Second time around one time too many for moviegoers

On the surface, the reason for this is box-office figures; movie distributors say there are fewer moviegoers during the summer months in Turkey and that they do not want to risk their investments. So a number of Turkish films that have already completed their theatrical runs during the “high season” are getting second runs during summer. The most recent example for this practice was “Nefes: Vatan Sağolsun” (Breath), director Levent Semercioğlu’s debut feature that follows a group of 40 soldiers in charge of protecting a relay station in southeastern Turkey near the Iraqi border, which hit theaters again last Friday. The film originally opened in Turkey on Oct. 16, 2009 for a 28-week run, during which it reached around 2.5 million moviegoers. Box-office figures for the film’s second run are not yet available, so it is too early to judge whether the practice will prove fruitful or not for this film in particular.

But “Nefes” is not the only film to be re-released recently in Turkey. So we decided maybe it was time we questioned why a movie, months after its first run -- and in some cases after its DVD is already out -- is re-released in theaters. And the re-release we’re referring to here is not as part of a batch screening of old films held in historic movie theaters in Beyoğlu, but rather a second run made available by a film’s own producers and distributors.

“Kara Köpekler Havlarken” (Black Dogs Barking), husband-and-wife co-directors Mehmet Bahadır Er and Maryna Gorbach’s joint directorial debut, took its second turn two weeks ago, while “Romantik Komedi” (Romantic Comedy), whose title is an obvious hint at its genre, reopened on June 25. No box office figures have been released about “Kara Köpekler” because the film’s producer did not want this information to be made public. “Romantik Komedi,” on the other hand, could not even attract 10,000 moviegoers in its second run, which came about four months after its original release, during which it sold around 700,000 tickets. Pinema Film, the Turkish distributor company behind both films, says “audience demand” was an effective factor in the re-release of both titles, but ticket sales do not seem to prove that.

Excepting “Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalım” (The Girl with the Red Scarf), whose restored version reopened on May 14, some 32 years after its original theatrical release, there are plenty of movies seeking new life in theaters during the usually stale summer season. Although the chief aim seems to be to reinvigorate movie theaters during the summer season, this is not the sole purpose.

Another chance after award win

Director Tolga Örnek’s “Devrim Arabaları” (Cars of the Revolution), which hit theaters on Oct. 24, 2008 in what was billed as “an unlucky time” due to a plethora of Turkish movies opening on or around the same weekend, only managed to draw around 150,000 -- half the number of moviegoers Örnek estimated -- in its first run. But after Örnek’s period drama started to garner nominations and award wins in Turkey and abroad, it had a second run starting May 1, 2009, during which it sold around 38,000 more tickets.

Re-releasing a movie following a major award win is not uncommon in Hollywood. “The Hurt Locker,” which brought its director Kathryn Bigelow the best director Oscar in this year’s Academy Awards, drew just 5,000 moviegoers to Turkish theaters when it first opened here on Oct. 2, 2009, whereas it sold 15,554 tickets during its second run following the film’s Oscar glory.

‘Due to immense demand’

Another problem faced by Turkish productions in the box office is the crammed schedule in the “high season” that runs between the months of September and May, when two or three Turkish productions are released each week. “Devrim Arabaları” encountered just that situation when it opened two years ago. Thus, the demand from moviegoers who miss a certain film due to too many titles opening in the same week is part of the factors that shape a distributor’s decision to give a film a second run.

However, even when the audience asks for a second showing, box office figures do not always prove their zest for the title. Director Mahsun Kırmızıgül’s “Güneşi Gördüm” (I Saw the Sun) sold around 2.5 million tickets -- well above experts’ expectations -- in its 11-week run starting in March 2009. But when “Güneşi Gördüm” reopened around six months after its initial run, it couldn’t even find 2,000 viewers.

Previously on the ‘Twilight Saga’…

Probably the most interesting reason for second runs is to remind the viewer of the previous installments of a popular franchise, with the most recent example being the “Twilight Saga.” Before the June 30 opening of the series’ third film, “Eclipse,” the first and second films in the franchise were re-released in theaters. “New Moon,” the series’ second film, which exceeded 1.2 million viewers during its original run that started in November 2009, only managed to draw about 15,000 viewers in its recent re-release. “Twilight,” the series’ opening film, did not even reach that level and sold only 290 tickets in its second run in just four theaters.

It seems Turkish moviegoers, even though they ask for an encore, are reluctant to go see a film after it completes its first run, maybe because of “summer sluggishness.”