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DOES BORAT HAVE LEGS?
Now that Borat has proved that it is worthy of all the hype, many question why it only opened on 800-plus screens. Was Fox cleverly building the word of mouth? Were they scared it could have possibly been a Snakes on a Plane? Variety explores the studio’s thinking.
Here’s a little taste:
Some close to the comic thesp point to the pic’s amazing $31,607 per-playdate average as a sign the film had enough appeal for a wider release. But some distrib execs point to the still-low awareness of “Borat” — in the latest tracking, which reflects polling from over the weekend, just 57% of people were aware of the film, while 90% had heard of “Santa Clause 3” — and argue that “Borat” will benefit by waiting a week for word of mouth to build before going out wider.
