the appeal

Pennsylvania Moon presents an authentic look at a bygone, yet familiar era of American adolescence. Set only fifteen years ago, it invites the millennial generation to reflect on both the cringe-inducing mistakes and wide-eyed idealism that made the immediate post-9/11 era formative for so many people. A time of mix tapes and dial-up internet, pay phones and video rental stores, Pennsylvania Moon's cultural specificity is well positioned to capitalize on the wave of nostalgia currently doing large business in the United States.

Our film is presently modeled on the success of low-budget coming-of-age stories from the last five years:

Boyhood

Date of Release – August 15, 2014
Distributor – IFC Films
Number of domestic screens at opening – 34
Number of domestic screens at widest – 775
Budget – $4M
Worldwide Gross – $50.7M
Domestic Video Sales – $5.3M
Top Territories – Germany, UK, Australia, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria

The Way, Way Back

Date of Release – July 5, 2013
Distributor – Fox Searchlight Pictures
Number of screens at opening – 19
Number of screens at widest – 1001
Budget – $4.6M
Worldwide Gross – $26.9M
Domestic Video Sales – $5.3M
Top Territories – Germany, Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Hong Kong, Belgium

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Date of Release – June 27, 2012
Distributor – Fox Searchlight Pictures
Number of screens at opening – 4
Number of screens at widest – 318
Budget – $1.8M
Worldwide Gross – $23.3M
Domestic Video Sales – $10.8M
Top Territories - Poland, UK, Denmark, Italy, Germany, Norway, Mexico, Brazil

The Spectacular Now

Date of Release – August 2nd, 2013
Distributor – A24
Number of screens at opening – 4
Number of screens at widest – 770
Budget – $2.5M
Worldwide Gross – $6.9M
Domestic Video Sales – $2.7M
Top Territories – Australia

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Date of Release – January 17, 2015
Distributor – Fox Searchlight Pictures
Number of screens at opening – 15
Number of screens at widest – 870
Budget – $6M
Worldwide Gross – $9.3M
Domestic Video Sales –$0.67M
Top Territories – UK, Australia, Spain, New Zealand, Singapore, Italy, Belgium

millenial graffiti

Although financially modeled on award-winning, high-grossing coming-of-age films of the past five years, we believe the authentic verisimilitude and timeliness of Pennsylvania Moon compares directly to George Lucas’s American Graffiti.

Date of Release – August 11, 1973
Distributor – Universal Pictures
Number of screens at opening – 1
Number of screens at widest – 8000
Budget – $777,000 ($3.9M adjusted for inflation)
Worldwide Gross – $140M
Domestic Video Sales –$60M

A genre-defining hit, American Graffiti was, like our film, set only a decade before its production. In the same way American Graffiti allowed the baby boomer generation to look back and see an ensemble cast who experienced an era they remembered with both fondness and remorse, so too does Pennsylvania Moon allow the members of the millennial generation to peek back at a time sitting on the verge of change.

2002 wasn’t that long ago, yet think of what’s changed over the past decade. The rapid technological revolution has transformed interpersonal communication. Endless war overseas have destroyed lives and gutted our national resources. We’ve become a more cynical nation, distrustful of government and insecure in our upward mobility. Doesn’t this sound a lot like the 1970s? The United States is ready for a sincere, nostalgic look at a bygone era.