Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer” surpassed box office expectations upon its release last week by entering into the Top 10 grossing films with a revenue of $1,235,000 on just 668 screens.
Despite the solid performance for an independent film of this sort, nearly 200 theaters have inexplicably dropped the film, including those in major cities where it was performing the strongest. Coming into its second week, “Gosnell” has dropped from 668 theaters to 480 theaters — a full 188 theater drop, 15 of which were top-performing multiplexes.
According to John Sullivan, the film’s marketing director who also served as a producer, the drop cannot be written off as a mere coincidence or “business as usual.”
“I can tell you from my experience in 15 years of releasing movies independently, we’re in uncharted territories,” Sullivan told DW. “It is an impacted fall, no doubt about it, but the fact that we’ve been dropped from theaters where the movie is the number 6 or number 9 movie is just something you don’t see.”
“It’s hard not to believe it isn’t about the content of the movie,” he added. While some of the smaller theaters may have dropped “Gosnell” to make way for “Halloween” this weekend (a major release projected at number 1), the same could not be said for multiplexes housing 20 or more theaters where the film performed in the top 10. – READ MORE