Why distribute a film to a single theatre?
It has been reported that for its UK release the Shia LaBeouf film Man Down is only being shown in one movie theatre. Consequently, for the opening weekend it earned £7.
So why go to the trouble of showing it in theatres at all?
Best Answer
It's basically a kind of stunt:
The war thriller starring Gary Oldman, Jai Courtney and Kate Mara was only screened at a single theatre, the Reel Cinema in Burnley, as part of promotions around its digital release.
But Man Down's unrelenting floppage was slightly exaggerated, its cinema takings (which reportedly equalled just one ticket sold) likely not helped by the film being released across video-on-demand services on the same date.
These "day-and-date" releases ensure that distributors only need to pay for advertising their film once, while capitalising on the obvious boom of streaming services in recent years. Londoners will be aware that Man Down had a decent promotional budget, with posters of LaBeouf in soldier gear lining walls of the Underground for the past week, despite the promise of "In cinemas March 31st" meaning just one Reel Cinema in, for some reason, the middle of Burnley.
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Why is distribution of a film important?
The Distribution process consists of making a movie available to the public, and the financial success of a film is how it is distributed and marketed. A movie that is never distributed will not recoup costs and a movie that is distributed poorly may not recoup costs or generate profits.Why are some movies only in theaters for one day?
But if a movie isn't bringing in customers, a theater can't simply replace it immediately with another movie. Distributors often require that their film be the only one that plays on a given screen during its run, and theaters are also often required to show a movie for a minimum run length.How is movie Theatre distributed?
The prints are sent to the theaters a few days before the opening day. The theater shows the movie for a specified number of weeks (engagement). You buy a ticket and watch the movie. At the end of the engagement, the theater sends the print back to the distribution company and makes payment on the lease agreement.What is a single screen movie theater?
The basic difference between single screen and multiplex is in single screen one movie run at a time which is a single movie hall, in multiplex multiple movie running at a time ie many screen.What you need to know about Film Distribution
More answers regarding why distribute a film to a single theatre?
Answer 2
Probably contractual
If you click through the links to a similar story about Emma Watson we find this quote..
“Day-and-date releases minimise costs for a distributor,” says Andreas Wiseman, Screen International’s head of news. “They only need to pay for a campaign once rather than at different stages throughout the windowing process. The growth in these kind of releases coincides with the proliferation of digital platforms. Distributor deals with platforms such as Netflix, LoveFilm, iTunes etc often require that a film is shown in a certain number of cinemas, so distributors will sometimes see the theatrical release as a box-ticking exercise.”
Answer 3
Films must have a cinematic release in order for the producers to recieve the full available production offset tax credits. Distributors know the rort and offer these box-tick releases at a suprisingly HIGH, not low - cost
Answer 4
This sort of thing is usually done as a limited release to drum up reviews for the media. It's cheaper than a large-scale advertising campaign or premieres, but I've only ever heard about it being used for movies the studios weren't that keen on or thought were really going to tank, but sometimes if the movie gets good reviews it can lead to fairly decent success.
It's a risk, though, as "Man Down" has shown from the fairly dreadful reviews it's received.
Answer 5
As a cynical point of view; it's to get more money for it.
There's a nice comment by darkstar25 here https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2017/apr/05/box-office-bombs-shia-labeouf-emma-watson-halle-berrt#comment-96156751
And then looking at sites like TalkTalkStore https://www.talktalktvstore.co.uk/movies/man-down-(80462) it's tagged as 'EARLY DIGITAL RELEASE' which sounds like you're getting it early because it's in the cinema. It's currently available to rent at 6.99. I struggled to find a new release to rent that's higher than 4.50
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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