Over the years, I have written far too many "the sky is falling" articles about the state of the film industry. Yes, attendance is dwindling, movie theaters are closing, studios big and small are being bought out or simply going out of business, year-round tentpoling has left little to no room for indies, language-neutral, China-friendly action has enacted far too significant an influence on everything, diversity behind the scenes has made precious little progress, it's easier than ever to make a movie but also harder than ever to get your movie noticed, and TV continues to kick film's ass in almost every conceivable way. But, well, Tomorrowland had a good line that applies here:
There's certainly a lot to be fixed, and what I haven't paid nearly enough to are all the people out there trying to find new ways to connect with fans, get their films seen, and hopefully make enough money along the way to turn a profit.
One such person is Rob Galluzzo, former Fangoria and Blumhouse writer, current Shock Waves podcast co-host, and new head of Epic Pictures' horror label Dread Central Presents. At the start of the most recent Shock Waves episode, Galluzzo detailed how he is planning to launch Dread Central Presents this year. They already have 12, wildly differing horror films locked in, and rather than four-walling it (translation: paying to have the films screened in major cities) he deputized his various writers and friends from around the country to become ambassadors and help him find ready and willing local theaters.
"Let's just do monthly screenings, not seven times a week. One night only, like the last Thursday of the month, you get together with a bunch of like-minded people, see our movie before anybody else, and that's it. Plus, there will be fun giveaways at the screenings and things like that. The first one is going to be at the end of this month, January 25th and January 26th. It's going to be Zombieology: Enjoy Yourself Tonight, which a pretty crazy Chinese movie based on an anime and it's in Cantonese. My bosses feared people wouldn't want to go see a Chinese movie. So, I paired it up with Turbo Kid, which is what I would do if friends were coming over. Well, let's watch this crazy movie, and then if you've never seen this other one let's watch them both together."
The catch, of course, is that this is going to be limited to just a handful of cities across the country. On top of that, it's not going to be making it into the bigger chains that have rules forbidding movies from going to VOD within the 90-day exclusive window. So, that might make things, um, kind of random. For example, the Zombieology/ Turbo Kid double screening is playing in 9 different cities in the country, 2 of them in Ohio. If it doesn't come close to you, though, you won't have to wait to see the movies. The plan is to make them available on VOD shortly thereafter.
Here's the trailer announcing the monthly series with footage from Zombieology and Turbo Kid:
Here's the full list of theaters:
January 25th:
Capitol Theatre - Cleveland, OH
The Nightlight - Akron, OH
Columbia City's Ark Lodge Cinemas - Seattle, WA
Eclipse Theaters - Las Vegas, NV (ZOMBIOLOGY Only)
The Hollywood Theater in Dormont - Pittsburgh, PA
FilmBar Phoenix - Phoenix, AZ (ZOMBIOLOGY Only)
