A24's Primetime Opens Today, Testing Whether TIFF
Summary
Robert Pattinson's Chris Hansen drama expands into theaters the same week Beyond Fest and AFI Fest both feature it on their fall calendars
Lance Oppenheim's Primetime, starring Robert Pattinson as television journalist Chris Hansen during the "To Catch a Predator" era, opens in theaters today, September 25, distributed by A24. The film carries an unusually dense festival run into its release: it played Telluride and Toronto this fall, opened Beyond Fest's Los Angeles edition on September 23, and screens as part of AFI Fest's guest artistic directors program in October. Bejo, Marder and the rest of A24's late-September specialty slate will be watched closely as an early read on whether this fall's festival-heavy marketing strategies, stacking a single title across four or five festivals before a theatrical date, actually move opening-weekend numbers versus simply generating press.