This is topic Phantom Menace doubled at drive ins!! in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Martin on 06-05-1999, 02:03 PM:
I read on another board that the 2 mono drive ins in North Carolina have doubled with other film companies. I called their recorders to verify and found the Belmont DI is showing Star Wars PM with The Matrix for $3.00 per person and The Bessemer City DI is showing it with The Out Of Towners for $6.50 per carload Fri.,Sat.and Sun. ONLY!!!
Both phone # are (Belmont)1-704-825-6044 and (Bessemer City) 1-704-739-2150.------------------
Martin
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 06-05-1999, 03:52 PM:
Hmmmmmmm. Interesting. I had understood that to be a BIG no no.Then again, those 12 week contracts for the big houses are already starting to cave. When Austin Powers 2 opens next Friday, I believe most bookers will have arranged to move one of the Star Wars prints down.
No need for them in the big houses anyway. I knew a forced 12 week contract meant a movie that wouldn't hold it's own for 12 weeks. ...perhaps if they would've killed off Jar Jar?
Posted by Christopher Seo (Member # 7) on 06-05-1999, 05:24 PM:
Yesterday my theater moved two of its five prints to decidedly smaller houses. It was pointed out to me that since this is an island (Oahu, Hawaii), if the theater companies here get together and collectively tell Lucas just what to do with his demands, they can get away with it; the Star Wars fans can't very well head for some other state (although some of them would be nuts enough to do it, I think). I do feel sorry for the people who have to watch it in the small houses, though. It's a big difference.Perhaps the demise of Jar Jar might have meant momentary relief, but I think above all the story suffers from contrived dialogue that doesn't jive with the ideas of the original. For example, Qui-Gon explaining the Force with the cliched Hollywood technique of having the naive person ask and then the knowledgeable one give the usual sci-fi mishmash, in this case "metachloridines" or whatever it was. What a crappy explanation...give me Alec Guinness' reply in the original any day!