L. Anton Dencklau
Second Unit
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2000
- Messages
- 250
suburban/small-city exhibitors would take one look at the trailer and have a hard time justifying a two-week booking for a movie with such niche appeal
This is a common misperception. I can tell you first hand the type of movies that are not going to "play" in my small (50,000pop) market are not necessarily "niche" movies so much as they are "ethnic" movies.
Example: "Y Tu Mama Tambien", "Martin Lawrence: Live", Monsoon Wedding", "Two Can Play That Game" all from different distributors, all not going to do any ticket sales here, unless there is something in the film that will cross over to the "white" audience. "Salton Sea" would have "played" better here than any of those films (all of which played here.)
Also, not that this is something to be proud of, I'm willing to bet there are more meth labs per capita out here great plains than on the coasts.
Even the look of the film seems major studio-ish. It has a glossy, well lit, well shot look, which to me doesn't translate to "Art-House release."
Maybe Im just frustrated about not having access to this theatrically, but with such a shallow release the blame goes to Warners and not the exhibitors.