Limited and VOD Releases: In Between a Rock and a Hard Place

January 4, 2018

In Between

It’s a bad weekend to release a limited release, as the Golden Globes are given out on Sunday. There are still some good films that are trying to find an audience, including Blame, Bob le flambeur, and In Between. I doubt any will have breakout success, but all three deserve to find an audience, either in theaters or on the home market.

Blame - Reviews
 This film is co-written, directed, and stars Quinn Shephard. The film is earning good reviews and its Tomatometer Score is 79% positive; however, the average score is just 6.1 out of 10, so while most critics like it, few love it. It could still do well in limited release, but I think it will have to wait till the home market to find an audience. That said, Quinn Shephard could have a great career ahead of her, especially since this is the first film she wrote and directed.

Bob le flambeur - Reviews
 A re-release of a 1956 French film about an aging gambler who lost big, so he decides to assemble a team to rob the casino. It is the best film on this week’s list and the DVD has been out of print for a while, so this is the best chance to see it. I assume it will get a full Blu-ray release by the end of the year.

Django - Reviews
 A biopic of Django Reinhardt, a jazz guitarist who was at the peak of his career in 1940s Paris. He was so popular that the Nazis wanted him to tour with their propaganda tour. However, Django Reinhardt is a Romani and the Romani were persecuted under the Nazis. The film is earning good reviews, but not great reviews, so it likely won’t find a sizable audience in limited release.

Goldbuster - Reviews
 Normally we don’t talk about films opening in limited release unless they have 10 or more reviews, because usually there are too many films to talk about all of them. However, it appears this film will beat The Last Jedi at the Chinese box office this week. It clearly won’t do the same here, but I firmly believe it won’t be long before a Chinese film has breakout success here.

In Between - Reviews
 A movie set in Tel Aviv, which focuses on three Palestinian women who are quite different, but who live together and come to rely on each other. This film has the best reviews of any new release this week and are good enough that it could do well in limited release. However, it is a foreign-language film and those rarely do well outside the art house circuit.

In the Land of Pomegranates - Reviews
 A documentary about a group of Israelis and Palestinians taking a vacation in Germany and living together in order to get a better understanding of each other. The reviews are merely good and not great, so it will likely go nowhere at the box office.

The Strange Ones - Reviews
 This film is about two people, Alex Pettyfer and James Freedson-Jackson, who travel across the country trying to get away from something. The reviews are good, but not good enough to thrive in limited release.

Stratton - Reviews
 There are 26 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, all of them negative. In fact, many of them are aggressively negative. Skip it.

Secondary VOD Releases:
This is the second weekend in a row with no secondary VOD releases.

Filed under: Limited Releases, VOD Releases, Home Market Releases, Bob le flambeur, Star Wars Ep. VIII: The Last Jedi, Stratton, Bar Bahar, The Strange Ones, Django, Blame, Yao Ling Ling, In the Land of Pomegranates, Alex Pettyfer, Quinn Shephard, James Freedson-Jackson