Magnolia Pictures is riding the Gravity wave, hoping that people turn out en masse to Last Days On Mars. Sorry. Not gonna happen.
The reason why it won’t be a hit, even a marginal one? It was released on VOD (Video On Demand) in November and will be released in less than 50 movie theaters. Major movie chains, all of them, including Regal, AMC, Harkins, etc., do not play movies that have debuted on cable before their theatrical release. Magnolia Pictures will never, ever be a big player in the motion picture business if they continue their business plan this way; releasing movies on VOD before their theatrical release.
On the last day of the first manned mission to Mars, a crew member of Tantalus Base believes he has made an astounding discovery – fossilized evidence of bacterial life. Unwilling to let the relief crew claim all the glory, he disobeys orders to pack up and goes out on an unauthorized expedition to collect further samples. But a routine excavation turns to disaster when the porous ground collapses, and he falls into a deep crevice and near certain death. His devastated colleagues attempt to recover his body. However, when another vanishes they start to suspect that the life-form they have discovered is not yet dead. As the group begins to fall apart it seems their only hope is the imminent arrival of the relief ship Aurora.
