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Neon is giving Korean action maestro Na Hong-jin‘s gritty monster epic Hope an early theatrical launch on premium screens across the U.S.
The distributor revealed Thursday that it will hold large-format screenings of Hope on Sept. 7 at 175 premium locations ahead of its wide release on Sept. 9. The one-night event, with showtimes at 6:30 p.m., spans six formats — Dolby Cinema, 4DX, ScreenX, Barco HDR, D-Box and Dolby Atmos — at theaters in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas and elsewhere. The launch strategy is reminiscent of Neon’s rollout last year of Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey, which used advance premium-format screenings to build word of mouth on the way to the film’s strong $40 million theatrical performance.
One of the buzziest films to emerge from this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Hope’s visceral spectacle certainly seems to warrant the premium-format splash.
Describing the film as “a superbly sustained pedal-to-the-metal experience that’s almost dizzying in its bravura,” The Hollywood Reporter‘s chief film critic hailed Hope as a “rip-roaring sci-fi creature feature” that “has instant cult classic written all over it.”
