Limited and VOD Releases: Fighting for the Right to Expand

February 15, 2019

Fighting With My Family

There are several films on this week’s list that are earning overwhelmingly positive reviews, including Fighting With My Family, which expands wide next week. How wide could depend on how well it does over the weekend.

Birds of Passage - Reviews
 This film is set in Columbia in the 1970s and looks at how the explosion in the drug trade affected the indigenous people. The reviews are excellent and it has a real shot at finding an audience in limited release.

Donnybrook - Reviews
 Jamie Bell plays an ex-Marine in need of money for his family. He joins an underground fighting tournament with a $100,000 prize. The reviews are mixed, which is usually fatal for a limited release.

Fighting With My Family - Reviews
 This is the biggest limited release on this week’s list in terms of buzz and box office potential. In fact, it is scheduled to expand “wide” next week. I’m using “wide” here in quotes, because I don’t know if it is expanding truly wide, semi-wide, or just nationwide. The reviews strongly suggest it will have some mass appeal, so if it can get off to a fast start, it could become a surprise midlevel hit.

Hotel by the River - Reviews
 A South Korean film about an aging poet staying at a hotel. He has summoned his two sons so he can talk to them, because he feels death nearing him. However, there are two young women also staying at the hotel and he feels drawn to them and wants to learn more about them. This film is earning some of the best reviews of the weekend and could do well on the art house circuit. On the other hand, as a foreign-language film, its potential to expand is limited.

Mega Time Squad - Reviews
 Video on Demand
A low-level thug steals an ancient Chinese time travel device, a demonically cursed ancient Chinese time travel device. There’s almost no way this film will do well in theaters, but it looks like a great, fun ride for VOD.

Pig - Reviews
 The latest from writer / director Mani Haghighi. This film is a satire set in the Iranian movie business where a serial killer is targeting famous directors. The film follows Hasan Kasmai, a blacklisted director who is concerned that he hasn’t been targeted yet. The reviews are right on the border between merely good and good enough for limited release, but I think this film will do reasonably well on the art house circuit.

Ruben Brandt, Collector - Reviews
 An animated film about a psychiatrist who is driven to steal famous paintings due to dreams that have haunted him since childhood. He, and several of his patients, managed to steal many of these paintings, but soon become on the most wanted list. Animated films rarely do well in limited release, but this one is clearly aimed at the art house crowd, so it could be a minor exception.

Sorry Angel - Reviews
 A writer in his 30s begins a romantic relationship with an aspiring filmmaker in his 20s. The film’s Tomatometer Score is 88% positive, but the average review score is just 6.8 out of 10, so while most critics like the movie, few love it. I think this will hurt its chances in limited release.

War and Peace - Reviews
 This Russian epic from the 1960s is getting a re-release this week. It could do well on a per screening average, but the film is over six hours long, so it won’t get many screenings per theater over the weekend.

Secondary VOD Releases:
The Lears - Reviews - Video on Demand
There’s only one secondary VOD title this week. It’s earning no reviews, so it’s hard to tell if it is worth a VOD rental.

Filed under: Limited Releases, VOD Releases, Home Market Releases, Pájaros de verano, Fighting With My Family, The Pig, Plaire, aimer et courir vite, Donnybrook, Ruben Brandt, a gyujto, Gangbyeonhotel, Mega Time Squad, The Lears, Voyna i mir, Jamie Bell, Mani Haghighi, Hasan Majuni