Going Up River: Box office numbers

[mzmolly]

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=goingupriver.htm

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2004&wknd=40&p=.htm

Not sure how respectable those numbers are considering it's a documentary ?

[phish420]

1. Not sure, but thanks...

for the link to that site...pretty useful link...saw the movie though (part of "The Kerry Kit" - Very good, powerful movie...will be encoding it for my site this week.

[msongs]

2. at $7.00 a ticket (typical price around here) that is

43,000 admissions in a total of 160 theaters showing the moving, which comes down to 269 people per theater (this is not an average of people watching each showing).

Msongs
Riverside CA

PS - as I said in another thread, in our metro area there are 20 million people and the movie is only playing 5 places I could find.

[mzmolly]

3. Sounds respectable given the breakdown ... Thanks!

And, WELCOME TO DU! :toast:

[rndmprsn]

4. I saw it last night...

and then took a few friends to see it today.

very powerful and moving film...kerry's entire life has been lived for this moment.

[henslee]

5. IMHO, #'s are not great. Why wasn't a grass roots net campaign organized?

Would have been perfect for it. They could have exploited every dem/ anti bush site. Folks could have gone en masse like the Gibson Christ movie. Would have been huge. Could still happen but would not have the same impact. The first week of a release really counts. My local theatre guy said audiences were small. And this is NYC. A missed opportunity.

WTF, I cannot even find an image if I image search going up river + kerry in google?!

[mzmolly]

6. I agree it wasn't marketed very well.

:(

[IronLionZion]

7. Yeah it should have been a grass-roots thing

This is not backed by a big studio like Fahrenheit 9/11 was so they are not as bent on turning out huge audiences.

[Sydnie]

8. Short theater run too. Will be released

on DVD on October 19th. Still time to send a message if you buy the DVD that Tuesday morning. Spread the word!

[henslee]

10. Actually, I am going to give the off. website shit. Hey there is another

movie coming out call The Ground Truth. It's about soldiers in the Afghan and Iraqi war. Its got interviews and war footage. link -- http://www.thegroundtruth.org

They are supposed to release a 30 min. version in time for viewing pre election. And its supposed to be free to military and their family. I was in touch with their PR to help them get the word out but they seem to be dropping the ball too. Why cant people realize how important PR is?

[mzmolly]

13. Wow, thanks for the link.

eom

[CrowNotAngelGRL]

19. Thanks

I have to share this link definietly. :bounce:

[girl gone mad]

11. They weren't allowed to advertise..

until the day of the release (Friday).

[henslee]

12. Not allowed? Why not? Some sort of campaign law? And what stopped

them from an internet campaign? Rant.

[girl gone mad]

15. It had to with campaign finance laws..

though i can't give you the details.

I don't think they were allowed to do any kind of advertising.

Hopefully they will get the word out now.

[henslee]

16. But what stops them now? And why couldn't they have a statement

at their company website saying this? They could have made plenty of hay out of NOT being allowed to advertise. It could have resulted in as much publicity as advertising. (Michael Moore would have found a way to use this. I'm going to google around. Thanks.

[MasonJar]

9. I am definitely going to see it this week and hopefully take a Pug

friend.

[vickie]

14. What can we do to get the word out about this film? Can we have

Moveon.org organize parties or have Meetup.com organize parties? We must get this fantastic message out!!!

Vickie

[milkyway]

17. I saw it in NYC and was shocked by the small crowd. It's only playing

on a few screens in the city, and I saw the Friday 7:30pm show, the peak movie time. I assumed it would be a sellout, but the theater was mostly empty. I'm sure it must be from poor marketing; every other political documentary that's come out this year have been a tough ticket.

The film itself was very powerful. It's available on DVD right now at http://www.goingupriver.com/index.php

[CrowNotAngelGRL]

18. The movie is doing

pretty good! Hasn't been out very long. Oh and also what's the Kerry Kit? :shrug:

[PermanentRevolution]

20. The numbers to look at

are the per-screen averages. That's the most accurate measure of success for a limited-release film.

Going Upriver's per-screen of just under $1,900 is ok, especially since it's gotten little more than word-of-mouth advertising. It's not great, but this is the kind of movie that's going to grow as word spreads. I'd bet next week will look stronger.