Limited and VOD Releases: Awards Season Doesn’t Help Limited Releases
December 21, 2018
There is not a lot of time for Oscar contenders to come out in theaters and usually this time of year there are a few Oscar-bait films getting last minute runs. This is sort of true this year. There are three films coming out till the end of the year that have been earning Awards Season buzz, but none of them are earning award-worthy reviews. Besides these three films, there are almost no limited releases. Even if you include all of next week, there are only eight films opening this week in total.
The list is going to look a little different this week. Because there are only eight films opening over the course of seven days, we are going to include all limited releases from this week and next. This will make the list seem not so small, while giving me the day off next Friday.
December 21st Weekend:
All is True - Reviews
Delaware Shore - Reviews
Moscow Never Sleeps - Reviews
Swing Kids - Reviews
Zero - Reviews
Christmas Day
Destroyer - Reviews
On the Basis of Sex - Reviews
December 28th Weekend:
Stan and Ollie - Reviews
-1-News.jpg)
This film has so much talent on both sides of the camera, but its reviews are below the overall positive level. Additionally, its target audience will be busy watching actual Oscar contenders, further hurting its box office chances.
A drama about a Holocaust survivor and their dysfunctional family. There’s only one review on Rotten Tomatoes, and it is negative.
An ensemble film about the lives of various Muscovites. Its reviews are good, but not good enough to thrive in limited release.
A Korean musical set during the Korean war. It is about a group of POWs who turn to tap dancing as a way to mentally escape the situation they are in. The film only has three reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and only two of them are positive, so it likely won’t find an audience in limited release.
Shah Rukh Khan stars as a “vertically challenged” man from a wealthy family whose life is changed when he meets two women. It’s a Bollywood film, so the nearly complete lack of reviews isn’t a problem. The fact that the only review on Rotten Tomatoes is negative could be an issue.
Nicole Kidman stars as a cop who early in her career went undercover in a gang, but this assignment ended horribly. Now the gang leader has resurfaced and she has to deal with the demons from her past. The reviews are good, but perhaps not good enough for limited release. They certainly are not good enough to win awards, which is what the film needed to do to thrive in limited release.
A biopic about Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her and her husband’s Supreme Court battle over gender equality. The reviews are right on the border between merely good and good enough for limited release. However, it was made to win awards and it isn’t going to do that. In fact, like Destroyer above, it needed to do well in Awards Season to do well at the box office, because there is just too much competition this time of year.
Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly star as the titular Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, who formed one of the greatest comedy duos of all time. This film is set very late in their careers when they embarked on a tour of post-war Britain. Of the three Awards Season hopefuls on this week’s list, this one is earning the best reviews. However, while its Tomatometer Score is 90% positive, its average score is just 7.2 out of 10. This isn’t award-worthy, but it is hopefully enough to thrive in limited release.
Filed under: Limited Releases, VOD Releases, Home Market Releases, Moscow Never Sleeps, Destroyer, Delaware Shore, On the Basis of Sex, Zero, All is True, Seuwingkizeu, Nicole Kidman, Steve Coogan, John C. Reilly, Felicity Jones, Shah Rukh Khan