Re-Releasing Older Films Reminds Us Why the Movies Are Worth Saving

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At movie theaters like AMC and Regal this April, kid-friendly A Minecraft Movie and adult prestige horror film Sinners were the big success stories. However, elsewhere in the multiplex, 1996’s Happy Gilmore, 2005’s Pride & Prejudice, and Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith were also playing to full houses. The theaters were packed with laughter and cheers when the occasion called for it — despite all those movies having been around for 20 years or more.

Revival screenings and re-releases have been on the rise in recent years, in both big and small theaters, as the industry continues to bounce back from a tumultuous time. In fact, Amanda Salazar, programming director for the Los Angeles indie video store/revival theater Vidiots, tells Consequence that the 2020s have been “a very exciting time for repertory cinema,” something she attributes to the industry-wide shutdown that began in 2020 (for the obvious reason).

“We all had to shelter in place and reengage with cinema through streaming and physical media, revisiting work or visiting work that we hadn’t yet seen. An at-home film education took place,” she says. From Salazar’s perspective, seeing older films achieve box office success now is something she attributes to that time spent sequestered; people now want to experience movies they might have first watched at home “with the best picture and sound they can, and have that communal experience that they might have missed.”

Bringing older movies back to theaters allows companies from all sides of the industry to take advantage of the rich history of past cinema, while audiences get a chance to discover new-to-them titles or rediscover old favorites — often with some bonus materials or special surprises.

The motivations for why a movie might be re-released are many: Anniversaries are a big factor (both Pride & Prejudice and Revenge of the Sith are turning 20 this year), but not the sole determination. According to Ryan Wood, SVP and head film buyer for AMC Theaters, the decision to pursue re-releasing a movie could come from chains like AMC, but the majority of the time it comes from the studio. However, “it really takes a joint venture of the two parties wanting to get behind it.”

Is there a limit to what kinds of movies might play when re-released in theaters? In general, Regal Cinemas chief commercial Adam Rymer feels that “if anything’s built a history and a legacy and has positive connotations associated with it, I think there’s an opportunity” for it to succeed. One hypothetical idea Rymer mentions is 2016’s Warcraft, directed by Duncan Jones and based on the Blizzard Entertainment games. A new edition of the video game, or some other news surrounding the franchise, could provide “another opportunity for us to bring that back and say, ‘Hey, maybe you didn’t experience the first time around.'”

Ryan Turek, Blumhouse vice president of feature film development, feels that horror in general plays great as a re-release, “because it could be the worst movie in the world, but you’re bringing everybody together to laugh. There was a movie called Uninvited about a cat that gets possessed by a demon and then the cat jumps on a boat and starts killing people. I would love to see that with a full crowd of people who have never seen that movie before in their life. That would be incredible.”

For Blumhouse, re-releasing its movies is an opportunity to re-connect with its core audience of horror fans, via special event series like Blumfest and Halfway to Halloween. These special screenings, Blumhouse has found, can actually bring families together, because according to Blumhouse head of marketing Karen Barragan, “parents, particularly moms, are the ones that tend to introduce their kids to horror, really.”

The company has numbers on this: In a survey of self-proclaimed American horror fans in 2023, Blumhouse found that 95% of respondents watched horror movies with family members, including parents (60% mom, 49% dad) or siblings (44% sister, 39% brother). For 69% of survey participants, watching horror movies was seen as “a family bonding ritual.”

“There was a generation of parents who had seen Halloween when they were young,” Turek says. “And so when we did the reboot of the Halloween, there were people bringing their kids to the theater. It’s a generational gift, passed from from parent to child: ‘When you get older, I’ll show you that movie, but it’s going to be in a theater like I saw.’ And that’s super-cool.”