Why “a man named Otto” worked with a $15+ million opening outside of NYC and LA

In a time of streaming and concerns about Covid, with many older one-sided dramas safely finding their way home, Sony has rolled the dice on Tom Hanks drama A man named Otto The stock beat its MLK 4-day extension forecasts of $8 million for its third weekend $15.3 million.

The result surprised rival distributors, many of whom were initially impressed by the Marc Forster-directed title’s four NYC and LA theater exclusive over the New Year’s weekend, which delivered a box office average of $14,000/$56,000, not to not to mention lukewarm ratings (69% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes).

However, Sony always knew they had the goods in a vintage, moving title that would win over audiences, hence the A CinemaScore and 5-star PostTrak outputs from ComScore/Screen Engine.

In a way, it’s not shocking to see Sony double down at the box office; They’ve done it before with mature, often feminine, curvy features, like last summer Where the crayfish sing ($17.2 million, $90.2 million domestic final), the fall novel the Queen ($19 million opening, $67 million domestic) and the best holiday sleeper before the pandemic little woman ($16.7 million, $108 million domestic).

But at a time when the market has lost faith in the durability of non-tentpole, non-genre films, the overperformance of A man named Otto offers heaps of hope for titles with an older slant. If one studio can do it with a dramatic feature, so can the other. For a demo that is afraid to return to theaters, the over 55s made up a staggering 45% of them OttoAccording to PostTrak this weekend, 54% of their women were over 25.

But there is something else Otto and it’s playing it straight to the rest of the country outside of NYC and LA, and Hollywood isn’t dynamizing that audience enough.

“There are 3,000 miles between Los Angeles and New York City, and Hollywood needs to start making movies for them!” a veteran producer yelled at me at a recent awards show.

“All these adult movies that are three hours long – nobody goes there!” he cried. A man named Otto Clocked in at 2 hours and 6 minutes.

Admittedly, we had films like Top Gun: Maverick and American Sniper played domestically, however, there is a belief that we need more Central American-focused films if we really want to bring the box office back to pre-Covid levels, especially with a higher percentage of mid-grossing titles.

A rarity for a major studio-wide release, not a single NYC or LA theater OttoThe 50 Best Cinemas. Otto‘s Top 11 properties including Harkins 101 in Scottsdale AZ, the Old Mill Playhouse in Villages, Florida, Cinemark North Canton in Cleveland, Megaplex Theaters in Salt Lake City, Arrowhead Fountains in Phoenix, three theaters in the Naples-Fort Meyers area, the SuperScreen in Green Bay/Appleton Wisconsin, the Landmark 10 in Calgary and the AMC Dine-in in Nashville.

Learn more about how Otto Real Resonance Beyond NYC and LA Box Office Capitals: Several smaller markets shot up their 52-weekend averages, namely Fort Myers/Naples (+272%), Portland-Auburn (+206%), Flint (+187%), Dec Moines (+180%), Indianapolis (+159%) and St. Louis (+139%) among many others.

While gung ho military titles like Top Cannon 2 and American Sniper It might seem like a good idea to most of the country, but Sony was smart to take a chance Otto in co-financing the $50 million image with partners TSG and SF. Not many streamers can do that with their movies: They have to put all their chips into one title, with no downstream revenue. However, co-financing unsafe films spreads the risk and allows partners to reap the benefits of the film if it exceeds expectations.

So how did Sony do it Otto Click?

“After the film was released, we moved in mid-December,” Josh Greenstein, president of Sony Motion Picture Group, told Deadline about changing the film’s release strategy from Wide to Platform. Feeling. The holidays can be overwhelming, and the idea that this film could be a pick-me-up was a key part of the January release strategy.

Platform releases are essential for films to generate word of mouth, especially in a crowded market. Crowded means this year Avatar: the way of water. Sometimes, when a studio goes too far with a mature title during the fourth quarter awards season, it’s because it knows it might not have the theatrical momentum to keep up with ratings. So it’s imperative for the picture to earn the windows and leverage marketing spending to get such a lame price out the door quickly, read Paramount’s last-minute decision to bankroll the $80 million budgeted launch Babylon broad versus a platform strategy (reviews were 55% lukewarm and audiences fare worse with a C+ CinemaScore).

Otto is something of a classic Scrooge story with a message of hope and redemption. Sony knew from the data they collected during their test screenings that the picture would appear outside of major cities like San Francisco, LA and NYC. The marketing message: to sell Hanks as the father of America in a role in which he has never been seen as a likable, grumpy man. There was a large GAAP screening program that needed to be advertised Otto, Ads in older demo magazines like Reader’s Digestbig TV spots – some funny people love how Otto refuses to make New Year’s resolutions – about wide NFL games, yellowstone and 1923 Hanks debuted on TikTok two days ago and immediately gained nearly 272,000 followers and 3.2 million views.

Social Media Analytics Corp. RelishMix was impressed with Hanks’ social media presence for Otto, “he is known to be in the social wings when it comes to promoting his films.” He posted a photo from the premiere in Stockholm, Sweden to his 9.4 million followers on Instagram, which received 50,000 views. YouTube views for the film’s trailers totaled 34 million per RelishMix.

The platform expansion to more than 600 runs from Otto which grossed nearly $7,000 theatrical average this past weekend and a #4 spot of $4.2M this past weekend was built off the back of Sony Book Cinemas between NYC and LA. The result just proved Sony’s theory that they had a film for Central America.

Greenstein says, “Everybody says adult drama is dead in theaters. It’s like James Carville saying, ‘It’s the economy, you idiot.’ It’s the movie idiot, we had a character that was very likable, a theme that a lot of people can really relate to and funny moments to sell and a character that related to what Tom Hanks had done before was unique and we were able to mirror that and get people to get off their trainers and look at it.