Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Long film runs

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 06-27-2009, 12:25 PM:

This thread is a continuation of the discussion on long film runs from here.

A few memorable titles I've ran off of the top of my head...

Beauty and the Beast 6 shows a day for 9 months.
Titanic (70mm) 3 shows a day for 5.5 months.
My Big Fat Annoying Wedding 5 shows a day for 54 weeks!
Toy Story 6 shows a day for 8 months.

I almost got fired from the Toy Story run, as on the last week this movie played at my theater corporate came in and insisted I must have ordered a new print from behind their back because it was "impossible" to run a print that long and there not even be any dirt on it. It took getting Disney and Technicolor on the phone to back me that it was the original print.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 06-27-2009, 12:40 PM:

Bet it was fun showing up those "suits" that you can run a show as it supposed to be...being flawless.

I had a similar situation with being challenged by "suits", but it was on leader usage: Get a call from head of engineering wondering why I haven't ordered any new leaders after two years of being open and rarely called up with any problems.

I simply told him that we take care of stuff out here in Idaho - I had a good crew that knew what they were doing and knew the primer on how to run a projector.

He then gave me a raise for being up front with him and keeping up the good work....

-Monte

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 06-27-2009, 12:59 PM:

quote: Monte L Fullmer
He then gave me a raise for being up front with him and keeping up the good work...

Ok, then I'll be up there tomrrow and you can take me to that really good steak place....

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 06-27-2009, 01:09 PM:

Leaders will have a useful life 5 times over if the upper roller on the projector is aligned to have a direct vertical angle downward into the projector and there isn't any electrical sealtite/flex running straight out of the projector to the wall.

I have been preaching this for years, but there are a lot of people that are still setting up platter guidance rollers with the upper roller leaning forward (as if they were trying to bypass an upper magazine shaft from a reel-to-reel conversion).

Here is an example of how it should be done:

As you can see, when the film is threaded, it isn't mangled by having the leader drag over the flange of the roller when the roller is situated in this manner:

Threading 101

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 06-27-2009, 02:31 PM:

Brad is right. WE manufacture a top/bottom 360 degree swivel roller arm set that gives you exactly what Brad is showing. (Same roller and bearing that a Potts platter has, only mounted EXACTLY above/below the projector roller.) Louis

Posted by Matt Fields (Member # 3211) on 06-27-2009, 03:18 PM:

Longest run I ever had was Jurassic Park for 9 months at a second run theatre.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 06-27-2009, 03:48 PM:

How long is platter leader supposed to last? I just requested more for one theatre that has been using the same leaders (ten or so for a 6-plex) for at least seven years and probably since the place opened in 1998. The existing leaders are still usable, but the sprocket holes are starting to get torn near the ends.

As for long runs, that same theatre ran "Monsoon Wedding" and "MBFGW" for over six months each. Lately, they have been booking more mainstream titles than art titles, and few of those will last more than two weeks.

Posted by Don Furr (Member # 1469) on 06-27-2009, 04:06 PM:

Longest run we did was our first dollar house with Home Alone summer of 1991. I ran it from Memorial Day through Labor Day...5 shows a day.

Posted by Geoff Jones (Member # 3668) on 06-27-2009, 04:39 PM:

Why do you lie on your own forums, Brad? That's total BS. The only way a movie can look as good after months of playing is if it's digital.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 06-27-2009, 08:16 PM:

Brad, your projector is out of frame.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 06-27-2009, 08:21 PM:

quote: Scott Norwood
How long is platter leader supposed to last

With all the guidance rollers being at a square and not at an angle to both film enter and exit a machine, they can easily last a lifetime-being mylar leaders...

I've got leads that are easily over 10-15yrs old - might be somewhat scratched, but still plenty threadable.

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
Ok, then I'll be up there tomrrow and you can take me to that really good steak place....

...How about OUTBACK...or Texas Roadhouse?

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 06-27-2009, 11:30 PM:

Some of my leaders don't last more than a few months. Unfortunately all it takes is one person to ruin them for good.

Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 06-28-2009, 05:57 AM:

The Dominion in Edinburgh ran 'Gregorys Girl' for somethnig like 3 years IIRC.

We ran 'Reservoir Dogs' for the entire 5 odd years I worked at the Cameo in Edinburgh, it had tailed off a bit, but when we opened 'Pulp Fiction' that gave it a new lease of life.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 06-28-2009, 06:08 AM:

The Village 8 in Louisville, Ky once ran 58 weeks,5 times a day on Smokey the Bandit. No scratches, but elongated sprocket holes and faded color. Christie AW-2 with Century. Same with The Gods Must be Crazy. Back in the days of acetate. Louis

Posted by Mike Croaro (Member # 3123) on 06-28-2009, 12:22 PM:

Hi Folks:

Nowadays only the art house films are capable of long runs.

Mike

Posted by Burleigh Ibbott (Member # 3917) on 06-28-2009, 01:52 PM:

I like to know what is the longest run film on a single screen cinema?

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 06-28-2009, 02:01 PM:

Probably some sort special-venue or visitors' center theatre.

The longest-running film of any type, anywhere is the one that Colonial Williamsburg shows in its twin theatres in Williamsburg, VA. It has shown continuously since 1957. It was originally shown in Vistavision, but is now 5/70.

There must be something similar at a single-screen house.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 06-28-2009, 02:45 PM:

I want to know the longest run print... and its condition.

Posted by Jean-Marc Toussaint (Member # 4784) on 06-28-2009, 05:19 PM:

"Emmanuelle" was sreened at the same cinema in Paris for 553 consecutive weeks between 1974 and 1985.

Posted by Ray Faultless (Member # 903) on 06-28-2009, 05:25 PM:

The Sound of Music five years at the Gaumont Birmingham 70mm on the largest screen in europe at that time, 3 shows daily twice on Sundays.

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 06-28-2009, 05:37 PM:

I was at Snow Hill Station, just across the road from the site of the Gaumont, yesterday. There's just an office building on the site now, but a slightly less boring looking one than some.

The Birmingham Gaumont was supposed to be a very good cinema, but I don't remember it; it had gone before the first time that I visited that part of Birmingham, but the Weslyan Insurance building which replaced it hadn't been built, so the Gaumont probably hadn't been gone for very long.

Snow Hill station had also been demolished something like fifteen years previously, and the site was then a car park, though the new station was soon to be built. The land to the North Eastern side of the current station, part of the site of the previous one, is being developed presently, after many years as a car park. Birmingham's changed a lot in recent years, from the nadir that it reached in the early '70s. Last year one of the worst of the remaining buildings, the dreadful Digbeth Coach Station, was finally demolished; even the temporary one which has replaced it while the new one is built on the same site is a major improvement. I'm looking forward to the German Christmas Market which runs from mid-November until 23rd December. The Gaumont is no more, but Birmingham's much better than it was.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-28-2009, 09:00 PM:

quote:
But what i like to know does anyone know a single screen cinema that shows a film longer than Two weeks bearing in mind the film companies conditions of not sharing a screen with another film?

We have done this but it's pretty rare. Here's a list of all the movies we've played three weeks in the last 30 years. These are ranked in order of how many tickets they sold in week 3 with the best at the top.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
Spider-Man 3
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers
Titanic
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
How the Grinch Stole Christmas

The longest we've ever played a movie was 22 days which we did on a few of these titles due to early openings.

Upcoming, we had to agree to play the new Potter film for 3 weeks too.

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 06-28-2009, 09:16 PM:

I did two entire summers of JAWS when it was
first released. 4 shows a day. Change-overs.

I used to joke that I could probably do all
the change-overs with my eyes closed.

(I tried it once- - but Im not sure how it
looked, since I had my eyes closed! [Roll Eyes]

)

I was on a business trip last year and started
watching it late at night in my hotel room.
First time I'd seen it in at least 20 years.

I was dead tired from traveling and I'd start
dozing off but every time it started getting
close to a cue mark, a bit of aderineline or
something would kick in and I'd be wide awake
for a few minutes. It was strange!

I couldn't beleive that I still remembered
the exact cue points after all these years!

Apparantly the cue marks are permanantly
burned into my brain, or something. . . .

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 06-28-2009, 11:18 PM:

Dang Jim! You and I should had a contest then with long film runs in a changeover house. ..

And with me having 6 months of the 1977 "Star Wars" release - 5 shows a day during the summer months and dropping down to 3 shows a day when school was in.

Yep, I had the cues memorized where I could do changeovers with my eyes closed (since I had the entire film memorized since I had open ports - no glass and could hear the audio from the movie all the time even with the booth monitor turned off.), and showed some of the staff that I could do such a feat of "blind changeovers.."

I actually begin to hate that movie - yes, it was a massive tribute to Americana, but still ...... oh, the boredom due to the routine.

And agree - with the DVD release of both trilogies and when I watch the first one..I can still remember where the cue marks would be.

-Monte

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 06-29-2009, 01:01 AM:

Although this isn't any record breaker, we seem to have had Rachel Getting Married for around 5 months or so. It just wouldn't leave. That's the most recent long run I've had. We also had Mama Mia for awhile, maybe 3 to 4 months. We even had a stupid "sing a long" version which was a disaster. People would specifically request the non-sing a long version when buying tickets from what I heard. Fortunately we had a normal version as well.

I remember having Star Wars Episode 1 for over 3 or 4 months and when a friend of mine from my old UA days came to the booth, he was amazed at how clean the print was after having run for over 3 months. He said it looked like new. I don't ever remember him visiting me in that booth, but he swears he did and that this conversation took place. Just recently I showed him how to best use Filmguard, which is what sparked his memory, I guess. I think he's in the Bahamas now installing some digiplex.

Posted by Wayne Keyser (Member # 2420) on 06-29-2009, 09:27 PM:

I wish I could be more specific, but I definitely recall DR. ZHIVAGO running for well over a year at the westhampton Theater in Richmond, Virginia.