Grindhouse split update

We received some reports over the weekend and yesterday from some readers saying their local theaters were running the GRINDHOUSE films separately or running them together with an intermission instead of the fake trailers. Curious, we did our best Carl Monday impression and did some investigative reporting. Was this the case of some rogue theater owners splitting GRINDHOUSE on their own? Had The Weinstein Co. officially re-released GRINDHOUSE as two separate films – “Planet Terror” and “Death Proof.” After some digging and talking and e-mailing and harassing, we were able to find out the truth. It seems in the wake of the opening weekend disaster, the Weinsteins, as they widely admitted to, considered splitting the films. Being the Weinsteins, they did what they do best: they tested. Last weekend they tested various concepts of improving GRINDHOUSE business in select theaters including two of the various methods above. None of the methods seemed to have any positive effect on box-office receipts and word I got from inside the Weinstein Co. last night was that the plan to split GRINDHOUSE in two and re-release was very likely kiboshed. So that could be it for the GRINDHOUSE experiment folks. Just left to die a slow death and develop a cult following on home video, not unlike….well grindhouse movies.