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***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It seems that this coming Thursday will be the last day of the theatrical run for the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s dramatic film, Witnesses<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 A \u201clast day\u201d was inevitable, of course, and it\u2019s been very clear over the past few weeks that it was approaching.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Earlier this evening, I received a note from Brandon Purdie, the extremely effective head of Purdie Distribution<\/em>, that read (in part) as follows:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m guessing that the final box office total will come in at very near to $855,000.\u00a0 We won\u2019t have made a profit from box office receipts, but then, we never expected to do so.\u00a0 We never solicited \u201cinvestments\u201d in the movie.\u00a0 Rather, we sought donations.\u00a0 We promised nothing back.\u00a0 None of us will collect royalties.\u00a0 In fact, we\u2019ve always spoken of using whatever money we end up with after the overall Witnesses<\/em> project toward a future<\/em> film project.\u00a0 (And we\u2019re already discussing precisely that.)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n By my count, Thursday, 2 September 2021, will be the 91st day of the theatrical run for Witnesses<\/em>.\u00a0 That\u2019s essentially three months.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Curious how this stacked up against other theatrical films and against industry norms, I did a tiny bit of online searching.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n About six years ago, one Steven McQuinn reported that<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019ve witnessed a change in theatrical distribution that is astonishing and still not complete. Not so long ago, a movie could stick around in first run as long as a month, and show up on VHS, subsequently disc, a year later. Now, a first run of the highest magnitude lasts little more than a month and is on disc only a couple of months later, at the most. You can buy a Blu-ray on Amazon of a movie still showing, although it won\u2019t be delivered right away.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The transition continues. Discs are considered on their way out, being replaced increasingly by streaming video, and discount second run theaters are nearly extinct. All this has happened in just the last five years.\u00a0 <\/strong>(See https:\/\/www.quora.com\/How-long-does-a-movie-typically-stay-in-theaters<\/a>.)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Just a year ago, Patrick Freeman (\u201cnovelist, screenwriter and singer\/songwriter\u201d), wrote that<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The long and the short of all this is, a film might be pulled from a theater after only a couple weeks. Or, if it\u2019s successful, it might run a bit longer. But it\u2019s rarely ever more than a month anymore.<\/strong>\u00a0 (See https:\/\/www.quora.com\/How-long-does-a-movie-typically-stay-in-theaters<\/a>.)<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Says another website<\/a>,<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n On average, big blockbuster movies stay in theaters for about four weeks.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In 2015, writing for the CNBC website<\/a>, Mark Fahey explained that<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In fact, at least 20 percent of all wide-release movies (defined as playing in at least 2,000 theaters) run for only two weeks, according to a Big Crunch analysis of more than 700 wide-release films in the last six years. Practically no movies close before the first two weeks. . . .<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf it\u2019s a small independent film, it may just move around the country and it may just play for one week in a particular location,\u201d said Bruce Nash, founder of\u00a0Nash Information Services. . . .<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n On average, movies run for about four weeks in at least 2,000 theaters, and some films will run in at least 1,000 theaters for another week after that.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n So, generally, it\u2019s safe to say that a two-week run time is a sign that a movie missed the mark.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n According to a graph that accompanies Fahey\u2019s article, about one in five \u201cwide-release\u201d movies \u2014 which he defines as movies that open in at least 2000 theaters nationally (well over five times the number of theaters in which Witnesses<\/em>, virtually the definition<\/em> of \u201ca small independent film,\u201d\u00a0was ever available) \u2014 closes at two weeks.\u00a0 The average \u201cwide-release\u201d film lasts about four<\/em> weeks.\u00a0 Which is to say at about thirty days.\u00a0 A third of the theater lifetime of Witnesses<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n So you can perhaps understand why those of us who conceived and produced Witnesses<\/em> are reasonably content with its performance thus far.\u00a0 Moreover, we\u2019re still not done.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Once again in the words of Patrick Freeman, \u201cbecause of the changing times there are myriad windows of opportunity for a movie to recoup its investment for the studio. Once it\u2019s finished its theatrical run there is Streaming, PPV and VOD, Pay Cable, Basic Cable, TV, In-flight movies, and DVD and Bluray sales.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And that\u2019s the territory \u2014 what Arthur Van Wagonen, of Deseret Book\/Excel Entertainment, calls \u201cthe next phase of the film\u2019s lifecycle\u201d \u2014 into which we\u2019re now entering with Witnesses<\/em>.\u00a0 Furthermore, as our distributor, Brandon Purdie, also indicates in his note to me,<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n One-off showings and limited-run requests will arise over the next few weeks\/months\/year. When they do I will accommodate them. I\u2019ve left enough budget to make sure we can ship content to any screenings requests that may arise (that would be equitable).<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And, as I\u2019ve indicated from the beginning, Witnesses<\/em> has never represented more than just the initial portion of a broader and more complex project.\u00a0 Our docudrama, Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon<\/em><\/a>, is very nearly finished.\u00a0 We\u2019ve already commenced additional interviews for our short features or \u201csnippets\u201d; I\u2019m scheduled to conduct one such interview on Thursday.\u00a0 And our website project, Witnesses of the Book of Mormon<\/em><\/a>, has already been launched and will continue to grow and to evolve.\u00a0 It\u2019s intended and designed to have a life of its own, supportive of the films but quite independent of them.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n