Holiday Box Office preview by Brian Brooks.

Distributor XLrator received an early version of Allegiance, which centers on a lieutenant in the National Guard who faces the dilemma of one of his soldiers going AWOL as their unit faces deployment to Iraq. "I thought if the movie was half as good as the teaser then I’m in,” said XLrator CEO Barry Gordon. “It’s a thriller but there are no bad guys.” The film debuted at the Seattle International Film Festival earlier this year and Gordon bought the film soon afterward. “I call this the perfect little movie,” said Gordon. “When you look at multiplatform aspect you can see that there are some that just work. It’s a thriller with a military aspect, it’s multicultural, it’s millennial-youth and also appealing to grandparents. So we see that these are the demos that work across platforms.”

Military personnel advised writer/director Michael Connors in making the film, who himself comes from a strong military background. Financing also came from people with close ties to the military. “The soldier is not demonized and the military is not demonized,” said Gordon. “It’s a film where people who know [this world] will say, ‘this shit really happens.’ You know it’s made from a soldiers’ hand.” Allegiance opened via VOD two weeks ago and is “doing well,” noted Gordon. Over the holiday weekend, it will bow theatrically in New York, followed by Austin and Los Angeles the following weekend. Further theatrical expansion depends on performance.