A Montague-born filmmaker is trying out a new type of marketing strategy for his independent film produced in Japan.
Jeffrey Rowe’s film Rules of Living saw a successful debut at City Cinema where it was screened for four days in June. He plans to screen the movie again from August 14 to 17.
The movie is about a Japanese woman who is at a turning point in her life and reluctantly takes a foreign man as a roommate.
It was sold out the first two days and almost sold out the other two days, Rowe said.
He realized it’s better to screen the film in one small theatre at a time and build a community, then move on to different cities than to release in many cities at once for only a few weeks.
“We’re looking at connecting with PEI clubs and community organizations and trusted Island connectors and whatnot. The word-of-mouth impact is one of the biggest things,” he said.
Independent films such as this don’t have the multi-million marketing budget of a big Hollywood production, so they need to build their own audience, he said.
The commercial theatres don’t want to take chances on smaller films with lesser-known actors, Rowe added.
When the film was released in Japan they did it the traditional way, with a marketing budget and commercial theatres, but it had to compete with big production cinemas and animated movies.
One of the movies they were competing against had about $10 million for a marketing budget and his film had about 3 per cent of that.
“What we found was the traditional way of copying studios and other advertising and marketing is impossible for an independent film,” he added.
Screening the film at one location at a time for a few weeks gives him time to connect with local audiences, media, organizations, influencers and spread the word.
“I simply think you need to understand that the world is changing. Every industry kind of goes through these things, and the way that a film reaches its audience is no different,” Rowe said.
Another factor that has limited independent films from reaching their theatre audiences is streaming platforms, he added. Streaming has affected smaller theatres and physical forms of consuming media through DVDs and Blu-ray.
Along with that, a lot of studios are being bought out by a small number of big competitors, and the consolidation of the entire industry has impacted the small to medium budget films, he said.
“Most of the feature films you see that are put in theatres now are above $50 million because the studios can guesstimate what the audience is going to be for all of these bigger films,” he said.
Which means less films are being made and even fewer are being screened.
This has also opened an opportunity for independent filmmakers to be directly in contact with theatres, which used to be almost impossible a few years ago, he said.
“There’s probably 50 per cent or more of theaters that are at least willing to open your email to look at what the film is and then make a decision,” he said.
If he can prove the film can build an audience through a smaller theatre, then they can replicate the model in other cities.
“I want PEI to be the place that helps launch the film farther across Canada,” Rowe said.
He said he’s not rushing to take the film to a streaming platform, and is willing to spend four to five years with the film screening at one place at a time and build an audience for the next project and keep the theatre experience alive.
“I’m speaking with my fellow Islanders and I’m asking them graciously and with a full heart to come out and support this film and as you know, this story has a heart,” he said.
By Pratik Bhattarai, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Aug 12, 2026 at 07:01
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