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Wise crowd picks Tina … three years ahead of release
In April 2022, Compton School asked a group of a dozen cinema exhibitors to review and vote on 8 film projects then in development in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The projects were chosen from a program we were running with the support of Vista Foundation, designed to help participants develop the pitch and marketing strategy for their films.
Based on the filmmakers’ pitches, the film the exhibitors voted #1, by a significant margin, was Tina, the debut feature film of Samoan filmmaker Miki Magasiva.
It scored a total of 195 points, a full 25 points ahead of the second-ranked film. Results were calculated using the Wizer platform, which allocated points based on the exhibitors’ votes and engagement with the projects.
3 months later we repeated the exercise, this time with a group of film distributors and sales agents. They were asked to rank the 8 film projects by Creative Potential, Commercial Potential and Strength of Pitch.
Once again, Tina was top-ranked, in all three categories.
Scroll forward 3 years and Tina, released by Madman, has just passed $5 million at the NZ box office, making it the sixth highest grossing NZ film ever – and counting.
Preview screenings in Australia have yielded a further $734,535, suggesting the film will be a crowd-pleaser here too.
It’s a remarkable demonstration of the power of a ‘wise crowd’ to identify out-performing films – in this case nearly three years ahead of release.
David Court, May 2nd, 2025