Inside The Climb Press Tour: Fun Bike Rides Spiked by Pandemic

New York City (March 10)

In the second week of March, movie theaters remained open but were operating with limited capacities to prevent crowded spaces. Covino and Marvin traveled to the East Coast for their New York Premiere at the IPIC held on Thursday, March 12. A few days later, on Sunday, March 15, all cinemas in Los Angeles and New York City were ordered to indefinitely close, putting an end to The Climb tour.

“We did a premiere and the turnout was okay, but days later it became clear that movies weren’t going to be coming out in theaters. It was still right before anyone had said one way or another on what should happen. We were optimistically trying to celebrate the New York premiere. That was one of those moments that just felt a little strange because people were talking about our film and we were having conversations, but it was amidst this bigger thing that was evolving at a very rapid pace,” said Covino.

Focusing on the Positive

The good news for The Climb is that over the last few months the film has amassed plenty of press, most of which is being held for when the release actually happens. There was certainly momentum built that may have been lost, but the duo is confident once things are settled, they can regain it. Covino and Marvin were halfway through their tour: Another visit to New York, a premiere in Los Angeles, and stops in San Diego, Boston, Washington D.C, and Minneapolis are on the backburner for now.

“The benefit of having traveled that long is that people continue to respond well to it. It’s not like the movie is getting dated. So we are not worried that the movie is not going to come out at a time where it won’t be well-received. It’s more just for our own personal goals of having the movie release and moving on to the next one, but we just have to keep waiting,” said Marvin.

They still plan to release the film in theaters, when they can. The main reason they wanted to work with Sony Pictures Classics is because of the distributors commitment to theatrically releasing films.

“They’ve been really supportive,” Covino said. “It was never even an option with them to try to go straight to digital or release the film any other way. They are traditional distributors in the truest sense and they just said, ‘Look, we’re not going to dump the film on digital platforms. We’re going to put this movie in theaters and we’ll wait until whenever theaters open back up and we’ll figure out a release strategy.”

“When this pandemic passes and it’s safe for us to be in groups, we want to be there with a comedy to give people something to laugh at that we can experience together. It’s important for humans to be in groups and be able to interact with each other and experience art together in one place,” said Marvin.

The Climb, from Sony Pictures Classics, is in theaters now. This story was originally posted in April, just after The Climb was delayed.

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