Fans pay twice for ‘Veronica Mars’
Fan-funded feature could open doors to reviving cult classics
Veronica Mars has a new mystery to solve seven years after the teenage private investigator departed prime-time TV and left loyal fans — her “Marshmallows” — wanting more.
After a hugely successful Kickstarter crowdfunding experiment in 2013, Veronica Mars hits the big screen Friday but also returns to the small screen via video-ondemand, leaving Hollywood with an intriguing mystery: Can this kind of cinematic vehicle be successful on a wide scale?
“It’s a passion project for a lot of those people involved in the TV show,” says Jeff Bock, senior box-office analyst for Exhibitor Relations.
Starring Kristen Bell as a camera-carrying kid supersleuth, Veronica Mars aired for three seasons on UPN and CW and was a critical darling, though not a ratings one. The series averaged only about 2.5 million viewers before its cancellation in 2007.
A cult fan base grew, and, combined with those who visited Mars through Netflix and Amazon, it pounced on a chance to bring the show back as a movie. The new story sees Veronica returning to Neptune, Calif., for a 10-year reunion and a murder case involving her former beau, Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring).
Bell and series creator Rob Thomas announced a Kickstarter project a year ago to finance the film and persuade Warner Bros. to distribute it in theaters. It reached its $2 million goal within 10 hours of its launch and totaled $5.7 million and 91,585 backers, one of Kickstarter’s most successful campaigns ever.
But that doesn’t automatically equal a financial windfall, says Kate Erbland of the movie website Film School Rejects. Even if all those backers spring for a $10 ticket, that’s less than $1 million at the box office. “It still feels like the sort of thing that only exists to people who loved it as a show and have never lost hope that it would return.”
VOD used to be a “throwaway option” for studios, Erbland says, but now it’s a viable mainstream option for smaller features that may not pull in millions of moviegoers. Veronica Mars marks the first time a major studio has had a simultaneous release on VOD and theatrical platforms.
Bock says Veronica Mars could start a mini-trend of bringing back classic TV shows for one-off movies or small theatrical releases. “Your voice really can be heard these days. Maybe we’ll get a Wonder Years reunion movie out of this, too.”