Variety cover 11-20-1974 after Tom's revotionary distribution method proved the industry wrong
[continued from yesterday's post]
The re-release of ‘Billy Jack‘ in 1973 was ground breaking. Never had a film been re-released so soon after it had played in theaters… and been such a success. ‘Billy Jack‘ earned $32,000,000 in 1971. (For comparison: ‘The French Connection‘ $26M; ‘Dirty Harry‘ $18M; ‘The Last Picture Show‘ $13M; ‘Shaft‘ $7M.) But Tom and Delores were certain the film could do far more [I will leave out a lot of story here for another time].
During the re-release Tom had a band of whiz-kids working with him that came up with some astounding formulas for predicting audience turnout given the theater location, population, and phase of the moon. I’m kidding about the moon part, but these guys were incredible. Led by John Rubel, who had been an assistant secretary of Defense under McNamara, and a systems analyst at Litton Industries, they tore motion picture distribution down and built formulas that could predict just about everything.
While the re-release resulted in another $60,000,000 in revenue from ‘Billy Jack‘, pushing the total to over $90,000,000 in 1973, the big news is that the brainiac’s formulas predicted something entirely new: that the most efficient way to release a film is not in 60 theaters, but to release the film nationwide – everywhere – on the same day and to support the release by national TV advertising.
The ‘industry’ declared Tom a nut (again). But Tom’s revolutionary distribution technique changed the motion picture business forever. The next film to use Tom’s technique was a little film called ‘Jaws‘, and the rest is history.
This is actually something that is almost unknown in the film industry. Everyone just assumes all big movies open in 2,000, 3,000, even 4,000 theaters and that movies have always been advertised on TV. They haven’t. And if Tom hadn’t proven the industry wrong, they might never have. Makes you wonder if Spielberg, James Cameron, Chrisopher Nolan, the stars, and the studios themselves don’t owe Tom a royalty for the hundreds of millions of dollars his technique has allowed them to make.
Or at least a ‘thank you’. 
wow i didnt know that before i learned it from Tom in billyjack commentary…i think everyone should know these things. think how much more the industry profits because of Toms’ ideas. they owe him so much. they would prolly sooner just have everyone think thats how its always been.