Why Oscar-worthy movies skip your local theater
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"The Brutalist" star Adrien Brody at the film's Los Angeles premiere. Photo: Eric Charbonneau/A24 via Getty Images
If you're itching to see "The Brutalist," a likely Best Picture contender at this year's Academy Awards, it'll be tough right now unless you're in a city with a lively film scene.
Why it matters: Limited theatrical releases, especially for small, buzzy awards contenders, are both a relic of Hollywood's economic past and a harbinger of how changing consumption patterns are impacting the industry.
State of play: Smaller films with niche audiences — often from independent distributors — use limited releases to build up buzz and secure eligibility for major awards.
- A simultaneous release on thousands of screens is expensive and simply isn't economically viable for anything but the biggest movies from major studios. Local movie theaters in suburban America prefer "Moana 2" or "Mufasa: The Lion King" over low-budget awards contenders.
- Oscar nominations can be a driving force to attract moviegoers, but they're announced in mid-January. To be eligible for an Academy Award, a film had to begin a theatrical run in New York City, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Chicago, Dallas or Atlanta by Dec. 31.
- By securing both word-of-mouth and that all-important Oscar buzz, awards films have a much better chance of surviving a big expansion.
Zoom in: "The Brutalist" opened in four theaters in New York City and L.A. on Dec. 20, expanding up to eight theaters for the first weekend in January, per The Numbers.
- Deadline cited the cinephile social network Letterboxd as a driver for the three-and-a-half-hour epic's early success.
- It'll expand wider on Jan. 9, but browsing the film's ticketing website shows the expansion limited to a handful of theaters in cities like Austin, Denver, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
- The film's distributor, A24, tells Axios that the big push for the film will come after Oscar nominations land on Jan. 17 — with plans for it to eventually expand to over 2,000 screens.
Between the lines: Smaller distributors have been toying with wider releases outside awards season to make a splash with original movies targeted at older audiences.
- "Conclave," "Challengers" and "Civil War" all were box office successes after wider releases earlier in the year. It's possible that all three films could pick up Oscar nominations.
Worth noting: The Academy doesn't always want to be an inaccessible dinosaur either.
- Last year's biggest winner, "Oppenheimer," was a summer box office juggernaut from a major studio.
What's next: This might all ultimately be insidery industry handwringing, as many folks increasingly prefer to enjoy non-blockbusters by waiting to stream them in their own living room.
- Studios like it, too. Premium video-on-demand — those $20 rentals you see for newer titles — allows them to pull in up to 80% of revenue, compared to 50% in theaters, per IndieWire.
Editor's note: This piece has been updated with a comment from A24 about its plan to expand screenings of "The Brutalist."
