《肖申克的救赎》 20年的吸金利器

If Andy Dufresne was the movie's on-screen hero, off screen it was Ted Turner, whose Turner Broadcasting System had acquired Castle Rock in 1993. His TNT channel took the cable-broadcast rights to the film in 1997 and made 'Shawshank' an anchor of its 'New Classics' campaign.
如果安迪・迪弗瑞恩是大荧幕上的英雄，荧幕外的英雄则是泰德・特纳(Ted Turner)。他的特纳广播公司(Turner Broadcasting System)于1993年收购了城堡岩石。他的TNT频道于1997年获得了该电影的有线电视播出权，并且将《肖申克的救赎》作为其“新经典”广告的主力军。

Over the next few years, TNT and other Turner channels ensured that 'Shawshank' never again would suffer from a lack of exposure. 'Mr. Turner, bless his heart, chose to show the movie every five minutes,' Mr. Darabont said.
接下来的几年，TNT及其他特纳频道确保了《肖申克的救赎》再也不会缺少曝光度。达拉邦特说：“特纳先生，上帝保佑他，选择每五分钟播出一次这部电影。”

'Shawshank' was becoming that priceless entertainment property -- a repeater. Viewers watched it again and again. Those who initially may have been turned off by the idea of a prison drama born out of a wrongful conviction were drawn in by likable characters who inhabit a world where the true horrors of prison are left largely to the imagination. The movie's wholly satisfying conclusion -- a universal fantasy -- gives people hope.
《肖申克的救赎》成为了无价的永恒娱乐资产。观众看了又看。最初有些人对由于误判而诞生的监狱故事反感，后来却被讨人喜欢的角色所吸引，在这些角色所处的世界里，监狱真正的恐怖只能留待人们去想像。这部影片皆大欢喜的结局──一个普世的幻想──给了人们希望。

'It took a while,' said Mr. King. 'It was like that song, 'On the Dark Side' [by John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown band, 1983]. 'All at once, after a period of time, it became a big thing. So it wasn't like a Harry Potter thing that goes to the theater and boom. In that sense, I think it was like 'Casablanca.' It's one of those movies that we think of when we think of that iconic American movie experience.'
斯蒂芬・金说：“花了点时间才火起来。就像那首歌《On the Dark Side》〔John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown乐队1983年创作〕一样。”“过了一段时间后，突然间就火起来了。和进入电影院就红起来的哈利波特不一样。我觉得和《卡萨布兰卡》(Casablanca) 很像。这是我们在想到标志性的美国电影经历时就会想到的那种电影。”

Mr. Sadler, like his co-star Mr. Gunton, says he can't go a day without someone mentioning the film. And yet when it comes on? 'I get stuck on it like everybody else,' he said.
和与他共同出演的冈顿一样，赛德勒也说每天都有人会提到这部电影。那么电影播出的时候呢？他说：“我和其他人一样深陷其中。”

In Mansfield in north-central Ohio, tourism officials five years ago established a tour to capitalize on what had become the area's biggest draw. The prison, courthouse and oak tree where Andy leaves money for Red are among 14 stops on the Shawshank Trail, which one weekend last summer drew about 6,000 people.
在位于俄亥俄州中北部的曼斯菲尔德，旅游部门五年前创建了一个叫“肖申克之路”(Shawshank Trail)的旅游线路，以充分利用该地区最大的旅游资源。该线路共有14站，其中包括监狱、法院以及安迪把钱留给瑞德的那棵橡树。去年夏天一个周末就吸引了约6,000人。

'Shawshank's' last 20 years offer a guided tour through the myriad and evolving revenue streams of the entertainment business. After grossing $28 million at the box office in North America and another $30 million overseas, it went on to the video rental market and by the end had made about $80 million in sales, Warner Bros' Mr. Baker said. Television licensing fees to date likely have surpassed U.S. box-office receipts, according to a person familiar with the studio's finances.
《肖申克的救赎》的这20年就像一次有向导的观光之旅，让我们了解到娱乐行业的金字塔及其不断演变的收入流。华纳兄弟的贝克说，在北美和海外分别取得2,800万美元和3,000万美元的票房后，该片开始进入录像租赁市场，最后获得了约8,000万美元的销售收入。据一位熟知华纳兄弟财务状况的人士透露，电视授权费用迄今为止可能已经超过了美国票房收入。

As a general rule, studios pocket about half of box-office revenue (less than that overseas), two-thirds of home entertainment sales, and almost all of TV licensing revenue. Based on those margins, 'Shawshank' has brought in more than $100 million.
约半数的票房收入（海外收入不到一半）、家庭娱乐销售收入的三分之二以及几乎全部的电视授权收入都会到电影公司的口袋，这是一般的规则。从这些利润来看，《肖申克的救赎》为华纳兄弟带来了超过1亿美元的收入。

'Shawshank is the quintessential catalog movie,' said Tom McGrath, a veteran studio executive who spent more than a decade at Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures.
曾在维亚康姆(Viacom Inc.)旗下派拉蒙影业(Paramount Pictures)供职十多年的资深电影公司高管汤姆・麦克戈拉斯(Tom McGrath)说：“《肖申克的救赎》就是一部经典之作。”

As viewers watch movies in new ways -- streaming on Netflix and other services on different devices -- top-tier library films get new customers. Long term, that's good news for studios in a world where DVDs are disappearing. In the short term, studios are still treading carefully into new technologies, in part because there is 'some debate over how to know what some of this stuff is worth, digitally,' according to Rich Greenfield, a BTIG analyst. 'Shawshank' isn't available to stream on Netflix, like other valuable properties.
随着人们开始以新的方式观看电影──比如在不同设备上用Netflix等视频应用观看──优秀经典电影有了新的观众。长期来看，这对处在DVD正在逐渐消失的世界里的电影公司来说是好消息。短期来看，电影公司仍然在小心翼翼地尝试新科技。BTIG分析师里奇・格林菲尔德(Rich Greenfield)表示，一个原因在于“对于如何了解这些电影在数字时代的价值仍有一些争议”。

On cable, 'Shawshank' is at an age when the licensing value of many films diminishes, but its strength hasn't wavered. 'Shawshank' and other films are now being licensed for shorter periods to a bigger and hungrier universe of distributors. 'Shawshank' has aired on 15 basic cable networks since 1997, including six in the most recent season, according to Warner Bros. Last year, it filled 151 hours of airtime on basic cable, tied with 'Scarface' and behind only 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' according to research firm IHS. 'Shawshank,' despite its virtually all-male cast, was the most-watched movie on Oprah Winfrey's OWN network in the latest season and in the top 15% of movies among adults 18-49 on Spike, Up, Sundance and Lifetime.
在有线电视领域，《肖申克的救赎》正处于许多电影的授权价值逐渐削弱的阶段，但这部电影的实力并未动摇。《肖申克的救赎》及其他电影现在正被授权给更多、更雄心勃勃的发行商以更短的时长播出。华纳兄弟表示，该片从1997年开始在15个基础有线频道上播出，其中最新的一季有六个频道播出。据研究公司IHS统计，去年这部电影在基础有线频道上的播出时间为151个小时，和《疤面煞星》(Scarface)持平，仅次于《窈窕奶爸》(Mrs. Doubtfire)。尽管基本全部是男性角色，但这部电影是奥普拉・温弗里(Oprah Winfrey)的OWN电视网上最新季观看次数最多的电影，在Spike、Up、Sundance和Lifetime频道上，它位居18至49岁观众群中观看次数最多的电影前15%之列。

The movie's profits to date may sound small in a world where some films gross $100 million in a single weekend. But such figures only begin to show a movie like 'Shawshank''s long-term importance for a studio's financial picture. That's why there are six big studios: Smaller ventures that lack a reservoir of films have trouble surviving flops.
在某些电影一个周末就获得1亿美元毛票房的时代，这部电影迄今为止的利润似乎不算多。但这些数字才刚刚开始体现《肖申克的救赎》这样的电影对一个电影公司财务状况的长期重要性。这就是为何现在有六大电影公司：缺少电影库存的小公司是无法在危机中存活下来的。

'Libraries are the basic profit engines,' said Edward Jay Epstein, author of 'The Hollywood Economist: The Hidden Financial Reality Behind the Movies.' 'When you license a movie from your library, the money goes directly to your bottom line,' he says.
《好莱坞电影经济内幕》(The Hollywood Economist: The Hidden Financial Reality Behind the Movies)一书作者爱德华・杰伊・爱普斯坦(Edward Jay Epstein)说：“影库是最基本的利润引擎。从影库中授权一部电影时，钱直接就变成了公司的利润。”

Films like 'Shawshank' pad their studios' bottom lines in less-direct ways, too. Studios generally license movies in packages, sometimes bundling one or a small number of hits with dozens of lesser films. So-called 'package leaders' such as 'Shawshank' can give studios leverage in negotiations with licensees, and prop up the weaker films in the catalog.
《肖申克的救赎》这样的电影也会以比较间接的方式为公司盈利。电影公司一般会以打包的形式授权电影，有时会把一部或几部大片和几十部小片捆绑销售。像《肖申克的救赎》这样的所谓“龙头电影”会让电影公司拥有和被授权方谈判的筹码，同时较弱的电影也能得到支持。

'You say [to a cable executive], 'I can give you 'Shawshank' and their eyes light up,' a former distribution executive at Warner Bros. said. 'You don't market it. You don't spend any money pushing it.'
曾在华纳兄弟任职的一位负责发行的高管说：“如果跟有线电视的高管说‘我可以给你《肖申克的救赎》’，他们就会两眼放光。不需要推销，不需要花钱争取。”

Mr. King never cashed the $5,000 check Mr. Darabont sent him for the right to turn his story into a movie. Years after 'Shawshank' came out, the author got the check framed and mailed it back to the director with a note inscribed: 'In case you ever need bail money. Love, Steve.'
斯蒂芬・金一直没有将达拉邦特给他的5,000美元电影改编权支票兑现。《肖申克的救赎》上映多年以后，他把这张支票裱起来寄给达拉邦特，附带一张字条写着：“需要保释金的时候没准用得上。爱你的斯蒂夫。”