Even though I live in the vicinity of a major US city, it’s at least a thirty minute drive to the nearest arthouse. So like everyone, whenever an interesting movie hits limited release I sit in my living room and watch the movie listings, hoping that eventually it’ll go wide enough that I don’t have to blow half a tank of gas in order to see the new Don Cheadle movie or to check out what’s up with that Waitress flick I’ve been hearing so much about.
The great thing about seeing Indie movies that way used to be that the cream rises to the top. Most of the overrated, pretentious junk that clogs up the average arthouse never makes it out of its micro-sized Indie release, usually it’s only the better stuff that makes it wider, to theaters in areas of town where it’s women who dress pretty and not men. Lately though, and maybe you’ve noticed this too, the limited releases you really want to see just aren’t making it out of the arthouse. If you’ve been wondering why, Variety has the answer.
They say the summer is so absolutely glutted with mega-sized blockbuster releases there’s just no room for smaller movies. With week after week after week of massively budgeted, highly anticipated movies major theater chains are simply running out of room. Those one or two screens they used to reserve for oddball documentaries and Oscar bait are occupied with Ratatouille in its third week or Knocked Up still going strong after seven.
Of course every summer is packed with blockbusters, but rarely are there so many packed together all at once. Or, even when they are, usually several of them open big and then drop off the radar quickly, allowing theater owners to free up theaters for the occasional arthouse flick. That’s just not happening this summer. Movies like Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean keep pulling in audiences week after week and theater owners, who are there to make a living, are leaving them playing on those smaller screens where movies like Waitress might once have gotten a look.
Unfortunately in doing so they could be shooting themselves in the foot. Last year Little Miss Sunshine opened small, but was able to widen its release and become a box office smash. Some had predicted that might be the case with Waitress this year, but with no room to expand from arthouses onto screens in megaplexes, the incredibly well reviewed indie has only managed a respectable $17.5 million. By keeping Waitress out of the major theater chains, owners may have lost out on the kind of big money Little Miss earned last year.
Ultimately, I don’t think there’s any cause for Indie lovers to panic. This is summer after all. There will be plenty of time for Oscar bait this fall, when kids go back to school and blockbusters flee theaters to rub up against the lucrative world of home video. Maybe there’s no room for sleeper hits like My Big Fat Greek Wedding this summer, but with Giant Freakin Robots who cares. Indie distributors will have to play it smart and hold their cards till later in the year.
