Every year there are a few films that seek nomination but will not be able to compete commercially with the bigger films being released in November/December, so they are released for exactly one week in Los Angeles only to then be removed from exhibition then rereleased in wider distribution in January or February.
This way the film qualifies for competition, the studio can send screeners to Academy members for consideration (or, wait- did they suceed in outlawing that?), then if a nomination is won the film will get another, wider, commercial release so that it is fresh in everyone’s mind when it comes time to vote in February.
This is one of the reasons I love living in Los Angeles. I really like to try to see every film that I’m going to want to see in a year with a ticket stub dated for that particular year. If I can see all the films I want to see before December 31st I get a great feeling of satisfaction! I feel like I should win a prize!
The other day I had an opportunity to see Imaginary Heroes but I had a pretty full day and it was going to be difficult to fit it in. I thought, eh, I’ll see it next week (it was just released a week ago). Now I’m looking at today’s movie listings.
:smack: It’s gone! Aaaargh! I think I missed it. I suspect they were hoping for a Best Actress Nomination for Sigourney Weaver so they just released it for a week and will rerelease it later. Oh, well. So there’s one I missed.
What other movies were released- or will be released (gee, I guess that means anything released today) for only one week, only in Los Angeles just to meet regulations to qualify for Academy Nomination?
Ah, but Phantom is playong on several screens- limited though it may be- and will only expand from here on out. They aren’t going to pull it from theatres on 12/28.
watsonwil, Moviefone.com lists In Good Company’s release date as 12/29. Had it already been released for a 7 day run and I missed it? If it didn’t have a 7 day release already then it won’t be eligible. It looks good- I hope they got it out earlier.
Les Choristes and Producing Adults are each playing on one screen only and will be pulled after 7 days. Each is courting a Best Foreign Language Film nomination.
Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby (wide release in January) is one such entry. Admitting my pro-Eastwood bias upfront, I thought it was a great movie.
As an aside, notice that Phantom of the Opera is directed by Joel Schumacher (AKA “Crappy McSucks-a-lot”). Even if I were a fan of musicals, that name would make me very afraid of the production.
Many films do a “one week only, one screen only” type deal in late December with the idea of doing a bigger release in January.
Why, when I was a boy, they used to do what was called a platform release. A movie would be in ‘selected cities’ so that reviews and word of mouth could spread before it was released to the entire nation.
Of course that was back when a HUGE THEATRE might just have SIX SCREENS!!!
Got a possible answer to this one. According to the crawl on CNN, the 7 day Los Angeles viewing period must BEGIN in 2004. So, it can start on December 31st, but need not end in 2004.