译者按：独立电影一直是小众电影的代名词。本文将告诉你那些光鲜的独立电影背后那些未能获得关注的独立电影的忧伤以及其原因。正所谓“一将功成万骨枯”。不过，对于真正的电影爱好者来说，应该是“衣带渐宽终不悔”，未来的独立电影还是会越来越多吧。
本文译自《经济学人》2月25日刊。

衣带渐宽终不悔

The independent-film business

Indie blues

独立电影的忧伤

Happy endings are rarer than ever for those trying to profit from indie films.
对于那些试图从独立电影中获利的人来说，幸福的结局比以前任何时候都罕见。

1. IT MIGHT seem a great time for indie cinema. The Academy Awards on February 26th will be something of a showcase for films not financed by a major studio. “Manchester by the Sea”, a contender for six Oscars, including best picture, was a darling of the Sundance Film Festival last year. Kenneth Lonergan’s masterpiece (one scene is pictured) about family and loss has earned 46m dollars in cinemas in America and Canada, a spectacular return on its production costs of 8.5m dollars. Amazon, which bought distribution rights, will benefit.

something of a sth: to some degree
e.g. She found herself something of a celebrity.
e.g. I'm something of an expert on antiques.
spectacular：very sudden, unexpected, or extreme
e.g. The news caused a spectacular fall in the stock market.

1）现在似乎是独立电影的好时机。 2月26日的奥斯卡奖某种程度上将是由非大电影公司资助的电影的展示地。 “海边的曼彻斯特”，一部六项奥斯卡奖（包括最佳电影奖）的竞争者，是去年圣丹斯电影节的宠儿。这部关于家庭和失落的肯尼斯·洛纳根（Kenneth Lonergan）的杰作在美国和加拿大已经赢得了4600万美元的票房收入，对其850万美元的生产成本而言是一个意料之外的回报。购买了发行权的亚马逊将会获益。

2. Movie buffs can find all manner of films online that are made more cheaply still. “The Break-In”, a horror film shot by Justin Doescher on his girlfriend’s iPhone for less than 20 dollars, has earned him more than 20,000 dollars, with more than half a million people having watched at least part of it on Amazon’s streaming-video platform.

buff: One that is enthusiastic and knowledgeable about a subject

2）电影迷还是可以在网上找到各种类型的低成本电影。 “The Break-In”是Justin Doescher用他女朋友的iPhone拍摄的一个恐怖电影，花费不到20美元，为他赢得了超过2万美元，超过50万人在亚马逊流媒体视频平台上观看了至少其中的一部分。

3. For every success story there are thousands of indie films that go unwatched. The digital age has made it easier than ever to make a film, but also harder than ever to break through the clutter of entertainment options to an audience. Chris Moore, a producer of “Manchester by the Sea”, compares the output of indie films now to trees falling in the forest. “Nobody is making a dollar off this business”, he says.

3）对于每一个成功的故事来说，有成千上万的独立电影没有人看。数字时代使得拍电影变得比以往任何时候都更容易，但也使得从观众杂乱的娱乐选择中突围而出比以往更难。 “海边的曼彻斯特”的制作人克里斯·摩尔（Chris Moore）将现在独立电影的作品比作倒在森林中的树木。 “没有人从这个生意中赚到一美元，”他说。

4. Mr Moore may be dramatising but only a little. Indie films have always been a risky bet for investors. Since 2002 the median return on investment at the box office for films released in North America with budgets of less than 10m dollars has been 45 cents on the dollar, which is under half the median return of films with a budget of more than 100m dollars, according to an analysis of data collected by The Numbers, a film-industry website. There are also more flops than ever before. In 2016 almost two-thirds of the 675 films that reported box office results earned less than 1m dollars. In 2002 only half of the total released failed to reach that figure.

dramatising: If you say that someone dramatizes a situation or event, you mean that they try to make it seem more serious, more important, or more exciting than it really is. = exaggerate
e.g. They have a tendency to show off, to dramatize almost every situation.
flop: If something is a flop, it is completely unsuccessful. = failure
e.g. It is the public who decide whether a film is a hit or a flop.

4）摩尔先生可能夸大其实了，但只夸大了一点点。独立电影对投资者来说一直是一场有风险的赌博。根据电影业网站The Numbers收集的数据的分析，自2002年以来，在北美地区发行的、预算低于1000万美元的电影票房投资中位数回报为45美分比1美元，这是预算超过1亿美元的电影的中位数回报的一半以下。还有比以往任何时候更多的彻底失败的作品。在2016年，675部报道了电影票房的电影中几乎三分之二收入低于100万美元。在2002年，发行的所有电影只有一半未能达到这一数字。

5. One problem is that fewer people are going to cinemas. Howard Cohen of Road-side Attractions, which distributed “Manchester by the Sea”, worries about the young, smartphone-addicted generation that has grown up without the cinema-going habit. When they do flock to the cinema it is for blockbusters.

flock to : if people flock to a place, they go there in large numbers because something interesting or exciting is happening there
e.g. People have been flocking to the exhibition.
e.g. Tourists flock to see the town's medieval churches and buildings.

5）一个问题是，更少的人去电影院。《海边的曼彻斯特》的发行方Road-side Attraction的霍华德·科恩（Howard Cohen）担心年轻的、智能手机上瘾的一代的成长过程中没有去电影院的习惯。当他们蜂拥到电影院一定是去看大片。

6. Another problem is that the DVD market has crashed. Sales and rentals of films in all physical formats in America plummeted from 25bn dollars in 2005 to 12bn dollars last year, according to The Numbers. Such ancillary income has in the past made a big difference in getting an indie film to break even. Consumers are using Netflix and sites like it instead, where they dispensed a total of 6.2bn dollars in America last year.

make a/the difference: to have an important effect or influence on something or someone
e.g. One more person wouldn't make any difference to the arrangements.
e.g. Having a good teacher has made all the difference for Alex (=had an important influence) .

6）另一个问题是DVD市场已经崩溃。根据The Numbers的数据，美国所有实体形式的电影销售和租金从2005年的250亿美元猛降到去年的120亿美元。这些辅助性收入在过去对于独立电影盈亏平衡有很大影响。消费者正在使用Netflix和类似的网站，去年在美国消费者总共支付了62亿美元。

7. Netflix and Amazon have injected cash into some of the best indie films, but their effect for lesser titles is likely to be mixed. Amazon allows filmmakers to upload titles directly to its platform to be discovered, as “The Break-In” was. But most minor films disappear online, since a viewer can scroll through only so many options. Even the streaming sites themselves, says Anne Thompson of IndieWire, a website, admit that “a cold start on one of their platforms can be very cold indeed”.

Cold start is a potential problem in computer-based information systems which involve a degree of automated data modelling. Specifically, it concerns the issue that the system cannot draw any inferences for users or items about which it has not yet gathered sufficient information. (Wikipedia)

7）Netflix和亚马逊已经为一些最好的独立电影注入了资金，但他们对小众电影的影响可能是混合的。亚马逊允许电影制作人直接上传影片到其平台以被（观众）发现，就像“The Break-In”那样。但大多数小众电影在网上消失了，因为观众会滚动浏览的选项只有那么多。一家网站IndieWire的安妮·汤普森说，即使是流媒体网站本身也承认，“他们的平台上一开始遇冷很可能真的一冷到底。”

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原文出处：经济学人杂志

译者：七呵夫

本译文仅供个人研习、欣赏语言之用，谢绝任何转载及用于任何商业用途。本译文所涉法律后果均由本人承担。本人同意简书平台在接获有关著作权人的通知后，删除文章。