Why are some movies only in select theaters?
There are several reason this happens. 1. The studio is trying to build word of mouth/buzz before a nation wide release. This is often what happens with movies expected to contend to awards. 2. The studio doesn't know if the movie will draw a large audience, so they roll it out to select theatres as a way to gage interest without spending a lot of money. Keep in mind the studio has to front about $1500-$2000 for each film print they make - in smaller towns, many movies struggle to make that kind of money in their entire run. 3. The movie is being release by a small studio and they need to generate revenue to pay for additional prints and/or marketing.
What does showing in select theatres mean?
More often than not, it means that the distributor thinks that the movie will benefit from not being in every multiplex in the U.S., up against the giants with big advertizing budgets. The studios often put a ton of money behind advertizing a big-budget movie. They will spend $30,000,000 to $40,000,000 on advertizing some films, trying to get the name of the film before the public in a big way. On the other hand there are movies whose entire budget--for making the film as well as advertizing it and getting prints to theatres--is less than just the advertizing for a big-budget movie. These smaller-budget films often start out in a lot fewer theatres, and hope that the word-of-mouth from people is good enough to replace an expensive advertizing campaign. If people tell each other that they loved this film (e.g., Juno), that sells more tickets than does a huge advertizing campaign. Eventually, these films, if they attract moviegoers, will get onto more screens. If the word-of-mouth never materializes, they just fade away. (An example of the latter is Grace Is Gone, a film that critics liked but which just didn't attract enough people, and thus did not generate the buzz. It kept disappearing from theatres fairly quickly, and finally faded away after its six-week initial contract.)
How do movies get to cinemas?
Now that all movies are distributed as digital files, they are delivered to theatres two ways. The first method is to send a hard disk drive to the theatre with the movie and all of the trailers that the studio wants to have shown before the movie. Each theatre gets one copy of the movie and will copy it from the hard drive to the servers in each auditorium where the movie will be shown. The other distribution method that is growing in popularity is to download the movie from a communications satellite or to get it through a high speed internet connection. To do this the theatre needs a satellite reception dish and a library server where the movie is received and stored. Once on the library server, the movie file is sent to the playback server in the auditorium where the movie will be shown.With either distribution method, the movie is encrypted with a strong encryption system. A digital key is sent to the theatre for each server that will run that movie, allowing the movie to be shown in that particular auditorium. Each key will only unlock that one movie on that one playback server, and only for a specific time period during which the movie can be played. If the movie's run is to be extended, then a new security key needs to be sent.With this encryption system a single version of a movie can be distributed to thousands of cinema auditoriums, but the presentation of that movie is authorized and controlled by the distributing studio - right down to the individual auditorium and the hour of a particular day.
How much money "The Chaparone" did in the theathers.. I think its funny?
Triple H's movie "The Chaparone" was only in theaters for a limited time release 2 weeks was the approximate time that movie was in the movie theaters. They've been doing that with all of the Wwe's most recent movie releases Legendary with John Cena and The Big Show's movie earned a lot less profit than that. I did want to see "The Chaparone" at one of my local movie theaters however that movie was not being shown at any of my local movie theaters show's movie did worse numbers. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;... http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;... http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...