Collider reported on September 10 that tickets for Jimmy are on sale, with Fathom dating the KJ Apa picture November 6 as a traditional theatrical opening rather than a one-night event.
That Friday already belongs to Angel’s Drummer Boy, the Revolutionary War musical from for KING + COUNTRY, which means two faith-adjacent titles will be asking exhibitors for the same kind of auditorium.
Aaron Burns directed from a Justin Strawhand script. KJ Apa plays Stewart from the Philadelphia Story Oscar through twenty missions over Europe and back to It’s a Wonderful Life. Kelly Stewart Harcourt, the actor’s daughter, is a producer. Burns & Co. has wrapped Vet Tix into the campaign, promising donated seats for veterans and first responders, and selling a Hollywood saint who left the lot, then needed George Bailey to come home.
The supporting cast is a nostalgia stack. Max Casella plays Frank Capra. Jason Alexander plays Louis B. Mayer. Christopher McDonald plays Lionel Barrymore. Sarah Drew plays Hedda Hopper. Neal McDonough plays Stewart’s father. Rob Riggle plays a wartime colonel. The stills Fathom is circulating already dress Apa in the gray suit and the Potters neon. The movie knows which cathedral it is visiting.
This Friday, a Canadian Daniel picture is already asking whether a Bible title can fill a circuit without Angel. In November, Angel is the one on the marquee, and Fathom is the chain-owned specialty shop trying to take the same rooms with a Stewart biopic. Fathom is owned by AMC, Cinemark, and Regal, which helps the bookings and still does not invent an audience.
Faith distributors have spent a decade training exhibitors to keep a lane open in November and December. Angel usually owns that lane. Fathom is betting that Stewart’s church still buys tickets when the competing title is a musical about brothers on opposite sides of the Revolution. Veterans Day is five days later. It’s a Wonderful Life returns to Fathom screens on December 18 for the 80th anniversary. The company is building a corridor. Drummer Boy is the test of whether anyone else is allowed in it.
Drummer Boy is a title this desk is watching. Windows, studios, and the rest of the slate live on Upcoming.
