This is topic Harry Potter print releases in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by John T. Hendrickson, Jr (Member # 849) on 10-30-2002, 08:39 PM:
Does anyone have information as to when Warners will authorize the release of the Potter prints from the ETS depots? I'm going to be building four prints, along with possibly two other bookings. Wouldn't it be great if we got them on Wednesday instead of Thursday? I realize there are many of us in the same situation.Just wondered if I'm going to have to pull the equivalent of the old college "all-nighter"? 
Posted by Alex Grasic (Member # 1371) on 10-30-2002, 10:49 PM:
I'm guessing that I'll be getting 7 or 8. Don't feel too bad, the all-nighter is inevitable in my case!
Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 10-30-2002, 11:49 PM:
7 or 8 prints? The way pictures are marketed these days is just nuts. Would it be so awful if everyone didn't get to see it the first weekend and the picture stayed in first run longer?
Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 10-31-2002, 01:09 AM:
Our ETS prints come on Wednesday anyways. We'll probably get 4, and we'll be forced to cut the trailer pack down to accomodate both nine reels and the attention spans of young audiences...Although you could argue that the Harry Potter books are improving that.
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-31-2002, 03:38 AM:
EIGHT???I'm with Kraus on this one. This is just getting stupid. After 3 days everyone on the planet will have seen it. No wonder DLP is becoming such a "cost effective solution". It's this kind of assinine bookings in the first place! 
Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 10-31-2002, 08:38 AM:
Maybe with the huge holiday glut they want to get this run over with. It will certainly help WB make the bulk of the money from the box office before the rental terms dip. Don't theatres realize this when they book so many prints of a single film? Yeah, in the short term they clean up on concessions, but in the long term they are forcing the exhibition business to never escape from the terms from distributors.
Posted by Jacob Huber (Member # 1138) on 10-31-2002, 02:24 PM:
We are getting 5 (in and 18) and I think that's pushing it. We got 5 with the first one too, and I don't think we had too many sellouts after the first weekend, and that's with essentially zero competition (the only other chain in a town of 150K people is on the literal other side of town).
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-31-2002, 02:51 PM:
I hear they are holding the 2nd week terms through the Thanksgiving week (which is the 3rd week).
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 10-31-2002, 03:04 PM:
Hasn't anyone ever heard of interlocking? Four prints should be enough for even the gigaplexes, assuming that they want shows to start every 30 minutes. One would think that Warners would prefer to give more generous terms in return for not having to strike so many prints.Really, though, this obsession with opening-weekend grosses is just silly, and there is no reason to have more than one print of _anything_ (except maybe Star Wars or some other once-a-year film) at a single theatre. Better yet, let's have more single-screen theatres and smaller (6 or fewer screens) multiplexes.
Posted by John T. Hendrickson, Jr (Member # 849) on 10-31-2002, 08:39 PM:
Of course big releases are front-loaded when it comes down to terms. Would we like to get only one print and interlock it? Sure, and we would lose our shirt, too! We are in a highly competitive area. If we did that, we would be offering a show once every three hours and fifteen minutes, and make sardines out of our patrons. Meanwhile, our competitors in the next town over would be offering a show every half hour or so. Shorter waits between shows, easier crowd control because attendance is spaced out. As long as the studios offer multiples of prints in large markets, this situation will occur over and over. We are forced to take multiple prints. There's an old addage: "You don't fight the market."
Sometimes it's tough being an independent when you have to run with the big dogs. Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of being the only game in town.
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 11-01-2002, 12:52 AM:
What's interlocking?
Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 11-01-2002, 01:18 AM:
Some chains have a "policy" that they do not "interlock" (whatever that is it is not a standard industry practice or anything) because it angers the film studios whos films get the boot for the lock. However just because people say they dont do this "Interlock" thing doesnt mean that they dont do it all the time.
Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 11-01-2002, 02:33 AM:
Update: I was just told that we're getting 4 prints, but for some time constraints, we'll be interlocking between 2 houses.
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 11-01-2002, 06:09 AM:
Brad--it's really complicated. You wouldn't understand.
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 11-01-2002, 06:59 AM:
Well poo! That intralock sounded interesting. 
Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 11-01-2002, 07:39 AM:
When I was with the post production center, "interlock" was the term we used for unmarried (separate soundtrack) projection. Now I generally prefer the latter term to avoid confusion.
Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 11-01-2002, 11:38 AM:
I think part of the reason why multiplexes book 50 prints of a given movie for opening weekend comes from everyone's obsession with "convenience." When a customer arrives at 4:37, they want to see the movie at 4:40. If you're not showing it until 5:00, they'll get mad, and complain, and become appalled at the theater for inconveniencing them. The same reason we have drive-up everything, TV on demand, and instant pudding.As far as interlocking goes, the public isn't ready for it yet these days. If you're interlocking two houses that are next to each other, half the people who were supposed to "Meet my friend at Harry Potter at 7pm" will probably end up in the opposite one, which once again will become the theater's fault. Which leads me to the question, when theaters interlock a print, does the interlocked screen have to have the same showtime as the original? Or can you for example, interlock it to a machine down the hall and have showtimes 5 or so minutes apart?
Another reason, as everyone has stated, is the opening weekend numbers. The bigger the numbers, the bigger the news story is for the reporters to chase, and interview kids at the theater skipping school to see it, and go for a "live report" every time a show is getting out. This is the kind of publicity that drives future DVD sales.
Forget about everyone gathering at one time to see a big event picture anymore -- but they'll certainly gather to talk about how much money it made.
=TMP=
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 11-01-2002, 03:29 PM:
Generally speaking, yes the two (or more) theaters have to have the same start time. However it is possible to interlock two (or more) theaters with differing showtimes, but 99.9% of theaters do not have the kind of operators, techs, automation and desire to even bother trying to pull it off.
Posted by John Schulien (Member # 215) on 11-01-2002, 03:41 PM:
quote:
it is possible to interlock two (or more) theaters with differing showtimes
How do you do that? I can't think of a way to use a platter to do it.
Are you talking about thousands of feet of rollers, or is it something obvious that escapes me?
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 11-01-2002, 04:39 PM:
One platter, two or more projectors, hundreds of rollers and thousands of feet of leader. No biggie.
Posted by John T. Hendrickson, Jr (Member # 849) on 11-01-2002, 06:50 PM:
Rube Goldberg would be proud.
Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 11-01-2002, 08:55 PM:
Brad said"Generally speaking, yes the two (or more) theaters have to have the same start time. However it is possible to interlock two (or more) theaters with differing showtimes, but 99.9% of theaters do not have the kind of operators, techs, automation and desire to even bother trying to pull it off." Yes there is a very good method it is a single print running changeovers with stagered start times after rewind ing each reel in multiple theatres
Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 11-02-2002, 12:31 AM:
Or a loop platter in between to create a delay.
Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 11-02-2002, 01:00 AM:
I always found the highway inbetween the indoor and the outdoor theatre to be enough of a delay when running reels.
Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 11-02-2002, 10:54 AM:
For the first week of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in 1981, Plitt was running a single 70mm print on both screen #1 (the original D150 house) and #2 which was part of a separate two screen building across a fairly busy road. Ushers were running the reels back and forth. As I think about it now, given the fullness of the reels, the were probably doubled up reels.#1 (D150) was DP75's and Super Corelights. I think #2 was JJ's. Not sure about the light.
Posted by John T. Hendrickson, Jr (Member # 849) on 11-02-2002, 04:21 PM:
Interestingly enough, in the old days that was called "bycycling". Off would come reel #1 and it was sent off to another location (with an usher on a bicycle), then reel #2, and so on, to return again later for the second show!We actually pulled this off back in the early 70's, running a print back and forth by car (on 6000 ft. reels) to locations about 10 miles apart. Fortunately, the car didn't get into an accident or break down!
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 11-02-2002, 04:28 PM:
One print and two theaters just on either side of the road? They should've just interlocked.
Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 11-02-2002, 08:41 PM:
Id love to see two theaters across the street form each other connected by a walkway that goes over the street, filled with rollers, and to see the projectionist threading the film literally across the street to the other theatre.
Wow, I feel like Matthew Bailey thinking of something like that. 
------------------
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Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 11-02-2002, 09:33 PM:
We used to run 6000' reels from the indoor to the outdoor 13 kilometers down the highway all the time. One night there happened to be a ride check with a huge line of cars waiting to go through (I almost got out of the car and ran the remaining mile down the highway). By the time I got to the front of the line the cop was suspicious of why I seemed to be nervous of the time. Once he saw the film in the back seat of my car he recognized me and let me go. I arrived with about 20 seconds to spare. Most other times I always had 10 minutes, not quite as interesting.
quote:
Id love to see two theaters across the street form each other connected by a walkway that goes over the street, filled with rollers, and to see the projectionist threading the film literally across the street to the other theatre.
Rollers? Who needs rollers? Don't you have hydro lines out front. With all those wires you could interlock across the street and back again. Remember, it only takes about 50' of wire per screen.
Posted by Alex Grasic (Member # 1371) on 11-03-2002, 12:42 AM:
Question:"Or a loop platter in between to create a delay."
A look platter?? Please explain.
A year ago when our complex opening up (funny enough on opening day of Harry Potter), they were running six prints which sold out EVERY show for the whole first week. There were a few 11:00PM starts that had 50-100 seats open during the week. We recieved a total of 6 Spiderman prints when it first opened and gave the same response. We got 4 Star Wars prints and they ALL bombed!! Never sold more than 50% of a theatre for that. Everyone has huge hype now about HP2 which is why the 8 screens. They also want to clear out most of them by the time Lord of the Rings comes in (most likely on 5 or 6 screens). The sooner they satisfy the Harry Potter craze, the sooner they can worry about satisfying the Lord of the Rings craze. Speaking of which, anyone have any idea on the running time of Lord of the Rings 2??
Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 11-03-2002, 10:31 AM:
When Startrek journey home came out there was a shortage of 70mm prints for the first week so we bicycled the same prints on both screens in two duals the Hollywood and the Sheridan centre
Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 11-03-2002, 12:10 PM:
Ask and you shall receive, the running time for Lord of the Rings: The Two Toweres is 179 minutes.
Posted by Darren Briggs (Member # 1071) on 11-05-2002, 01:09 PM:
Ive just recived my Harry Potter print today, gona run it thursday morning to check it. Previews start Friday here in the U.K.Darren
Posted by Paul Konen (Member # 41) on 11-05-2002, 02:08 PM:
John, take a look at the video titled "Interlocking 101" for a "small" demonstration of interlocking.Paul.
Posted by Michael Coate (Member # 757) on 11-06-2002, 09:11 PM:
Steve Kraus wrote:
quote:
For the first week of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in 1981, Plitt was running a single 70mm print on both screen #1 (the original D150 house) and #2 which was part of a separate two screen building across a fairly busy road.
Steve,
Was this a Plitt theater in the Chicago area? Was it at any of the following:
Edens, Northbrook
Golf Mill, Niles
Woodfield, Schaumburg
Yorktown, Lombard
Evergreen, Evergreen Park
River Oaks, Calumet City
Just curious!
Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 11-06-2002, 09:39 PM:
River Oaks.Oops! sorry, the question wasn't directed at me.
Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 11-07-2002, 11:22 PM:
Yes, River Oaks (I somehow left that out of the prior comment). I think only Woodfield of the others on your list was Plitt. But not D150.
Posted by Owen Shave (Member # 1156) on 11-08-2002, 01:51 PM:
we have 6 prints of Sad Potter, one of which 5s interlocked and a seventh will arrive next week to be the backup for DLP. I thought that was a little excessive especially seeing as Bond is in so soon afterwards.. looks like there will be two films running in 2/3rds of our screens!and oh my god.. they are actually releasing Orange County today in the UK.
Owen
Posted by Ken McFall (Member # 845) on 11-08-2002, 05:51 PM:
Our two prints arrived on Tuesday this week, which was a surprise to say the least. In the UK we are running 'Preview's' on Fri 8th, Sat 9th, Sun 10th and Thurs 14th..... seems like an early open to me rather than a preview.Ran both prints thru yesterday and treated them to their first Film Guard run thru. From what I'm told there were only three lab joins in the 18 reels! Things are improving
It's going to be difficult for the booker over the next few weeks as we have Bond, Lord Of The Rings and then the New Year openings to plan for, we only have four screens. Looks like we will only get one print of LOTR after all and run some shows in interlock. As for interlock being hard on prints.... it's not a problem here. I'm hoping Film Guard will make it even better!...