Brad:
Leave me alone! Kidding. Distributors want to have their product presented in the best manner possible, that's why we are sent to do evaluations on opening day. If there are problems, they can be fixed before too many people are affected by them. A month into the run, the audience has dropped by a large percentage, and so has the quality of the print being presented. If there is a complaint, and it is after that first week, the replacement reels and/or print is often charged to the threatre and written up as theatre damage (not lab defects). We have gotten complaints late in the run, and much of the time, the replacements are not sent because the film is in its last few days before a new title comes in... Unfortunately, these days many films are not afforded the oportunity to complete a run. They are pulled (or moved to a smaller screen) to let the films putting up the numbers play.

Since money talks more than anything else in this industry, the following is the list of the top ten screens, by dollars, from last weekend:

Top 10 theatre engagements for the weekend of July 21 - 23
ACNielsen EDI sample: 31,082
Rank Circuit Theater/City Wknd Gross Film
1 AMC Empire 25, New York City $110,218 X-Men
2 LCE Lincoln Square, New York City THX $84,938 What Lies Beneath
3 CENT Century 25, Union City, CA THX $68,037 X-Men
4 LCE Metreon, San Francisco THX $67,867 X-Men
5 AMC Ontario Mills 30, Ontario, CA $66,286 What Lies Beneath
6 FAMS Paramount, Toronto THX $66,152 X-Men
7 LCE Universal 18, Universal City, CA THX $65,597 What Lies Beneath
8 CENT Century 25, Union City, CA THX $63,583 What Lies Beneath
9 PACF Winnetka Stadium 21, Chatsworth, CA THX $62,923 What Lies Beneath
10 AMC Century 14, Century City, CA THX $62,473 What Lies Beneath

You'll notice, 8 out of the 10 are THX screens...

Dave C.:
KC seems to be a popular city for TAP Evaluators... we've got more than we need. Sorry nobody said, "Thank you, we're covered," but our limited staff is relentlessly driven by me to fill the spots we need people in, so extra applications are often dumped without a response. Also, as Brad said, we are often sent to the highest profile sites, in the top markets nationwide, and if you moved to NY, we could probably find a spot for you. And as a disclaimer, I say often, but not always, because we do evaluate some smaller market theatres, just not as regularly as the NY and LA markets.

Charles L.:
Those Directors letters are actually that, a letter from the Director of the film. We don't change them to make them more witty or personal... We do, however, send the Director samples of previous letters, so some of the letters may be formatted the same... And believe it or not, many Directors really appreciate the efforts by us at TAP, and by those who care enough to put on a perfect presentation of their film. It is not a form letter. They care.

Russ K.:
Yes, only qualified Techs should be performing the duties listed in our TAP mailings. The mailings are for your reference. And if you throw them away without at least looking at them, you are possibly missing out on all the free TAP give aways we randomly insert in the mailings. Kidding. But you'll get some new stuff soon, I promise.

"There's a fine line between stupid, and clever." Spinal Tap, 1984

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Actually I do believe it to be a very good idea to check opening day's presentation, although I would much prefer it be the first prime time showing. Not all theaters allow pre-screenings and some just treat them as parties for the staff. Thus, sometimes it may take a show to fix some little problem. Perhaps a cue is in the wrong place, perhaps the fader isn't set just right, perhaps those damned new copies of trailers wound emulsion in just won't run steadily and with good focus (ok, that's a given), you get the point. By the 7:00 show, any problems that are going to be fixed by the theater will have been and that would be a much more "fair" way to evaluate. However, I'd still like a TAP evaluator to swing by my theater as prints start hitting 4-6 months old to give me a flawless report.

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I thought the auditoriums were acoustically designed to keep outside sound from leaking into the auditorium. So many layers of drywall, air space between the layers, sound insulation, stuff like that. If these auditoriums have these specs to keep sounds from adjacent rooms from entering, wouldn't they keep the subs from leaking out also. What would happen if the theatre decided to upgrade the non-THX room and install a sub? Would that leak into the THX room?

Rick

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com

First off... We got a compliment on PHONE THX recently regarding the Superstition Springs 25 in Mesa, Arizona, Auditorium 7, on a show of What Lies Beneath... well, we called the theatre manager and passed on the good report. We did say, however, that this report was phoned in, and did not come from a TAP Evaluation, and may have been from someone who works in the Harkins Theatres organization, but it was a good report none-the-less. Unfortunately, we have to pass on the compliment with a disclaimer... but we did talk to the manager and whether or not he does anything with the information is his call.

Scott N:
Apply through our web site at THX. We have a guy in Boston, but we could use another. Paul Walker recruits our TAP Evaluators, and we're always looking for good eyes and ears.

Dustin M:
People may have lousy taste in films, people may not know the difference between Dolby and THX... but one thing people do know, is the difference between shit and shinola. And for seven or eight bucks, either way, they are going to go to the better presentation. An examlple, EP1 in Digital Cinema, four weeks after the film opened, had a 400% higher box office than the non-Digital screens in the same complex (also showing EP1). And four weeks after opening day, the Digital shows really did look significantly better.

Gordon M:
What about TAP in Toronto? At Deluxe, Toronto, the lab? Theatre Evaluations? Technical Alignments? It's a nice city. I've been there. CN Tower, Skydome, I'm a Boston Red Sox fan and the Blue Jay's fans were relatively cordial... but what is your question?

Rick H:
If the sound leaked into a THX Room it would be de-certified, or never certified in the first place.

And Re: PHONE THX... The next Title is Almost Famous, a DreamWorks title. I'm seeing it tomorrow, and word from the DreamWorks camp is that it's a pretty darn good flick.

Take care all,
Ted Costas,
Manager, THX Theatre Alignment Program

By the wording of your post, I am led to believe the TAP guys did find the film presentation to look better than the film on opening day, but that the video show beat out the film show 4 weeks later. There's a reason for that Ted, your guys went to shitty theatres! When EP2 comes out wherever you are and wherever I am, come to my theater 4 months after the release and tell me the video show still looks better. It's all in the handling and cleaning of the print and maintenance to the projector. It's ashamed your guys were comparing digital presentations to theaters with shitty film presentations. No doubt the reasoning the consensus leaned toward the digital show was dirt and scratches on the film. That CAN be completely eliminated and the prints WILL look BETTER months down the road if done properly.

We have lots and lots of All-THX theaters here, and every single one of them has sound leakage problems. You can easilly hear the subs from the movie next door if they are strong enough. They have been like this since day one. But I think that's probably because:
A) All THX techs are not created equal. If you get one who knows what they are doing and cares about the job, then consider yourself lucky. Normally they just rush through to get the job done so they can leave. I've seen this personally.
B) THX doesn't mean what it once used to - ie it is now just a means of making $$$ and not much more. Quality doesn't play a large a part in the role, anymore.

It is good to see someone from THX involved in this forum.

On June 28, 2000, using the data I had collected in my theatre ratings project, I did an analysis of THX vs. non-THX presentation quality at the only theatre in my area that has THX-certified auditoriums. To my surprise, the average of the scores for presentations in non-THX auditoriums was half a point higher than for presentations in THX auditoriums.

Let me explain how I rate theatre presentations:

I look for problems such as edges that are not sharp/crisp due to projector aim or aperture plate alignment problems, focus problems, framing problems, print damage, excessive lamp brightness fluctuations, unshielded exit sign light hitting screen, dirty optics hurting contrast, shutter ghosting, sound problems, and anything else that detracts from a presentation.

I began my site on Febraury 9, 1998 using data from 1995 and on. I read movie reviews all over the place but never see theatre reviews. So, being the strange guy that I am, I decided to create a theatre ratings web site, and the goal was to educate people about film and what to look for in theatres and give people an idea of what quality of presentation to expect, on the average, at any given theatre.

Many of you have probably looked at my site by now, but for those that haven't:

All movies attended have notes describing any problems with the image or sound. These notes appear in the description file for each theatre, accessible by clicking the theatre's name in the ratings chart. Eventually, all ticket stubs are scanned in, as proof that I attended each show, and the scans are accessible by clicking the number of visits for a theatre in the ratings chart.
The scans of the stubs are updated roughly twice a year.

I deduct for various problems based on how much they detract from the presentation, or by how much of a distraction they cause. I decided to not deduct for distractions caused by audience members. For example, if an edge isn't very sharp, it's a 1-point deduction. If the edge looks bad enough, it may be a 2-point deduction. If the masking is set for scope when a flat movie is projected, it's usually 2 bad edges, for a 4-point deduction. A slight misframing of a flat film may be a 1 or 2 point deduction, with deductions increasing as the severity increases. Misframing of scope films draw much more severe deductions since the adjacent frame is very distracting. I could go on and on. Just look at my ratings for plenty of examples.

I make every attempt to be fair and not show favoritism to any theatres. It may appear that I deduct more for the same problem on different occasions, but even though I may log the same description for a problem in two different cases, one may have been more severe, earning a bigger deduction. In some cases, I have reviewed my deductions and have lessened some of them if I felt that I was too harsh in the past.

All theatres in my area that are operating have been reviewed at least 40 times now. More visits yeild more accurate ratings. I even post a margin of error for each rating.

Ratings age off after 4 years using a gentle sliding weight that starts at 1.00 for new showings and slides to 0.0 after 4 years. For example, a showing three month older than the most recent showing rated has a weight of 0.9375 . I changed to this system about a year ago to make the ratings more sensitive to recent performance.

Back to THX: I made some comments about THX when I did my analysis. I love seeing movies in theatres, and am also into home theatre and DVD. In both arenas, I feel that THX standards should be stricter, to guarantee a higher level of quality. THX auditoriums should guarantee a higher level of presentation than in non-THX auditoriums at the same theatre, and that has not been the case, and I make that statement based on the data I have collected (63 showings since March 5, 1998!). In the home theatre arena, I feel that THX should not certify any DVD unless it provides an anamorphic transfer (for 1.78:1 and wider movies) in the movie's correct aspect ratio. THX has certified several discs that did not meet these simple criteria. Doing so has hurt their credibility. When I go to the Carmike 10 and sit in auditorium 1 and see the image off-center by a foot time and time again, and see the left edge jagged and curved time and time again for flat films, for over two years, what does that say about THX? It certainly says something about Carmike's quality control and maintenance policies, and it says something about THX as well. It would take a technician a few minutes to aim the projector properly, align the aperture plate with the masking, and file it if it needs it. In February, I was told by a member of the staff of this theatre that the projectors hadn't been cleaned since October 1999, at a THX-certified theatre! What does that say about THX standards and inspections?
THX inspections are not often enough and are not thorough enough! I do not know where the blame lies, but I get the feeling it does not lie with much of the local staff. It lies higher up in the organizations, and with the technicians that are called when things need to be fixed.

If you haven't visited my site, the URL is
http://home.hiwaay.net/~criswell/theatre/

Please be sure to click the "Huntsville-Decatur Theatre Ratings" link and click on each theatre name to see the description file and individual showing ratings for each.
It was the original, oldest part of the site (the ratings table and the individual ratings pages).

If anyone in the forum has suggestions concerning my rating system, or feels that my ratings are unfair in any way, I'd like to hear what you have to say. Maintaining this web site has been a great learning experience for me.

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That is all that THX is about. No more. The rest of the responsibility is up to the theater company. If it sounds like crap the very next day it is not THX's fault because at one time maximum potential of that auditorium was verified by a THX tech. That is all THX means.

Quality presentation? ditry projectors after years of operation? Pay real people to help maintain and operate the equipment properly. I feel your comparisons of THX to non THX rooms is trully unfair and inaccurate. A true comparrison would be RP-40 verification. RT-60 testing and HVAC testing. Then you are comparing better data and really seeing if THX is all its crack up to be. I agree and understand the frustration with THX however with 3000 screens worldwide and few technicians how can they police every single theater? It cant be done. I feel that when a theater commits itself to become THX that they are undertaking the responsibility of maintaing themselves THX. It is part of the understanding. since it never happens this way though the result is "ooooooh bad picture and bad sound yuk! ITs all THX's fault! burn them!" That is wrong people. I think that you expect that THX somehow should be on top of it all when it comes down to the theater responsibility in this case.