The movie Edward Burns regrets releasing in cinemas: “never seen a cent from it”
Although many film buffs would recognise Edward Burns as one of the co-stars of Saving Private Ryan, he’s actually one of the most industrious independent filmmakers to emerge since the 1990s.
Burns famously wrote, directed, and starred in the family dramedy The Brother McMullen in 1995, which took the Sundance Film Festival by storm to win the top prize, and ever since, he’s managed to keep working on his personal projects, even if he’ll occasionally shoot a small role in a mainstream film like The Holiday or 27 Dresses.
As someone who has self-financed his projects and dealt with the different routes of distribution, he has often been at the forefront of conversations regarding the economics of indie cinema. A frustrating reality for many up-and-coming filmmakers is that it’s hard to get their work in front of audiences, as praise at a film festival doesn’t always translate to box office success, and films that aren’t able to find a distribution partner, unable to strike deals with individual theaters, often get releases directly on VOD, which means they end up competing against all the other titles available on different streaming services.
Although it has become much more common for films to be released online today, it was considered more of a novelty when Burns was working on the mystery feature Looking for Kitty, which he wrote, directed, and co-starred alongside Connie Britton and David Krumholtz. As he told Hammer to Nail, he had been offered an advanced deal to distribute the film on VOD and own it outright, but he rejected the partnership because his “ego wouldn’t allow” him to do it.
While it’s understandable why Burns was insistent about wanting to see Looking for Kitty released in theatres, his decision ended up being financially ruinous, regarding which he admitted that had he allowed the film to be released direct-to-DVD, he could have recouped his investment and “maybe make some more money”. Unfortunately, he said that after the deal for the film with ThinkFilm, he has “never seen a red cent from it”.
To Burns’ credit, he seemingly learned from his mistake years later when he was offered a similar deal to release his film Purple Violets directly on iTunes when the site was in its infancy. With a nine-month exclusive window on iTunes to release it directly to fans, similar to the way many musicians at the time did, the director said he was able to do “surprisingly good business there”.
Burns may never end up peaking in popularity the same way he did when The Brothers McMullen became the talk of the industry, but he’s managed to spend three decades in the industry doing what he loves without having to make creative sacrifices.
Although working with tiny distribution partners means that his films don’t get wide releases outside of festivals and a few coastal cities, they’re able to gain more attention once they become more widely available on streaming.
Interestingly, his career has seemingly come full circle this year with the release of The Family McMullen, a long-anticipated sequel to The Brothers McMullen that came a full three decades later, and even though it was released in select theaters by Fathom Events, the film eventually debuted on the streaming service HBO Max, allowing Burns’ work to connect with an entirely new generation of indie film lovers.
