Ever Gone To A Movie, And It Wasn't Supposed To Be Out Yet ?
 

I went to a local " dollar theater ", and saw Brian De Palma's new movie Redacted. I found it odd, that the movie was out, a month before release date, and showing a second-run house, no less. The movie is showing nowhere else in LA, or anywhere for that matter AFAIK. :shrug:


http://magpictures.com/dates.aspx?id...5-f010673d1ca2



http://movies.aol.com/theater/silver.../472/showtimes

Probably a sneak preview.

Aside from an early preview or two, no.

I got to see "Men in Black" the day (night) before it was supposed to open nationwide.

Yeah, thats all I got.

^that was a scheduled 'advance' showing nationwide... I've never heard of anything like the OP describes...kind of cool. I've been to lots of on the books sneaks (and a few off the books ones when I was a projectionist) but that's it.

Like mdc3000, I've never heard anything similar.

I've been to many advance screenings and test screenings along with studio operated sneaks, but that's been about it.

For example, I saw Serenity nearly five months before it came out via Universal's "Can't Stop the Signal" limited screening blitz and The 40-Year-Old Virgin and The Girl Next Door (three times might I add) nearly two months before they came out.

Then I got nothin'.

I saw Dwight Yoakam's "South of Heaven, West of Hell" at a dollar theater in Ohio when it was already out on dvd for close to a year. For some reason, they were showing it once a night for a week. They didn't even have the studio name marquee - they had to put up a piece of paper with the title. I already had it on dvd - but went anyway to experience it in a theater.

Looking at the release schedule, it looks like Magnolia is rolling that movie out slowly - a move not unusual for them. Perhaps they chose to open it in Norwalk as a showcase to try to get other exhibitors on board.

I recommend for people to not list test screenings/movie previews or movies released earlier in different countries, because that's not the point of the original post.

I went to an advance screening of For Love Of The Game, but that's all I got.

Here's the explaination of this case of Redacted playing early (it's a pretty unique situation).
From "the unofficial Brian De Palma website" http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/

To be eligible for Oscar nominations, I believe it also will have to play one week in Manhattan (if it hasn't already) before that date.

HDNet is of course owned & run by Mark Cuban, who also produced Redacted.
(ah, it must be nice to be a dot.com billionaire)

The Girl Next Door few months before for free

300 2/3 weeks before for free some crazy myspace promotion

Thanks for the info. It makes sense now. That particular theater just happens to be owned by.....surprise, surprise, Mark Cuban.

Hmm, I knew Mark Cuban owned the Landmark Theatre chain.
But who knew he owned a second-run theater in Norwalk, CA? He must have had some extra pocket change...

Well this probably doenst count but I got to see Dreamgirls a couple days before it went into wide release which I found pretty cool because the theater where I live NEVER gets limited release movies EVER! :)

Kevin Smith invited fifty fans to see Clerks 2 in New York the winter before it was released. He basically asked "who can be in New York for this?" and picked people from the thousands of applicants.

How I got picked I'll never know, but it was nice. Screening of the movie, q&a, cast, crew and friends thereof there, impromptu booze-up in the pub afterwards, got to meet the Weinstein bros and so on. In the "Train Wreck" making-of featurettes, you can see me in the audience. Somewhat contrarily, I look quite bored.