienated Hollywood from conservative Christianity. “We’ve dug some deep holes,” he said.
Remembering Universal
Boycott efforts have been moved to the back burner in recent months by most groups. “We are not actively promoting [the boycott],” said Wildmon, whose AFA mailed 3.5 million packages of protest letters and petitions to Christians last fall. “But we hope that people will remember Universal.” He dismissed claims that The Last Temptation box office shortcomings may be irrelevant. “How long would a company be in business if they put out products they didn’t expect to make money on?” he said.
Measuring the impact of such a wide-ranging boycott is next to impossible, said Buster Holmes, director of special projects for Mastermedia International, a Southern California ministry to media leaders. Mastermedia continues to promote the boycott, but Holmes believes it has had only limited success because other events, such as the prolife protests of Operation Rescue, the national elections, and the Christmas holidays, have diverted Christians’ attention and energy away from MCA/Universal.
Boycott efforts appear to have had little impact on sales of the E.T. video; its 14 million copies set a record as the biggest-selling home video of all time. Wildmon and other leaders, however, say they continue to receive letters from individuals who report they are not patronizing MCA companies. And there have been several cases of industry professionals and businesses who have refused to work for Universal, including singer/songwriter Steve Gooden, who tore up a contract with MCA worth several hundred thousand dollars. After initially refusing to release Gooden from his contract, MCA allowed Gooden to buy back his contract for several thousand dollars.
Though Universal’s pocketbook may not have felt the effects of The Last Temptation protests, the studio apparently does not wish to revive any controversy. Reports that Universal would rerelease the film around Easter were quickly denied. And according to a report in Variety, Universal is negotiating with an independent distributor to handle the video version of the film.
By Ken Sidey.
