This is one of the most interesting distribution models I've ever seen. First tour your own film, then go direct to VOD and now a one-night-only screening across the U.S. and a Q&A using Twitter!Welcome to a new age ladies and gentlemen. Get prepared for others to follow in Kevin Smith's tracks.
"Red State will be made available as a 'One-Night-Only' event which mirrors the format of SModcast's record breaking Red State USA Tour from earlier this year. For this screening event, Smith's trademark post show Q&A will be digitally streamed live from Tarantino's New Beverly into all of the participating theatres, allowing audience members to interact directly with Smith utilizing Twitter. Smith will be joined on stage by a special guest who will moderate the Q&A," saidDinerstein.
Written and directed by Kevin Smith and produced by Kevin Smith, Red State stars 2011 Academy Award winner for Best Actress Melissa Leo, Golden Globe winner John Goodman, andMichael Parks. The film debuted at this year's Sundance Film Festival to much notoriety whenSmith ended studio bidding by buying his own film for $20 and declaring he would be self-distributing the film theatrically. Smith has since toured the film around the country to enthusiastic audiences, grossing $1,065,429 to date at the North American box office from only 22 single show engagements and its Academy-qualifying run.
SModcast released the film on March 5 when it embarked on the 15 city Red State USA Tour. SModcast spent less than $500 in paid advertising to support the tour, which kicked off at the legendary Radio City Music Hall and grossed $162,000 during one show. The film quietly topped the per screen average charts for three weekends, making it the highest per screen average film of the year and the 9th highest per screen average film of all time.
Red State also had the highest per-theater-average of any film in release for the past two weekends, averaging of $25,800 and $10,000 per theater, respectively.
Following Smith's original mandate to maximize the potential audience while minimizing the excessive marketing costs normally associated with distribution, he and his team have devised a unique distribution plan that will make the film available on multiple platforms simultaneously, including today's debut of the film on Video-On-Demand (VOD) from Lionsgate. Lionsgate has previously announced that the DVD and and Blu-ray is set to be released on October 18 to coincide with the 17th anniversary of Smith's debut film Clerks.
Red State tells the story of a group of teens in Middle America who receive an online invitation for sex, but soon encounter fundamentalists with a much more sinister agenda.
Additional information about Red State is available at CoopersDell.com
Red State comes to theaters September 25th, 2011 and stars Melissa Leo, John Goodman,Michael Angarano, Kyle Gallner, Stephen Root, Nicholas Braun, Kevin Pollak, Anna Gunn. The film is directed by Kevin Smith.
