Why small towns might be your (movie theater) ticket to success
Everybody dies famous in a small town and what accidentally starting a Taylor Swift Tribute Band taught me about film premieres
If you throw a stone in LA, New York, London, or other big cities, you can usually hit a red carpet. If not a red carpet, there's an array of shows, live sports games, theater, concerts, and events at any given moment. Other than the height of the pandemic, if you are bored in a big city, you are actively trying to NOT go out of your apartment.
Small towns are a different story. While they lack the population density of a big city, most small towns can count on one hand, or zero, the number of red carpet events or premieres that they have had in or near their town. More times than not, they have to travel to the nearest city to see a concert or show, or even hop on a plane. If you take into account an event being at least 1-2 hours away, many times they have to budget more for a hotel to see a show. That limits the number of events they are willing to travel to, but not what could be available in a small town.
Many smaller cities and even small towns have beautiful historic theaters that have been preserved, or even restored. With a lower cost of living and real estate in many of these areas, these theaters can withstand the ups and downs of economies and pandemics. In the 1920s, half of Americans went to the movie theatre every single week. When you think of how many theaters must have existed, and dive deep into the history of your closest music venue, you might discover they were once Mary Pickford era movie theaters.
In case this is your first time here, I have owned a children’s entertainment company on and off (another story for another time) since 2010. Through our fourteen years of existence, we have grown and built our reputation on delivering quality and reliability, with a big dose of magic. When I approached a local music venue that had just been restored last year about doing a show, I didn’t have to convince them to give us a chance. It was, “What show?” and “When?” This lead to us putting on a Taylor Swift Tribute show with a band in September of 2023.
“I’m worried about your industry because you don’t tour.”
We definitely nailed the right time and right place aspect, as Ticketmaster had single-handedly crushed many peoples’ hopes and dreams of seeing her as the site crashed and bots bought up tickets. The closest Taylor Swift was coming to Warren, Ohio was in Pittsburgh, PA which is about an hour and a half away. Since this area was formerly one of the top Steel Mill industry areas in the country, it took a hard hit when many of those jobs and factories went overseas, leaving a massive hole, empty real estate, and a whole lot of “Stuck in Ohio” bumper stickers. Many people in this area could not fathom $1000+ tickets, especially for a family of 4+ people. When our show was announced, people poured on the website to buy tickets. No one else had started or performed a Taylor Swift Tribute in the area, so we were able to capture that early window of recognition.
We encouraged people to come dressed as their favorite era and had a competition for “best dressed” with prizes. Every news station, newspaper, and radio station had us on to talk about the show. Our show was the highest selling of the summer, and it paved the way for more venues to reach out to us and book, which has lead to a little tour this summer.
This was a few months after wrapping production on my first feature film that I was a part of producing and writing, Shredded. This show was essential in showing me how to market and share an event, and also the value in focusing on smaller towns and leveraging those relationships instead of going after big cities. When it came time to announce our premiere of Shredded, instead of waiting for a big city, we decided to take matters into our own hands and premiere in Mahoning Valley, in a small town called Columbiana, OH.
We can still count on one or two hands the number of proper film premieres with red carpets, press, and photographers that have happened in this area. This is the type of area still, that when someone is filming, posts are up in all the different town Facebook groups trying to figure out which celebrities we might be or what Hollywood A-list film must be filming in the area. When we reached out to news stations, radio stations, and the newspapers, they were thrilled to cover us and make sure we landed on home pages and aired for lengthy periods. It paid off.
About a week ago, we premiered in Cleveland, OH and while it was amazing to play in Cleveland, press was significantly harder to come by. We reached out to the news stations multiple times and publications, but had a hard time being picked up. In bigger cities, there is way more happening, so it’s harder to give a little indie film some coverage without an unforgettable hook or angle.
This has caused me to reconsider future places that we try to premiere Shredded, and maybe the better answer is smaller towns rather than big cities. When The Miss Americanas performed in a small beach town in Sandusky, OH, we were blown away when over 4000 people showed up, and again in Nelsonville, OH when the whole town came down to the fair and our show. As more people move out of big cities and states with high taxes and high costs of living, I believe that more areas of arts-focused micro-culture will develop. In Youngstown, we have more people moving here from Los Angeles, realizing that there is a community here that embraces the arts, and filming is much more affordable.
I am incredibly lucky to have the perks of dual-life (I split my time between Vancouver, Canada and the U.S.), so I stay as up to date as I can with what is happening in both markets. One of my favorite articles I’ve stumbled upon in a Vancouver film newsletter was “How an Oscar-winning filmmaker helped a small-town art theater in Ohio land a big grant.” It’s not everyday you read about Ohio in Vancouver. Upon reading the article, I discovered this amazing arthouse theatre that is embracing indie film in a small town and how affordable it is to rent the theatre. In this rise of micro-culture over macro-culture, and audiences embracing new and original stories, arthouses may be the new solution. Kalamazoo, Michigan is even embracing the arthouse indie theatre in new ways.
And maybe, it doesn’t have to be a proper movie theatre to show your art. This January, I started offering a free monthly film screening at my favorite coffee shop/brewery (Shout out to FUNK.coffeebar) in Vancouver. Other than purchasing a drink or food to support the establishment, the event is free. We take up a donation to split with the indie filmmakers that showcase a short film (complete with a q&a). Instead of paying $600 to rent a theatre, maybe I will show Shredded @ Funk!
I originally took the idea from a programming friend of mine, who offers free monthly “Dark Room” screenings in NYC at a bar in Brooklyn. Part of my hope was to have a place for filmmakers to show their film in a room with other people that didn’t cost them a massive submission fee, and my other hope was to slowly build an audience that would want to show up when I had a screening. It’s been a huge hit, and I think the biggest contributor to success is that it does not cost an arm and a leg to come out and support art and it is not a competition. Many of the film enthusiasts that come say it feels “European” and I take that as a massive compliment since the Europeans embrace the arthouse scene.
Even within cities, you can find a niche community that embraces filmmaking if you take the time to build an audience. When I lived in Rockaway in New York City, I was genuinely blown away at the work that the Rockaway Film Festival has done in building an audience and embracing the local film community in Rockaway. The local screenings (and festival) were packed, and that’s a testament to these smaller sections of big cities that will embrace their people.
Press is significantly easier and cheaper to find space and time for in smaller towns or communities. As Miranda Lambert says in her famous country song, “Everybody dies famous in a small town.” People want and love to be a part of something special like a red carpet night, as most will never have that opportunities other than scrolling dress critiques on TikTok or watching the Oscars.
I dream of a new era where indie filmmakers work to build audiences and then cross-collaborate on cinema “tours” where each helps the others in their small towns and venues the have been to, sharing press contacts and marketing strategies to bring indie cinema to small towns. An indie site that allowed filmmakers to list their films at a theatre and continue with a screening if there were minima tickets sales (before going under) was the closest we were to bringing indie films on the map regularly with screenings, and I think Kinema and GathR is trying to close that gap as well, but I think we have a ways to go with connecting and working together for in-person.
In a podcast interview, I heard a filmmaker say that a musician once told him (in regards to the music and film streaming era), “I’m worried about your industry because you don’t tour.” What if we did? And what if we worked together to find a cost-effective way to make it happen with red carpets and filmmaker/cast Q&As to bring life-changing and exciting indie cinema to audiences?
The audience isn't dead. They're just bored. They're scrolling through Reddit and TikTok, hungry for something that doesn't feel like it was focus-grouped within an inch of its life. They want something surprising, a little outrageous, and impossible to explain to your parents. -Price Point
You can read about the new era of Hollywood here.
Back to Taylor Swift - while I fully realize that a tribute band to the most famous artist in the world is different than an indie film, I think there are also some lessons we can take away here in how to bring pieces of that to our indie premieres. Can you do a live performance? Can you show a short before with a name in it? (Please make sure you have permission and share ticket sales) Can you collaborate with an influencer to promote? Is there a celeb from your hometown?
Most importantly, never forget that it takes a band time to build their name, in the same way it will take you, indie filmmaker, time to build yours. Each time, you will have something new to build from.
Sooooooo - let’s make that list and help one another? If you want to come to Columbiana, Warren, or Doylestown, I got you!
PS - Some theaters won’t charge rentals - and will instead do a split! Blue Macaroon Theatre in Doylestown, OH is a great example of this! If you know of any others, share them below.
PPS - I will be releasing my novel to paid subscribers (but all free subscribers will receive the prologue and a few chapters for free) towards the end of the summer. If you are willing to share my writing with someone who you think would resonate, that would mean so much to me! (& my amazing writing partner Cat)
PPPS - Next screening! Belmont University in Nashville, TN on Friday, September 6th at 5:30 PM
Belmont University Premiere: The Theater is located in The R. Milton and Denice Johnson Center
The street address is 1909 15th Ave. S., Nashville, TN 37212
The easiest way to get here is to drive to the corner of 15th Ave S. and Caldwell Ave. The entrance to the Johnson Center parking garage is located directly across from that corner. You can park on P1 or P2 in any of the guest parking spots (they are marked with blue visitor logos). The Theater is on Level 1. Take the elevator to 1 and take a left off the elevator. You’ll walk down a hall into an open lobby area. The theater entrance will be through the double doors on your left.
Love the idea of this.
We have a theater in town sitting empty since the pandemic.
My wife and I talk often about what could be done to bring it alive again. Just feel like it has to be something other than a traditional movie theater but it is constrained by that very same design.
I'd love the figure out some viable indie repurposing for it.
There's even a larger one that has more of that old school character a couple of towns away that also recently closed.
I love that you wrote this, and as tough as things can be, I always want to believe that you can build from where you are. I've dreamed of being elsewhere for most of my life, but now I have aging/ill family members, and with the costs of living, it can be discouraging to think about ever getting out. My biggest challenge is finding people locally who even want to talk to me about my ideas. People even gawk at the news crews like they have three heads when they're filming a segment. Of course there's a film community across the state, but NO ONE gets paid and everyone has to work jobs. That makes scheduling and collaborating almost impossible. Not to mention that we're all held back in some way by past wounds. That's an ongoing battle. I just try to pour everything into my scripts. The landscape here is beautiful, and there's a lot of potential for many niches to be filmed here, but crews would likely have to come from elsewhere. And I don't know who has money in this state, but we have a massive surplus and I just need to know whom to talk to so I can crack the code, I guess.