Film Last Friday, Ben Wheatley's new work, A Field in England was released simultaneously in most formats (about the only one not included was rental streaming). I caught it on blu-ray through my Lovefilm subscription and liked it very much in a post-Tarkovskian sort of way even if I also think it's a film which has to be watched multiple times to full unlock its secrets.
The big question was always going to be, did it work, did this form of mixed distribution hurt one format or another. Well, let's watch Mark Kermode interviewing executive producer about the results...
The Guardian has the numbers too.
In general its considered a success. It was released on the weekend that Murray stormed Wimbledon which was unlucky, and only appeared in cinemas in a very selective way, it wasn't a wide opening across multiple chains, but as the producer says, across the various platforms, the film probably saw more eyeballs than it might have done otherwise considering the kind of film it is and the audience it might otherwise have attracted. As she and Mark say, it's not a model which is going to work for every film, but I could imagine it being the future of independent distribution.
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