I was sitting around prepping for my weekly weekend preview post (hey this will be the third in a row: that makes it a “weekly”!) when I noticed something odd about a certain film that is opening on Friday … sort of. Generally, limited releases open in at least New York and/or LA before slowly opening wider around the country. From time-to-time, when a distributor isn’t that behind a film and it has tested poorly, it will open for test runs in smaller markets before the decision to go wider is made. But generally, almost every film big or small that gets any kind of theatrical distribution will exhibit in New York or LA, not to mention San Francisco, Chicago, maybe Boston, Atlanta, etc.
So what happens when you have a movie featuring names such as Jamie Bell, Glenn Close, Rory Culkin, William Fichtner, Ralph Fiennes, John Heard, Lauren Holly, Allison Janney, Carrie-Anne Moss and Rita Wilson? Apparently, it gets saved from a direct-to-video fate? The movie is called The Chumscrubber, and that’s not just one or two known name actors (uhm, Glenn Close and Ralph Fiennes!). The film is being distributed by Newmarket Films, opening tomorrow in close to 30 theaters nationwide — just not New York or LA. Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, Austin, Phoenix, Orlando — those look to be the biggest cities with bookings. Neither the film’s nor the distributor web site lists any opening dates after tomorrow.
So what’s the deal Newmarket? Why don’t us poor New Yorkers get to scrub some chum…. (Ew.)
Out of Focus 