I feel like I’ve done so much publicity on it that everyone probably sick of me talking about it, but here’s the direct appeal:
My movie THE NINES opens this Friday, August 31st, in Los Angeles and New York.
Please come see it. And if you can’t, keep reading to find out how to get it to play near you.
In LA, it’s exclusively at the Nuart (on Santa Monica, just west of the 405). In New York, it’s at Sunshine Cinemas on Houston. You can find maps (and a lot of other information) at the official site: lookforthenines.com.
For those who haven’t been paying attention, or who need to convince friends to accompany them: The movie stars Ryan Reynolds, Hope Davis and Melissa McCarthy, along with Elle Fanning, David Denman, Octavia Spencer and Dahlia Salem. I wrote and directed. We premiered at Sundance, and will be competing in Critics’ Week at the Venice Film Festival next week. I’m really proud of it, and happy that it’s gotten great reviews (we’re 100% on Rotten Tomatoes so far).1
All that’s left is to sell tickets.
If you’re friends with filmmakers, you’ll know that they always plead for you to see their movies opening weekend. And you do, to be supportive, though you know in your heart that your $9.00 won’t make the tiniest bit of difference in that film’s multi-million dollar weekend.
But with The Nines, your buying tickets actually matters. A lot.
Because we’re on just two screens, it’s all about the per-screen average this first week. With a great per-screen average, we can plan for a more aggressive expansion. With a less-than-great per-screen average, it will be much more difficult.2
It’s only a slight exaggeration to say that two tickets can push us over a certain threshold, and convince Landmark, Laemmle’s, or Pacific to give us better screens, be it a week or a month from now. Put it this way: You might prefer to see The Nines at The Arclight. Or in San Francisco. Or Vancouver. But the best chance of that happening is if you buy a ticket for it at The Nuart or The Sunshine, this weekend.
And the very best tickets you can buy are for the special screenings we’re holding on Friday night.
- LOS ANGELES
- Nuart Theater on Santa Monica (map)
- Friday, August 31st
- 7:30 p.m. After-show Q&A with John August, Melissa McCarthy and other cast/crew
- 10:00 p.m. Introduction by John and Melissa
- NEW YORK
- Sunshine Cinemas on Houston (map)
- Friday, August 31st
- 8 p.m. Special guests Ryan Reynolds and producer Bruce Cohen
Tickets for these and all shows are online:
At Moviefone
At Movietickets.com
(In both cases, you may need to provide dates and zipcodes; the sites seem to overrule URLS with cookies.3 For LA, try 90046. For NYC, try 10002. August 31st is the opening day.)
If you’re not able to make it — or if you live in one of the 2,000 markets in which it’s not playing — but want to support us anyway, I can tell you off-the-record that a ticket sold is a ticket sold. They don’t count heads. And those under-attended Sunday matinees need love, too.
There will be at least two more bits of Nines-related news this week before the opening. I leave for Venice on Saturday, which should preclude checking back obsessively. But probably won’t.
- This will change. ↩
- Anticipating the natural follow-up question: No, I’m not sure what those benchmarks would be — it’s not a single answer. The distributor needs to feel confident in committing new money for prints and advertising; the exhibitors need to want to show it; the entertainment press needs to point out how well the film did on two screens, on Labor Day Weekend, no less. ↩
- My kingdom for a true permalink. ↩