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Topic: Boxoffice Magazine rant
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Scott Norwood
Film God
Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 03-29-2010 08:46 PM
There's a nice piece in the April issue about the Coolidge Corner Theatre, which is one of the top independent houses in the Boston area. It almost got turned into a furniture store in the late 1980s, but was saved by some local residents who turned it into a nonprofit cinema. Anyone who is in the area should check it out. (Sadly, their bookings have become almost entirely mainstream over the last year or two, but it's still a gorgeous theatre.)
As for the NATO section--what happened to Kendrick Macdowell, the former NATO lawyer? I actually enjoyed reading his columns, which were generally relevant and well written. Apparently, he has been replaced (why?). Hopefully, the new guy will have something worthwhile to say to counter Fithian's usual puff piece.
I thought that the March issue was a little bit weak (in a 3D issue, I would have liked to have seen a technical article on the various 3D systems, as well as some commentary by a theatre owner who has chosen not to install 3D at all), but Boxoffice is definitely a stronger publication that it was when I started this thread two years ago. I hope that this trend will continue.
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Scott Norwood
Film God
Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 03-30-2010 11:56 AM
Trailer schedules used to be done by the local theatre managers. Trailers were only to be shown for confirmed bookings, and they were to be shown in reverse-release-date order (e.g. trailers for films opening next week were to be shown last). If the bookings or release dates changed, the trailer order changed. Also, as of a few years ago, they did not show commercials. Inappropriate trailers were not programmed on films that would attract a "family" crowd.
More recently, commercials have been added, but the same general principles applied. While it resulted in many trailer changes, this method worked well.
Within the last year or two, the company switched to centralized trailer scheduling. The person who does this is not very good at it, and regularly programs trailers that the theatre does not have, or programs trailers and commercials which are not appropriate for the feature being shown (e.g. vodka commercials on G-rated features). Additionally, the order now seems random, with the same trailers programmed in a different order on different features. The end result is that more than half of the provided trailer schedules have errors that must be fixed at the theatre level, resulting in wasted time, confusion, and errors.
I wrote to Mr. Mundorff to make him aware of this situation and request that the older system be brought back. I received no response, which I consider to be extremely rude. I have no idea if the letter actually made it to his desk (Fedex indicated that it was delivered to his office), but someone should have at least sent a form-letter response.
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Martin Brooks
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 900
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: May 2002
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posted 04-05-2010 07:52 PM
quote: Ian Parfrey
Only in this industry can the major industry magazines and journals even try to declare film dead (assumed or otherwise)- especially when the vast majority of cinemas continue to use film.
Mind you, after reading recent articles in Boxoffice, Cinema Technology &tc, that's exactly the impression one would get.
I think that's unfair. Digital cinema is still relatively new and there's lots of issues concerning its implementation. So it's natural for a trade publication to be writing a lot about the issue. What's left to write about concerning film projection that hasn't been said hundreds of times before?
Besides, the latest issue was a special issue devoted to digital cinema.
Having said that, I had high hopes for Boxoffice after they released the first few issues under the new management team a few years ago, but it's once again gotten pretty lame since. I realize that the advertising market is bad, so most recent issues have been slim, but the design and writing have both slipped since the initial relaunch. The only articles I really enjoy are those about theatre operators and old theatres.
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![[dlp]](graemlins/dlp.gif)
-- the two aren't necessarily related. I would just like to hear from some theatre owner who does not think that 3D would add anything to the type of film programming that he offers.
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