There appears to be a lot of studio issues that relate to this movie. Mostly the new head of LionsGate and how he is crapping on projects made before his reign. Apparently, MMT was supposed to be released around the same time as his production "The Strangers" and that just couldn't happen, so MMT was bumped.
Also, in the contract, there was something that said it had to be on - at minimum - 100 screens. So here is what we have .. the minimum screens where it won't make any money and be deemed a failure. I'll find the details and post it here.
Here are things from other sites
There's quite a controversy with this movie a brewin'.
You see, the new head of LionsGate is Joe Drake. He fired the old guy, and he appears to be trying to make all of that old guys movies tank so as to say "See, his movies bombed, good thing I'm in charge." They've done a few stories about this on Bloody-Disgusting.
Not only that, but Midnight Meat Train was supposed to come out in May, but Joe Drake, new head of LionsGate, pushed it back because he had produced the movie "The Strangers" that was coming out at the same time from a different studio, even though he was now at LionsGate. So he bumped MMT off to August 1st and released it only in dollar theaters.
Because of the whole dollar theater thing, it really can't be denied that it is clearly being set up to flop. How can a movie make a good profit when you only charge people $1 to see it? You simply can't.
and
Here’s some cold hard fact:
1) Drake produced The Strangers and wanted to clear the schedule for counter-programming in May. His hard R horror flick made over $50 million FOR ANOTHER STUDIO THAN THE ONE HE IS RUNNING.
2) Meat Train was put on the back burner and the decision was made to release without advertising support. That is fine. That is LGF’s choice and right. They had a deal requiring at least 100 screens, so that’s what they promised the producers and fans for the Aug 1st release.
3) they refused to release a list of any theaters to ANYONE involved with the film. When I spoke to a rep at LGF they promised the film would be in all the major urban centers at the usual LGF chains, etc. THIS WAS A BOLD FACE LIE TO KEEP THE FANS AWAY FROM THE FILM.
4) There are additional fees due to various parties involved with this film if it were to gross a meager $250 K on opening weekend. This in not profit participation (which started around $20 mil) and would have not been a huge amount of money. Far less than the amount of money the film would have made if released without any ad support in decent theaters with decent ticket prices where fans had prior knowledge and they were located in urban areas were they could find it.
5) Joe Drake has a well known personal vendetta against Peter Block and more recently Clive Barker. His desire was to quietly dump their movie and move on. What he didn’t take into account was the FANS who built LGF (and also pumped up his own resume with films of questionable quality like Boogeyman, The Eye, Strangers, etc…) would feel deserted and betrayed and would take offence to this action. He deserves hte hate mail and heat.
6) LGF could have easily let word of mouth drive Meat Train to a few million bucks if they just chucked it out to normal theaters (I’m not talking the Arclight… just your average Mann or Amc in a city near you). The money that they DIDN’T EARN by taking this vindictive approach is being paid for by the producing partners, the shareholders and the fans. THIS IS BAD BUSINESS and Drake should be held accountable to his board!
7) For those of you who want to hate on the film itself. Go ahead. We’re in the horror business. We’re used to people slamming our product for the crazy titles, gruesome violence and often questionable production value. The thing is, Meat Train, was at the very least a cut above the average horror film and had a strong buzz and want-to-see in the market. The issue here is not the film, but the way it was handled and how personal vendettas got in the way of good business practice and fan loyalty.
And that’s why you should have no qualms about posting this story Nikke, you aren’t supporting this kind of films but simply reporting, with factual evidence, on the state of a very lucrative part of the film business.
As for the rest of you haters, go ahead and cry liar and point your fingers and laugh at the title and look down your noses… but those of us who spent YEARS of our life trying to deliver something that the Clive Barker fans would appreciate can still sleep well at night knowing that our little film wasn’t a flop, it was DUMPED in the most humiliating way by an ego maniac who was caught acting like a angry six year old and in the process pissed off a lot of people.
We also know that the TRUE FANS love the film and feel very gratified that Clive’s work was treated with respect and not watered down into PG-13 pablum with the hope of drawing in a bunch of unwitting teens.