Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Attention all Megaplex's, wanna make $$

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Posted by Dave Cutler (Member # 515) on 10-11-2000, 02:29 PM:

OK, so I have been bouncing this idea around for awhile now and thought I would share it.

Why do Megaplex's only run first run films? We all know that most movies don't make much money after a few weeks (right now most movies don't make much money in their 1st week ) Bring back older blockbusters!!

Take one or two of your larger (not biggest) houses and run older films. They aren't hard to book, and you get a higher percentage of the box office. Most studios want around 35%, considerably lower than any first run movie.

Now some theatre chains may not let their managers make this type of choice, so go to your bosses and ask them to give it a try, or to let you try it. Your local rep theatres are gonna hate you for it (people here that work at rep theatres are gonna hate me ). The key is to advertise where ever you can, make it known that you are gonna start showing their favorite films on the big screen again. But you have to commit to atleast 6 months of a trial run. You don't have to keep any given film for more than a week (ie. you could get a different film in each week, or maybe run a film for two weeks, whatever you want). If you are in a large market you could get togeather with other theatres in the area (same company) and all do this and basically rotate a prints untill you have all shown them and then get in a new group, rotate around, new group, rotate around, and so on and so fourth.

Your first couple of shows won't do a ton of business, which is why you have to commit up front to atleast 6 months. By that time word of mouth will spread and people will start checking to see what you are playing and your attendance will go up. POW, you are making a good profit. Your boss will think you are a genius.

Do the industry a favor though. Make sure your projection staff is suffecently trained to handle these prints. Many of them will be acetate and take a different level of care when handeled. Make sure your analog sound system is operating optimally, as most of the prints won't be digital. OK got that, good.

I would be willing to bet that if enough theatres started doing this that the studios would be more inclined to strike new prints of their older films that are in bad shape. They might even take the time to encode a digital soundtrack from the 6 channel master (if there is one). Everyone noticed how many older films are released on DVD with full 5.1 digital tracks? They have to come from somewhere.

Could this be a revolution to our industry, I think it could. Make older films part of normal operation. With the looming writers guild strike and SAG strike, this might just be the perfect time to find out. I have heard more people say that something needs to change, will this is my 2 cents. I believe any theatre could make this very profitable if they would just try and put forth the effort.

So if you made it through this post, what's your opinion? I am a strong believer in this idea, but am open to criticism.

Posted by Scott Madsen (Member # 167) on 10-11-2000, 04:05 PM:

I think this is a good idea. Exorcist and of course the Star Wars saga show that there is nothing to lose. I do not want to offend the older theatre managers on here but people are excited by the idea of seeing these in the newer stadium-seating theatres. Of course, you are right, projection standards would need to be monitored on these.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-11-2000, 05:41 PM:

I think it's a great idea, but would take some creative promotion to wrench people away from their VCRs, since all the movies would be out on video. Last year we ran a FREE showing of "The Godfather" (it was specifically requested by a sponsoring organization, but was promoted and open to the public) and we only got about 30 people. So it has to be movies that people want to go out to see again.

My biggest worry would be getting good quality prints. The ones we get are sometimes in really bad shape after only 2 or 3 weeks of use....I can only imagine what prints of blockbusters might look like after six months or so.

Posted by Ky Boyd (Member # 23) on 10-11-2000, 06:47 PM:

Print condition is one of the key questions you have to ask when programming/booking classic films. At our 5 screen arthouse, we regularly include classic films as part of our programming mix. We have found that for our location we do best with the really well known "touchstone" classics such as Breakfast at Tiffany's, Sunset Blvd., North by Northwest, Rear Window, Some Like it Hot, Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise, Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and our biggest success Bridge on the River Kwai. We also just recently did very well with the Princess Bride - playing just two shows a day - it was one of our highest grossers in a lousy week.

Generally, we have been pretty happy with the quality of prints we've received, but we always ask questions first. One film, It happened one Night came in in very bad shape, with lots of splices but a call to Technicolor yielded a replacement print that was in gorgeous shape. Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Princess Bride were both really dirty when they arrived but cleaned up nicely with FilmGuard. However, the Princess Bride was very splicy and below our usual standards.

Bottom line, there is money to be made playing classics. Timing and marketing are everything. You have to work to get the word out and build an audience. It's a long term commitment. Also you have to let people know up front its a fixed length run and stick by your guns on those policies. Look for holes both in your own theatre's scheduled bookings and in the overall release schedule. Part of why we did so well with Bride on the River Kwai was that Alec Guiness had just passed away, it was a slow week for releases so the local paper ran Eberts lenghty rave about Kwai as the featured review that week.

We played a collection of Warner Bros. cartoons over labor day weekend because there were no new or even recent kids films in the market. They did alright, but again, you have to ask about print quality. The other thing about classics is that some of the titles aren't available for a variety of reasons. Some titles such as The Music Man are in rights limbo due to bankrupcies or distributors going out of business. Others are pulled (ie. Disney animated classics, Star Wars, etc.)

Posted by Dave Cutler (Member # 515) on 10-12-2000, 09:42 AM:

Yes print quality is a really issue right now. But like I said if enough theatres start showing older prints, yes they may have to deal with some bad prints at first, but after awhile I am confident that studios would start prints new prints. If for no other reason than they don't have enough copies of a given movie that many theatres now want to show. So to avoid angry customers make an annoncement to your guests and let them know that the print may be a bit damaged. I really think that if enough theatres did this studios would respond because it would be in their best interest.

Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 10-12-2000, 09:07 PM:

First off, most of the old movies on DVD have soundtracks that have been remastered. It's really the only market where new digital sound really sells. Take my theater for example, we're an 18 plex, with only 9 houses running digital sound, but do we get a load of people (besides me) who care? No!

Next, off of that, we kept Patriot and Perfect Storm well into September, just as second-run theaters got prints of them. But what we found was that people will see movies early if you've got a big multiplex theater. So when the movies run take really long runs, it doesn't change much. There's not a big demand, and it doesn't make a lot of profit, especially on weekdays.

A few prime examples are Gone in 60 seconds, Dinosaur, and the 6th Sense. When we released these again after their initial runs had ended, they lasted about a week (with the exception of the 6th Sense, but it still failed proportionally to the others).

In other words, what multiplexes need is more good movies (and for some like mine, more digital houses that don't make for a terrible movie sound experience!).

------------------
"Trying is the first step towards failure!"
-Homer Simpson

Posted by Dave Cutler (Member # 515) on 10-13-2000, 02:32 PM:

Steve, you are talking about rereleases of current movies, I am talking about rereleasing classics all the way back to the beginning. Maybe not that far, but I am currently running a series of classic horrors from the 1930's and 1940's with better business than I see other local theatres doing for new films. In order to make it sell you really have to go back almost 5 years minimum, or the interest won't be there. Also just because your theatre isn't all digital doesn't mean that the films would sound bad. If they do you need to have them realigned, a well setup analog house CAN and should sound wonderful.

Posted by Ky Boyd (Member # 23) on 10-13-2000, 05:22 PM:

One more thought on classic movies:

If you are going to show classic films - especially pre late 50's/early 60's, make sure you have the proper lens to show them in the 1.33 format. 1.33 movies look like crap in 1.85 and your audience will know the difference.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 07-14-2002, 04:06 PM:

National Amusements does this in selected locations with its Silver Screen Classics series. It's aimed at the 50+ audience, runs one weekday a month and costs $1 a ticket. Titles are mostly pre-1960 with the occasional 60's/70's title (most recently Kramer vs. Kramer).

Posted by Wes Hughes (Member # 981) on 07-14-2002, 04:49 PM:

Why is this such a new idea?

70's and 80's revivals and late shows are somewhat common. I have done 80's late shows.

I found print condition to be poor to fair, but print availability to be AWFUL.

Posted by John T. Hendrickson, Jr (Member # 849) on 07-14-2002, 06:05 PM:

I'll admit I was intrigued by this post until I saw the original post date. Why bring it up now, especially at this time of year? Our owner/booker has to perform magic tricks each week to juggle the glut of product currently available for our thirteen screens. We don't even have room for some of the art house fare we are offered.

Sure, things will slow down somewhat in the fall, but the squeeze will be on again in November and through the end of the year. I don't see this as a vaible business venture for an independent plex like ours, but I could be wrong.

Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 07-15-2002, 03:12 PM:

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who believes this would work. Most multi-plexes should devote one screen to classics, another to foreign and a third to minority (Mexican, etc. depending on the population in the area) product all year. Simply because Hollywood distributors are promoting a particular film doesn't mean it HAS to run at your house. Some of what Hollywood is producing and promoting isn't worth running. As a general rule the British and Austrailian industries have it all over Hollywood when it comes to telling a GOOD STORY. I have to chuckle when I see some in this thread thinking of 70s and 80s films a "classic". 'scuse me kids, but there are excellent films from the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s that (if available) would fill a house. The film voted best picture ever made ("Citizen Kane") was produced in 1940 (in B&W yet). You really won't have to pry people away from their VCRs. They have really grown tired of sitting at home and want to "get out" and enjoy the "seeing a movie in a theatre" experience. If a theatre is run correctly you cannot duplicate that experience in the home (I don't care what they say about so-called "home theatres").

As has been said, mind your screen performance. Don't crop a 1.33 with a 1.66 or 1.85 ap and lens. Many of the blockbusters after '53 were in CinemaScope (or similar 2.35 process) with mag sound. Unfortunately many 'plex auditoriums have cropped their 'scope pictures to no more than 2.0.

Bob
The Old Showman

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 07-21-2002, 12:49 PM:

Robert E: A film critic for the Newark Star-Ledger wrote a story this week with more or less the same advice. He said having Bollywood pictures would "solve many problems that multiplex operators have with filling their screens."

The Regal Commerce Center in North Brunswick NJ usually has at least one screen set aside for Bollywood product. That's partly due to the large South Asian community in the region. However, most Bollywood pictures last only 1 week in US theaters due to video piracy. Setting aside a screen exclusively for Bollywood also tends to freeze out arthouse product (North Brunswick is near Rutgers University).

OTOH National Amusements is running a Bollywood film in two New Jersey locations this week because NA largely passed on Like Mike.

Posted by Mitchell Cope (Member # 32) on 07-22-2002, 12:47 PM:

quote:
The film voted best picture ever made ("Citizen Kane") was produced in 1940 (in B&W yet). You really won't have to pry people away from their VCRs. They have really grown tired of sitting at home and want to "get out" and enjoy the "seeing a movie in a theatre" experience. If a theatre is run correctly you cannot duplicate that experience in the home (I don't care what they say about so-called "home theatres").

I hate to disagree, but people won't necessarily come out to see a classic. An AMC theater near me did show "Citizen Kane" for at least a week in one of their smaller stadium auditoriums a few years ago. The evening I went, there may have been 20 people there. This print was in good shape, but most product that you would get from a studio would not be. When I went to see another classic, I heard someone say as we left, "I think it would have been better if we had watched it at home on DVD".

Classics like GWTW, Wizard of Oz, Vertigo, and Rear Window seem to do better when associated with a restoration effort or special re-release tour. There has to be an event and associated marketing to pry people away from their "home theaters" for classics, I believe.

Contrary to what I just said, I'm curious if drive-ins could get by with showing their old hokey stuff of the 50s.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-22-2002, 01:27 PM:

We ran "Wizard of Oz" for 4 days (Fri thru Mon) when Warners released it a few years ago. The movie died except on Saturday when we ran it as a free matinee with the local Chamber of Commerce sponsoring all the tickets. For that free show, we were S-R-O. So, have the classic movies for free, and mark up the concession stand!