The Visitor vs. New Moon

After reading Suda's comment about costs for distribution on my blog about thoughtful films, I did a little investigating. I did a comparison of the movie I previously mentioned, "The Visitor" and "The Twilight Saga: New Moon". It is hard to compare directly since "New Moon" is still in theatres, but the numbers are staggering regardless. Here are some of my findings from http://www.boxofficemojo.com/:














The Visitor:

Domestic Gross: $9,427,089
Release Time: 182 days / 26 weeks
Widest Release: 270 theaters
Production Budget: $4 million

New Moon:

Domestic Gross: $230,947,696
Release Time: 10 days / 1.4 weeks
Widest Release: 4,042 theaters
Production Budget: $50 million


According to "How Stuff Works" it costs $1,500 - $2,000 just to print the movie posters:

@ $1,500 per theatre it would cost:

The Visitor = $405,000
New Moon=$6,063,000


As you can see with the cost of the posters alone (which is a small part), a film would have to know that it was going to do well enough to pay for the distribution costs on a wide release. For more information on distribution, check out http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/movie-distribution1.htm. **On a poster side note - there is only one poster for "The Visitor" and more than I can count (OK, I'm exaggerating - I just don't want to count) for "New Moon".


So, with further investigation, I can see how independent films will most likely never get the chance for wide release. In knowing this, I have another reason to be thankful that I live in the Twin Cities where we have a couple of great theatres that take chances on unknown films. If you are interested in viewing independent films, check out the listings for theatres like the Lagoon and the Uptown. http://www.landmarktheatres.com/Market/Minneapolis/Minneapolis_Frameset.htm