Hello paradigm69, glad to see you again and thanks for posting.
Hi, does anyone know the details of the distribution of this movie? Like, if BBM is going nationwide today, then:
1. What percentage of theatres was it already playing in?
I am not sure what exact percentage is. To give you an idea, as of 1/12/06, BBM is played in 483 theaters nationwide, compared to King Kong showing in 3,482 theatres. You know that the percentage is not very high.
2. What is/was the reasoning for this 'staggered' distribution?
BBM is followed what is called "a platform release," where a film opens in a few theaters (five in NYC, LA and SF, in this case) to build buzz, and then rolls out gradually. The key number to watch in the early weeks is the per-theatre average. Anything above $10,000 is great for an arthouse pic, but to really blast off into the stratosphere, they are looking for $20-30,000. The biggest average ever for an indie pic was Syriana, with $74,900. (Which would be almost impossible without a major movie star.)
Note that Brokeback is going to use a much slower rollout than these, so the first few weeks can track, but then we need different models. Brokeback is using the annual Oscar-rollout strategy, so we would have to check back to previous years. Million Dollar Baby would be an example of a film that used that strategy and made several times what the industry expected, around $100 million. Hopefully, BBM will reach the level.
And Pride & Prejudice used a very different strategy than any of these below, starting much bigger at 215 theatres, shocking everyone with results, but failing a bit to live up to them when it went wide two weeks later.
3. How ecouraging (or discouraging) have the results been so far? What can be expected if BBM is going nationwide?
From what I have read, the box office for BBM is very encouraging. The weekend of 1/6-8/2006, BBM recorded its biggest weekend to date with $5.7 million, averaging $11,863 from 483 theatres.
You can read several articles about it on this topic.
http://www.ennisjack.com/index.php?topic=231.0I don't have a firm date on nationwide release. With Golden Globes and Oscar buzz, I am confident to see a wider release for BBM.
You may want to check this board "Release Roadmap"
http://www.ennisjack.com/index.php?board=24.0There may be answers that you are looking for.
Here are the comparison with release for King Kong and BBM.