Source: 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox has announced a tiered theatrical release pattern for Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. The film will premiere on 800 screens in the U.S. and Canada on November 3, 2006, stepping up incrementally in the ensuing weeks.
“The reaction to this movie has been incredible and we know that the word-of-mouth will be excellent,” said Bruce Snyder, Twentieth Century Fox President of Distribution. “Not only is there an existing audience that can’t wait to see the film, what we have here is a movie with an incredible amount of playability. Through a tiered release pattern, we’ll be able to build a huge amount of momentum.”
Sacha Baron Cohen, the star and creator of HBO’s “Da Ali G Show,” brings his Kazakh journalist character Borat Sagdiyev to the big screen for the first time. Leaving his native Kazakhstan, Borat travels to America to make a documentary. As he zigzags across the nation, Borat meets real people in real situations with hysterical consequences. His backwards behavior generates strong reactions around him, exposing prejudices and hypocrisies in American culture. In some cases, Borat’s interview subjects embrace his outrageous views on race and sex by agreeing with him, while others attempt to offer a patriotic lesson in Western values.
The release pattern is similar to what 20th Century Fox did earlier this year for both Thank You for Smoking and Little Miss Sunshine. Those two films have a combined domestic take of $81.9 million, and production costs were less than $15 million for both features.
