How Stanley Kubrick Invented the Modern Box-Office Report (By Accident)

“Well, what about The Ritz in Philadelphia, Leo?” Stanley would say. “Midnight Cowboy ran for six months and ended its run at $10,000 in its last week? Nothing looks better than that.”

“And in Columbus, The Wild Bunch had a great engagement at The Paramount, which is perfect for our audience.”

The calls would go on for nearly an hour as Stanley, knowing Leo was dumbfounded at the other end of the speakerphone, moved around the office with a wry smile on his face, hitching up his pants and winking at me as Leo, already in awe of Stanley’s reputation for thoroughness, promised to get back quickly after he checked out the preferred cinemas and their availability. It was classic Kubrick, winning the chess match through perseverance and ingenuity.

I highly recommend reading this article about how Stanley Kubrick invented not only the modern box-office report, but also a system for choosing theaters based on prior box-office performance.

I think film geeks and scholars tend to forget that many of the past great film artists are also the great film business minds. It’s hard to get more “auteur” than Stanley Kubrick, and his obsession went beyond the art and into the business side of film. This doesn’t sound too different from the type of obsession you see from James Cameron, who certainly micromanaged the release of Avatar.

"It's just terrific" - Jan Harlan tells Stanley Kubrick about the recently invented Steadicam

Stanley Kubrick discovered the Steadicam from a letter sent by his producer. Makes me think I should be writing better letters.

February, 1976. Producer Jan Harlan writes to Stanley Kubrick and speaks passionately about a new piece of technology so impressive that it could lead to “shots which would not enter your mind otherwise.” That invention was the now-ubiquitous Steadicam, and Harlan was right to be so impressed. Indeed, Kubrick shared his enthusiasm, so much so that the Steadicam was used extensively and to great effect in his next movie, The Shining — most notably the smooth tracking shots in the hotel’s corridors — and in every film of his that followed.

Read the full letter at the wonderful Letters of Note website.