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Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 06-27-2001, 05:20 PM:
Last year we were pissed because the Shooting Gallery Film Series was played at United Artists theatres across the country, regardless if there was a good independent cinema in town or not. So all of the people who wanted to see these films would call us up and ask if we were getting the films and we would have to say, no they are playing exclusively at United Artists. So we picked up some of the films after they were nominated for Academy Awards and played them to much larger audiences than the United Artists did, here in town.
So this year, Shooting Gallery awarded the series to us. I guess they realized that independent theatres market their films better and let them play longer. We were to get LAST RESORT, WHEN BRENDAN MET TRUDY, TOO MUCH SLEEP, THE DAY I BECAME A WOMAN, THE LOW DOWN and EUREKA. We opened Last Resort last week to not much attendance. This week we were looking forward to When Brendan Met Trudy which has gotten good reviews in NYC & LA.
So last night at 5:30 PM Technicolor calls up Ky and tells him that they won't be able to ship our film out this week because Shooting Gallery went out of business today. We called our booker in a hurry and tried to get in touch with the newspapers to change our ads. Can you believe it? We just lost 6 titles in a blink. I don't even know if they will pick up Last Resort. Our booker already told us not to pay the weeks rental on this film. Well luckily we have a backlog of titles to play, so I guess this will not hurt us too much.
Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 06-27-2001, 05:46 PM:
Ian: The Shooting Gallery series involved Loews Cineplex, not United Artists.In New York the Shooting Gallery series was based at the Loews State (Broadway & 45th). With the Loews E-Walk and AMC Empire running full-tilt the State stayed open only because of the Shooting Gallery. Loews wants to close the State as part of its own Chapter 11 reorganization -- and the demise of the Shooting Gallery should be the deciding factor.
Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 06-28-2001, 04:45 PM:
I know that Shooting Gallery was partnered with Lowe's. But in markets where there were no Lowe's, they went with UA. I just think it would have been smarter last year for Shooting Gallery to look at each individual market before committing to one company. We were looking forward to their series this year. We have spent considerable time and effort in marketing the series this year and we have disgruntled patrons to consider.
Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 07-21-2001, 10:36 AM:
There's more in this week's Village Voice on how the Shooting Gallery shot itself dead.