Limited and VOD Releases: Never Easy for Limited Releases

June 22, 2018

Never Steady, Never Still

It is a slow week for limited releases and none of the films have a real shot at becoming a box office hit. Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts is earning the best reviews of the week, but it is a foreign-language film, so its box office chances are weak. Never Steady, Never Still is the film I’m most interested in. Its reviews are solid and it is also a Canadian movie.

Boundaries - Reviews
 A road trip movie starring Vera Farmiga and Christopher Plummer, as a daughter who has to drive her father from Portland to Los Angeles, after he was kicked out of his retirement home for selling pot. Both of the leads are great actors, but the reviews are mixed and it will likely not find an audience in theaters.

The Catcher Was A Spy - Reviews
 Paul Rudd plays Moe Berg, but not the cool Moe Berg. He’s not playing the lead singer of The Pursuit of Happiness, but the baseball player from the 1940s, who was also a spy. Given the reviews, they should have made the TPOH Biopic instead.

Damsel - Reviews
 Robert Pattinson plays Samuel, a man in the 1870s trying to travel to his fiancée, Penelope, so that they can get married. However, the journey becomes a lot more complicated than he imagined it would be. The film’s Tomatometer Score is 80% positive, but its average rating from the critics is just 6.7 out of 10. That likely won’t be enough to thrive in limited release. It should do better on the home market.

Izzy Gets the F**k Across Town - Reviews
 Mackenzie Davis stars as the titular Izzy, a woman who wakes up hungover and learns her former boyfriend and her former best friend are announcing their engagement. She has to race across Los Angeles to put a stop to that. The film’s reviews are below the overall positive level, but not so bad that the film isn’t worth renting on VOD. It’s not playing on VOD this weekend, but when it does, maybe give it a rental.

The King - Reviews
 A documentary about Elvis Presley, specifically his Cadillac Tour of 1963 and how it parallels America’s political transformation around the same era. The reviews are good, but I’m not sure they are good enough to survive in limited release.

Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts - Reviews
 A movie about a woman who kills a gang leader in self-defense, only to have him come back as a spirit to haunt her. The film’s reviews are close to 100% positive, but it is a foreign-language film and those rarely find success at the box office.

Never Steady, Never Still - Reviews
 Shirley Henderson stars as a woman suffering from Parkinson's disease, and its effects on her family. The film’s reviews are right on the edge between merely good and good enough for limited release, so it has a shot at finding an audience in theaters.

Secondary VOD Releases:
Distorted - Reviews - Video on Demand
 Incident in a Ghostland - Reviews - Video on Demand
There are only two secondary VOD releases this week. Both are horror films, and neither are earning good reviews. If I were forced to chose one, I would go with Distorted.

Filed under: Limited Releases, VOD Releases, Home Market Releases, The Catcher Was A Spy, Boundaries, Izzy Gets the F**k Across Town, The King, Damsel, Distorted, Incident in a Ghostland, Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts, Never Steady, Never Still, Vera Farmiga, Shirley Henderson, Robert Pattinson, Christopher Plummer, Paul Rudd, Mia Wasikowska, Mackenzie Davis