First off, we want to take a moment to say THANK YOU to everyone who has worked so hard to support the movie. The Legion M Facebook Group has been flooded with posts of folks sharing their photos and experiences – it’s amazing to see so much love.

We could not be more proud of this movie. Feedback has ranged from good to gushing. Our Rotten Tomatoes scores are off the charts (for both critics and audiences) – we’re currently the best reviewed movie in theaters!

Bottom line: This film, and the work we are doing to support it, are unquestionably having an impact. No matter what happens at the box office, this film is a HUGE step forward for Legion M.

All that being said, we’re in the movie business. So let's talk about the business.

BOX OFFICE STATS

MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE reported 740K of box office Fri - Sunday (which includes preview showings earlier in the week). Given that we were at 780 theaters, that equates to $949 per screen.

Out of the 63 films reporting box office grosses this weekend (according to thenumbers.com), this puts us in 15th place for gross box office, 24th when looking at the “per screen average” (box office gross divided by number of screens playing the film). We were #4 (of 9) of the new releases last Friday.

SO…WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Opening weekend is an angst-inducing time. You hope your movie is going to break out. You pray it doesn’t flop. And no matter how much research, analysis, forecasting or tracking you do, you don’t know anything until the box office numbers start coming in.

In week 1, MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE did about what you’d expect for an independent film with the sort of marketing budget Briarcliff (the film’s distributor) was working with. It didn’t break-out, and it didn’t flop. If you look at Briarcliff’s historical record as a distributor, this movie is pretty much par for the course.

That being said, WE WANT MORE. The film deserves more. That’s why we plan to keep pushing as the film finishes up its first week, and heads into week #2.

WHAT COMES NEXT?

By the end of the day tomorrow we expect to know exactly which theaters the movie will play at this coming weekend. As of now, it’s over 500. These theaters become our battleground for week #2 – we need to ride all the good reviews and positive word of mouth, and push the PER SCREEN AVERAGE at those theaters as high as possible.

Our hope is that everyone who saw it and loved it tells their friends. Or maybe even goes back to watch it again, with even more friends! If we can push the week #2 numbers up, then we’ve got a shot for a week #3.

WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP?

We plan to send out an email on Wed with our battle plans for the weekend, but in the meantime the best thing any of us can do is just keep getting the word out. Talk to your friends about it. Your co-workers. Random strangers. Post on social media. Whether it’s playing at a theater near you or not, this makes a difference. Everything we do now to build buzz and awareness pays dividends – not just with the theatrical release, but with VOD, streaming, and all the other ways the movie makes money over the lifetime of the film.

The good news is that the flip side of "it's harder than ever to get people in theaters" is that there are more ways than ever to get people to see the film. Even films with theatrical releases far worse than ours can go on to do GREAT things on VOD and streaming. Especially in this day and age when so many people choose to watch at home rather than go into theaters.

ONE LAST NOTE

While we’re doing everything we can to push the release of MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE with our partners at Briarcliff, we’re also looking ahead to the future of Legion M. It's discouraging to see so many reports of "we brought a bunch of friends out and we were the only people in the theater". Briarcliff is doing what they can with the tools and budgets that are available to them, but with a LEGION behind us, WE KNOW WE CAN DO MORE!

We have to wonder what would happen if Legion M could release a movie like this with a much larger marketing budget? Is there a world in which a film like MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE takes off? We believe there is, and our mission as a company is to get there.

We've made SO MUCH progress to get where we are – to be able to produce a movie of this caliber is quite an achievement – but we still have a long way to go to get where we want to be. That’s what Round 10 is all about. If you haven’t already, please take a moment to read the Round 10 Launch Announcement.

Bottom Line: We’re excited to see what comes next for MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE and make the most of this release. We’re also working like hell to grow Legion M so we can reach the vast potential this company has.

Onward & Upward

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