We’re #10!
Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that I tend to avoid topics that many of the larger entertainment sites and blogs thrive on, most noticeably box office receipts. This decision isn’t out of some sort of stance, but is rather one of general disinterest. I know that I should, and that other’s might care about such things, but it bores the fuck out of me. Today is an exception to that rule.
I was scrolling past this past weekend’s box office take when I noticed something peculiar. Depending on your source either the After Dark’s Horror Fest: 8 Films To Die For collectively, or Gravedancers singly, has broken through to the top ten. This despite the lack of a traditional ad campaign, eschewing television for internet promotions. It even beat out another new release, the comedy Let’s Go To Prison, ads for which I’ve been bombarded by for the past few weeks and which opened in three times as many theatres. This upset is even more surprising when you take into account the amount of revenue made per screen. Even though it came out at a respectable #10, 8 Films To Die For made more per screen than all but three of the other films in the top spots (though venturing even further down would indicate that other arthouse fare did even better in this category than any film on the list).
I don’t know about the other films being shown in the Fest, but Gravedancers was great fun, and I hope that this means that they’ll consider branching out to more theatres. Regardless, this is a great victory for independently produced horror, and I hope that it starts a trend towards getting similar packages into the local multiplex.