“Frankie and Alice,” a not very good movie starring Halle Berry, was released for one week in December 2010 for an Academy run. It made somewhere between $7,000 and $10,000. There were no Oscar nominations, although Berry did get a Golden Globe nod. That should tell you everything. The distributor was Freestyle Releasing, which apparently knew more about swimming than putting out movies.
Flash forward to yesterday: “Frankie and Alice” was re-released, for no particular reason, into 171 theaters. This time it’s with Lions Gate’s black film division, CodeBlack. They’re the same outfit that dumped the well- reviewed “The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete” a few months ago. For that film CodeBlack did no marketing. For the re-release of “Frankie and Alice,” they did no marketing. This seems to be their calling card.
When I saw the listing for “Frankie and Alice” on Tuesday, I thought it was an April Fool’s joke. It still seems like one.
PS Freestyle Releasing, which didn’t release “Frankie and Alice” this time, has the Christian movie “God’s Not Dead” in theatres right now. It’s their highest grossing film ever. God’s Not Dead, and neither is Frankie and Alice apparently.
