Phase 1: Theatrical

Shane and Danny wanted to prove there was an audience for GOOD BAD THINGS. I also knew there was an audience for it. So, as my “Plan A,” I positioned it as such: a commercial film with a large audience. I pitched the film to the largest U.S. circuit, AMC Theatres. I’ve worked with AMC on many releases over the years, so I knew their team, that their venues are accessible, and they program Hollywood movies from studios that we wanted GOOD BAD THINGS to be in conversation with. To drive urgency for audiences to watch in theaters, our strategy was to make the film available for one-night-only.

My friends at AMC (shout out to Nikkole and Scott!) enjoyed the film and saw its potential. Yet perhaps more importantly, they were pleased with our marketing strategy, despite lacking funds for advertising. To be clear, GOOD BAD THINGS was not part of the AMC Independent program where filmmakers can submit their films directly to AMC. Once AMC was onboard with the film, we chose the release date and specific theaters.

How did we go about choosing which markets and which theaters the film should play in? We knew our target audiences but didn’t necessarily know where they lived or the theaters they attended. Looking at grosses by theater of comparable films wasn’t sufficient because (A) there wasn’t an authentic rom-com about disability released recently; and (B) we know that people with disabilities often find theaters inaccessible, so they rarely go.

So, we got creative—we learned (thanks to our friends at Runway of Dreams) that Victoria’s Secret had just come out with an adaptive clothing line but only sold them in select stores. And, since—fun fact!—Victoria’s Secret stores are often in the same malls as AMC Theatres, we piggybacked off of Victoria’s Secret’s market research on their new clothing line. The list of select locations that sold the adaptive lingerie was one of our primary data sources for choosing which AMC Theatres to play.

We also prioritized markets where we, or our partners, had a personal network—Sarasota (my hometown), Tulsa (film’s editor resides there), and Los Angeles (Danny and Shane reside there). All 50 theaters were specifically selected, working backwards from our audience.

Phase 2: Virtual

As mentioned earlier, we knew movie-going is not always a positive experience for the disability community. Therefore, we planned a virtual premiere (PVOD window) to follow the theatrical release on an accessible platform called VEEPS. VEEPS was created as a way for fans to watch concerts from the comfort of their home and is now owned by Live Nation. GOOD BAD THINGS would be their first fiction feature.

Phase 3: Home Entertainment & Ancillary

The strategy behind home entertainment and ancillary distribution was to show traditional distributors that there’s a large and loyal audience for GOOD BAD THINGS through both the theatrical and virtual releases. This way, the home entertainment and ancillary distributors would pay for the film’s rights, instead of working with an aggregator.

Partnerships: We were incredibly lucky to have many partners support the theatrical release by posting on social media and emailing their followers. We scheduled Zooms to review timelines, share assets, and listen to what works best for their communities. We found these organizations were eager to help because (1) there was an existing relationship or (2) they were truly moved by the film—a long overdue authentic disabled love story.

Furthermore, the below list of partners signed up to be affiliates to help spread the word about the virtual premiere on VEEPS. In return for promoting, these non-profit organizations received 25% of all tickets they sold. The affiliate program was a big success—78% of tickets were sold by affiliates. And, 78% of those tickets were sold by a single affiliate partner. We tracked ticket sales by affiliate since each one had a unique ticketing link from the platform VEEPS.

Our partners, in alphabetic order:

• All We Have Is Now Foundation (shout out to Danny!)
• FSHD Society (shout out to Erin and Beth!)
• Gamut (shout out to Mindy, Jennifer, and Debbie!)
• Laughing at My Nightmare (shout out to Shane and Hannah!)
• Muscular Dystrophy Association (shout out to Mary, Mindy, and Sandra!)
• Runway of Dreams (shout out to Mindy, Jennifer, and Debbie!)
• Slamdance Film Festival / Unstoppable (shout out to Peter!)

Social Media Influencers: We found promotional success for all stages of the release thanks to actor/comedian Steve Way as well as influencer couple Shane and Hannah Burcaw—a.k.a. Squirmy and Grubs. In both cases, Danny sent them a DM “Hail Mary” and they replied—there was no prior relationship or introduction by a mutual friend! Steve, Shane, and Hannah all received Executive Producer credit on the film to help compensate them for their hard work. Having them as EPs also signaled to audiences that GOOD BAD THINGS was a legitimate and authentic film worth watching.

Steve has incredible Hollywood connections from being an actor and comedian, which opened the door for VIPs with major social followings to post about the film—like Ramy Youssef and Judd Apatow. (More on Steve’s network below). When Steve posted that he would be doing a Q&A at his local New Jersey theater (AMC Clifton Commons) on Sunday, ticket sales doubled from Thursday’s screening.

The Burcaw’s are social media influencers with 1.85+ million subscribers on YouTube. When they announced their involvement with GOOD BAD THINGS, their YouTube video was viewed 50K+ times. Tickets sold out in minutes for their local Minneapolis theater (AMC Southdale Center). Their next video, Our Relationship Is A Movie, announcing the virtual premiere, was viewed 68K+ times.

We found organic social media marketing to be effective. We briefly tried spending a little money to boost influencer posts but stopped because we quickly saw the ROI was not efficient.

Exhibitor Marketing: AMC was also critical in helping to promote the theatrical release. One of the best ways to market your film is by playing the trailer in theaters with comparable films (same audiences). However, studios pay millions of dollars for trailer placements each year. As an independent release, we were grateful that AMC programmed our trailer on select titles at all confirmed theaters starting one month prior to release (July 26). These select titles had a similar audience to GOOD BAD THINGS (rom-coms, indies) and included:

• Fly Me to the Moon (Columbia/Apple)
• Twisters (Universal)
• The Fabulous Four (Bleecker St.)
• Didi (Focus)
• The Duel (Lionsgate)
• Kneecap (Sony)
• It Ends with Us (Sony)

In addition to the trailering, AMC included GOOD BAD THINGS on their website, in their newsletter, and in digital poster cases in theater lobbies. These were all digital placements, so besides creating the assets, there was no printing or shipping costs involved.

Community Outreach: Danny and Steve personally reached out to leaders in the disability community and would schedule individual Zooms with them to share information about the film, release, and marketing assets. Those personal conversations took hours upon hours, but it was community building—not just for GOOD BAD THINGS, but to support everyone’s creative pursuits. The mindset was collaboration, not competition. Here’s an example of the community outreach work that Danny and Steve made for the home entertainment release:

Premiere: The week of the theatrical release (Tuesday, August 13) we hosted a premiere at the Culver Theater in Los Angeles. We specifically chose this location because they have an auditorium where the stadium seating was removed. It’s a private space not open to the public, but I knew this because I used to work at Amazon Studios, which controlled the theater space. This specific auditorium allowed us to invite as many wheelchair users as we needed, unlike a traditional auditorium that only has a handful of ADA spaces.

Given my relationship with the theater (shout out to Tom!), we confirmed a great deal to screen the film, provide concessions for guests, and host a reception in the lobby. Due to Steve’s relationship, he enlisted his friend, actor/comedian Ramy Youssef, to moderate a post-screening Q&A featuring Steve, Danny, Shane, Brett, and Jessica Parker Kennedy.

To make the evening feel like a true “premiere,” we had a step-and-repeat with the film’s title treatment, a professional photographer, and SWAG (branded baseball caps). We decided not to have a physical red carpet because it would not be as accessible for wheelchair users. For the reception, we set up the film’s photography artwork of Danny around the lobby on easels.

The only hiccup was the ASL Interpreter hired for the introduction and post-screening Q&A never showed. We desperately tried to reach her, but to no avail, so an audience member was able to help with signing. Otherwise, the night was absolutely magical with a “sold out” crowd!

Publicity: For independent releases, I strongly recommend hiring a publicist who can write press notes, secure reviews, and generate press stories. The film team hired Arianne Rocchi, who I collaborated with back in our Amazon days—an excellent addition to the team. Since the film was going to have a nationwide theatrical release, Arianne could pitch to both local and national outlets. Plus, we had marketing beats in the campaign (press screening; read premiere above) that gave press an opportunity to cover the film.

Here is a selection of outlets that covered the film, starting with its festival release, with reviews, interviews, and announcements:

• 48 Hills (San Francisco)
• Cape Code Health
• Dallas Film Now
• Digital Journal
• Entertainment Weekly
• Every Movie Has A Lesson
• Film Ink
• Film Obsessive
• Film School Radio
• Filmmaker Magazine
• Forbes
• IMDb
• KUCI—Film School Radio
• MovieMaker Magazine
• Oklahoma City Free Press
• RogerEbert.com
• The Hollywood Reporter
• The Moveable Feast
• The Park Record
• The San Diego Union Tribune
• USC Cinematic Arts
• Variety
• Yahoo Entertainment

One of my favorite quotes the film received was from Nell Minow at RogerEbert.com, “…this movie is one of those good good things.” On Rotten Tomatoes, the critics score was 80% fresh with a 99% audience score.

Corporate Partnership: Nathan Haugaard was the film’s incredibly talented cinematographer. He shot on a Canon EOS R5 C camera and Canon said it was the best-looking footage / project shot on that camera they’d seen. Canon’s marketing team was so impressed with the quality, color, and performances of GOOD BAD THINGS that they helped to promote the release. More specifically, they offered to produce a featurette, post to their 4 million Instagram followers, and loan Canon gear for Nathan and Shane’s future projects.

Theatrical: On ADA Day (July 26, 2024), we announced the 50-theater release with AMC would be on Thursday, August 15, 2024 at 7:00pm. Pre-sales were so strong that we added an encore showtime for Sunday, August 18 at 2:00pm in 48 of our original 50 theaters. In addition to these specific event showtimes, we confirmed an awards qualifying run at AMC Burbank—which was the highest grossing theater for independent films in Los Angeles.

For opening weekend, we hosted in-person Q&As at five theaters. (We thought about hosting a Q&A at AMC Burbank but the auditorium’s configuration for ADA seating was not ideal for Danny or Steve). Here is a list of our five theatrical Q&As:

1. Thursday 8/15 at AMC Century City, moderated by Oscar winner Sian Heder (thanks Steve!!) featuring Shane, Danny, Steve, Jessica Parker Kennedy, and Brett Dier.
2. Thursday 8/15 at AMC Penn Square with editor AJ Culter.
3. Sunday 8/18 at AMC Century City, moderated by yours truly featuring Shane, producer Manny Gonzalez, cinematographer Nathan Haugaard, and actors Brett Dier and Gale Hansen.
4. Sunday 8/18 at AMC Tustin with Danny.
5. Sunday 8/18 at AMC Clifton Commons with Steve.

Deluxe handled the DCP delivery to all of our confirmed theaters (shout out to Mary!). We chose to make the DCP unencrypted (no key) because the chance of piracy was minimal, it saved hundreds of dollars, and it allowed me to sleep better at night.

We did have two technical issues on opening day—the projector at the Sarasota theater broke 😭 (my hometown, remember?!) and Mesquite initially played the wrong film 😖. Otherwise, the theatrical was a major success with audience members from all over the country posting their reactions on social media.

Virtual Premiere (PVOD): Over Labor Day weekend 2024, we announced the limited virtual premiere would take place September 20-22, 2024 on the platform VEEPS. (Initially, the virtual premiere was going to take place closer to the theatrical release but, honestly, our lean team was exhausted and needed more time to organize). We only allowed the film to be available to rent for that one weekend to drive scarcity for audiences while also making sure a digital distributor would still want to license the film.

We chose the platform VEEPS because Shane was longtime friends of the co-founder Kyle Heller. GOOD BAD THINGS would betheir first scripted feature on the platform. We chose a premium ticket price of $19.99 (PVOD).To market the virtual premiere, we relied on audience testimonials and the affiliate program described above. In addition to ticket sales, the film team received customer email addresses—“gold” as Danny called it.

After the virtual premiere, it was time to try to sell/license the other distribution types (spoiler alert, we did). To help capture the movie’s magic and incredible audience testimonials, Steve edited a short video that became our sales reel.

Other Distribution Types (Blu-Ray, VOD, Ancillary): Music Box Films (shout out to Ryan and Brian!) licensed home entertainment and ancillary rights but for no minimum guarantee (MG). This means the filmmakers did not receive money up front and will split revenue with Music Box. There is a cap on Music Box’s expenses so revenue will be seen by the film team earlier. For Valentine’s 2025, they released a Blu-ray and made the film available to purchase and rent at home (TVOD). As of October 2025, GOOD BAD THINGS is available to watch on Delta Airlines. Once exclusive windows end, Music Box will license other VOD and ancillary distribution.

Streaming (SVOD): For SVOD, I pitched the film to a few streamers including my friends at Hulu (shout out to Aijah and Jess!). Hulu appreciated not only the craft of the film, but the audience we had built along the way. Hulu paid a licensing fee (of which Suncatcher earned 10%) and the team (including the cast and crew) is proud to say GOOD BAD THINGS is available to watch on Hulu.
Hulu made the film available on May 13, 2025 but without any special promotion so, Shane and Danny hosted another premiere at an accessible venue in Los Angeles. Instead of a screening (invitees had already seen the film), we decorated the space like an art gallery—just like (SPOILER ALERT) the final scene in the movie with the huge (naked) portraits of Danny. Shane’s cookie company Baked Bear provided green cookies in honor of Hulu. Actor Brett Dier displayed and sold his original art (I bought a fun piece for my hubby). It was a celebratory night and a packed house with many friends in the disability community!

All of this is to say that movie marketing and distribution is about working backwards from your audience. We knew the disabled community would be our primary audience to drive views, engagement, and impact. This brief timeline shows the distribution of GOOD BAD THINGS is nearing two years in the making! And this is after the couple of years it took to make.