《肖申克的救赎》 20年的吸金利器

Bob Gunton is a character actor with 125 credits to his name, including several seasons of '24' and 'Desperate Housewives' and a host of movie roles in films such as the Oscar-winning 'Argo.' Vaguely familiar faces like his are common in the Los Angeles area where he lives, and nobody pays much attention. Many of his roles have been forgotten.

鲍勃・冈顿(Bob Gunton)是一位性格演员，共饰演过125个角色，包括《24小时》(24)和《绝望的主妇》(Desperate Housewives)中的数季剧集，在奥斯卡获奖影片《逃离德黑兰》(Argo)等多部电影中也出演过角色。在他所居住的洛杉矶地区，像他这样有些眼熟的面孔很常见，没有人会怎么注意他。他的很多角色都已经被遗忘。

But every day, the 68-year-old actor says, he hears the whispers -- from cabdrivers, waiters, the new bag boy at his neighborhood supermarket: 'That's the warden in 'Shawshank.''

但是这位68岁的演员说，每天他都会听到有人窃窃私语──出租车司机、餐厅服务员、附近超市里新来的打包男孩：“那是‘肖申克’里的典狱长。”

He also still gets residual payments -- not huge, but steady, close to six figures by the film's 10th anniversary in 2004. Since then, he has continued to get 'a very substantial income' long past the age when residuals usually dry up.

他仍然还会收到制作方的余款──数额不多但很稳定，到2004年电影十周年时已经接近六位数。从那时起，虽然早就过了接受余款的年龄，他还是会继续收到“十分可观的收入”。

'I suspect my daughter, years from now, will still be getting checks,' he said.

他说：“我怀疑多年以后我女儿还会继续收到支票。”

'Shawshank' was an underwhelming box-office performer when it hit theaters 20 years ago this September, but then it began to redeem itself, finding an audience on home video and later becoming a fixture on cable TV.

20年前的9月上映时，《肖申克的救赎》的票房表现平平，但是后来开始自我救赎，在家庭录像市场找到了大量观众，随后成为有线电视上的常客。

The film has taken a near-mystical hold on viewers that shows no sign of abating. Steven Spielberg once told the film's writer-director Frank Darabont that he had made 'a chewing-gum movie -- if you step on it, it sticks to your shoe,' says Mr. Darabont, who went on to create 'The Walking Dead' for AMC.

该片对观众拥有近乎神秘的吸引力，并且这种吸引力丝毫没有减弱的迹象。该片编剧及导演弗兰克・达拉邦特(Frank Darabont)说，史蒂芬・斯皮尔伯格(Steven Spielberg)曾对他说过，他拍了 “一部口香糖电影──踩上去会粘在鞋上”。后来达拉邦特为AMC创作了《行尸走肉》(The Walking Dead)。

The movie's enduring popularity manifests itself in ways big and small. 'Shawshank' for years has been rated by users of imdb.com as the best movie of all time (the first two 'Godfather' films are second and third). On a Facebook page dedicated to the film, fans show off tattoos of quotes, sites and the rock hammer Andy, played by Tim Robbins, used to tunnel out of prison. Type '370,000' into a Google search and the site auto-completes it with 'in 1966.' Andy escapes in 1966 with $370,000 of the warden's ill-gotten gains. The small Ohio city where it was filmed is a tourist attraction.

这部电影的长盛不衰在大大小小的方面都得到了展现。该片多年来一直被imdb.com的用户评为史上最佳电影（《教父》(Godfather)前两部位居第二和第三）。在该片的Facebook粉丝专页上，粉丝们纷纷展示电影对白、场景和蒂姆・罗宾斯(Tim Robbins)饰演的安迪(Andy)用于挖隧道逃出监狱的石锤的纹身。在谷歌(Google)搜索里输入“370,000”，后面会自动出现“in 1966”。安迪在1966年拿着典狱长贪污的37万美元逃出了监狱。该片拍摄所在地的那座俄亥俄州小城成了旅游景点。

In the days when videocassettes mattered, 'Shawshank' was the top rental of 1995. On television, as cable grew, it has consistently been among the most-aired movies.

在录像带还盛行的时候，《肖申克的救赎》拿到了1995年录像带出租排行榜的冠军。随著有线电视的发展，该片持续跻身播出最多的影片之列。

In a shifting Hollywood landscape, film libraries increasingly are the lifeblood of studios. 'Shawshank's' enduring appeal on television has made it more important than ever -- a reliable annuity to help smooth the inevitable bumps in a hit-or-miss box-office business. When studios sell a package of films -- many of them stinkers -- a 'Shawshank' acts as a much-needed locomotive to drag the others behind it.

在好莱坞，形势不断发生变化，影片库日益成为电影公司的命脉。《肖申克的救赎》在电视上经久不衰的吸引力让这部影片比以往任何时候都重要──如同一笔可靠的退休金，帮助时好时坏的电影业渡过不可避免的低潮。电影公司将多部电影捆绑出售时──其中很多都是烂片──《肖申克的救赎》就是带动其他电影必不可少的“火车头”。

'It's an incredible moneymaking asset that continues to resonate with viewers,' said Jeff Baker, executive vice president and general manager of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment theatrical catalog.

华纳兄弟家庭娱乐(Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)执行副总裁兼影片库总经理杰夫・贝克(Jeff Baker)说：“这是一笔不可思议的盈利资产，持续让观众产生共鸣。”

Warner Bros. wouldn't say how much money it has gleaned from 'Shawshank,' one of 6,000 feature films in a library that last year helped generate $1.5 billion in licensing fees from television, plus an additional $2.2 billion from home video and electronic delivery, according to SEC filings. But it's on the shortlist of films including 'The Wizard of Oz,' 'A Christmas Story' and 'Caddyshack' that drive much of the library's value, current and former Warner Bros. executives say.

华纳兄弟不愿透露公司从《肖申克的救赎》获利的具体数额。 美国证券交易委员会(SEC)的文件显示，包括这部影片在内，华纳兄弟影库中6,000部影片去年带来了15亿美元的电视授权费用，另外家庭录像和电子传输也获得了22亿美元的收入。但华纳兄弟现任及前任高管说，推动影库价值的主要是包括这部电影、《绿野仙踪》(The Wizard of Oz)、《 诞故事》(A Christmas Story)和《疯狂高尔夫》(Caddyshack)等在内的片子。

'Shawshank' was adapted from a novella, 'Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption' by Stephen King, who sold the rights to then-unknown director Frank Darabont in the late 1980s for $5,000. When he wrote the script several years later, it circulated quickly through Hollywood.

《肖申克的救赎》改编自斯蒂芬・金(Stephen King)的中篇小说《丽塔・海华丝和肖申克的救赎》(Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption)。斯蒂芬・金在80年代以5,000美元将电影改编权卖给了当时尚不知名的导演弗兰克・达拉邦特。几年后剧本写出来时，迅速在好莱坞传开。

Martin Shafer, a co-founder of Castle Rock Entertainment, was at an airport when he got a call from a colleague. 'She said, 'You've got to read this script right away. This story pays off like a slot machine,'' Mr. Shafer recalls.

城堡岩石娱乐公司联合创始人马丁・舍费尔(Martin Shafer)在机场时接到同事的电话。他回忆说：“她说：‘你应该马上看这个剧本。这故事会像老虎机一样赚钱。’”

Castle Rock, which took its name from one of Mr. King's fictional settings, was interested and executives there reached a deal with Mr. Darabont. But when studio co-founder Rob Reiner read the script, he broached the idea of directing it himself. He'd already directed films based on Mr. King's work, 'Stand By Me' and 'Misery,' and he'd just made 'A Few Good Men' with Tom Cruise and was looking to team up with the actor on a new project. So Castle Rock offered Mr. Darabont a 'pay-and-play' deal under which he would get a few million dollars and a guarantee to direct another movie, if he agreed to turn 'Shawshank' over to Mr. Reiner. 'We were making [Mr. Darabont] a multimillionaire,' Mr. Shafer said.

城堡岩石的名字取自斯蒂芬・金的一个小说场景。公司很感兴趣，于是高管和达拉邦特达成了交易。但公司联合创始人罗布・雷内尔(Rob Reiner)看了剧本后，他提出要自己导演。他已经执导过改编自史蒂芬・金作品的影片《伴我同行》(Stand By Me)和《危情十日》(Misery)，并且刚和汤姆・克鲁斯(Tom Cruise)合作拍摄《义海雄风》(A Few Good Men)，正打算与克鲁斯合作拍摄新片。于是城堡岩石向达拉邦特提出了一项交易：若他同意将《肖申克的救赎》交给雷内尔，就可以得到几百万美元，并且保证可以导演另一部电影。舍费尔说：“我们是在把他变成百万富翁。”

Mr. Darabont said he took a night to think about it. 'But it was never an option,' he said. 'Most of it boils down to, 'Why are we here?' That was a passion I was very determined to pursue and not just sell to the highest bidder.'

达拉邦特说，他考虑了一个晚上。他说：“我绝不会这样做的。归根结底在于‘我们为什么在这里？’这是我下定决心要追逐的激情，而不会随便卖给出价最高的人。”

Mr. Darabont cast Mr. Robbins as Andy Dufresne, a banker who is wrongly sent to prison for the murder of his wife and her lover, and Morgan Freeman as Red, an omniscient lifer who befriends Andy on the inside. In the book, he is a redheaded Irishman.

达拉邦特选择罗宾斯饰演安迪・迪弗瑞恩(Andy Dufresne)和摩根・弗里曼(Morgan Freeman)饰演瑞德(Red)。安迪是一个因被误判杀害妻子和及其情人而入狱的银行家，瑞德是一个无所不能的无期徒刑犯，在狱中和安迪是朋友。瑞德在书中是一个红头发的爱尔兰人。

Mr. King recalls: 'I said, 'Frank, at that time there were like 16 black men in the state of Maine, and you still want this guy to be black?''

斯蒂芬・金回忆说：“当时我说：‘弗兰克，那个时候缅因州只有16个黑人，你还想让这个人是黑人吗？’”

Mr. Darabont chose the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield to serve as the fictional 'Shawshank' prison, so the cast gathered there in the summer of 1993 to start filming. The prison, which had been closed a few years earlier due to inhumane conditions, was 'one of the creepiest places I've ever been in,' said William Sadler, who played the dimwitted inmate Heywood.

达拉邦特将虚构的“肖申克”监狱选在了曼斯菲尔德的俄亥俄州立管教所(Ohio State Reformatory)，于是剧组在1993年夏天到了那里开始拍摄。由于环境太惨，监狱几年前被关闭了。扮演笨蛋狱友海伍德(Heywood)的演员威廉姆・赛德勒(William Sadler)说，那座监狱是“我呆过的最恐怖的地方之一”。

Despite the grim surroundings, the actors sensed they were part of something big. During rehearsal, 'We were joking around and looking at each other in joyful wonder that we all ended up in this movie,' said Mr. Gunton, who played the sadistic Warden Norton.

尽管环境恶劣，演员们还是感觉到他们是在做大事。扮演残忍成性的典狱长诺顿(Norton)的冈顿说，彩排时，“我们会闹着玩儿，兴奋地互相对视，很高兴我们都参演了这部电影 。”

Then it came out and nobody seemed to notice. Though the film received mostly positive reviews (some complained it was too long and corny), it brought in just $18 million at the box office. 'Shawshank's' participants cite a variety of reasons for the film's early struggles, including a confusing title with religious connotations, no female roles and competition from the year's two megahits, 'Forrest Gump' ($330 million in domestic box-office) and 'Pulp Fiction' ($108 million).

然后电影上映了，但是似乎没有人注意。尽管这部影片基本都是好评（有些人抱怨片子太长而且老土），但票房却只有1800万美元。参与《肖申克的救赎》拍摄的人员表示，这部片子最开始的不顺有很多原因，包括有宗教含义的片名可能令人困惑，没有女性角色，还有当年《阿甘正传》（Forrest Gump）（美国票房3.3亿美元）和《低俗小说》(Pulp Fiction)（1.08亿美元）这两部杰作的竞争。

'Shawshank' only began to get moviegoers' attention after the Oscars, where it received seven nominations (but won no awards) and promptly was rereleased in theaters. The second run grossed an additional $10 million and primed it for its debut on home video, which at the time was still a robust revenue source.

《肖申克的救赎》在奥斯卡后才开始获得电影观众的关注。该片获得了奥斯卡七项提名（但并未获奖），后来立即在影院上映。第二轮上映获得了1,000万美元的票房，并为其在家庭影院的推出打造了声势。当时家庭影院仍然是一个强劲的收入来源。

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。”