In what universe do two A-list actors and an Oscar-winning director team up only to find it difficult to secure financing for a mid-budget movie? The one we currently live in, as that’s precisely what happened when Matt Damon (“Good Will Hunting”) and Michel Douglas (“Fatal Attraction”) partnered with director Steven Soderbergh (“Traffic”) for the Liberace biopic “Behind the Candelabra.” It remains one of Damon, Douglas, and Soderbergh’s best-reviewed movies, but it went directly to HBO instead of theaters. That begs the question: Why?
Released in 2013, the film centers on world-famous pianist Liberace (Douglas) and his relationship with the much younger Scott Thorson (Damon). Their relationship becomes far more complex when Liberace takes other lovers, with Thorson becoming addicted to drugs. Earlier this year, the New York Times ranked “Behind the Candelabra” as one of the best movies of the 21st century.
As for why a movie this good couldn’t manage to secure financing through a Hollywood studio and land a theatrical release? In a 2019 interview with The Talks, Damon broke down the situation. Here’s what he had to say about it:
“I remember when we were in Cannes with ‘Behind the Candelabra,’ and I talked to a studio head and asked him why he had passed on it. Every studio passed on that movie, and we ended up doing it at HBO. He said, ‘It was a $25 million [film], and then I have to put $25 million into P&A. Then I’ve got to split it with an exhibitor, and the theater chain is going to get half. So, you’ve got to make $100 million before I get a penny out of that movie; I’ve got to risk 50. I love Steven [Soderbergh], Michael [Douglas], and you, but that’s a real gamble.'”
Behind the Candelabra is a reminder that the movie business has been shifting for a long time
“That’s why movies like that are going to TV or they are not getting made,” Damon concluded. “All that was happening. That’s another perspective shift. It’s just a different business.”
As Damon pointed out, calculating box office success (or failure) is not as simple as taking the production budget and matching that in ticket sales. Theaters need their cut. Marketing is expensive. That means a $25 million project needs $100 million at the global box office just to break even, give or take.
In this case, studios didn’t see this as a worthwhile risk to take, even 12 years ago. In a 2013 interview with The Wrap, Soderbergh explained, from his point of view, why everyone in Hollywood rejected the chance to finance the movie:
“Nobody would make it. We went to everybody in town. We needed $5 million. Nobody would do it. They said it was too gay. Everybody. This was after ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ by the way. Which is not as funny as this movie. I was stunned. It made no sense to any of us.”
This mentality in Hollywood has only deepened in recent years. The global box office hasn’t fully recovered from the pandemic and, unless a streaming service were to step in, it’s hard to imagine a movie like this getting the green light today. It was hard then. Getting it in theaters might be even harder now. Even though Damon starred in the Best Picture winner “Oppenheimer,” which made nearly $1 billion, it might not be enough to get a project like this off the ground, assuming he and the other creatives involved want to secure a theatrical release.
You can watch “Behind the Candelabra” on HBO Max.
