ATLAS ShRUGGED TO EXPAND TO 1000 SCREENS

 

The Hollywood Reporter via Big Hollywood has a great article on the expansion of Atlas Shrugged Part 1. 

The power of Ayn Rand devotees have impressed some Hollywood distribution executives, who took note of the hefty $5,640 per-theater average scored by Atlas Shrugged: Part 1 during its opening weekend.

"Shocking," one executive said about the healthy business the low-budget film has been doing considering its "awful" marketing plan.

Awful or not, business has been brisk enough for producers Harmon Kaslow and John Aglialoro to expand from 299 theaters to 425 this weekend and to 1,000 by the end of the month, they told The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday. The two said they fielded 500 inquiries from theater bookers Monday but didn't have enough film prints to fill orders.

"Things have turned for us," Kaslow said. "When we started, exhibitors were not embracing the film like we thought they would. Now, we can pretty much go into as many theaters as we want. It's just a matter of logistics."

[snip]

"We didn't take the needle-in-the-haystack approach by running a bunch of TV ads looking for the needles who might want to see the film," Kaslow said. "We turned that model on its head. When the needles looked for us, we advertised to them. We were getting 9 million online impressions a day from people looking for Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged and [the book's popular line] 'Who Is John Galt?'"

Aglialoro, who co-wrote and financed the movie, said timing -- politically speaking -- also has worked to the film's advantage, so an expensive marketing campaign wasn't necessary.

It will be interested to see what the second weekend numbers are like.