From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Anatomy of a hit

Napoleon Dynamite came up with a new recipe for sweet success.

by Barbara Lester

February 23 2005

From day one, Napoleon Dynamite has been a movie with skills. Its journey to considerable financial success and favorite-movie status began at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, where it was bought for $3 million by Fox Searchlight and MTV Films, which planned a joint distribution. Since Napoleon Dynamite cost 24-year-old writer-director Jared Hess and his co-writer and wife, Jerusha Hess, only about $400,000 to make, its current gross of nearly $45 million makes it an awesomely profitable movie. And clearly, it will continue to rake in plenty of money on DVD sales and rentals. It's currently one of the five hottest-selling DVDs.

So how did this quirky tale of a proud nerd worm its way into the hearts and minds of so many people? First of all, the film -- set in the director's hometown of Preston, Idaho -- is not a typical geek story. Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder) is spunky and individualistic even though thugs toss him against the lockers at his high school. He befriends Pedro (Efren Ramirez), who appears to be the school's only minority. Pedro runs for class president, promising students that he will make their wildest dreams come true. Meanwhile, Napoleon and Pedro compete for the affections of Deb (Tina Majorino), who, with her sideways ponytail and puffy sleeves, is quite a catch in Preston. Also in the picture is Napoleon's equally geeky brother, Kip (Aaron Ruell), who's conducting a steamy online romance, and sleazy Uncle Rico (Jon Gries), a door-to-door salesman staying with the brothers while their grandmother (Sandy Martin) recuperates from an accident. The movie is particularly good at capturing the banality and peculiar joys of small-town life.

Napoleon Dynamite not only supports repeat viewings but also encourages them. The first time I saw the movie with an audience, I suspected they didn't quite know what to make of it but might have laughed themselves silly all the way home. Since the movie's deadpan jokes often produce a delayed reaction, people feel compelled to see it again and again.

The marketing campaign started during last year's spring break, when MTV aired promos featuring Heder. (These promos are included on the DVD.) The promotional screenings then began in earnest for random test audiences in cities across the country. More than the usual number of word-of-mouth screenings took place. Audience members got "Vote for Pedro" T-shirts and frequent-viewer cards that encouraged them to see the movie more than once. If they saw it three times and registered online at the movie's Web site, www.foxsearchlight.com/napoleondynamite, they received a gift.

The film opened in limited release June 11. On July 23, Fox Searchlight re-released it with a new ending, the hoped-for wedding of the century. Although DVDs often include new endings, this was one of the few times a first-run movie did so. (The previous summer, the zombie flick 28 Days Later had added one, too.) The five-minute epilogue was tacked on for nationwide release and is included on the DVD.

Among the other marketing techniques used in various cities were holding college mixers; distributing audience-participation scripts à la The Rocky Horror Picture Show, thus encouraging the repetition of its many memorable lines; and giving away 40 different iron-on T-shirt designs for free. The effect: Word of mouth on the film was, as Napoleon would say, sweet.

In preparation for the Dec. 21 DVD release, an online Christmas card was circulated that featured Napoleon's climactic and hilarious dance. That video card got a ton of exposure.

So, should Napoleon Dynamite be dismissed as a fluke or hailed as a brilliant example of marketing strategy that will be studied for years to come? Rent it and decide for yourself.

And even though those idiots behind the Oscar nominations have ignored the movie, other awards committees haven't. The movie won Best Feature at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival last year and has been nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature for director Jared Hess and producers Jeremy Coon, Sean C. Covel and Chris Wyatt. The laid-back awards show, to be hosted by Samuel L. Jackson, will air 5 p.m. Saturday on the Independent Film Channel. It will be rebroadcast on Bravo at 10 p.m., following a red carpet special at 9 p.m. We hope to see Heder in the hideous, burnt-orange three-piece suit he wears in the film.

As for the stars' futures: Heder will next appear with Reese Witherspoon in the romantic comedy Just Like Heaven; Ramirez has a role in the upcoming Mr. and Mrs. Smith, a spy comedy with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie; and Majorino has a recurring role on UPN's Veronica Mars. Jared and Jerusha Hess, both Brigham Young University grads, are writing another comedy feature and hoping to turn Napoleon into a TV series, because Hess says he has plenty of material that was left out of the movie.