Distribution:
What Is A Usual Release Strategy For Hollywood Big-Budget Films?
- Big films are generally released to between 800 to 4,000 theatres at the same time in North America.
- Most of the marketing and advertising budget is spent prior to opening, bolstering the opening weekend.
- Opening weekend is critical because it will be the biggest weekend financially during the run time of the film.
- After opening weekend, a commercial title's numbers will usually fall between 40% to 70% weekly, depending on the genre.
What Is A Usual Release Strategy For Indie Films?
-When an Indie film is released, it is expected that the opening weekend will be the smallest weekend financially.
- If the screen average is high enough on a limited amount of screens, the film will receive attention not only from reviews, but also other movie goers and theatre operations .
- The film, after a successful weekend, will then expand by by adding screens in more cities as word-of-mouth continues.
-Word of mouth is critical, as these films do not have a big enough budget to do a wide release.
What Are Some Examples Of Indie Films That Did Really Well?
- Films such as Moonlight and Parasite were rather successful.
- Both movies played for 20+ weeks in many key theatres, their box office growing each week.
Why Do Smaller Films Such As JoJo Rabbit Winning Awards Create Problems For Award Show Ratings?
- Smaller films such as JoJo Rabbit, The Favourite, Darkest Hour, Won't You Be My Neighbour?, Call Me By Your Name, and Moonlight are blamed for the decline of broadcast ratings for the Academy Awards as they do not contain big stars.
- Initially, these films premiered in a few theatres for an opening weekend in New York, Toronto, and Los Angeles, but received enough attention and sales which allowed them to be played for several weeks.
- Once they received even more attention, sales, and awards, they were released to a wider range of cinemas.
Why Do They Suggest That Indie Films Are Even More Vulnerable?
-It is possible that the Big 5 Studios' push to prioritize streaming will significantly reduce the amount of people attending the theatre. Thus, theatres playing Indie titles will not be able to play them very long due to low admissions.