TORONTO – Canadians renewed their love affair with popular television series Corner Gas on multiple screens last month, aided by its unique distribution model that included a theatrical release, TV and online premieres, and DVD and Blu-ray sales, all over a three week period.
The 90 minute feature film, shot last summer in Saskatchewan, made its sold-out theatrical debut as a Cineplex Front Row Centre Event opening in 102 Cineplex, Landmark, and independent theatres between December 3 – 7, 2014. The movie returned by popular demand to 38 select theatres from December 12 – 14.
Nearly 60,000 moviegoers attended the eight-day engagement for a total box office gross of $694,212, making it one of the most popular attractions of the year for a Canadian movie, according to the news release. The in-cinema event included surprise cast appearances in select theatres across the country, giveaways, a warm-up show hosted by creator and comedian Brent Butt, and a special closing credit sequence which included bloopers, out-takes and footage of fans across the country singing show’s theme song.
Corner Gas: The Movie then returned to the network that made the franchise a household name. Broadcast premieres on CTV and CTV Two (Dec. 17), The Comedy Network (Dec. 22) and The Movie Network (Dec.8 – 13) delivered a cumulative average audience of 3.3 million viewers, with an overall reach of 7.38 million viewers who watched all or some of the movie. The super-simulcast premiere, which was accompanied by a Tweet Up (live tweeting by the cast and producers), delivered a final audience of 2.1 million viewers on CTV and CTV Two, up 14% from preliminary overnight data, ranking as the most-watched Canadian movie on TV in 14 years.
Online, the movie was played 130,695 times on digital platforms CTV.ca, CTV GO, and newly launched streaming CraveTV.
Some 56,000 units of the film on disc were shipped to Canadian stores and released in Canada on December 16. Corner Gas: The Movie's special collector's edition DVD and Blu-ray made the Top 10 DVD list in Canada the week of December 15-21 and was the top selling Canadian DVD title that week. Demand was so great additional units were produced.
"Rather than waiting a year between theatrical and broadcast, we distributed the film across all platforms over three weeks and offered unique experiences on each platform," said executive producer Virginia Thompson, in the release. "The strategy allowed us to build audience excitement and momentum. Everyone took a risk and tried something new with this film. No one knew if it would work. The good news is that it worked for both fans and investors."
