My intention is to go back and blog all the events that led up to the release on April 5th and what happened after. The film is still playing in UK indie screens after its Cineworld release. After a great opening weekend which saw us take £40k from just 13 cinemas the film was extended and it opened on new screens. In the Cineworld in Shaftesbury Avenue, the heart of London’s West End, it was the number one film and ran for four weeks, out performing Hollywood blockbusters like GI Joe. It had started off in their 100 seat screen there but all tickets were sold out within hours of availability and it was moved to their big 500 seater where it stayed for most of its four week extension. This was the write up in the June edition of Sight & Sound by Charles Gant – the guy who keeps an eye on box office numbers. I now have the time to go back and blog the details and the plan is to put together a free book or PDF of how Papa was self distributed. It exceeded most people’s expectations but I truly believe there is a business model here for producers of indie films to self distribute.
