‘Leaving’ Preconceptions Behind? : As Acclaim Grows and Distribution Widens, ‘Vegas’ Seeks Mainstream Respect

When Nicolas Cage saw the just-edited version of his film “Leaving Las Vegas,” he had much the same reaction as nearly every studio executive in Hollywood.

“He told me, ‘I think it’s really great. I don’t know if anyone’s going to see it,’ ” said the movie’s director, Mike Figgis.

Figgis’ heart sank, hearing Cage echo the sentiments of a host of studio chiefs who had turned the movie down flat before United Artists finally bought the film for a minuscule $1.5 million. (The movie was made for an also minuscule $3.5 million.)

“Studio people would be very moved, then I wouldn’t hear from them again,” Figgis said in a telephone interview from his London home. “Some would even watch it and cry. Everybody said, ‘We think it’s a wonderful film, but we wouldn’t know how to begin marketing a film like this.’ ”

The task was indeed staggering: How does one go about selling a bleak drama that chronicles in grim detail a screenwriter’s decision to drink himself to death?

Since the film’s opening in late October, marketing has been carried out with a careful, light touch. Since that time, Figgis’ spirits--not to mention those of United Artists--have risen steadily. Unlike most successful movies, “Leaving Las Vegas” did not hit initially. The studio made an early decision to open the film on just a handful of theaters in big cities and, if it did well, slowly roll it out over a couple months’ time. But over the winter months it has drawn growing audiences and critical kudos, vaulting it into the sleeper hit category.

The film and its stars have won several critics’ associations awards, with Cage unanimously sweeping all the critical awards given out thus far.

“Leaving Las Vegas” has done increasingly well at the box office, given its limited release. As of this week, the film ranked 20th among about 70 films and has made a total of $3.26 million--right now it’s on 48 screens. That total is considered a relatively high one, according to John Krier, president of Exhibitor Relations, which tracks box-office receipts. The movie has a high per-screen average of $8,540, and of all pictures in theaters this week it has had the smallest audience drop-off, Krier said.

Banking on this success, the film will expand to 200 screens Friday after being initially turned down just a couple months ago by many theater owners.

“Someone from the studio rang me up yesterday saying the very managers of cinemas that didn’t want it are begging for it now,” Figgis said.

Despite the approbation from critics and exhibitors, it remains to be seen whether Hollywood can embrace such an unconventional film.

The low-budget movie--which also stars Elisabeth Shue as a prostitute who meets Cage’s character in Las Vegas, accepts his alcoholism and falls in love with him--was shot over 28 days on 16-millimeter film stock, instead of standard 35 millimeter. It has a slow, almost inexorable pace, a more artistic look than most Hollywood films, and it forgoes the traditional Hollywood happy ending.

Figgis remembers his industry peers as among the most vigorous naysayers: “They’d say, ‘Yeah, it’s a great film, but it’s so dark you oughta be crazy.’ ”

Industry observers point out that films about grim subjects are not automatically dismissed by mainstream Hollywood. In fact, some have been chosen for the highest Oscar honors, namely “Silence of the Lambs,” “Platoon” and much earlier, “Midnight Cowboy.”

“I maintain the academy is not as predictable and conservative as people would have you believe,” said film historian and critic Leonard Maltin. “Every time a film like ‘Platoon’ or ‘Midnight Cowboy’ succeeds at the box office or wins an Academy Award, people refer to it as precedent-shattering, which is exactly the kind of condescending attitude that pervades the industry. They’re not willing to believe that people will go see a serious movie when, in fact, they will.”

“I think academy members look for quality in any category,” said producer Arnold Kopelson, director of this year’s grisly hit “Seven” and himself an Oscar winner for “Platoon” (which won four Academy Awards, including best picture).

Still, others say that Hollywood is loath to fully embrace a film this dark. “Overall, Oscars have gone to upbeat films,” said Richard Jewell, associate dean of USC’s School of Cinema-Television and professor of American film history. “Much more likely to win are the films that you love, where you go out feeling better about the world. ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ doesn’t exactly do that.”

Some say the film’s ultimate performance at the box office will be the biggest determinant of its success at Oscar time, overriding its bleak subject matter and non-formulaic plot.

“We live in bleak times,” said Howard Suber, co-chair of UCLA Film School’s independent producers program. “There’s no evidence that bleakness by itself precludes the academy from nominating films and even giving them best picture awards. Failure in the marketplace does.”

Meanwhile, the critical acclaim has boosted the star power of the film’s principals.

“As one would expect, it suddenly puts you in the position where you can take lots of meetings with very high-powered people, if you want to,” Figgis said.

Cage was already a respected veteran, particularly known for quirky, offbeat roles, and he won praise earlier this year for his bad-guy role in “Kiss of Death.” He is currently filming “The Rock” with Sean Connery, an action thriller for Disney’s Hollywood Pictures and the producer team of Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. Figgis will soon begin pre-production on “One Night Stand” for New Line, a film about infidelity written by Joe Eszterhas. Shue, who starred in “Adventures in Babysitting,” has been offered a host of parts, many in action-adventure-type films, her publicist said. She is weighing offers and trying to avoid roles in which she is cast as “the girlfriend.”

Meanwhile, studio officials are capitalizing on the film’s critical success with full-page ads in trade publications, taking out a color front-page ad in Variety earlier this week encouraging academy members’ consideration. But, thus far, MGM/UA has spent less than $2 million on those ads and television and radio spots, said Gerry Rich, the studio’s marketing president.

Mostly, studio marketers are just sitting back and letting the accolades and word of mouth do the sales job.