Hoop Dreams, Corporate Reality
Q: How do you hide a 7-foot, 6-inch Chinese basketball hero?
A: Put him in a documentary.
"The Year of the Yao ," a movie about basketball phenomenon Yao Ming, was scheduled to expand next week to about a dozen cities across the country. But after opening in Houston-area theaters this past weekend -- Mr. Yao plays for the Houston Rockets -- the documentary took in just $27,823 in ticket sales. The debut was such a flop that distributor New Line Cinema canceled its plans to put "The Year of the Yao " into more theaters.
Made for between $1 million and $2 million, "The Year of the Yao " follows Mr. Yao's move from sports icon in China to success and celebrity in the U.S. In particular, the film focuses on the bond he forms with his young American translator, Colin Pine. "We discovered one of his key relationships was with his translator," says Jim Stern, who co-directed the film with Adam Del Deo.
Yao Ming signs autographs at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport in October 2002.
Most documentaries have an uphill struggle in the marketplace -- and sports documentaries may be particularly hard to sell. "There's a subset of the public that sees documentaries, and a subset of them that will see a sports documentary," says Gregg Winik, one of the film's executive producers and executive president of NBA Entertainment, the association's production and programming division. (One major exception to this rule: The 1994 documentary, "Hoop Dreams," a story of two African-American high-school students struggling to become pro basketball players; it cost $700,000 to make and took in $7.8 million at the U.S. box office.)
Asking for Help
But another issue contributed to troubles for "The Year of the Yao ": Major companies that have marketing deals with Mr. Yao didn't join in publicizing the movie. They include McDonald's, Reebok and Gatorade. New Line, which is distributing the film through its Fine Line unit, tried -- and failed -- to win their participation, but corporate rivalries and business disagreements kept the big companies away, people familiar with Mr. Yao's marketing deals say.
For one thing, any promotion of the film by McDonald's -- which has done product tie-ins with movies such as Disney's "Finding Nemo" -- was out of the question. The fast-food company has a marketing agreement with Disney that bars it from promoting movies produced by other companies.
As for Reebok, Mr. Yao had an endorsement deal with rival Nike when the documentary was made in 2003 -- Mr. Yao's first season with the Rockets -- and he's shown wearing Nike sport shoes throughout the movie. A person involved in Mr. Yao's endorsement deals says Reebok backed off because of the Nike connection. A spokesman for Reebok says he couldn't comment because the executive who could address the matter isn't available. A third company that has a U.S. deal with Mr. Yao, PepsiCo's Gatorade, said the brand "is not traditionally involved in movies."
"There's conflicts all over the place with these conglomerates that own all these different brands," says Bill Duffy, the president of BDA Sports Management, which advises Mr. Yao on his marketing partnerships. "The best thing on that basis was not to do anything." He noted that one scene in the documentary where Mr. Yao walks into a Taco Bell was cut, for example, because of an endorsement deal with competitor McDonald's. Mr. Yao, who plays center for the Rockets, gets about $15 million annually from endorsement deals with various companies.
For its part, New Line says it always intended a modest opening for the movie: "We never bought it with the expectation that the endorsement partners would be involved," says Russell Schwartz, New Line's president of domestic marketing. The NBA entertainment division, which financed "Yao" but doesn't control its distribution, did some promotion in venues it controls -- such as electronic boards in arenas and on its Web site, but didn't pay for any advertising.
Role of Playoffs
Then there's Wal-Mart. Fine Line says it wanted to put life-size figures of the hoop star in its stores. Though the giant retailer doesn't have an endorsement deal with Mr. Yao, it was receptive to the idea, according to people involved in the negotiations. The "standees" would be props alongside which customers would have their photos taken. According to these people, talks broke down because Wal-Mart wanted Kodak cameras to take the photos and wanted to include Kodak's logo on the standees. Mr. Yao's marketing advisers wouldn't go along with the deal, saying it would be an implied endorsement for Kodak. Wal-Mart didn't respond to requests for comment.
The film faced other promotional hurdles. Mr. Yao is about to enter the NBA playoffs, and he doesn't want to be distracted with promotional efforts for the film, New Line executives say. Studio marketers say they realized this could be a problem if they timed the documentary's release to the playoffs, but they went ahead anyway. "That's a risk we were willing to take," says New Line's Mr. Schwartz.
Now, New Line is trying to draw up a new marketing plan. At some point there will be a DVD, and the studio says it may again seek help from Mr. Yao's marketing partners. It may rerelease the film in theaters this summer. A possible strategy: targeting Chinese-American communities, where Mr. Yao has his strongest fan base. 《姚之年》恐难再现《篮球梦》奇迹
──嘿，你们是怎么保护那个个头足有 7 英尺 6 英寸的中国篮球明星的？
──呵呵，我们把他“放“到纪录片里了。
一部描写“姚明现象”的影片《姚之年》 (The Year of the Yao) 本来计划下周在全美十多个市场公映。
但上个周末这部影片在姚明所在的休斯顿火箭队主场所在地休斯顿首映时票房只有 27,823 美元。这一惨败迫使影片发行方 New Line Cinema 取消了向更多电影院供片的计划。
这部耗资估计在 100 万 -200 万美元之间的影片表现了姚明从一名中国篮球明星成为美国成功人士和社会名流的过程。其中还用大量篇幅表现了姚明和他的翻译美国人潘克伦 (Colin Pine) 之间的友谊。与德尔 - 德奥 (Adam Del Deo) 联合执导该片的斯特恩 (Jim Stern) 说，他们发现，对姚明最关键的外部关系之一是他和他的翻译的关系。
美国纪录片市场整体很不景气，而体育类纪录片或许更是特别难推销。全美篮球协会 (NBA) 下设的 NBA Entertainment 执行总裁、该片执行制片之一威尼克 (Gregg Winik) 说，纪录片的观众群本来就小，而其中喜欢体育纪录片的群体就更小了。
（一个比较少有的例外是 1994 年的一部反映两位黑人高中生如何努力成为专业篮球选手的纪录片《篮球梦》 (Hoop Dreams) 。这部影片耗资 70 万美元，在美国的总票房达到 780 万美元。）
不过，让时运不济的《姚之年》雪上加霜的是那些与姚明有赞助协议的主要公司都没有参与该片的宣传，比如麦当劳 (McDonald's) 、锐步 (Reebok) 和饮料企业佳得乐 (Gatorade) 等。据知情人士说，负责此片发行工作的 New Line 试图劝说他们加入推广活动，但都失败了，公司面临的竞争对手和对业务的不同看法让这些大企业退避三舍。
首先，麦当劳根本就不可能参加推广，它与其他一些制片商已经签订了片头广告合同，比如与迪斯尼的《海底总动员》签署的协议。根据这类协议，麦当劳不能再为其他公司出品的影片作推广活动。
至于锐步，问题是姚明在 2003 年（这也是姚明进入火箭队的第一个赛季）拍摄该片时与耐克 (Nike) 签署了赞助协议，在影片中他穿的运动鞋自始至终都是耐克牌的。据知情人士说，由于存在这层关系，锐步也不愿加入宣传活动。
锐步发言人说，他不便就此事发表评论，负责这些事务的人不在。而姚明在美国的第三家商业合作伙伴百事公司 (PepsiCo) 旗下的佳得乐说，他们的品牌从不参加与电影有关的活动。
姚明的市场推广事务顾问公司 BDA Sports Management 的总裁达菲 (Bill Duffy) 说，这些大公司都有自己的品牌，它们跟姚明之间有时会存在冲突。
他说，这种情况下最好的办法就是什么也别做。他说，片中原来有一个姚明走进 Taco Bell 连锁店的镜头被剪掉了，就是因为跟麦当劳有赞助协议的关系。姚明在火箭队打中锋，他每年从各家赞助商那里可以得到 1,500 万美元左右的资金。
至于 New Line 自己，该公司表示说，它自己对影片首映的收入一直都是持比较中等的预期。该公司国内推广部总裁施瓦茨 (Russell Schwartz) 说，他们购买这部片子的发行权时并没有指望赞助商能参与影片的宣传推广。
负责提供《姚之年》拍摄资金的 NBA Entertainment 并不掌控其发行权。该公司现在在它自己控制的一些渠道里搞推广，比如球场的电子布告牌和自己的网站等等，但它没有专门花钱去做广告。
还有沃尔玛 (Wal-Mart) 。具体执行发行工作的 New Line 子公司 Fine Line 说，它曾希望在沃尔玛的连锁店门口摆放按照姚明真人大小制作的人像广告板，顾客可以跟这种立式广告板“合影”。虽然沃尔玛跟姚明没有赞助协议，但据参与谈判的人士说，起初沃尔玛并未拒绝这个建议。
据这些人士透露，后来谈判之所以破裂，是因为沃尔玛还想专用柯达相机来给顾客拍照，并把柯达的标识也作到广告板上。姚明的市场推广顾问不赞成这个方案，认为这等于暗示柯达是赞助商。沃尔玛没有回应记者提出的采访要求。
这部影片在宣传推广方面还遇到了其他麻烦。 New Line 的人士说，姚明或许很快就要进入 NBA 总决赛，他不希望因为影片推广活动被分散精力。 New Line 负责推广活动的人士说，他们原来也知道如果将该片公映时间定在总决赛期间会有不妥，但还是那么做了。 New Line 的施瓦茨说，他们不得不冒一下险。
目前， New Line 准备制定新的宣传计划。到一定时间段他们会推出 DVD 碟片，到时还会再争取姚明的市场顾问的帮助。他们可能会在夏季公映该片，这可能是出于吸引美国华人的考虑，美国华人中间的“姚明迷”是最多的。
