What is film release "platforming"?

What is film release "platforming"?

Platforming is for smaller movies. X-Men is not a movie that will platform. X-Men is a movie that will go into a wide release, which means that it will open in the maximum amount of theatres that they can get their hands on, because people have a desire to see this movie. It's big. It's mainstream. It's what people are after. Smaller movies will platform. Movies released by Miramax, by Fox Searchlight, or by Focus Features will platform. They will usually start in New York and LA, then expand to other markets which are just other cities; New York, LA, Chicago, San Francisco. Then New York, LA, Chicago San Francisco, Boston, Baltimore, and so on until it's kind of in as broad a range of theatre as possible; sometimes even in coming to small theatres in local areas too, if the movie catches on.