Perhaps we were being overzealous. We got email confirmation that “The Road” was being pulled in certain markets.
In fact, the email reads:
Dear Members of the Press,
The Weinstein Company has decided to do a roll out release pattern of THE ROAD and it will no longer be opening on 11/25/09 in your market.
This lead us to believe, coupled with other reports, people writing us and telling us the John Hillcoat film had suddenly disappeared from their area, that “The Road” was reverting back to a limited release, one that we presumed would be a NY/LA one.
We’re happy to report we’re wrong there. “The Road” is not going to be a wide release per se, but it’s certainly not a two-city-pronged limited one either. Or at least according to ROP who says they’ve been told “The Road” will open in 31 markets. That is sort of wide, but how many theaters it will be is unknown and technically that’s not the entire country as The Weinstein Company have “confirmed an additional roll out,” meaning more cities are to come. *Update*: it wasn’t that wide. The film opened up on 111 screens to begin with across the U.S. and when it expanded to 117 theaters. To compare, a regular wide release is anywhere between 1,500 and 3,500 screens. A major, major difference.
Something does smell a little fishy here though, not sure what’s up, but we do know the release was scaled back somewhat. Most major cities will have it and smaller areas will have to wait a few weeks, but overall, this is good news. Now will TWC actually push Viggo for an Oscar?