This is topic The Blair Witch Mystery... in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Thomas Ferreira (Member # 96) on 08-08-1999, 08:27 AM:
Is why are they flocking to see this film? Granted, I haven't watched it myself yet. My question is not with the quality of the film-people are saying it's scaring the bejesus out of them, but have any of you ever seen a phenonemon like this? I scheduled extra evening shows this weekend, and they were packed. No one, and I mean no one, is leaving the auditorium to even go to the bathroom after this movie starts. When I screened the print for the employees(which I couldn't sit down to watch cause I was dealing with Thomas Crown), I checked out some of it through the porthole. I felt like I was running someone's home movies on my screen. The only thing I remember running with an aspect ratio like this was Dumbo.
I knew we were going to do business with it because of the buzz and advance inquiries, but I sure in hell didn't expect the second biggest crowds of the summer. My opening weekend of this film outgrossed my opening weekend of Austin Powers! Does this bode well for independent film, or did Artisan and the filmmakers just find a fluke? I suppose this is the one and only time most of us will be able to say that we grossed the entire budget of a film during it's run. Now that's REALLY scary.
What are your experiences with this film so far? One of the other managers in our chain(where a lot of campers flock), says she had at least one person throwing up every showing. While I haven't dealt with that yet, I thought I would have walkouts due to the cheesy look of the film. That hasn't happened either. I am keeping the "No Refunds For Film Content" sign conspicuous at the box office just in case.
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 08-08-1999, 11:16 AM:
I haven't seen BWP yet either, but I do know of at least one theatre (a single-screen in Providence, RI) that is doing 1AM (!) showings of it on weekends and drawing huge crowds. Amazing!
Posted by George Roher (Member # 91) on 08-08-1999, 02:55 PM:
The Blair Witch fanatics are crazy! I've been working relief the last few weeks at a twin that had Blair Witch on both screens. They were selling out every single show, including weekday matinees. The managers normally run this place during the week, but it got so crazy they decided they wanted the local in full time. The phone rang so often that it would take me hours to get a line to make an outgoing call. I'd arrive half an hour before the first show on a Monday, and a hundred people would be lined up already. I love good independent and foreign films and like to see them do well, but Blair Witch strikes me as kind of phony and pretentious. And the people are nuts!
Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 08-08-1999, 06:05 PM:
I think Artisan missed the bus in holding this film limited for so long, because we put it in our second biggest house on friday and had to move it to our 4th largest by the 7pm show because 'Mystery Men' and 'Sixth Sense' were kicking its ass. Granted BWP was now selling out this smaller screen, but so were the aforementioned other two pictures. I did overhear quite a bit of negative (the word 'Suck' got repeated a lot) reaction from people leaving BWP... Maybe the hype is backfiring, or as I said, the film ran its best life in limited and was almost DOA with the wide release.Aaron
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 08-08-1999, 07:51 PM:
DOA? Not here. I got a bit queasy myself during the screening due to the shaky camera on the huge screen, something that does not usually occur with me. It definitely was nice to see a movie without all of these computer graphics effects. I'm sorry, but the CG effects in every movie made since Twister (and maybe a bit before) just look horrible! The Haunting had to have had some of the worst effects ever in any movie! And Deep Blue Sea also looks cheesy!Anyway, I think BWP has a few more good weeks left to it. It is kind of amazing how this is turning into a phenomenon.
Posted by Jim Bedford (Member # 4) on 08-08-1999, 08:32 PM:
DOA? Artisan paid $1.2 mil for BWP. They missed no bus, they now own the line.Yes, Artisan's Buena Vista Social Club is a better film, but it ain't a phenom like BWP. Some things cannot be explained, and some things are better not delved into too deeply.
I'd explain everything to you, but your brain would explode.
BTW, as of tonite (Sunday), BWP has done over $80 mil, did over $24 mil this weekend, and dropped only 16% from last weekend. Just look at it as a small Titanic (crew of three) that didn't sink.
[This message has been edited by Jim Bedford (edited 08-08-1999).]
Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 08-08-1999, 09:08 PM:
Still at my theatre it was all Mystery Men and Sixth Sense. BWP was a distant 3rd in the box on friday. and at another of our theatres, there were more people in Iron Giant than BWP. and this was on saturday evening. I dont know what the problem is. Maybe the market area. We had similar results with Crow II, and that one broke all kinds of box office records, well everywhere but the theatres I worked at where we couldnt give away tickets for it. and its not a presentation issue. Oh well.Aaron
Aaron
Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 08-08-1999, 09:14 PM:
Oops signed off twice there 
Clarification on 'Crow II' it broke opening day records for Labor Day weekend 96...I hear business dropped rather fast after that. (as if we had any to begin with) hehe
Aaron
Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 08-08-1999, 09:15 PM:
Oops signed off twice there Clarification on 'Crow II' it broke opening day records for Labor Day weekend 96...I hear business dropped rather fast after that. (as if we had any to begin with) hehe oh well enough crying about this. 
Aaron
Posted by Thomas Ferreira (Member # 96) on 08-08-1999, 11:00 PM:
Scott, I don't know if you're aware, but BWP is playing at the Avon in Providence, one of my favorite houses. They've always done midnight shows on weekends to good crowds, so 1 AM isn't too much of a stretch for them, especially with a film that only runs 83 minutes. I've always had a fondness for the Avon since I saw Cinema Paradiso there for the first time. I also saw Clockwise there, so I guess I strangely equate seeing great movies at a theatre to a place being a great theatre. Actually their screen is quite small, which doesn't make a difference for Blair Witch. I had to laugh, because the week before it opened, they were advertising it as An Exclusive Providence Engagement. When I got it this week, I wanted to advertise it as An Exclusive Claremont, NH Engagement. We're the only theatre in town, and the only other theatre in Providence proper is the Cable Car, a tiny art house with couches for seats.
By the way, it was raining cats and dogs here today, we had our best day of the summer, and BWP outgrossed Gadget and Iron Giant at the matinee. Unreal.
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 08-09-1999, 11:08 AM:
I've been to the Avon Cinema, and can recommend it highly. The screen is on the small side, and the sound quality isn't great, but every other aspect of the presentation was top-notch. I believe that they're still burning carbon, too. It's a well-preserved theatre, which is more than can be said about a lot of single-screen houses. I was very impressed with the Avon, overall. I haven't been to a midnight show there, though, so I don't really know what kinds of crowds they get for them. When we did midnight shows (usually about 11:00pm or so, actually) of cult-classic types of films (Ferris Bueller, Clockwork Orange, Blade Runner, Princess Bride, Saturday Night Fever, The Graduate, etc.), attendance was all over the place...some nights we nearly sold out (400-500 tickets) and other nights drew only 20 people or so.
Posted by Bob Ferreira (Member # 102) on 08-09-1999, 03:09 PM:
i went to see blair witch project on
opening night at our theatre, 1st show
with about 85 people in there with me. There are three theatres in my town, two
run by Boston concessions group and the other privately owned. The
privately owned thatre is playing EWS so I knew that with a kubrik film he wouldn't be dropping it for BWP. But, what suprised us all was the fact that our Twin thatre got a copy of the film. We also have a theatre in a mall with 7 houses, which at the moment is housing Gadget, Iron Giant, 6th sense, MYstery Men and all the other bigiies, whereas our other theatre is just housing BWP and Thomas Crown. Yesterday it rained here and Blair wiotch project did like 1500 or so, and alm,ost 500 in concessions, which is more than it did all last week. With all the hype, this movie has been kicking the asses of all the other films playing at our theatres. Another big suprise was Runaway Bride...That's actually doing like the 2nd or 3rd best out of all our films. Amazing.
Oh and there were some people who walked out of BWP sick because of the camera movement, and ther were some people who talked bad about the film:
"no wonder it's not playing everwhere,"
"That movie SUCKED!" etc...
But hell, I was scared, and I don't get scared in movies very often. And I can just imagine people going ion there who think it's real, when I got scared knowing that it was fiction.
Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 10-03-2002, 05:33 PM:
If any movie deserves a Razzie for Special Achievement it's The Blair Witch Project. I saw it over Labor Day weekend '99 -- 5 weeks after it hit New Jersey -- and I can tell you that movie was a piece of 
The only redeeming thing is that I got to see the trailers for Ghost Dog and American Beauty.To make matters more excruciating, the so-called "New Jersey Film Festival" at Rutgers University ran The Blair Witch Project while the movie was in 2nd-run theaters (but before it went to video).
Thankfully the Wayans brothers exposed the whole Blair Witch nonsense the following summer in Scary Movie.