Why do some movies open in "select cities" first and then open everywhere else?

Smaller independent films are usually released in "selected cities" in order to build buzz and gauge audience response. These tend to be cities with a lot of media (and almost always start with New York and Los Angeles). More than studio productions with huge advertising budgets, smaller films depend on good reviews and word of mouth. If they do well on a few screens, they can then be released in more places.

All of the big studios have specialty divisions that release smaller budget films: Focus Features (Universal), Fox Searchlight, Sony Pictures Classics. Fox Searchlight's "Bee Season," for example, has recently changed status from "Now Playing in Select Theaters" to "Now Playing in Theaters Everywhere."

As this blogger from Atlanta perceptively notes, the select cities strategy usually means the film runs in Los Angeles and New York for a week or two, followed by Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, and Boston for a little while. If all goes well, it opens nationwide. The blogger, incidentally, is disgruntled about Atlanta being deemed a "third-tier movie city."

Of course, "select cities" can mean different things depending on the subject matter of the film. For example, this Christian-oriented film was released in cities throughout the Midwest. Mel Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ" was also released in select suburbs rather than select cities.