Solid: 'Black Dynamite' To Be Released in October

What I've seen of Black Dynamite gives me hope that the blaxploitation spoof will play very well with audiences this fall. Now it just has to find the audience. Sony and Apparition will distribute the film in the U.S. beginning on October 16th, which is a busy weekend in a crowded month. True, there aren't a lot of blaxploitation movies in theaters in this October, but we've seen countless examples of movies that should do better that eventually get sacrificed on the altar of bigger marketing budgets and movie stars, so just because it's being released doesn't mean much on its own. That malaise is particularly pronounced when the movie isn't mass appeal the way a (500) Days of Summer would be. That also has young, attractive stars. But when you get into the category of Moon, a terrific genre picture that just didn't make it to enough theaters, you start to see that it takes more than being good and interesting to generate an audience. The reason I bring up Moon is that it's a Sony Pictures Classics release, and since Sony only bought the distribution rights to Black Dynamite for Apparition so that it could handle the release, it's hard not to imagine a similar set of circumstances coming up this October. Moon has made about $5 million, but the largest number of theaters Sony ever placed it in was about 250. Tough to make a go of it like that. Strangely enough, there seems to be an opening weekend mindset for these smaller movies, as well. They make a few hundred thousand in New York, do fine when the release is expanded to L.A., but then by the end of the first month, the release pattern seems stagnant. Advertising stops. Theaters never increase. Movies like Moon have to fend for themselves. In the case of Black Dynamite, it will have to contend with The Road and Where the Wild Things Are, plus Law Abiding Citizen and Sony's own The Step Father (released through Screen Gems). And that's just on the 16th, when Dynamite needs to prove its release should be expanded. So again, it's great that there might be some exposure for something different - a film that performed well at Sundance and a few other festivals this year - but there's more to supporting a movie than just renting space in a couple hundred theaters.

Comments

[Senator Claghorn]

I see your point, but Moon's release didn't have the man who masterminded the releases of The Passion of the Christ and My Big Fat Greek Wedding behind it . . .

[Get The Big Picture]

True, but Bob Berney has whiffed a few times, too, just like anybody else. My point is that it's tougher to gain traction in October than, say, August. And since the film has been in the can for almost a year, you have to wonder why they'd go for the greater degree of difficulty.

[Senator Claghorn]

Yeah, as to exact release dates it's hard to say what's best. You have to pick one not knowing exactly what you'll be up against. Black Dynamite was originally scheduled for September 4, then December 4, now October 16. I suspect they avoided the summer in order to stay away from the $100 million movies. Why it's October 16 rather than one of the other dates I don't really have a good guess about, but I think it was a less busy date when it was originally announced (which was over a month ago) than it seems to be now. Who knows?