'Mandy' Is Doing So Well In Theaters It Has Forced The Distributor To Rethink Its Release Strategy

‘Mandy’ Is Doing So Well In Theaters It Has Forced The Distributor To Rethink Its Release Strategy

People can’t get enough ofNicolas Cageand the Cheddar Goblin.Mandy, an acid-trip of a movie that burns itself into your brain, is drawing audiences to the theater at an unexpected rate, even though the film is also available on VOD. TheMandybox office success has been so great that RLJ Entertainment have decided to rethink their release strategy, and keep the film in select theaters until November.

Mandyrules, as almost anyone who has seen it will tell you. The hype surrounding the Nicolas Cage film seems to be working, too. According toBusiness Insider, RLJ Entertainment has changed course, breaking with the traditional VOD/theatrical model, to keepMandyplaying in theaters as long as there’s a demand for it.Mandyis an indie film that opened in select theaters and on VOD the same day. This practice isn’t uncommon – in fact it’s becoming more and more prevalent.

But something curious happened withMandy. As RLJ began decreasing the amount of theaters the film was playing in during its second week of release – as is tradition with a film of this size – the demand to see it theatricallyincreased. In most cases of films that get theatrical and VOD releases, distributors start pulling the film from theaters the second week of release, assuming audiences will start renting the VOD version instead. But in the case ofMandy, people took to social media to beg for the film to open in more theaters in week two.

As Business Insider reveals, “The company had done its theater bookings long before the fan outcry, and that meant it couldn’t add new screenings because the theaters already had a full slate of titles for the weekend.” As a result, when the film played in only three theaters in Los Angeles over the weekend,Mandy"saw a relatively minuscule 31% drop in ticket sales from its opening weekend — in fact, its $155,405 take was one of the largest for any indie movie that weekend."

Lisa Whalen, CEO of SpectreVision, the production company behindMandy, said: “RLJ’s theatrical booker is getting all these calls from theaters saying, ‘We want the movie but we have contractual obligations with other films, can we have it in October or November? So it’s just going to keep coming out.”

Directed byPanos Cosmatos,Mandyfollows Cage as he seeks revenge against a nightmarish cult. Throughout the film, Cage travels from one hellish, surreal location to the next.

So what’s the secret here? Why isMandybreaking the mold? I think the answer is simple: the movie really is as good as everyone says it is. It’s also unlike anything else you’re likely to see right now. On top of all that,Mandyis driven by strange, mind-blowing visuals and a highly elaborate sound design. So much so that it practically demands to be seen in theaters. That’s not to say the film should be avoided on VOD, though. And in fact, it isn’t: Business Insider saysMandyis currently “in the top 10 movies to rent on iTunes in ‘independent,’ ‘horror,’ and ‘thriller’ categories.”

I have a feeling this is a lightning in a bottle situation. It’s going to be hard for another film to replicate this reaction, at least for the time being. That won’t stop other indie distributors from trying, though.