What makes a One Week release?

I worked in the cinemas as an usher for three years and in my time there I enjoyed seeing movies come and go. Cinemas get more money for every ticket sale the longer a movie has been screening, each week they take a larger percentage cut than the producers and distributors so at the outlet level they are encouraged to keep movies running for as long as is feasible.

So for a movie to have only shown for a week must have meant that it totally bombed, right? That's generally the case but it often has more to do with the cinema chain deciding to only do a limited release.

A perfect example of this tragedy is A Sound of Thunder



Too often, I would come to work on a Thursday and be totally surprised by a new film we were screening. I took an interest in what was coming soon, but smaller movies that couldn't sustain ticket sales for very long didn't get any trailers shown. I didn't even get to see this great poster!

You may be thinking its just awful B-grade time travelling action films that don't get enough attention but thats not the case. Not long before A Sound of Thunder was released another great film screened to empty theaters...




That Shaun of the Dead poster is another one that I would love to have been able to throw out after the cinema was done with it but alas, for some reason cinemas screen movies they don't even have ads for. This movie is a more fitting example of a money-making opportunity missed by the cinema chain, it had achieved commercial and critical success in both the US and UK markets and yet it got shown to a few people who had friends overseas or had seen it reviewed online... for one week.

I know that one week releases are still common in WA and I can only guess at reason as to why so many great films get "shuffled under the carpet" with a total lack of exposure both prior and during its release. Either:

• We are such a small market that distributors don't bother producing advertising materials for us (which begs the question why even release the movie here)
• The cinema chain chooses to focus on the movies they are convinced will sustain a more extended release and deliberately don't advertise smaller films
• The staff responsible for exposing the WA market to these the films and disseminating advertising materials are too incompetent or otherwise engaged to cover every film

Maybe cinemas are obliged to show these films they don't really want to for a week at a loss, and I'm glad they do because a tiny release is better than none at all. It was funny that ASOT screened four times a day for seven days and less than ten people saw it over that period, (company employees only pay 50c though so it would have grossed <$30) but disappointing when I couldn't take another friend with me next week. Its a pity more people didn't get to enjoy it and I am still hanging out for the Blu-Ray release so I can revel in just how budget the CGI was.

If you have any other thoughts as to why potential breakaway hits like this are ignored, share them in the comments!