industry Four-walling a Dead End?

[Gigot]

Peace to all!

I read that a successful four-walling can prove your movie is popular, and thus attract distributors. But an insider told me that theatrical distributors will never take a movie that's been four-walled, even if it was only in one theater. Could you please share your knowledge/experience on this question?

Thanks,

Gigot

 

[directorik]

Anyone who says "never" is not an insider.

There are many factors in play here;
if very few people show up that is a red flag for distributors.
if a lot of people show up that looks great to a theatrical distributor.
One week in a major market is different than one week in a small area.

In my experience four-walling can't hurt. If you sell very few tickets you
simply omit that from your sales pitch. As you have read, a successful
run in a theater will show the movie is popular.

However, I can't find any info on successful movies that started by
four-walling. At least recently - say this century.