[1][2] The practice emerged as a successful marketing strategy in the 1970s, and became increasingly common in subsequent decades, in parallel with the expansion of the number of screens available at multiplex cinemas.
[3] Prior to the 1980s, most feature films initially opened in major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Paris, and London, with a small set of prints then circulating as a "roadshow" among cinemas regionally over the course of a few months.
The number of prints in circulation would be increased only to accommodate demand for highly popular features, which might be "held over" beyond their originally scheduled run.
[6] Advantages of the new release approach included economies of scale on advertising costs[6] and the fact that "it allows for the old circus technique of 'get out of town before they find out how lousy you are.
[6][7] By 1949, most film companies had started to move to multiple regional openings on the same day and date in limited areas, known as "saturation booking".
Universal Pictures tested it for The Life of Riley and then released Calamity Jane and Sam Bass via 600 dates in Texas and Oklahoma.
[8][9] Joseph E. Levine, a distributor/exhibitor based in Boston who had worked on the "blitz" release of Duel in the Sun, hired Turner and adopted a similar approach on the 1958 US release of the Italian film Attila, quickly moving 90 prints through regional distribution hubs, renting them to mostly low-end theaters where he could book short runs with favorable box office terms.
[13] The following year, Breakout was the first major studio film to go into wide release in its opening week, with Columbia Pictures distributing 1,325 prints nationwide, combined with a heavy national advertising campaign.
[27] The same month, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones opened in 3,161 theaters in the United States and Canada, and in 73 other countries on 5,854 screens.
[28][29] In 2003, 20th Century Fox released X2, the second installment of the X-Men film series, in 3,741 theaters in the United States and Canada, and in 93 markets on 7,316 screens overseas.