Didn't Christian work at an AMC in CC?

I was thinking around that, too. Possibly $2.2 - $2.4M.

Ok.... let's say this made 3 million this weekend. Do you guys think Focus would totally change their strategy or what?

Not a chance in hell.

The thing is, I think they have done really well. We do not know how much their most succesful movies would have grossed had they expanded more. They probably think the diference is not that big anyway and maybe doesn´t even cover the expenses of more prints and more ads.

So to speak, I think they´d rather have a $35M grossing film with $15M benefit, than a $40M one with the risk of actually losing some money out of those $15M. Hope that makes sense.

Lost in Translation and The Pianist certainly had the chance of going far beyond what they have originally grossed.

Yeah, but if the movie does THAT well two weekends in a row they're going to KNOW that they won't be losing money by ponying up for some extra screens.

the strategy should be to move theaters aronud really to keep the PTA up. Having the movie play on 3-5 screens at any theater for more than two weeks is just dumb for any movie. so those theaters in LA, NY, and SF that did well last weekend should drop at least one screen and open in a new neighborhood.

people are not gonna travel to see this but if they stick in the the town theater for even one week, it'll pack the masses in, keeping the average up and maintaining it's "event-movie" type status.

Well, people have broght up before other films that did ganbusters on limited that went out to be so-so performers when wide. I actually think that list of best non-animated PTAS of all time didn´t have one single above $60M grossers... so they could still remain cautious about the whole thing.

Lecter, I agree, I think they couold have. At the same time, they might feel that is not the case and there is no way to prove otherwise, cause nobody knows if the wider expansion would have been succesful and even more so, worthy profits-wise.

They might feel this way, of course. But I consider myself as someone who knows box-öoffice not much worse than they do and thus I conclude that they were wrong. The end.

From Today's SF Chronicle




They actually lost A LOT of money last weekend because it was completely sold out. When I heard this was opening at the Embarcadero, I didn't think that was the smartest move either.

This goes to show that market still does have the need for the giant 1200 seat single screen theatres. Why did they close them all?

I am sure that was another so-called smart move on Focus side to open it in 5 arthouse theatres.

Ahem. It´s not like the people that couldn´t see it last weekend won´t be able to go and see it this weekend... Where is the loss of money?

Lecter, hope you are hired to run the Marketing team at Focus. I guess that from the inside not everything is so clear, specially with you are playing with your own money - that said, I agree with you that they should take more risks with a few movies, but I´m sure it´s not that easy. There was a good thread by mdana that didnñt get a single reply about Focus, will try to look for it now.

I sure hope I am not. They are probably lke the Borgs. Once you are assimilated you think like them too.

But I mean, honestly, why did they never expand The Pianist and LiT to even over 900 theatres? Even when both were Best Picture noms. Then there is also The Motorcycle Diaries

And last yearm, despite

Even movies like In the Bedroom and Gosford Park with less acclaim and less hype went wider.

My 8-screen sister arthouse theater is playing Brokeback Mountain from today here in Austin, TX.

It is playing on a whopping 4 SCREENS!

They had to kick out Capote and Good Night, and Good Luck for the room!

The other 4 movies it's currently playing are Shopgirl, Rent, Pride & Prejudice, and the Squid and the Whale.

I am pretty sure it's the only theater in Austin palying it for now

Now it is really interesting how it does in Texas!

Also, they kept Shopgirl, but kicked GNGL and Capote? Weird.

Austin is the most un-Texas city in Texas.

And you're right JMorphin, only theatre in town to be playing it right now.

Indeed, my manager said they're really pushing Shopgirl there for some reason. That theater also kept Crash till September.

I think it will do just fine in Texas. Any place with large metropolitan areas should register decent numbers. City centres across the continent tend to be far more liberal than the surburbs and rural areas, because inhibitions caused by isolation break down. Places like Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, on the other hand, should be among the worse contributors to the film's total gross. Ironically, those are the places which might need to see the film the most, heh

I was wondering why they kept Shopgirl. Now I'll have to trek downtown to the Dobie to see Capote (that's what I get for waiting I guess :/)

Cities also have more "niche" demographics than the 'burbs. If Brokeback in fact doesn't take off with mainstream America, it'll be those groups that'll save it.

LOL I got loaned there once in a while but I wasn't employed by that particular location.

8-screen theater in Austin, TX

Brokeback Mountain played on 4 screens!

7:00
7:30
8:30
9:30
9:50
10:15
10:15 (added show!)

ALL SOLD OUT!

That´s great! Although I think I have read that those screens are pretty small. Oh well... Just a few hours to know how It did. Expectations are so high that anything below 600K would look not so hot right now.

BBM doesn't need saving. It's already profitable. I read somewhere that they made back their $14M budget in foreign rights alone. Do you guys realize that from a gross/production cost ratio standpoint, this is likely to do better than Titanic?

Well, yeah, but so do most small budgeted successes. I mean, My Big Fat Grk Wedding probably had dozens of times the ratio that Titanic did