Slow Release Strategy Pays Big Dividends

Hollywood distributors spend inordinate amounts of time and money trying to persuade as many theater owners as possible to show their films. But every once in a while, it pays off to open a movie on just a handful of screens--hoping to set off a favorable buzz among moviegoers before releasing it more widely.

Two of last weekend’s four top-grossing films--”Die Hard” and “A Fish Called Wanda”--first opened that way. And another film, Martin Scorsese’s controversial “The Last Temptation of Christ,” opened at only nine theaters last weekend with record-breaking results.

It’s unlikely “Last Temptation”--which grossed $401,211, or $44,579 per screen, between Friday and Sunday--will ever move to the top ranks of the summer box-office competition. But Universal Pictures is counting on word-of-mouth--as well as the controversy surrounding the movie--to carry it through a wider release this weekend.

Many Hollywood insiders suspected that 20th Century Fox’s “Die Hard” would die hard soon after its release. The film’s star, Bruce Willis, suffered an image problem among fans of his own TV show, “Moonlighting.” And the movie’s preview footage was so weak that some theater audiences even booed it.

But Fox officials who had seen the film sensed its audience appeal. After running an ad campaign that played down Willis’ starring role, Fox opened “Die Hard” July 15 in only 21 theaters, hoping the film would speak for itself. It did. Last weekend “Die Hard” held onto a No. 3 spot, grossing $5.7 million at 1,713 theaters, or $3,353 per screen. The film followed close behind another Fox release, “Young Guns” and Touchstone’s “Cocktail,” starring Tom Cruise.

“Fox’s strategy has worked very well,” Phil Garfinkle, senior vice president of Entertainment Data Inc., said of “Die Hard.” The film’s box office gross so far-- at $38.4 million --”is a lot of business for an action picture.” Garfinkle said.

“Wanda” faced a different problem: Even some officials at MGM, which released the film, assumed that its British slapstick humor would draw no more than a slim audience of Monty Python devotees.

So MGM hosted dozens of free screenings throughout the country--alternately inviting waiters, teachers, even people with last names of fish (Mr. Bass and Mr. Goldfish were both in attendance, one studio official noted). Then the studio opened “Wanda,” which cost about $8 million to produce, in just three theaters.

Bolstered by good reviews, favorable word-of-mouth and intensive publicity campaigns by its stars, “Wanda” cinched the No. 5 spot in the fierce summer competition shortly after its first wide release. Last weekend, “Wanda,” at No. 4, grossed $5.3 million at 1,114 theaters, or $4,718 per screen.

Whether “Last Temptation,” which cost $6.5 million to produce, can carry its impressive results last weekend into a wider release remains to be seen. Much of its success so far owes to the controversy created by fundamentalists who have decried the film as blasphemous.

“Had there been no protests, it would have disappeared quickly,” said Alex Ben Block, editor of Show Biz News. “It’s not a commercial picture.”

Moreover, the film’s future box office results will probably be hindered by refusals of some theater owners to show the film. Block said, however, the peaceful protests and impressive box office results may put pressure on those owners to show the film. “They can see now that it’s not acid,” Block said of the film. “It’s more like warm milk.”

Universal officials have not yet decided how widely to release the film next weekend. One studio official said General Cinema, the nation’s fourth largest theater chain, remains the most reluctant theater owner to show the film.

“Last Temptation” continues to draw fire. Representatives of the National Assn. of Evangelicals, who saw a screening of the film last week, are urging their members to boycott the film, saying it is “insensitive to the sentiments of millions who revere Jesus, the son of God, and acknowledge His divinity.”

In Italy, a Milan lawyer has asked a Venice judge to confiscate the film, which is scheduled for a screening later this month at the Venice International Film Festival.