MGM’s lion is taking it easy waiting for the Amazon deal to close.
They’re giving Sean Penn’s “Flag Day” the smallest release of any major film this year, just 24 theaters for opening weekend.
We haven’t seen such a small opening release in quite a while. The trend during the pandemic era has been wide releases that grab as much money and attention as possible right away.
But “Flag Day” is problematic. It’s only at around 41% on Rotten Tomatoes. There are only 34 reviews so far, which isn’t a lot. MGM has really kept the film from wide reviews. I would have paid to see it tonight but it’s not playing anywhere near me!
But the studio may be gun shy. Their current release, “Respect,” isn’t going great. On Wednesday night, “Respect” made only $715K. The total since last Thursday is a little over $11 million. It remains in wide release.
So maybe the idea is to see if “Flag Day” percolates and catches on. If not, we can only hope they’ll move it to streaming fast.