I’m going to sound like a broken record, but it’s almost impossible to have stronger ticket sales when the minimal theatres who screened The Rover slated it at sessions which made it almost impossible for people who had rigid 9 to 5 work hours to actually get to a screening, but according to IF.com:
“While the local B.O. results should not be seen as the sole yardstick of any film’s global performance, the industry would have expected stronger ticket sales for David Michôd’s The Rover and last week’s opener, Zak Hilditch’s These Final Hours, while Rhys Graham’s Galore also underperformed.”
Here’s the scorecard for Australian Films to date in 2014.
Pfft! The limited screening was ridiculous. I really can’t understand why it wasn’t given a wide release. My hometown didn’t get it. I contacted my cinema they said they wanted it but because of the limited release it wasn’t likely anywhere other metro cities would have it 🙁
I know @Sare it’s like they wanted it to fail. I’m not sure why because Roadshow really promoted the hell out of it. I think it’s more to do with cinemas not sure I totally believe your local cinema. At the end of the day it’s them weighing up whether it’s going to make money for them because the distributor gets a cut of their screenings and the more screenings they have the less goes to the distributor. Or something like that or so I was told years ago by my local cinema.
There wasn’t a single friend or relative who I spoke to in Brisbane during the entire time The Rover was on at the cinema, who had even HEARD of the movie. (And trust me, I mentioned it to A LOT of people LOL!) Of the 15 friends who I organised to come with me, all of them went in completely blind to what it was about (other than me sending them the trailer to watch) ~ a few of them even admitted that they had been calling it The Drover! So, for Brisbane at least, I don’t think the promotion was good at all, I hate to say. Why? I have absolutely no idea. I don’t get it at all. But it sucks.
Doesn’t take away from the fact that it was a brilliant movie, and those of us who were fortunate enough to see it, know just that. Rant over. *oops*