Corona Daily 413: Blockbuster of the Month

Eric Tabach, utterly bored and frustrated by the lockdown, had an idea. Eric is a small time actor and YouTuber. For a few years, he had worked as a viral video producer at BuzzFeed.

He spoke to Christian Nilsson, one of the little known film makers in New York. Christian liked Eric’s idea. Yes, he would be happy to make the film with Eric. Inspired, on 9 May, Christian sat in front of his laptop, and by midnight, had completed the script. A horror film, its title was “Unsubscribe”. The plot was lockdown friendly. A sinister internet troll tricks a group of YouTubers into joining a Zoom call. The killer stalks the characters on camera.

Eric started speaking to everyone who bothered to answer his call. He explained his idea, and shared the plot. Apologetically, he admitted it was a zero budget movie. Surprisingly, some well known actors agreed to act for free. They were utterly bored themselves. Charlie Tahan (Ozark fame) would play the killer, Michelle Khare, the other lead. A few other well known YouTube actors joined in.

The whole project was shot in a week’s time in May. Of course, all the actors performed on Zoom, without ever leaving their homes. Eric needed a couple of weeks to edit. A composer friend obliged by making an original score for the film. The horror film was now ready for release.

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From his BuzzFeed days, Eric knew an industry practice called “four-walling”. A filmmaker buys the entire cinema theatre for a fee. Cinemas are happy to let the filmmaker collect money from tickets, if any. Four-walling is like self-publishing. It is a loophole that allows a filmmaker to claim an official release. If lucky, the film can get reviews in reputed newspapers.

Eric contacted the Westhampton Beach movie theatre in New York, and rented it for a whole day. The theatre owners were surprised but happy to get a client.

On the night of the screening, Eric and Christian wore tuxedos, groomed their hair as well as they could, and asked a passerby to take their picture in front of the theatre. “Unsubscribe- Sold Out” in the background made them truly proud.

They sat with large cups of popcorn, and saw the film again and again. Five times in total. They were the only two spectators in the entire auditorium.

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Now Eric started calling IMDb.  IMDb is the owner of Box Office Mojo, the company that audits and publishes the American box office rankings. They didn’t believe that the film existed, and that people like Charlie Tahan played in it. Finally, Eric sent them a copy of the film. IMDb called Tahan and the other actors, they confirmed they had actually acted in Unsubscribe.

The total revenue of Unsubscribe was $25,488. On 10 June, it became the #1 movie of America, the blockbuster of June 2020. Eric Tabach, as he had planned from the outset, joined the illustrious list of Stephen Spielberg, James Cameron, Ridley Scott and Christopher Nolan.

Ravi