First run theatre
Related: mainstream film - general audience - theatre - monde
The year is 1972. Outside a swank first-run Manhatten cinema, a line of well-heeled sophisticates queue expectantly outside a marquee with three large X’s proudly proclaiming: "Linda Lovelace IS Deep Throat!" A few miles uptown on the infamous 42nd Street strip, the traditional raincoat brigade shuffle into a theater past posters for Terrorized Virgin, Perverted Passion and Girl In A Basket toward their waiting stain-covered seats. Both crowds have three things on their minds, and they ain’t Surf, Sand and Sun. --Andrew Leavold, "Adult Industry Review", published by the Eros Foundation in Canberra.
Definition
First-run theater: A theater that runs primarily mainstream film fare from the major film companies and distributors, during the initial release period of each film. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movie_theater#Programming [Dec 2004]Wide release
Wide release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing nationally (as opposed to a few theatres in cities such as New York and Los Angeles) and on thousands (rather than hundreds) of screens. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_release [Oct 2005]
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