ABSTRACT
The 1970s is often characterized as a decade in which mainstream film distribution shifted from platform to wide releases. Each successive summer offered a larger number of screens for summer blockbusters, and this shift soon led the way for all releases opening in substantial numbers of screens. In many ways, the opening of Matrix Reloaded on 3,603 screens in 2003 can be traced back to the ‘wide’ release of Jaws in 409 screens back in 1975. As this trajectory became clear through the mid- to late 1970s, the implication was evident to the major studios – for any film with moderate to high marketability, open as widely as possible and position the movie in the marketplace as strongly as possible through TV advertising.
