Wide Release question...

[cynatnite]

I've seen advertised movies that were supposed to be in wide release. I understand limited, but what I don't get is that why one advertised wide release doesn't get the same treatment as other wide releases?

For example, here are two movies I really want to see. Kill The Messenger and The Imitation Game.

Imitation Game was slated for wide release on Christmas. Kill The Messenger was back in October. Neither of those movies ever made it to my area.

Grant it, the population is 500K and I can see it being a bit slower for some movies to get here.

I don't understand, however, why is that they just never get in some areas at all when they're advertised as wide releases. I've seen plenty of movies here on the date they're slated to premier. I'm confused as to the reasoning.

Can someone help me out here?

[Holmes]

Just to give you an idea of the numbers: the industry baseline for a film's release to be considered "wide" is 600 theatres. Kill the Messenger at its widest played at 427 locations. The Imitation Game is presently at 754. By comparison, Exodus: Gods and Kings opened in 3,503 theatres and Annie in 3,116.

Many "art-house" films are given a more cautious roll-out as the distributor judges response in large urban areas, weighs the cost of further expansion versus estimated interest in smaller cities, etc. Kill the Messenger unfortunately posted mediocre numbers from the start, so it never played truly wide. The Imitation Game, on the other hand, is continuing to post fantastic numbers. I would expect it to open in your town after Oscar nominations are announced. This free advertising will inspire the Weinstein Company to push it even further.

The entire system may become outmoded as the day-and-date theatres/on-demand release style popularized by IFC Films and Magnolia Pictures catches on.

[cynatnite]

Originally Posted by Holmes

The entire system may become outmoded as the day-and-date theatres/on-demand release style popularized by IFC Films and Magnolia Pictures catches on.

Thank you for the explanation. It's frustrating because there are so many good movies I want to see, especially before the awards shows.

I really hope you're right.

[Buscemi]

The Imitation Game is going wider next Friday (1/9) so you should be getting it by then.

[Cook]

The closest screening of The Imitation Game that I've been able to find is an hour from my area. Hope it opens here next Friday. I really don't want to wait months to see that film.

A Most Violent Year is another one that I can't find anywhere near my area.

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by cynatnite

Thank you for the explanation. It's frustrating because there are so many good movies I want to see, especially before the awards shows.

I really hope you're right.

The promise of digital presentation was that even smaller theatres in smaller regions would get films day and date with the larger theatres, but obviously in your case, that hasn't happened.

But you should talk to your local theatre manager. It may simply be that they're not booking the films you want to see because they think they don't have mass appeal, not that the films aren't being made available to them. Because the cost of a DCP is far less than a 35mm print, a theatre should be able to obtain almost any current film they want to exhibit. (This assumes that your theatre converted to digital and is not still showing 35mm).

The one thing we don't want is home video release the same day as theatrical release. That will mean the end of theatres as we know them. Not only will a very large percentage of theatres close but film budgets will drop like a stone because without the marketing associated with a theatrical release, revenues will drop. Think about how you think about a video-only release as compared to a theatrical release.

In big cities with good economies, we're already losing theatres because the real-estate is too valuable for a theatre to operate. In New York City, we've lost 29.5% of theatres and 16.4% of screens since 2001. In 2014 (in the U.S.) the average person saw fewer movies in a theatre than ever before.

[Buscemi]

You can blame theatre chains for DCP's not being able to do their work. Many of them refuse to play day-and-date titles as they still believe that VOD will kill the cinema experience (the performance of The Interview has proven this is not the case as that has done well on both platforms), creating an artificial and easily avoidable product shortage throughout the nation (recently movies like Ouija, The Best of Me and Saving Christmas played far longer here than they should have as the local chains refused to book new product, ironically one of those chains booked The Interview day-and-date). Arthouses try to fix this but they only have so many screens to go around and cannot get everything.

I hope that the 2015 CinemaCon acknowledges that the fears of day-and-date were incorrect and that we will see more day-and-date titles given wider releases (with The Interview up to nearly 600 theatres this week, it's possible) but you know they'll come up with some new excuse not to (such as how no chains will book Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2 as it will premiere on Netflix day-and-date).