Kickstarter movie ‘Veronica Mars’ makes $2 million in opening weekend

The recently released “Veronica Mars” film may have been an unprecedented success in terms of crowdfunding, but a major box office contender the movie is not. What can "Veronica Mars"' box office performance tell us about the future of Kickstarter movies?

Based on the mid-2000s TV series of the same name starring Kristen Bell (“Frozen”), the “Veronica Mars” movie was financed by fans of the cancelled show through the crowdfunding service Kickstarter in 2013. Series creator Rob Thomas managed to raise a total of $5.7 million for the big screen continuation (more than double the $2 million they were asking for).

“Veronica Mars” quickly broke the record for the most backers on a Kickstarter campaign and eventually became the biggest film project ever funded on the crowdfunding service. Thanks to the successful campaign, Warner Bros. picked up the project for digital and limited theatrical distribution.

Fans of the show were thrilled: They’d finally get a continuation of the cult TV series that was cancelled after just three seasons. For everyone else, though, the success of the “Veronica Mars” Kickstarter really only served to demonstrate the viability of crowdfunded movies -- if you have the right property. Quite predictably, many tried to capitalize on what was seen as a new funding model with mixed results, most notably '90s TV star Melissa Joan Hart, whose Kickstarter project “Darci’s Walk of Shame” crashed and burned in spectacular fashion.

Although “Veronica Mars” may have blown away Kickstarter’s records and succeeded where other projects failed, the film won’t be breaking the box office bank any time soon. Opening in 291 theatres across the United States, the film made just over $2 million this past weekend -- far short of the $5.7 million raised in order to produce it. While the opening weekend box office numbers don’t factor in purchases of digital copies or video-on-demand rentals, the tally has to be a little disappointing for the film’s creators and producers.

The people who really want to see “Veronica Mars” are the same people who backed the movie. With a $35 Kickstarter donation, those fans have already paid for their copy of the film (digital is available now, DVDs and Blu-rays will be shipped in May 2014) and likely won’t be rushing out to see it at the theatre. Sure, the backers paid for the film’s production costs, but the producers may have exhausted their pool of potential viewers by using the crowdfunding model. Who else besides hardcore “Veronica Mars” fans is going to want to see a movie based on a show that was cancelled nearly a decade ago?

When all is said and done, “Veronica Mars” will likely earn back what it cost to make through ticket sales, DVDs, and digital copies. That’s a win for the producers, who really had zero skin in the game thanks to the Kickstarter backers, thus making any money they earn pure profit. But is breaking even really a viable model in the profit-driven world of Hollywood? Will it take a bigger hit than "Veronica Mars" to really make Kickstarter worthwhile for movie producers?