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Shawshank Redemption joins Office Space, Fight Club, and It's A Wonderful Life in the ranks of films saved by being shown on TV (whether via cable, DVD, or obsessive rebroadcasts over the holiday season before It's A Wonderful Life got snatched out of the public domain) after having bombed in theaters. They eventually found an audience even if the vagaries of the theater world kept them from making much in box office sensu stricto.

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There are movies I want to see multiple times and movies I truly loved but only needed to see once. I would assume block blusters fit the "multiple times" category which is why they make so much money, because people go more than once.

A drama like Shawshank Redemption (a favorite of mine) is not the type of movie I would have paid to go see multiple times in the theatre. Where as I saw The Matrix 6 times in the theatre back when it came out. Every friend who wanted to go see it I went with.

Maybe they needed to get a bigger marketing budget. Now, if only the majors could predict which movie need to be marketed how...

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