A film with awards ambitions often opens on a few screens in New York and Los Angeles before appearing anywhere else. The narrowness is a financial strategy, not a limitation of interest.
Wide marketing costs more than the film
Opening nationally requires a national advertising campaign, and for a modestly budgeted film that campaign can exceed the production cost entirely.
A distributor without that budget cannot compete for attention on a crowded weekend, and an unnoticed wide opening is a total loss.
Opening small removes the requirement, since a handful of theaters can be filled through reviews and word of mouth in two cities.
Per-screen average is the metric that travels
A film selling out four theaters produces a striking per-screen figure, and that number is reported and discussed as evidence of demand.
Exhibitors elsewhere read those results when deciding whether to book the film, so the opening functions as a demonstration to the industry.
Expansion is then negotiated from a position of proven performance rather than from a projection nobody has reason to believe.
Two cities carry disproportionate influence
Critics and awards voters are concentrated in these markets, and a release there generates reviews that shape how the film is discussed everywhere.
Qualifying rules for certain awards also require a theatrical run in specified markets within a defined period, which the platform opening satisfies.
The strategy therefore serves two purposes at once, meeting a formal requirement while producing the coverage the expansion depends on.
Expansion follows attention, not a plan
Distributors add theaters city by city as awareness builds, and the pace is adjusted weekly based on how each new market performs.
A film that fails to hold in its first expansion is often stopped there, which is why some acclaimed titles never reach many parts of the country.
Others expand steadily over months and end up playing far more widely than a conventional opening would have achieved.
Streaming changed what happens next
Platform releases now sit alongside a home window that arrives quickly, which shortens the period during which theatrical expansion can occur.
Some distributors treat the theatrical run primarily as a marketing event for the streaming release, with the box office almost incidental.
The two-city opening survives in both cases, because whatever the eventual destination, the reviews and the awards eligibility still start there.