'Red State' already making box office waves

Posted Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 10:33 AM Central

by John Couture

While Kevin Smith's latest movie Red State doesn't open nationwide at theaters until October 19, it is already creating a buzz at the box office. On Saturday night, Kevin kicked off his Red State, U.S.A. Tour at Radio City Music Hall in New York in an effort to raise awareness and buzz of Red State ahead of its Fall release.

According to Box Office Mojo not only did Red State have the highest per screen average of any movie this past weekend ($204,230 on the one screen) at the box office, but the horror/thriller scored the best per screen average weekend of any live-action movie. Ever.

Let that sink in for a minute.

Sure, Avatar currently sits on top as the box office king with over $760 million in box office receipts, but it only made a "measly" $22,313 per screen on its opening weekend. That's not to say that Red State will be challenging Avatar's spot at the top of the all-time charts anytime soon, but it is a pretty awe-inspiring stat for a movie that has the potential to be a real game-changer in the way that films are released theatrically.

As many of you know, we have covered Red State extensively over the past few months (you can read all the related stories below) and this weekend's performance is even more astonishing when you consider that Kevin Smith and company didn't sink a single penny into advertising or marketing for the release. Sure, Kevin did plenty of interviews and promotion over the last few weeks, but they didn't buy a single TV commercial or billboard to advertise the Radio City Music Hall show or the rest of the tour.

Instead, Kevin relied on relentless promotion via his Twitter feed and SModcast network of podcasts to supplement the TV and radio interviews to get the word. So far, the plan seems to be a huge success and the word is getting out.

If you want to read more in-depth coverage of Kevin's plan, you can read his Red Statements blog where he goes into minute details, but suffice to say, the plan is to spend as little as possible to release it (prints, etc.) in order to maximize profit. The film cost just short of $4 million to make and without spending millions of dollars on TV commercials and the like, the movie will be in the black sooner and turn a greater profit.

In these days of economic uncertainty, I can appreciate a filmmaker who gets it. Kevin made a movie that even he admits isn't for everyone and instead of wasting millions of dollars to try and convince someone who probably wouldn't like it anyhow to spend their hard-earned money on it, he's concentrating his efforts on the audience that he knows is salivating for his latest offering.

Having already seen Red State myself and looking forward to seeing it again this Friday in Indianapolis, my only criticism of Kevin's plan is that out of all of his movies, this is probably the movie that will find favorable reviews from those outside of his core audience. The movie shows his most growth as a filmmaker and the story will appeal to genre hounds who like a good horror/suspense movie or those that shy away from the typical saccharine fare found at the megaplexes these days.

But, just because this movie has the potential to find a new audience, doesn't mean that it's prudent to spend say $20 million on marketing to reach them. Don't worry, the movie (and those that see it on this tour) will speak for itself.

And the funny thing about positive buzz and good word-of-mouth is that it reaches more people than you can possibly imagine. Come October, I have a feeling that Kevin Smith will be reaping the rewards of his boldness tenfold.

Until then, I bet it sure feels good for him to see Red State already making in-roads (and headlines) at the box office.

Let us know what you think about this achievement and if you've seen Red State already on the tour let us know what you thought of it.