WRITER ARGUES PLATFORM RELEASES ANGER MOVIEGOERS IN SMALL CITIES

The arts and entertainment editor of the Springfield, IL State Journal-Register has blasted Hollywood studios’ frequent policy of slowly “platforming” the release of high-profile end-of-year movies like The Descendants. The result, said Brian Mackey, is that while The Descendants “has been receiving great reviews … Springfield (population 118,000) residents could not yet see the movie.” The same is true in the case of other “grownup” movies such as The Artist, My Week with Marilyn, Melancholia, Like Crazy, Martha Marcy May Marlene, and Into the Abyss. An AMC spokesman told Mackey that those films will begin arriving in January. However, the writer argued, “Keeping viewers waiting too long to see a buzz-worthy film just makes them angry and improves the chances they’ll forget about it by the time it finally lumbers into local theaters.” The platform-release system, he concluded, “is in need of change.”