local upcoming movie release dates

July 5, 2005 12:45 AM

Anyone know of a site that offers LOCAL release dates for upcoming films?

It doesn't help me a lot to know that films like "Rize" or "Mysterious Skin" will open on any given day in NY/LA, because they probably won't show up where I live (Phoenix) for months, if at all. So it'd be helpful to know of a site that could let me know when limited release films open in my city.

posted by jimmy to sports, hobbies, & recreation (4 comments total)

Do your local cinemas not publish brochures? Or have websites? Maybe it's stating the obvious, but that seems like the place to find this information.
posted by cillit bang at 3:39 AM on July 5, 2005

That would be stating the obvious, yeah. Harkins Theatres, the only chain in the greater Phoenix area running any "independent film" theatres, doesn't seem to offer any information on their website that I'm after.
posted by jimmy at 3:56 AM on July 5, 2005

For smaller indie films with only a few prints and a tour schedule, the anticipated dates are typically on the film's official web site. Here's the list for Mysterious Skin -- looks like it's playing Tempe on the 22nd. The problem with films with such a small release is that they can often be "hijacked" by an extended run in larger cities; this was often a problem when I was living in Milwaukee, where I'd see the anticipated release of a small film slip for weeks or months off of the schedule. In addition, films are sometimes not scheduled for the third-tier markets until their release in larger markets, so sometimes that information just isn't around until a month or two before it actually shows in your local theater.

I'm not aware of an individual site that lists all of the anticipated dates of indie/limited distribution films, even though I'm aware of endless comprehensive movie release date lists for the larger markets. I think this kind of list would be especially difficult to compile.

Rize, on the other hand, has a wider distribution (and the official site says "Now Playing in Theaters Everywhere.") That can be taken to mean that the theaters in your town chose not to schedule it, even if prints were available to them from the distributor. That doesn't mean it'll never play Phoenix, but the operator of your local chain may choose to bring it in based on performance in other cities.
posted by eschatfische at 4:54 AM on July 5, 2005

Cool, thanks.
posted by jimmy at 5:58 AM on July 5, 2005