Four UK indie distributors share strategies behind their highest-grossing titles of 2024

Terrifier 3

UK distributor Signature Entertainment used a reliable horror marketing tool to draw attention to Damien Leone’s Terrifier 3 in 2024: adverse audience reactions to the extravagantly gory film.

“We asked one of the security guards at the gala screening, ‘Can you keep track of how many people walk out?’,” says Marek Pugh, head of publicity at Signature. “They said, ‘11 people walked out’ — and, without us prompting — ‘one person threw up.’ That was all I needed to hear.”

The detail went viral around the world online, picked up by websites including LadBible, and Terrifier 3 grossed $4.2m (£3.4m) in the UK and Ireland to become Signature’s most successful release to date.

An expanded theatrical team allowed Signature to put the sequel in cinemas, after the company had released the first two Terrifier titles on digital platforms. “Many of us in the office know what’s going on with genre films,” says Pugh. “That’s a good starting point.”

Following a team brainstorming session, the company held an early screening for exhibitors and long-lead press, which gave Pugh an indication of the increased interest in the title. “Exhibitors got on board more than some of us might have hoped,” says Pugh. “The positivity from exhibition meant we could keep running all the things we wanted to do with it.”

These included exclusive releases with consumer publications Empire and Total Film, and a now-sold-out cover with SFX magazine. Opening on 429 sites from October 11 — Signature’s third-widest opening ever — the film started with a $1.2m (£1m) weekend, just $498,000 (£400,000) behind studio tentpole Joker: Folie à Deux.

Signature’s £3.4m gross for Terrifier 3 is one of several company records achieved by independent UK-Ireland distributors in the past year, led by Black Bear for Longlegs with $10.1m (£8.1m), Sky Cinema with Lee for $5.6m (£4.5m), Mubi with The Substance for $4.9m (£3.9m) and MetFilm Distribution for Wilding with $815,000 (£655,000), while Studiocanal released its third-highest-grossing title in Paddington In Peru, which grossed nearly $45m (£36m). 

Longlegs

When planning the release of its eighth title in the UK, Black Bear picked an ambitious UK-Ireland release date for Osgood Perkins’ horror Longlegs, matching the US opening of July 12, 2024.

“It was the last weekend of the Euros [football tournament], with England in the final,” says Black Bear’s UK managing director, Llewellyn Radley. “It was up against Despicable Me 4, A Quiet Place: Day One had been out for a couple of weeks, Altitude had Late Night With The Devil and we knew we were running into Deadpool &Wolverine. We thought the UK date could be challenging.”

The company was selling the title through its US-based sales arm and acquired UK-Ireland distribution rights in February 2023. “It’s not set in stone [that Black Bear will distribute its sales titles],” says Radley. He says decisions are made by “a very co-ordinated team. There’s lots of overlap between the people working on international sales and UK-Ireland distribution”.

Longlegs premiered at Los Angeles genre film festival Beyond Fest on May 31, 2024. The decision to match the US release date in UK-Ireland was taken only three weeks prior to July 12. “[US distributor] Neon was doing a phenomenal job on the marketing campaign,” says Radley, allowing Black Bear to build on already existing marketing materials.

The campaign prior to release targeted different types of horror fans. “They’re not monolithic,” says Radley. “There is a nuance to how much you dial up supernatural aspects in certain creative sets, versus how much you play on serial-killer thriller in others. There are lots of distinct audiences”

After a strong $1.75m (£1.4m) opening weekend, the strategy adjusted to take in “a curiosity factor,” reveals Radley. “People who may go and see a horror movie once every year or two came out to see this just because it was being talked about.”

Longlegs’ success following the last-minute dating “speaks to what is important in an independent distribution company these days,” suggests Radley. “Be nimble, be agile and opportunistic. Don’t be afraid to pivot on your strategy late in the day. The team created a compelling campaign in a short space of time.” 

Lee

Rebranded from Sky Movies in 2016, Sky Cinema is both a subscription service with pay-per-view channels and a distributor. The company boarded Ellen Kuras’s Lee in early 2022 as a backer and was involved in conversations around the casting of key roles, including the part played by Alexander Skarsgard.

“There was some cast [already], but we could see it shaping up to be star-studded and a really important story,” says Julia Stuart, Sky Cinema’s director of original film. “We thought the story and talent involved had a broad appeal.”

At that stage, the company had never given any film a 45-day theat­rical window (Ferrari and The Beekeeper then received 45-day windows before Lee’s release). “It was important to [lead actress and producer] Kate Winslet that it got theatrical,” says Stuart, describing the release as “a win-win window — cinemas feel supported, it’s there long enough, but not so long that the Sky Cinema customer, still our prime audience, feels like they’ve waited forever”.

Sky Cinema says it became “strong partners” with Studiocanal during the pandemic-induced cinema shutdowns, putting several of the latter’s titles on Sky channels. Sky approached Studiocanal needing a partner for the “booking and practical elements” of the release.

“We work closely on things like dating,” says Stuart. “They’ve got years of expertise releasing these kinds of movies. We’re still fairly new at releasing films. It’s great to have someone think about the Sky date and the theatrical date, the awards corridor and the competition.”

Opening with $840,000 (£674,914) on September 13-15, Lee took more than six times that amount across a run of several months. “Drama can be a dirty word when it comes to theatrical but I had an inkling [it would do well] with how much work Kate did to promote the film,” says Stuart. “We were confident it would sustain well, given it’s an older audience who can take a while to get to the cinema.”

Wilding

On a smaller scale, the 2024 release of BFI London Film Festival 2023 premiere Wilding has become MetFilm’s biggest title to date. The documentary, directed by David Allen, is adapted by Isabella Tree from her own book about regrowing natural landscapes.

The closest comparison in preparing the release was not another film, but the work of England, Wales and Northern Ireland nature conservation charity The National Trust.

“The National Trust as a brand was something we thought about in terms of our materials and how the film was presented to the public,” says Zak Brilliant, head of sales and distribution at MetFilm Group. “A ‘toe-in-the-water’ strategy early on was getting some previews on sale to see how that landed. Tickets were selling with very little marketing, and that gave us the confidence to build the campaign. When we’re selling out a 500-seater in Worthing two weeks before release, we know we’ve got something.”

Wilding opened to $81,000 (£65,000) in 58 UK-Ireland cinemas on June 14, 2024 — the biggest documentary opening of the year at the time. MetFilm saw the potential for greater heights. “We knew in the summer there was more space in theatres, so an opportunity for the film to travel around,” says Brilliant. Seven months later, Wilding is still playing in select venues, having now screened at more than 500 cinemas, with an impressive gross of $815,000 (£655,000).

The success of these four very different films is a good sign for independent distributors, says Black Bear’s Radley. “It shows how important it is that cinemas build diverse audiences. There’s commercial opportunity in doing that.”

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