Wide release

Wide release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing nationally (as opposed to a few cinemas in cities such as New York and Los Angeles). Specifically, a movie is considered to be in wide release when it is on 600 theatres or more in the United States and Canada.^[1]

In the US, films holding an NC-17 rating have almost never had wide releases. Showgirls (1995) is the only film with an NC-17 rating to get one.^[2]

The term is sometimes used informally in relative terms. For example, a documentary or art film promoter might speak of a film expanding from a few New York and Los Angeles screens to cinemas in major cities across the U.S. as moving into "wide release" although it might be playing on single screens in as few as 15 or 20 major cities.

See also

• Art film
• Film release
• Limited release

References

1. About Movie Box Office Tracking and Terms. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-08-28.
2. First Major Film With an NC-17 Rating Is Embraced by the Studio

Further reading

• Dade Hayes and Jonathan Bing, Open Wide: How Hollywood Box Office Became a National Obsession, Miramax Books, 2004. (ISBN 1401352006)