Roadshow Theatrical Release - History - Rise of The Limited Release

Rise of The Limited Release

The practice of roadshow presentation began dying out in the 1970s, partly due to the rise of the multiplex. As they began to increase in number, and as more and more "skyscraper" hotels and office buildings took the place of the oldtime movie palaces, theatre exhibitors began showing long films in a more informal format. Francis Ford Coppola's Oscar-winning epics The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974), for instance, were shown without intermissions and were given more than two performances a day, despite their extreme length, as was Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1975). (Barry Lyndon was shown with an intermission however.) Although some very long films such as Gone With the Wind would always be shown with an intermission, "reserved seat" showings of new films became extremely rare, and by the mid '70's had died out completely. The last film musical to officially receive a reserved seat engagement was the 1973 Lost Horizon, a financial and critical disaster. The Towering Inferno, a highly successful disaster film about a trapped group of people in a burning skyscraper, was widely shown with an intermission, but seats were not reserved, and there was no overture, entr'acte or exit music. A similar case was the 1977 political thriller Twilight's Last Gleaming, which ran two-and-a-half hours, and was shown with an intermission, but not on a reserved seat, two performances-a-day basis.

In the late 1970s, only three films (two popular and one a legendary disaster) received a reserved seat engagement. Michael Cimino made the successful film The Deer Hunter, which was a commercial and critical success, winning the Oscar for Best Picture. In its initial run, it was blown up to 70mm film and given a roadshow release. Francis Ford Coppola, director of The Godfather, made Apocalypse Now, another three-hour epic which garnered some favorable reviews and is now considered one of his best. The film had a difficult production history, and after five years of production it premiered in a US reserved seat engagement in 70mm. It became a great financial success, and made even more money years later when the director's cut was released. After Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter, another film by Michael Cimino premiered in 1980. This was Heaven's Gate, which is infamous for being one of the biggest box office bombs ever. It had a roadshow release, like Apocalypse and Hunter, and premiered in a 70mm blow up version with an intermission. The roadshow engagement was the shortest in history, for only three theatres held the screenings. Its New York run lasted three days, the Toronto run was shown once, and the Los Angeles engagement was cancelled.

One development that diminished the novelty of the modern roadshow release was that, beginning with Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977), stereophonic sound began to be used more and more in films. Eventually mono sound was abandoned completely and stereo (often the six-track variety) finally became the norm for sound in motion pictures.

By the 1980s the entire roadshow format had largely been abandoned, as the rise of the multiplex and competition from cable TV and home video began forcing changes in the nature of film industry. For example, the 1984 Carmen, an uncut two-and-a-half hour film version of the popular Georges Bizet opera, was not roadshown nor shown with an intermission, despite the fact that the film was so faithful to the opera that it kept the stage version's original division into four acts. (Today, Carmen is often performed onstage in two acts, with Acts I and II combined into one act, and Acts III and IV combined into the other.) The 1984 Carmen was also filmed in six-track stereo and on location, like many epics. Amadeus (also 1984), although nearly three hours long and filmed in six-track stereo, was not shown in a roadshow format and did not have an intermission, while 1982's Gandhi was shown in that format. Kenneth Branagh's four-hour Hamlet (1996), filmed in color and 70mm with six-track stereophonic sound, was not shown in a roadshow format, and had no overture, entr'acte music, or exit music, but it did have an intermission two-and-a-half hours into the film. More recently, Robert Redford's 1998 The Horse Whisperer, although 170 minutes long, was not shown with an intermission nor in a road show format. Neither was Dances with Wolves (1990), another three-hour film, The Color Purple (1985), a two-and-a-half hour one, Forrest Gump (1994), which also clocked in at two-and-a-half hours, or The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), which ran two hours and twenty-three minutes. However, The Right Stuff (1983), although not given a roadshow release, did have an intermission because of its length of three-and-a-quarter hours. It is quite likely that, had Carmen, Amadeus, Dances with Wolves, and The Horse Whisperer been made thirty years earlier, they would have received full-blown roadshow releases (although Mozart's somewhat salacious dialogue in Amadeus would have had to be severely expurgated). On the other hand, James Cameron's spectacularly successful Titanic (1997) was just as lengthy as The Right Stuff (three hours and fifteen minutes), but was not shown in a roadshow format or with an intermission. Neither was Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York (2002), another three-hour film.

As of 2012, The Dark Knight Rises, though nearly as long as Amadeus, is being shown without an intermission, and has not been given a roadshow release.

The latest film to be shown with an intermission (aside from most Hindi musicals, which generally have one) was Gods and Generals, but it was not shown in a strict roadshow format, as performances were not limited to two per day, and seats were not reserved.

In 2006, the film Dreamgirls, based on the Broadway stage musical, was given a three-theater road show release, with reserved seats and program guides. Tickets were significantly higher priced than normal, at $25. The film itself was not shown with an intermission.

In 2008 and 2009, the four-hour biopic Che, starring Benicio del Toro as Che Guevara, was shown in a roadshow format for a limited time in a number of large cities.

Today, a similar theatrical release practice of first premiering a film in larger cities is more common, mainly towards the end of the year, in order to qualify for film award consideration, including the Academy Awards. In many cases, such releases will have a better chance at being nominated for the Oscar. Such recent films that have gone the limited release route include 2004's Million Dollar Baby and The Aviator, 2005's March of the Penguins, and 2009's Disney film The Princess and the Frog- these and other such limited release films eventually opened wide. Sometimes this is done to allow a film to receive a wide release shortly after the first of the year, while qualifying for the previous year's Academy Awards. Often, smaller films (often art and independent) will receive an initial release in New York and Los Angeles, and later expand to other cities based on results; this is called "platforming" or a platform release. Some platform releases have fallen victim to this practice, such as Julie Taymor's The Tempest (2010), an adaptation of Shakespeare's play which still had not opened in most cities as of September 2011, by which time it had already been issued as a Blu-ray DVD. By late February 2012, it was turning up on cable TV.

However, it is important not to confuse releases such as March of the Penguins, Million Dollar Baby, and The Princess and the Frog with the old-fashioned roadshow release. None of those films were shown with an intermission, or on a two performance-a-day basis.