Why Nobody Wanted Super Size Me: A Distributor Remembers

What does it take to say yes to a film everyone else is afraid of?

Super Size Me and We Are Columbine had something in common: nobody wanted them. Joe Amodei took them anyway. In his first visit to the show, the founder of Virgil Films and Entertainment tells how a job at the first video store in the Philadelphia area turned into more than 40 years in film and home entertainment, and why some releases, like Super Size Me and Restrepo, became lifelong experiences for him.

In Episode 128, Jason Rugg hosts with Christian Taylor and Jeff, the composer of The Girl Who Wore Freedom. Joe walks through his career, from fixing sewing machines to buying for a 15-store video chain, to studio jobs at Turner and USA Films, to starting his own company. He tells why the studios passed on Super Size Me, what he said when Netflix first called asking to stream his movies, and why a buyer's no usually has nothing to do with whether your film is good.

Then the conversation turns personal. Joe remembers taking a comedian's USO tour film to wounded soldiers at Walter Reed, the friendship that grew out of Restrepo, and the loss of its co-director Tim Hetherington. He tells about the phone call where he told the producers he wasn't sure he wanted to release We Are Columbine, and what he saw on CNN when he went downstairs for lunch that sent him back to the phone to say yes. Christian shares why she trusted Joe from the start: Donna Reed's daughter, whom she met at a film festival, told her he was "one of the good guys."

Full disclosure: Virgil Films distributes Christian's film The Girl Who Wore Freedom, and it now sponsors Documentary First. This 2021 episode has no sponsor read.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How a job at the first video store in the Philadelphia area started a 40-year career
• Why the studios and other buyers passed on Super Size Me
• What Joe told Netflix when it first asked about streaming
• Why "the film business is mostly bad news," in Joe's words
• Why a buyer's no usually isn't about quality
• How many films Virgil buys out of 20 to 25 pitches a week
• What Restrepo means to the soldiers who lived it
• How one afternoon changed Joe's mind about We Are Columbine
• Which genres sell best, and where documentaries rank
• Why Joe believes movie theaters will survive streaming

CHAPTERS

0:00 Meet Joe Amodei

6:18 First Video Store

10:21 Taking On McDonald's

15:06 An Honest Distributor

18:20 Films for Returning Soldiers

21:52 Restrepo and Tim Hetherington

27:39 We Are Columbine

31:44 Genres, Theaters, Streaming

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Why did nobody want to distribute Super Size Me?

Joe Amodei of Virgil Films told Documentary First in 2021 that nobody wanted Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock's film about eating nothing but McDonald's for 30 days. The studios didn't want to hamper their Happy Meal deals, and everyone else thought McDonald's would sue. Joe took it anyway. McDonald's never sued, the film was nominated for Best Documentary, and it became his company's first major acquisition.

Why do distributors pass on good films?

Joe Amodei told Documentary First in 2021 that when nobody wants a film, filmmakers assume buyers didn't like it, but most of the time that has nothing to do with it. It has everything to do with budgets, and with whether the buyer already has films with a similar story. After a dozen films about soldiers coming home, buyers told him each new one felt like the same thing.

How many films does a distributor actually buy?

Joe Amodei said on Documentary First in 2021 that Virgil Films gets pitched 20 to 25 movies a week and buys maybe one or two of them. It very rarely happens that a distributor buys seven or eight out of 20. He also said that if he thought buyers wouldn't like a film, it would never have gotten past him in the first place, so a pass from a buyer later isn't a verdict on the film.

Which film genres sell best?

According to Joe Amodei, speaking on Documentary First in 2021, genre films sell best, action first, and a recognizable cast helps. Horror still works. Romantic comedies sit near the bottom, and documentaries sit even below romantic comedies. Streamers like Netflix have separate divisions for each genre, so a distributor with films in several genres needs several meetings.

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About the Guest

Joe Amodei has worked in film and home entertainment for more than 40 years. He started at the first video store in the Philadelphia area, worked for Turner Home Entertainment and ran home entertainment for USA Films before founding his own company, which became Virgil Films. Follow Virgil on Instagram and X, and see Joe's own documentary at coldwarinphilly.com.

About Virgil Films

Virgil Films and Entertainment acquires and distributes documentaries, feature films and series. Its releases include Super Size Me, the Oscar-nominated Restrepo, Forks Over Knives, I Am Heath Ledger and I Am Chris Farley. virgilfilms.com

About Documentary First

Documentary First is a weekly podcast about the people behind documentaries and how the work changed them. Host Christian Taylor, director of the award-winning The Girl Who Wore Freedom, talks with filmmakers, distributors, entertainment lawyers, actors and more, from Ken Burns and PBS American Masters creator Susan Lacy to first-timers, across nearly 300 conversations. Each week brings one of two formats: a long-form conversation with the people behind films for HBO, Netflix, PBS and independent film, or The Deep Dive, where Christian takes one insight from a recent conversation and follows it wherever it leads. Listen Notes ranks the show in the top 5% of all podcasts worldwide. New episodes every week.

Resources Mentioned

• Virgil Films and Entertainment
• Episode 183: Joe Amodei on the history of distribution
• Episode 194: Joe Amodei's five film business tips