Horror Movie Newspaper AD NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS + SCREAM + THE CONFESSION

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Horror Movie Newspaper AD NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS + SCREAM + THE CONFESSION

I wouldn't buy this because I have a ton of NoDS newspaper ads. But I do find it interesting that NoDS opened in Tennessee a week after it did in New England because I didn't realize that.

[KMR]

I'm really curious about the release pattern for NODS. This was still a few years before wide release was common. I have always been surprised that my local theater in a small north central Michigan town got this movie on its first day of release, the first weekend of August. I'm sure there were only a few hundred prints made. Do you suppose it typically played for only a week in each theater in small towns, and those prints rather quickly made their way round the circuit?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Well, a few things that I know:

NoDS opened on August 4th in 130 New England theaters and drive-ins. I know that because of the caption of a photo I have of Quentin (ironically from the cut seance scene) from a Boston newspaper - and most of those theaters/drive-ins were actually listed in an ad on opening day. It only played for one week in most of those theaters, but in a few it played two. It disappeared from my area for a week. But then it opened in another theater where it played from August 25th through the 31st. I was thrilled it opened again because the first time I saw NoDS was in a drive-in where, of course, they only do one showing a day. But when it opened later in the month it was at an indoor theater where I could see multiple showings in one day - and considering hoDS was the co-feature, I had no problem doing so. In fact, I did so on two separate days. 

Next, I know that NoDS opened in the LA area on September 22nd thanks to a review in the LA Times.

And finally, I know that NoDS opened in the NYC area on October 13th thanks to ads and a review from the New York Times.

Beyond that, I didn't know when it was showing elsewhere. But thanks to you I can add Michigan to August 4th. And it's interesting to wonder how many prints were circulating there when 130 prints were also running in New England...

[KMR]

I wonder if the prints started out in the general northeastern quarter of the country and moved south and west over the weeks....?

I went to see it on Aug. 4th to sit through both showings at my local theater. I was expecting HODS because that's what the previews had been the week before, and what the posters were for. (I've probably told this story umpteen times...) When the titles started in silence with the word "Night" zooming in (out?), I thought it was NODS re-released under a new title. Imagine my surprise to find it was the new movie!! When I was leaving the theater, they were replacing "House" with "Night" on the marquee. The distributor really screwed up communicating with the theater.