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Topic: Why Is Business Down?

Jesse Skeen
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1517
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Aug 2000

posted 09-08-2000 10:47 PM

But "Titanic" was long and boring! Well really, long movies usually don't do that well, much less have people see them 20 times. Other than that Leonardo guy (who was much better in 1993's "This Boy's Life" which went virtually ignored the 2 weeks I ran it) what's there to interest teeny-boppers? It took place about 80 YEARS ago, fergawdssakes!! That's the perfect formula for a bomb, but not only does this do well, but becomes one of the biggest grossers of all time?! Kate Winslet certainly deserved that Breast Actress award though

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 09-08-2000 11:23 PM

Sounds like another "I wish I was Leo, but since I'm not and am jealous, will hate him" senario. I knew Titanic would be in the top 50 of all time. Then when I ran the first trade screening, I knew it would be in the top 10. Little did I know it would be THE biggest box office hit of all time.

Breast actress award? I'll bet you're a real big hit with the ladies. You might want to consider giving the women projectionists here a little bit more respect.

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Jim Ziegler
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 753
From: West Hollywood, CA
Registered: Jul 99

posted 09-09-2000 02:46 AM

What's wrong with hating Leo?

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 09-09-2000 03:35 AM

Sorry Jim, I just felt the comments above were a bit shovanistic. Also I dealt with the crazed out Star Wars fanatics who camped out for OVER A MONTH outside my theater! They were so angry at the fact that "the damn boat movie with that wimpy Leo" (as they called it) outgrossed their precious Star Wars films that they were determined to keep purchasing tickets until Star Wars outgrossed Titanic (which it of course did not).

My favorite argument of theirs was "the damn boat movie was so predictable! You just KNOW the boat's gonna sink!" Hmmm, gee. Let's see, think Obi Wan and Anakin will survive? Of course they will! DUH! (I guess they never saw the original Star Wars - Episode 4.) After we did the first trade screening on it (they figured out what was going on inside pretty quick) they started catching me as I came to and from the theater bugging me about it. I of course WOULD NOT TELL THEM A DAMN THING. hehehehehe

Anyway, I'm not a Leo fanatic, but the whole thing just got really old, that's all. I took great delight in running that trailer for The Beach in front of Episode 1 because the crowd "boooooed" like mad every time it came on to the point they drowned out the audio track on it. I of course, just cued the film to crank that one up! hehehehehe

Ahhhhh, memories.

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Greg Anderson
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 766
From: Ogden Valley, Utah
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 09-09-2000 08:21 AM

What? Brad, are you trying to be a control freak or a therapist with those Star Wars fans?

"I'm sorry, Mr. Maul. You're going to have to work through your anger against Jack. Now give me those drawings of Rose..."

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Chad Souder
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 962
From: Waterloo, IA, USA
Registered: Feb 2000

posted 09-09-2000 10:29 AM

Nobody has touched on what I think is the foundational reason why box grosses are down this year. Last year was huge. What do you do after you win the world series? You go to Disney Land. Many a home run was hit last year, especially with movies nobody counted on, or had heard of (Blair Witch, 6th Sense). Everything was huge, so now Hollywood slacks off. It has nothing to do with home theatre. Home theatre last year didn't seem to hurt things much, and there haven't been any dramatic advances since then. People go to movies for the social aspect, to socialize with other people. Same as bars. You can drink at home, its just not always as much fun.

Often when records are set, it is followed by a down time (Michael Johnson?). Next year or the year after, the effort will be back, the movies will be worth watching (the overall result here is yes, the movies are poor), and everyone will be overwhelmed at how busy they are again. Like everything, its cyclic. People have the money to spend, Hollywood is just still full after last year's buffet, so they'll settle for cheezy poofs until they get really hungry.

------------------
"Asleep at the switch? I wasn't asleep, I was drunk!" - Homer Simpson

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Jesse Skeen
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1517
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Aug 2000

posted 09-09-2000 09:46 PM

Sorry if my comment offended anyone; it's a familiar phrase if you've ever read Joe Bob Briggs who writes reviews of really bad B-movies.

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Mike Jones
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 108
From: Birmingham, MI, USA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 09-10-2000 06:19 PM

why is business down this year?... two words: "bad movies"

yep, no other reason, look at the movies that came out the year before last, then look at this past years. They all suck! Way to go studios, you suck!

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Greg Anderson
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 766
From: Ogden Valley, Utah
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 09-10-2000 09:10 PM

I believe Mike is correct. Not to put you down, Chad, but I don't think the success of 1999 is any excuse. Look at the 1980s. In 1980 you had The Empire Strikes Back and the next year you had Raiders of the Lost Ark and Superman 2. The next year the studios didn't slouch either. You had E.T., Rocky 3, Star Trek 2 and Poltergiest. The next year it was Flashdance and Return of the Jedi. A year later it was Temple of Doom and Ghostbusters. Then we're up to 1985 with Back to the Future and Silverado.

They're all well-respected to this day. They all created spill-over business to other movies when those movies were sold out. Nobody expected Hollywood to take a break just because of a successful box office year. In those days, they weren't paying any stars $20 million per movie. Instead, they were pumping the money into things like... I don't know... 70mm release prints!

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Mike Spaeth
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1129
From: Marietta, GA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 09-11-2000 11:28 AM

Rather than whining about how box office is down, why don't we do something about it? With theater companies dropping like flies, don't blame the film companies (although some product doesn't hurt), but rather, buckle up and streamline your operations. If it's slow, send staff home. It's very easy to run an 8-plex w/ just a manager and a floor staff employee who sells tickets, concessions, and tears the tickets as well. The manager threads up the movies as far in advance as possible, so that he can be down on the floor to help the employee during the mini-rush. Rise to the occasion! Keep your individual theater running in the black. I just had a horrible summer (split product w/ 2 Carmikes - they played Dinosaur, MI2, Big Momma's House, The Patriot, The Perfect Storm, Scary Movie, AND X-Men). If it was a good summer movie, they played it (with the exception of the Dreamworks pictures - Chicken Run and What Lies Beneath). Sure, I would have liked to be busier, but part of management is dealing with the pitfalls that come your way. It is far easier to say "those damn film companies - it's their fault" than to take on a little extra work for yourself and pay attention to the little things (utilities, etc) that can be cut.

Now, this message is aimed at managers that are bitching, as this is the GROUND LEVEL forum. I'm sure the world is viewed very differently through a projectionists eyes, but here in Mankato, I don't have any - just a couple of high school kids that are trained as "Usher-B" to fill in when management needs a little help.

Well, that's just my humble opinion - hope I didn't offend anybody

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Carl King
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 199
From: Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 09-13-2000 01:38 PM

Business is slow everywhere it seems. The reason might just be a lack of quality movies. How many times can sit through the same plot line. You know the one..boy likes girl,girl likes boy, boy & girl think each other hates them,then boy & girl get together... There have been a dozen of these things lately not to mention the even worse..I KNOW WHAT YOU SCREAMED ABOUT LAST SUMMER AND I STILL DO.

Some of the independants make good films lately but the kids, who are our largest demographic, aren't mature enough to enjoy them yet.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 09-16-2000 12:57 PM

The problem with this summer was that there was no movies that EVERYBODY wanted to see. Things are too fragmented. Scary Movie appealed to the kids, Patriot appealed to the adults, etc. Plus word-of-mouth on a lot of the movies was bad.

Last year, Sixth Sense started out appealing to just Bruce Willis and horror/thriller fans, then when the word got out "you have to see this movie!" and the film was off and running. Nothing like that this year.

We lacked a great Disney film this year. Tarzan was up there in quality with their classics, Dinosaur was not. And the release was too early. Result...lower grosses.

I don't think home theatre has much to do with it. Our grosses were slightly up this summer because we've been more agressive getting movies closer to the break than before. Makes a big difference.

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Sean McKinnon
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1712
From: Peabody Massachusetts
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 09-17-2000 10:55 PM

To the customer every movietheatre is the same if they have a bad experience at one theatre they think all theatres are that way and they wont go. thats why if the theatre across town runs out of butter we lend them some because to most people it not the "Loews in the mall" or "The AMC By the highway" its "theatre in the mall" or "The theatre By the highway"

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Jonathan M. Crist
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 531
From: Hershey, PA, USA
Registered: Apr 2000

posted 10-01-2000 09:45 PM

The Patriot which was released on 06/28/00 will be out on video on 10/24/00. Thats less than 4 months from original opening. In my area the discounts just got it a couple of weeks ago. This was one of the biggest pictures of the summer. What sort of message does that send to the public?

If exhibition as a whole doesn't start putting its foot down about this sort of thing and demand longer windows..... we are all going to be looking for some other line of work.

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Greg Anderson
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 766
From: Ogden Valley, Utah
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 10-01-2000 11:17 PM

The 1990s breed of multiplexes allows a movie to exhaust its appeal more quickly than ever. When something like Godzilla was playing on 6 screens in a typical 10-plex, everyone in America who wanted to see the movie was able to see it in the first week. Americans just don't want to tolerate making the effort to go to a movie theatre and see that their choice is sold out. The public doesn't have the patience to wait several weeks to see a hit movie (like in the 1980s when something like Return of the Jedi on one screen sold out every Saturday night for a couple of months). So the movie theatres increased their screen numbers to accommodate. And now that has become a problem.

Why should the studios postpone the video release of any movie which has clearly exhausted its box office strength? The exhibitors have to share the blame.

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