Cinema 21

American Cinema and the Global Market

Week 6 Readings and Assignment

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Reading 1: Theatrical Release Patterns
for Niche Films in the US
July 22, 1997

Using data from The Hollywood Reporter (July 22, 1997, "The Boxoffice," p. 121), the top fifty films in domestic theatrical release were analyzed for a variety of factors. All films that had entered the chart among the top ten were excluded since the number of prints for their debut indicated that they were intended for a mass audience, not a niche market. The two IMAX films in their special venues were also excluded. This left 16 films to analyze.

Current Rank	Highest Rank Achieved	Title/ Distributor	% BO Change from last wk.	Current # of Screens	Highest # of Screens	# of Weeks in Release	BO to date in thousands	Current BO this weekend	Ave BO / Screen	Ave. Wkly Revenue Generated Per Print
14	11	Ulee’s Gold MGM	+36	337	337	6	4294	930	2761	2124
29	15	Brassed Off Miramax	-36	101	231	9	2266	111	1098	1090
18	18	Shall We Dance? Miramax	+336	36	36	2	529	385	10684	7333
25	19	The Pillow Book CFP	-22	65	65	7	1771	131	2021	3892
40	22	Love!Valour!Compassion! Fine Line	-30	73	90	10	2719	48	663	3021
27	26	When the Cat’s Away Sony Classics	+20	27	27	5	452	118	4365	3350
37	26	Temptress Moon Miramax	-26	32	46	6	901	61	1897	3265
28	28	Kiss Me, Guido Paramount	New	5	5	1	115	115	22936	22936
36	32	Ponette Arrow	+0	32	32	19	577	66	2050	1002
49	32	Female Perversions October	-11	25	32	13	850	24	977	2044
50	33	Waiting for Guffman Sony Classics	+15	18	59	25	2813	24	1332	1907
47	33	Daytrippers CFP	-29	16	52	20	1972	29	1815	1896
33	33	Mrs. Brown Miramax	New	6	6	1	76	76	12711	12711
46	36	The Van 20^th Century Fox	-1	21	21	10	504	30	1446	2400
38	37	Dream with the Fishes Sony Classics	+4	29	29	5	260	58	1986	1791
39	39	Swan Princess II Legacy	New	97	97	1	50	50	518	518
--	--	TOTALS	+256%				$	$	--	--
34.75	27.5	AVERAGE	+20%	57.5	72.8	8.75	$1259.3	$141	$2,452	$1,976

The top two films have made 337 and 231 prints respectively, as they attempt to reach a main stream audience. By deleting these two films that have made more than 100 prints, the following results are generated. The remaining films can be taken as more representative of the strategy used to reach a specialty market.

Art House Theatrical Release Statistics
July 22, 1997

14 films with 100 prints or less	Current Rank	Highest Rank	% BO Change from last wk.	Current # of Screens	Highest # of Screens	# of Weeks in Release	BO to date in thousands	Current BO this weekend	Ave BO / Screen	Ave. Wkly Revenue Generated Per Print
TOTALS	----	--	+256%				$	$	--	--
AVERAGE	36.6	29.6	+23%	34.4	42.6	8.93	$970.6 K	$86.8 K	$2,521	$2,549

Current # of Screens	Highest Rank Achieved	Highest # of Screens
337	11	337
101	15	231
36	18	36
65	19	65
73	22	90
27	26	27
32	26	46
5	28	5
32	32	32
25	32	32
18	33	59
16	33	52
6	33	6
21	36	21
29	37	29
97	39	97

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