‘Interstellar’ and ‘Coraline’ Rereleases Were B...

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Published Time: 11.12.2024 - 22:31:32 Modified Time: 11.12.2024 - 22:31:32

At 10:41 a.m. on Dec. 6, outside the Lincoln Square AMC Theatres in New York City, a middle-aged woman stopped in front of a man holding a sign that read: “2 FREE TICKETS INTERSTELLAR NOW.”

“Right now?” she said.

“Right now!” he replied, before revealing a hidden cost on the back of the sign: “1 HUG.”

She happily paid his price for the rare commodity: a matinee seat for a film that came out a decade ago. In secondary markets online, tickets to Christopher Nolan’s 2014 space epic had been listed for weeks for as much as $215, after all 166 Imax screens sold out for the duration of the rerelease. Last weekend, “Interstellar” pulled in $4.57 million domestically, more than any new movie, and, at $27,500, a higher per-screen average than top grossers “Moana 2” and “Wicked.” Demand is so high, in fact, that Imax is expanding the theater count for next weekend.

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The accomplishment is the latest example of how legacy films have swung back in fashion at the cinemas, as studios look to leverage their library titles and exhibitors face a post-pandemic, post-strike Hollywood with fewer tentpole movies per year. Separate from small repertory runs in boutique theaters (often comprising just one or two showings), at least 27 legacy films were rereleased in 2024 into more than 100 domestic theaters — in many cases, more than 1,000 —grossing more than $90 million in total.

Chief among them: Laika’s 2009 stop-motion animated film “Coraline,” which grossed a stunning $33.6 million domestically when it was put back into theaters in August through Fathom Events. A joint venture of AMC, Regal and Cinemark, Fathom has specialized in targeted repertory releases since 2005. “Coraline,” its top grosser ever, caps a winning streak for the company, which took in $74 million from its 2024 legacy releases in total —an increase of 311% from 2022.

“It’s very, very good business,” says Fathom CEO Ray Nutt. He cites the pandemic — when Fathom was able to service theaters starved for content with legacy films —as the catalyst for renewed audience interest in revivals. “It reunited people with the movie theater that had been stuck in their house for a year,” he says. “We want butts in seats. We want eyeballs on that screen. It’s just good for the whole industry.” This year, however, has been different; the week after “Coraline” opened to $12.7 million, Nutt was meeting with various studio executives, and he says they kept asking their repertory department heads, “Why aren’t we doing that with our films?”

It’s a good question: If studios can dust off library titles for a bag of cash every few months, why aren’t there even more rereleases?

“It’s harder than it looks to drive an audience,” says one distribution head. Big titles alone may not be enough to fill seats. And while digital prints are a nominal cost, bringing back a title in 70mm or 35mm means sourcing prints and projectors and sometimes hiring projectionists, putting even greater pressure on marketing to deliver awareness. On that front, anniversaries are the easiest built-in marketing tool; studios can use a theatrical rerelease to promote a special Blu-ray edition —“and then we’ll join forces to promote it together,” Nutt says. A new edition in a franchise can also be a good excuse for a rerelease; 2009’s “Avatar” grossed -

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$24.7 million three months before the debut of “Avatar: The Way of Water.” And A24 has built hype for its new releases by leveraging its monthly Imax screening series as a promotional tool, like when the studio launched a redux of “Ex Machina” ahead of director Alex Garland’s 2024 blockbuster, “Civil War.”

Even more crucial, however, is giving audiences a reason to make the journey to theaters beyond just the chance to see the film, whether its releasing “Interstellar” just in Imax, remastering “Coraline” in 3D or adapting the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy to the seat-shaking 4DX technology.

“All of our content has added value to it,” Nutt says. “You’re going to get something that’s a little bit extra than just watching it on TV at home.”

However, the record-setting rerelease of “Coraline” — which made $75.3 million domestically in its original run — required a sustained effort over several years. Laika marketing chief David Burke says that after he joined the company in 2019, he and his team started noting an organic fandom for the film percolating over social media. “It didn’t immediately present itself as, like, people want to see this on the big screen,” he says. Instead, the studio “intentionally cultivated that sense of community” by creating “Coraline” content specifically for TikTok and hosting special exhibitions of the artwork from the film.

“We began to gather around the idea that there was a demand, particularly from fans who may have discovered it on home media,” Burke says. Partnering with Fathom, a small “Coraline” rerelease in 2022 grossed $805,000 over one day; the following year, another rerelease earned $7.1 million over four days. The audience, in other words, was there, and while Burke declines to cite a specific number, he says the studio’s marketing costs to marshal the title’s much larger release this year— including international distribution through Trafalgar Releasing that took in an additional $18.7 million — was in the “low seven figures.”

A24 encountered a similar effect in 2023 when rereleasing the Talking Heads concert film “Stop Making Sense.” The indie studio eventized the experience, partnering with Imax, bringing the film to the Toronto Film Festival, putting together a tribute album and even (briefly) reuniting the band. The film collected more than $5 million domestically in 2023, eclipsing its original box office run; according to A24, 60% percent of the audience weren’t born when “Stop Making Sense” first debuted in 1984, and 75% were seeing it in a theater for the first time.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that there is a demand for these films throughout the calendar,” says Exhibitor Relations analyst Jeff Bock. While the 2025 release calendar has recovered from the strike-induced decline, “there are still some weekends that could use a boost,” he says. To that end, in January, Imax will put “Se7en” back in theaters for its 30th anniversary, while Fathom is rereleasing “The Goonies” for its 40th.

“Moviegoers want to see films outside of their home,” Bock says. “That is the future bloodline of the industry.”