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1. Internal Multiplier or IM is a function to forecast a films weekend total based off of Friday numbers...
Family films generally have very high IMs. Makes sense when you realize kids are in school Friday, so most families go sat or sun.typical family film IM in fall: 3.3 to 3.8, tho we have seen higher than 4 at times.
teen films are likely to have low IMs. think of fridays as the main date night or movie night, also theres the rush factor of wanting to catch an anticipated flick. typical teen film IM in fall 2.5-3.0
knowing each genres IM is learned through experience like xiayun and warrior who do this work alot. but youll start to see it when you look at fridays numbers compared to the whole weekend
so in a real world example, if a family film does $10M on friday, and a teen horror film also does $10M, we apply the typical IM and see that the family film will probably win the weekend with $33M to the teen films $25M.
2. i will try to give you soemthinng about limiteds, hopefully others will add.
There are differing types of limited releases.
Some are single theater exclusives. they play inone theater, never meant to expand. IFC does this a lot. These films dont make money and can almost always be shorted. (hard to know in advance if a film will get this treatment tho)
Some are contractual releases. A studio buys a risky film knowing it will make money on DVD but not neccessarily in theaters. But say the filmmaker wants his film gets played in theaters. Studio figures out how many and puts it in a few theaters, no promotion, no expansion plans, just to say its in theaters. Anchor Bay does this sometimes. These films are usually safe shorts as well.
Then there are films opening in a few theaters that hope to build word of mouth and go into more theaters if the early buzz is good. Heres where you pay attention to box office. For a film to expand, it needs a great start, say $10,000 or more per theater for the weekend. so if its in 6 theaters like Restless and does $5800 total on friday, using a typical arthouse IM of 3.0, it will do $17,400 for the weekend, or $2900 per theater. thats very poor, so probably no chance that it expands, so probably safe to short. Now if it had done that $10,000 plus per theater, then it would likely get more theaters added in the upcoming weeks, and you could long it.
so is that just more confusing or what? :)
Two questions (one regarding terminology, one regarding limited releases) Sep 17, 10:55
internal multiplier... Sep 17, 17:07
to the point! i just gave him a whole novel on it ;) {nm} Sep 17, 17:09
yours is the follow-up that adds more details :) {nm} Sep 17, 18:46
1. Internal Multiplier or IM is a function to forecast a films weekend total based off of Friday numbers... Sep 17, 17:08
re limiteds: Sep 18, 06:25
