Warp v Working Title production practices

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Across
  1. 2. An unexpected hit in the UK, making back its budget, this Warp ‘jihadi comedy’ was too controversial for the US and made just $300k there.
  2. 5. Typical white, middle-class, southern English characters in this biopic/romantic drama, with a smart release strategy seeing it open on New Year’s Day, and picking up Oscar nominations.
  3. 6. Proving digitization has made very low budget production possible, this £48k Warp X production is part-named after director Martin Scorsese
  4. 8. Distributed by Rogue Pictures in the US, this is a triple hybrid: a zom-rom-com successfully appealing to male and female audiences
  5. 10. Making use of its IP (intellectual property) or franchise and an A-list cast, this film made x11 its budget, and the OST (soundtrack) also sold well.
  6. 12. Warp’s Welsh romcom had no stars and limited US appeal, making $0.5m there; the accent made it a hard sell
  7. 13. A star vehicle for Matt Damon, this is Working Title’s 1st tentpole production, with a $100m budget
  8. 14. A mid-budget $15m Working Title film that made just $2m in the US, reflecting its working class characters and real life gangsters not well known beyond the UK, reversing the Gant Rule!
Down
  1. 1. Working Title’s 2nd huge romcom hit cast the biggest female star on the planet, an American, back when Polygram was still its distributor
  2. 3. The Gant Rule argues that a US hit will take x10 the UK box office, but this 2nd romcom franchise sequel took just half the UK total despite the US lead
  3. 4. Yann …, director of ’71, a Warp action thriller that might have had more box office success if it wasn’t set in Northern Ireland; UK and international audiences are more used to the southern English, middle class accent
  4. 7. Proving that even Indies seek franchises where possible, this 2006 Warp film has now had 3 sequel TV series
  5. 9. featuring the leads of the ‘Cornetto trilogy’ (Shaun… etc) but adding a US A-lister, this sci-fi/comedy hybrid had limited success
  6. 11. A typically non-commercial (unlikely to make money!) Warp X film, this is about an illegal Asian immigrant in Britain!