At 10:41 a.m. on Dec. 6, outdoors the Lincoln Square AMC Theatres in New York City, a middle-aged girl stopped in entrance of a person holding an indication that learn: “2 FREE TICKETS INTERSTELLAR NOW.”
“Right now?” she mentioned.
“Right now!” he replied, earlier than revealing a hidden price on the again of the signal: “1 HUG.”
She fortunately paid his worth for the uncommon commodity: a matinee seat for a movie that got here out a decade in the past. In secondary markets on-line, tickets to Christopher Nolan’s 2014 area epic had been listed for weeks for as a lot as $215, in any case 166 Imax screens bought out in the course of the rerelease. Last weekend, “Interstellar” pulled in $4.57 million domestically, greater than any new film, and, at $27,500, a better per-screen common than high grossers “Moana 2” and “Wicked.” Demand is so excessive, actually, that Imax is increasing the theater rely for subsequent weekend.
The accomplishment is the most recent instance of how legacy movies have swung again in style on the cinemas, as studios look to leverage their library titles and exhibitors face a post-pandemic, post-strike Hollywood with fewer tentpole motion pictures per yr. Separate from small repertory runs in boutique theaters (typically comprising only one or two showings), a minimum of 27 legacy movies have been rereleased in 2024 into greater than 100 home theaters — in lots of instances, greater than 1,000 — grossing greater than $90 million in whole.
Chief amongst them: Laika’s 2009 stop-motion animated movie “Coraline,” which grossed a surprising $33.6 million domestically when it was put again into theaters in August via Fathom Events. A three way partnership of AMC, Regal and Cinemark, Fathom has specialised in focused repertory releases since 2005. “Coraline,” its high grosser ever, caps a profitable streak for the corporate, which took in $74 million from its 2024 legacy releases in whole — a rise of 311% from 2022.
“It’s very, superb enterprise,” says Fathom CEO Ray Nutt. He cites the pandemic — when Fathom was in a position to service theaters starved for content material with legacy movies — because the catalyst for renewed viewers curiosity in revivals. “It reunited folks with the movie show that had been caught of their home for a yr,” he says. “We need butts in seats. We need eyeballs on that display screen. It’s simply good for the entire business.” This yr, nonetheless, has been totally different; the week after “Coraline” opened to $12.7 million, Nutt was assembly with varied studio executives, and he says they stored asking their repertory division heads, “Why aren’t we doing that with our movies?”
It’s a great query: If studios can mud off library titles for a bag of money each few months, why aren’t there even extra rereleases?
“It’s tougher than it seems to be to drive an viewers,” says one distribution head. Big titles alone will not be sufficient to fill seats. And whereas digital prints are a nominal price, bringing again a title in 70mm or 35mm means sourcing prints and projectors and typically hiring projectionists, placing even better stress on advertising to ship consciousness. On that entrance, anniversaries are the simplest built-in advertising software; studios can use a theatrical rerelease to advertise a particular Blu-ray version — “after which we’ll be a part of forces to put it up for sale collectively,” Nutt says. A brand new version in a franchise can be a great excuse for a rerelease; 2009’s “Avatar” grossed $24.7 million three months earlier than the debut of “Avatar: The Way of Water.” And A24 has constructed hype for its new releases by leveraging its month-to-month Imax screening collection as a promotional software, like when the studio launched a redux of “Ex Machina” forward of director Alex Garland’s 2024 blockbuster, “Civil War.”
Even extra essential, nonetheless, is giving audiences a motive to make the journey to theaters past simply the possibility to see the movie, whether or not its releasing “Interstellar” simply in Imax, remastering “Coraline” in 3D or adapting the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy to the seat-shaking 4DX expertise.
“All of our content material has added worth to it,” Nutt says. “You’re going to get one thing that’s somewhat bit further than simply watching it on TV at residence.”
However, the record-setting rerelease of “Coraline” — which made $75.3 million domestically in its authentic run — required a sustained effort over a number of years. Laika advertising chief David Burke says that after he joined the corporate in 2019, he and his group began noting an natural fandom for the movie percolating over social media. “It didn’t instantly current itself as, like, folks need to see this on the large display screen,” he says. Instead, the studio “deliberately cultivated that sense of neighborhood” by creating “Coraline” content material particularly for TikTook and internet hosting particular exhibitions of the paintings from the movie.
“We started to assemble round the concept there was a requirement, notably from followers who could have found it on residence media,” Burke says. Partnering with Fathom, a small “Coraline” rerelease in 2022 grossed $805,000 over at some point; the next yr, one other rerelease earned $7.1 million over 4 days. The viewers, in different phrases, was there, and whereas Burke declines to quote a particular quantity, he says the studio’s advertising prices to marshal the title’s a lot bigger launch this yr — together with worldwide distribution via Trafalgar Releasing that took in a further $18.7 million — was within the “low seven figures.”
A24 encountered the same impact in 2023 when rereleasing the Talking Heads live performance movie “Stop Making Sense.” The indie studio eventized the expertise, partnering with Imax, bringing the movie to the Toronto Film Festival, placing collectively a tribute album and even (briefly) reuniting the band. The movie collected greater than $5 million domestically in 2023, eclipsing its authentic field workplace run; based on A24, 60% p.c of the viewers weren’t born when “Stop Making Sense” first debuted in 1984, and 75% have been seeing it in a theater for the primary time.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to determine that there’s a demand for these movies all through the calendar,” says Exhibitor Relations analyst Jeff Bock. While the 2025 launch calendar has recovered from the strike-induced decline, “there are nonetheless some weekends that might use a lift,” he says. To that finish, in January, Imax will put “Se7en” again in theaters for its thirtieth anniversary, whereas Fathom is rereleasing “The Goonies” for its fortieth.
“Moviegoers need to see movies outdoors of their residence,” Bock says. “That is the longer term bloodline of the business.”
