The Risky Seasonal Strategy Kicks In

An unusually large number of movies flooded into big-city theaters at the end of December, all hoping to garner critical and award attention as a way of easing into nationwide release during the early part of 2000. But with more than a dozen films going “wide” in the next few weeks--along with some new films from the major studios--at least a couple of these limited-exposure films may not make the transition, expanding too quickly or too slowly to have any impact.

What’s particularly noteworthy this year is how many big studio films are taking this road, from literary adaptations--”Snow Falling on Cedars,” “Cider House Rules,” “Angela’s Ashes”--to the mainstream biopic “The Hurricane,” which raises the stakes even further.

The art of the platform release has largely been lost in this era of same-day national release but has, on occasion, worked brilliantly with such films as “Shakespeare in Love” and “American Beauty” as recent examples. With strong reviews and box office in media capitals, upscale dramatic films can then fan out over a period of weeks with a rush of adrenaline.

The dramatic content of many of these films makes them a more difficult sell in a 30-second TV spot. “It takes time to get people to movies that connect emotionally,” says Marci Granata, marketing executive at Miramax, which is platforming such films as “Cider House Rules” and “Mansfield Park” this year after the roaring success with “Shakespeare.”

“You can’t panic,” Granata added. “You have to give people time to get to the theaters and for word of mouth to take hold.”

Other films, like Paramount’s “Angela’s Ashes,” Sony’s “Girl, Interrupted” and New Line’s “Magnolia,” with powerful casts or other commercial elements are released in December mainly to meet the Academy Awards qualification deadline (a film must open in Los Angeles before the end of the calendar year in order to be eligible).

“The holiday season has a lot of high-profile releases so we platformed ‘Angela’s Ashes’ mostly to begin our academy push around the world. It was an important time to get the film started,” Paramount senior executive Rob Friedman says.

“Girl, Interrupted” specifically was platformed to focus attention on the central performances by Winona Ryder and Anjelina Jolie, with a wide breakout always planned for Jan. 14, says Sony Pictures distribution head Jeff Blake.

For studio releases like “End of the Affair,” a protracted platform roll-out can be dicey. The late January expansion might be too late, or even too early since Oscar nominations don’t hit until the second weekend in February. If the film pulls in major Academy Award recognition and is already on its way out of theaters, the slower platform strategy could backfire. But given “Affair’s” apparent staying power--it averaged $6,226 per screen last week--the strategy seems to be working so far.

“You have to know not just your own movie but what’s surrounding it,” Granata says. And that’s the reason that Disney is broadening “Cradle Will Rock” to only another 150 theaters, and not until Jan 21. “There were too many similar type films going wide in early January,” Disney marketing executive Geoff Ammer says. “So we changed our strategy and are planning to broaden in the markets in which we’re already doing well.”

But with “The Hurricane,” audience reaction was so overwhelmingly strong the first weekend that Universal decided to go out wider, faster, starting today. According to Universal marketing head Mark Shmuger, all of what seemed to be limitations on the movie--a period biopic about an African American boxer--turned out to play very strongly to audiences, drawn in by Denzel Washington’s career performance as Rubin “Hurricane” Carter.

There’s always a risk that critics or academy members will turn a deaf ear to the film, making expansion of a tough sell even more difficult. But for a film like “Topsy-Turvy” it’s a gamble worth taking. The Mike Leigh film about operetta kings Gilbert & Sullivan had only a slim chance of expanding beyond major city art houses.

USA Films is rolling “Topsy-Turvy” out extremely slowly, say marketing and distribution executives Jack Foley and Steve Flynn, capitalizing on strong reviews, awards (the New York critics picked it as the year’s best film) and director Leigh’s past track record in major markets. USA is also trying to push the envelope by playing exclusive runs in more commercial houses, hoping to draw in music aficionados as well. Then, if the film places in the Oscar derby, a wider expansion will follow.

And then there are movies that will probably never broaden beyond a couple of hundred theaters like “Boys Don’t Cry,” “Titus,” “Mansfield Park” and “Liberty Heights,” which have been doing well in exclusive engagements in big cities and will continue to expand slowly over the next few months.