Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Star Wars Episode 2 is DYING!

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Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 06-08-2002, 09:45 AM:

That huge 3rd-weekend falloff on Episode 2 tells me Fox and Lucasfilm have had to renegotiate those ironclad terms.

Here's how Reading Cinemas in Manville NJ has run Episode 2:

Weeks 1 & 2: 3 prints (2 giant houses + 1 large house)
Week 3: 2 prints (2 giant houses) -- drop 3rd print
Week 4: 2 prints (1 large house + 1 medium house)

I assume Reading will drop the 2nd print next week to accommodate product flow.

Have your theaters moved Episode 2 into smaller houses?

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 06-08-2002, 10:31 AM:

One of our prints is in our second-to-smallest house, and I think the other is in a medium house. But there's still the problem with the DLP! We have that thing for 8 weeks, and it's wasting our largest house!

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 06-08-2002, 10:42 AM:

Well if you would have listened to Lucas you'd have DLP in ALL of your auditoriums and you could just e-mail Episode 2 down to a smaller house as needed. That'll teach you not to make the radical changes that Lucas suggests!

Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 06-08-2002, 11:43 AM:

I have to agree with Joe on this. Funny thing is Spiderman is still outdrawing that Star Wars POS.

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 06-08-2002, 12:19 PM:

We just dropped one of our Star Wars prints, but we still have all of our Spider-Man prints.

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 06-08-2002, 12:58 PM:

The inverse square law is starting to take effect up here, too.

Posted by Adam Wilbert (Member # 1184) on 06-08-2002, 10:03 PM:

We're doing better for spiderman (in our smallest house) than star wars (in our largest). Hopefully we'll be able to change auditoriums next week, or at least for Scooby Doo. I'm looking forward to putting that "Ends Thursday" snipe on our roof marquee for SW! tee-hee!

Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 06-09-2002, 01:26 AM:

Isnt there another thread somewhere that we kind of took a guess at how each would face each other? I would like to know just how we each thought the respective pictures would do?

Dave

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-09-2002, 01:28 PM:

Dave,

Yep, it's in this forum. Title is "Spider-Man vs. Star Wars Episode II."

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 06-09-2002, 05:16 PM:

From the Associated Press:

<<<
"Attack of the Clones" continues to slump well behind its predecessor, "Episode I The Phantom Menace," which was approaching $300 million by this point three years ago.

"Attack of the Clones" is expected to top out at a bit more than $300 million, compared to $431 million for "The Phantom Menace."

Factoring in ticket prices that are about 16 percent higher today, "Attack of the Clones" grossed less than half the $25.6 million "The Phantom Menace" did in its corresponding fourth weekend.
>>>

Hehe, sorry about that Georgie. But how could this happen when it was filmed and in some cases presented, in digital?

=TMP=

Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 06-09-2002, 07:29 PM:

Its not a real huge surprise after seeing them both. Spider-Man is the better movie, and that's what I'm hearing from customers. Plus, it's got popular songs in it, so you've got radio stations saying Spider-Man 20 times a day too.

Posted by Tom Fermanian (Member # 1094) on 06-09-2002, 07:46 PM:

Hey gang, out of the 363 available indy screens available in Quebec that Flatly refused Georgie and His Original /$%%%$?&$" deal! (meaning Nobody played it) It seems?? that none of these guys will play this picture on a moveover basis! They had all predicted that SWep2 would crash early! Ha! they are supposed to be the small uninformed theatre operators that know nothing! Well they do know that they didn't get screwed with a bad deal!

GL seems to be their attitude!

------------------

Posted by Paul Konen (Member # 41) on 06-10-2002, 08:58 AM:

We have moved 2 of our prints down to smaller houses. We also will continue to play DLP in really full houses.

Luckily for me, I get to drop the DLP in the big house in two weeks for Lilo & Stitch.

Paul.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 06-11-2002, 10:15 AM:

Paul said: "Luckily for me, I get to drop the DLP in the big house in two weeks for Lilo & Stitch."

Any word on other feature films that will be available for Digital Cinema after "Lilo & Stitch"? I recall the dry spell after "Fantasia 2000" lost its legs a few years ago.

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 06-11-2002, 12:25 PM:

I didn't know Lilo and Stich would be in DLP, but I heard the Windtalkers may be. We should loose Star Wars by the time Windtalkers comes out, but not Lilo and Stitch. We have Star Wars in DLP for 8 weeks. It originally was supposed to be 12. Good thing they were able to get out of that one!

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 06-11-2002, 01:46 PM:

I wouldn't be surprised if "Windtalkers" was available, since they showed it using DLP at ShoWest. So the transfer, compression, and encoding is already done.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 06-11-2002, 04:48 PM:

My prediction was correct -- Reading Cinemas in Manville NJ goes to 1 print of Episode 2 on Friday (6/14). So will the Regal megaplex in North Brunswick NJ.

Ken: Windtalkers opens 6/14, Lilo & Stitch opens 6/21.

Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 06-11-2002, 05:41 PM:

The LA Times ad for WINDTALKERS shows the Chinese Theatre will be presenting WINDTALKERS in DLP on Friday.

Posted by Jonathan M. Crist (Member # 413) on 06-11-2002, 08:20 PM:

In Central Pennsylvania where there was an eight week minimum for SWEPII, they are now offering theatres the chance to "buy out" of their contracts. The buyout for each week you wish to drop is 90% of the previous week's gross multiplied by the payment percentage for that week. IN OTHER WORDS THEY GET YOU COMING....AND GOING!

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 06-11-2002, 08:28 PM:

Maybe it's just me, but that seems pretty sleazy. If Lucas wants to suck more money out of foolish theater owners for signing such ridiculous contracts in the first place that's all fine and dandy, but that extra buyout money should NOT ever be included in the film's "grosses". No one paid for those tickets, but you can damn well bet that money will be added to give the illusion that the movie did more business than it really did.

Posted by Aaron Haney (Member # 747) on 06-12-2002, 12:43 AM:

Paul: the Mann's Chinese on Hollywood Blvd? I thought DLP couldn't withstand the heat of a lamp bright enough to light a screen that size.

Posted by Mark Lucas (Member # 791) on 06-12-2002, 12:50 AM:

It did just fine with AOTC.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 06-12-2002, 05:42 AM:

Mark Lucas said: "It did just fine with AOTC."

Mark: The picture of the Chinese screen that you posted on Film-Tech on May 26 shows that it was masked down considerably from its full size. Looking at your picture, I would estimate it was less than 20 x 48 feet. Do you have actual dimensions of the much smaller area that was being used for the Digital Projection of ATOC?

Here's your photo

Posted by Mark Lucas (Member # 791) on 06-12-2002, 12:39 PM:

It's masked down because it appears to be a common width screen. It was installed just last year. The screen is still 70' across.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 06-12-2002, 12:42 PM:

Paul Linfesty said: "The LA Times ad for WINDTALKERS shows the Chinese Theatre will be presenting WINDTALKERS in DLP on Friday."

How was the Chinese allowed to drop ATOC after only four weeks?

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 06-12-2002, 12:46 PM:

Mark Lucas said: "It's masked down because it appears to be a common width screen. It was installed just last year. The screen is still 70' across."

Are you saying that they pulled the masking out to the full 70-foot width like they do for film? The side masking in your first photo certainly looks to be set much less than 70 feet. Somehow that masked area seems small for a theatre the size of the Chinese.

Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 06-12-2002, 01:21 PM:

When i saw HARRY POTTER at the Chinese, I went up front and looked. I saw side tracking that their masking was mounted on, so I assume its now a common heighth screen (even for Harry Potter, there was a large distance from the ceiling, but the Chinese has always been that way since I first started goin (since 1977 for the original STAR WARS - in 70mm!)

The old screen ALWAYS seemed small to me in relation to the curtain openings. I've heard that when they switched from carbon arc to xenon, they did shrink the screen down. Until they installed their larger screen last year (which, for all I know, may be the old carbon-arc size, i've seen movies projected in ALL kinds of ratios, with both height and width adjustments. 1.33 in TWO sizes, one as tall as the Cinemascope image, another MUCH larger (One from the Heart, Casablanca re-issue), 35mm flat (taller than scope, 1.66 ratio (Robocop, Interview With the Vampire,that Kevin Costner Robin Hood thingy). The 1.85 previews that were hardmatted would of course show the mattes both top and bottom. the ONLY 1.85 ratio films that I've seen projected in 1.85 were the flat blow-ups to 70mm. Since they installed the new screen, i dont know if they still have all these different ratios or not.

The 1977 STAR WARS engagement only lasted 4 weeks, replaced with SORCERER. The film returned in August of that year, but only as a four-wall, which lasted until Heaven Can Wait. (FOX payed Mann $13,500 a week to play the film for the return. At the time, Mann considered FIRST-RUN to be exclusive (except they WOULD allow day-and-date with Westwood), so this was the way around this). At the time, Mann claimed a $10,000 a week nut, so there was a built-in profit of 3,500.

STAR WARS Episode 1 ALSO played 4 weeks only at the Chinese, before moving to the Galaxy. Mann was rejecting the long terms outright, so another limited arrangement was made (I think this was also four-walled). it would have been embarrassing to FOX not to have the film play here, since much publicity was made of the early lines forming.

So I would assume there had been some advanced agreement this time around as well.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 06-12-2002, 02:56 PM:

Putting it back on topic: The UA East Hampton drops Episode 2 on 6/14 to pick up The Bourne Identity. Four weeks and out! That leaves only 1 print running in the Hamptons (the UA Hampton Bays).

Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 06-12-2002, 03:04 PM:

Here's a link to a pre-DLP Star Wars of the Chinese Screen (pre-last year's remodel). It actually looks about the same.
http://www.silverscreens.com/main.html

Go to LA theatres and scroll down.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 06-13-2002, 09:51 AM:

I took some photos of the new screen at the Hollywood Mann Chinese theatre during the ITEA Seminar in Los Angeles on January 13, 2002.

One of my photos has about the same vantage point as Mark Lucas' photo. Comparing the photos, the screen in Mark's photo appears to have the masking pulled in, significantly reducing the image size.

So --- since the full screen wasn't being used, what was the ACTUAL image size being used for the DLP-Cinema presentation of ATOC on the Mann Chinese screen?

Posted by Mark Lucas (Member # 791) on 06-13-2002, 03:53 PM:

Hmm... It does look like they pulled in the side masking a few feet. I'm not sure if that qualifies as "signicantly reducing the image size" though. The screen image is still a good 60 to 65'. I'll try to go there tonight for the last screening and measure the side masking.

Here's another pic of the screen

Posted by Tom Fermanian (Member # 1094) on 06-13-2002, 04:02 PM:

Very Interesting gang!, but shouldn't this topic become "Mann's Chinese screen size differences"??

I'm curious about topic SWep2 Dying,
ps. keep up the good work!

------------------

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 06-13-2002, 04:10 PM:

And with that let's make this entry into the Mann's Chinese "screen shots" the last one. Unless the pictures are taken from the same seat, posting these doesn't really show much differences due to the perspective. Plus it just slows down loading time for our loyal dial-up members.

Hopefully Mark can do an actual measurement as hard data.

Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 06-13-2002, 04:27 PM:

Well, SOMEWHAT back on the topic, Mann's Village theatre is also giving up STAR WARS: AOTC tonight (the same four-week run they had for Episode 1). I'm guessing these two LA showcases (considered the most prestigious by many (notice I did NOT say by ALL)) got the special terms because of their visibility in prime theatre locations.

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 06-13-2002, 09:41 PM:

Oops, I thought Windtalkers was later this summer. I hope my theater can get out of the eight week contract, because that show is doing no business anymore. And I want to see a real movie shot on film in DLP, so I really hope we get Windtalkers.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 06-14-2002, 07:52 AM:

Episode 2 sheds 763 theaters for its 5th week (per Box Office Mojo). The Edgewater Multiplex in New Jersey drops the DLP but keeps 2 35mm prints.

Ken L: Windtalkers opens today. The Regal listing (via Fandango) doesn't specify whether it's in DLP.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 06-14-2002, 08:35 AM:

Ken Lackner said: "I want to see a real movie shot on film in DLP, so I really hope we get Windtalkers."

I saw the DLP-Cinema screening of "Windtalkers" at ShoWest. I was especially disappointed by the limited tone scale, primarily the lack of highlight detail (look at the sunlit rocks and highlights of the fleshtones), and the poor black level (look at the night scene with the drunken Nicholas Cage among the graves). Unfortunately, I also had to sit quite close to the screen in the Paris Hotel Le Theatre des Arts, so the pixel structure was easily seen in the highlights and titles.

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 06-14-2002, 08:45 AM:

I am not with Regal anymore. Cinema Wolrd, in Melbourne, FL, is the theater I work at. Regal does not have any DLP. Good for them!

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 06-14-2002, 08:52 AM:

Ken said: "I am not with Regal anymore"

Then a new photo of you would be appropriate.

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 06-14-2002, 01:35 PM:

Though the "What's wrong with me" comments sounded like people who would work at Regal

(meaning the ones telling you to relax while they thread out of frame!)

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 06-14-2002, 07:35 PM:

Hey, the Regal booth people here in Eugene consistently thread in frame!

Unfortunately their prints seem to be dirty within a matter of days. The booth is partially open to the lobby and this can't be good for film hygiene (no excuse for not having film cleaners though I guess). So the lesson is see the movie on its opening day and it will probably look great. After that, all bets are off. Ep2 was surprisingly dirty on only its 3rd day but looked absolutely pristine on the 1st day. I've noticed this dirt problem on other movies there too. If they could get this problem under control it would be a great improvement to their presentation quality (after opening day or so).

Ken, you really need to submit a new picture, or else maybe digitally edit out the Regal logo from your shirt. Maybe replace it with "Xenon Molestor & Film Handler Workaholic" or something.

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 06-17-2002, 12:19 AM:

David, was that the old Rose Theatre in Portland? That one had the projection booth sitting on top the lobby like a balcony. I kind of liked it when I saw it, but it sure was noisey to hear all the projectors running when buying gedunks from the concession stand.

They must have been a bear trying to keep the machines clean with all that popcorn grease and smoke floating around in the air.

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 06-17-2002, 12:27 AM:

quote:
Then a new photo of you would be appropriate.

Cough, cough...ahem...Brad.

Seriously, I have submitted a new photo. Brad has told me it will be posted when he does the next batch of registrations. I'm so excited, I can hardly wait!

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 06-17-2002, 12:33 AM:

David, the only way a print can get that dirty over 3 day's time is if there is a major shedding problem. If you see it on every print, then my guess is the projectionists are not cleaning out the projectors after each show, so the last run's dirt has turned into a hard deposit and is now scraping off new dirt on the next run. (That's the best way to destroy a SRD or SDDS track too.) If it is a Regal theater, all they have to do is fill out a form and fax it and they can have a bottle of FilmGuard in about a week's time from their booth supplier. They should at least use it to wipe the edges of their prints to cut down on most of that shedding. My Episode II prints look better now than they did on opening day. No shipping dirt or any distraction. (George needs to get his butt down to Dallas!)

Ken I'm sorry, but did you say something.

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 06-17-2002, 12:49 AM:

What? Me, say something? I was merely clearing my throat. Sorry 'bout that.

Posted by Peter Kerchinsky (Member # 1098) on 06-17-2002, 01:40 PM:

Paul
Are you referring to the Roseway in Portland?
I believe there is a Rose Theatre in some small town across the water from Seattle.
The Roseway is still running. Why I'm not sure because it was pretty run down a few years ago.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 06-19-2002, 11:28 AM:

Two theaters in Princeton NJ drop Episode 2 on Friday (6/21).

The Princeton Garden Theatre on Nassau Street picks up 13 Conversations About One Thing. The UA Marketfair on Route 1 bumps the latest Lucasfilm epic to accommodate product flow. Both theaters ran Episode 2 for 5 weeks and out!

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 06-27-2002, 10:04 AM:

Episode II died a quiet and unattended death here. I haven't looked at a calendar, but it certainly feels like we got out of our contract early.

I know that we were allowed to move it down to a smaller, analog (audio) house from the second or third week. We were even allowed to drop it down to matinee only.

I think we dropped it completely last week and, somehow, that feels like an entire month ahead of schedule.

If Lucas insists on going all-Digital with Episode III then I doubt we're going to show it...unless we adopt DLP for some other reason before EP III is released.

Basically, there's just no way I can see us signing any special agreements with Lucas ever again. In fact, none of us should. He may have earned that kind of clout back in the 80's but that was 20 years ago and he's only producing unpopular garbage these days.

~Manny.
A very disappointed Star Wars (and Lucas) fan.

P.S. Mann's Chinese on H'wd Blvd has VERY flexible masking. It is not fixed width. I have seen flat, scope and 70mm projected there and those black masking curtains open wide and tall, almost all the way out to the red ones.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 06-27-2002, 11:01 AM:

Manny Knowles said:
"P.S. Mann's Chinese on H'wd Blvd has VERY flexible masking. It is not fixed width. I have seen flat, scope and 70mm projected there and those black masking curtains open wide and tall, almost all the way out to the red ones."

I know that, and that's why I questioned Mark Lucas's claim that the DLP projected image filled a 70-foot screen. Looking at Mark's picture of the masked-down screen, I would estimate that the digital image size was only about 48 x 20 feet, more in line with what I would expect from the current DLP-Cinema technology. Mark promised an actual measurement of the DLP image size at the Chinese, but he hasn't posted it.

Mark said in his review: "From where my seat was(just to the right of the exact middle) I couldn't see any artifacts or pixels. Only when I got up and moved closer to have a look did the picture reveal it's digital nature." So if the DLP image size was indeed only about 48 x 20 feet, this would mean that Mark was likely sitting more than 3 screen heights from the screen --- in my experience, the poor resolution and pixel visibility become issues closer than about 2 screen heights.

Does anyone have the ACTUAL details of the DLP-Cinema setup at the Chinese? Will any Film-Tech "lurkers" who work at the Chinese or for Technicolor Digital Cinema or Lucasfilm or THX Ltd. please chime in?

Posted by Donna Sylvester (Member # 726) on 06-27-2002, 01:30 PM:

If StarWars is so dead, why won't 20th Century give it up to us little guys???????? I called yesterday inquiring about the 4th of July weekend and was told no, it would probably be a couple more months before it would be available to us low grossers!

Posted by Tom Fermanian (Member # 1094) on 06-27-2002, 01:42 PM:

Because Georgie is sticking to his gun's not giving smaller theatres better terms or playtime on moveovers for"his" masterpiece,Even tough some guys here (that regretfully took the picture on release seem to have to PAY to buy up the rest of their playing time from Fox.Lucas is more contented by keeping prints on the shelves (where they don't generate one red cent) than bringing their conditions & demands down!

------------------

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 06-27-2002, 03:21 PM:

We started with 4 prints and it's been hogging our 80 foot giant screen since day one. Tonight though we lose the 2nd print, leaving us with only the one...and it is headed straight for our smallest theater where it will play out the remainder of it's days.

That didn't take long.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 06-27-2002, 04:26 PM:

After tonight Episode 2 is nowhere to be found in the Hamptons.

The UA Hampton Bays drops Episode 2 tomorrow to pick up Mr. Deeds. Six weeks for Episode 2 and out! Hampton Bays also drops Juwanna Mann after only one week.

OTOH the UA Southampton gets The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys tomorrow and the UA East Hampton says goodbye to Spider-Man after a winning 8-week run.

Posted by Peter Kerchinsky (Member # 1098) on 06-27-2002, 05:16 PM:

Word is that Paul Allen's/AMC's Seattle Cinerama theatre is playing it through August. We guess the theatre is a tourist thing and they'll probably do OK during the summer months. After all the Seattle Imaxdome has been playing the ERRUPTION OF MT. ST. HELENS for some 20years now for those tourists. Also rumors abound the Cinerama will be playing a "new" print of HOw THE WEST WAS WON in the 3 panel process sometime around their 50th anniversary. Not sure when that is.
They ran John Harvey's print a couple of years ago to a packed house during the film festival.

Posted by John T. Hendrickson, Jr (Member # 849) on 06-27-2002, 07:26 PM:

I'm curious. For those of you who have dropped Episode II, how did you get out of the contract?

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-27-2002, 07:31 PM:

The long wait for Star Wars in the low grossers is just as much to do with Fox itself as it is George Lucas (if not more). Fox has their wacky low-gross policy on every film. My booker told me there are prints of SW-EPII sitting idle on the floor at the depot right now, but we can't book it yet because Fox "thinks" we are a low grossing theatre....EVEN THOUGH WE GROSS MORE than their "low gross" threshold amount.

Buncha boneheads.

I don't care though.....plenty of other great product out there right now. The other studios are more than happy to take our money even if Fox isn't.

Posted by John T. Hendrickson, Jr (Member # 849) on 06-27-2002, 07:31 PM:

I'm curious. For those of you who have dropped Episode II, how did you get out of the contract?

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 06-27-2002, 07:36 PM:

Star Wars is rolling out to Latin America at the moment....after Spiderman they do not expect much "legs" to this picture. The last installment, we where doing EX installs ahead of openings in different markets due to strong USA sales but in comparison this is

Richard Fowler
TVP-Theatre & Video Products Inc. www.tvpmiami.com

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 06-27-2002, 08:50 PM:

If it's true that Fox won't release EP2 to the "low grossers" until sometime in August, IMHO the theaters should refuse the print alltogether when the time comes around. Most everyone who has seen it probably won't care to see it again, and those who haven't seen it yet probably won't want to or are more likely to wait for the DVD. (To see it in "Digital" like Lucas intended

) That would show them! "Okay. You can have Episode 2 now..." --- "No thanks. We already have 2 screens for Spiderman."

Film-Tech is the first place I heard about Fox's stupid "Low Grossing" list. If they want to play games like this, they should at least release trailers with the correct dates for "low grossing" theaters. Oh wait... if they're low grossing then what's the point?

=TMP=

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 06-28-2002, 01:07 AM:

John -

My understanding is that you take your final week's gross and multiply it out over twelve weeks to figure out the "penalty." For example, if you final it after week 6, with a $1,000 gross, you pay film rental on $900 for week 7, $810 for week 8, $729 for week 9, $656 for week 10, $590 for week 11, and $531 for week 12. Take all of those aggregate amounts, and plug them into the percentages on your contract for weeks 7-12, and there is your penalty fee.

Posted by John T. Hendrickson, Jr (Member # 849) on 06-28-2002, 05:56 AM:

Mike-

That's outrageous! Is Fox actually holding theaters to that, in light of how badly EPII has fallen off?

All-

Sorry for the double post last night. We had a violent storm run through here and I couldn't edit when I discovered it.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 06-28-2002, 07:34 AM:

Richard F: Fox has held off on Episode 2 in Latin America until now because of the World Cup (soccer). Sony opened Spider-Man in Latin America several weeks before the World Cup.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-28-2002, 02:30 PM:

I have told Fox people about 10 times that if they would give us their pictures in a timely manner, we would gross about 2x more on them (or more) than we do now.

They won't listen. They just say, "Well, you DO get a great deal on the film rental!" Which is true, but I'd rather pay 70% of $4000 and make $1200 and sell a ton of concessions than 30% of $900 on the same tired movie two months later.

Meantime, we played Spider-Man in its third week of release and kicked ass with it. We're looking at July 12 or 19 or 26 for Star Wars II (over 2 months late!) and will probably do 1/3 to 1/2 what we'd have done 6 weeks ago. I'm just thankful that Fox is the only studio with this policy.

The other thing I'm thankful for is that we have a dedicated core of moviegoers here who love to support their local theatre and are patiently waiting for Star Wars (or planning to see it a 2nd time).

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 06-28-2002, 03:24 PM:

James -

AFAIK, yes ... that's still the case.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 06-29-2002, 10:24 AM:

On a hunch I peeped the Regal website for Fourth of July bookings.

The two Regal megaplexes in Northern New Jersey drop Episode 2 on Wednesday. Two smaller Regals in the same region have already dropped Episode 2. Only one Regal in my area will have Episode 2 for an 8th week (in Phillipsburg, on the PA border).

"Here come the Men in Black . . ."

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 06-29-2002, 11:41 AM:

Charles,
Latin America loves their soccer.....I was stuck in a cab in Buenos Aires for two hours since the traffic was not moving due to a soccer match; the cab driver did not charge me since he was too busy listening to the radio....but then again I was in Amsterdam last year when 15,000 fans took over the city center ( and red light district ) for 24 hours

SpiderMan was delayed in one country for a week due to the very stiff terms Sony demanded. I was visiting a client and two days after SpiderMan opened in his country, bootleg tapes ( with very professional package artwork )was at every street corner for $2 - 3.00
Richard Fowler
TVP-Theatre & Video Products Inc. www.tvpmiami.com

Posted by Paul Konen (Member # 41) on 07-02-2002, 11:03 AM:

As of 7/3, I will be presenting EP:2 on ONLY DLP with my film-print as backup.

At some point the DLP will end it run and will run the film print until it is done. The DLP is playing in a 266 seat house and fills it about 1/2 to 3/4 on the weekends.

Paul.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 07-03-2002, 04:49 PM:

Thanks to a late change in bookings the Regal megaplex in North Brunswick NJ keeps Episode 2 for an 8th week.

OTOH that particular Regal is a "Cinema Art" (arthouse) location but does not get The Fast Runner or Sunshine State -- both of which open in nothern New Jersey today.

The AMC Empire and Loews Jersey Gardens are down to 1 print of Episode 2 -- in DLP only (all 35mm prints out).

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 07-10-2002, 03:14 PM:

Episode 2 is out of the 1,000-seat Ziegfeld in NYC on Friday -- replaced by Road to Perdition.

What was that about 12-week contracts? Episode 2 will only play 8 weeks + 1 day in the Ziegfeld.

Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 07-10-2002, 03:29 PM:

And, as noted earlier, only 4 weeks at the Chinese and Village theatres in Los Angeles.

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 07-10-2002, 05:07 PM:

It look like it's going sub-run in Muskegon MI on 7/17.

Posted by Brooks M. Davies (Member # 1349) on 07-10-2002, 11:43 PM:

here Starwars ep 2 has been playing in a smaller house for 2 weeks and we will lose it tomm. spiderman is staying in a medium house. but scooby doo is still hanging in there we still have it in a large house and does very well

Posted by James Keel (Member # 835) on 07-20-2002, 07:30 PM:

Just for the record, Ep II is the BETTER movie.

Spider-Man bored me to death....except when that spare Willam Defoe was doing that cruddy Green Goblin screeching.

Spider-Man just goes to show that with enough publicity anything can be popular.

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 07-20-2002, 08:29 PM:

Star Wars opened at my sub-run theater on 7/19. However, Enough outgrossed it on opening night.

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 07-21-2002, 12:11 AM:

Wow Mike, that is really sad.

I must live in a wierd area, because we are still playing Spidey and Star Wars, and Star wars is doing better.

Posted by Jim Leko (Member # 1287) on 07-21-2002, 04:26 AM:

We played EPII for 7 weeks before we took it out. Even though we have the best sound in the area, most people don't think a mall theater can be a quality theater, and when they go to see Star Wars, they want a quality theater (too bad the quality sucked due to video taping the movie)

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 07-21-2002, 12:29 PM:

Episode 2 opened subrun and got beat out by a J.Lo movie? ROTFLOL!

The UA Union Square in NYC dropped Episode 2 for two days last week when Eight Legged Freaks opened. Episode 2 returned to Union Square on Friday and should play through 8/1 at least. (Union Square is not getting Austin Powers in Goldmember or The Country Bears.)

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 07-31-2002, 05:13 PM:

As of tomorrow Episode 2 will breath its last in the UA Union Square. Lucasfilm won't allow a double-up of Episode 2 with anything else.

This means the only way you can see Episode 2 in Manhattan is the DLP at the AMC Empire.

OTOH the AMC Empire picks up The Fast Runner for late afternoon/evening shows starting Friday.

Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 07-31-2002, 05:27 PM:

Not to be rude, but does anyone really care anymore?

------------------
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"It is the opinion of the entire staff the Dexter is criminally insane."

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 07-31-2002, 05:31 PM:

"Lucasfilm won't allow a double-up of Episode 2 with anything else."

Cinemark has it doubled-up here, looks like with Bourne Identity.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 08-11-2002, 04:23 PM:

I was not yet registered at Film Tech when this topic was the one getting the most response at the time but I thought I should put in my two cents worth now. It is very obvious that Lucas is no longer the "Cinema Wonder Boy" everybody made him out to be when the original "STAR WARS trilogy were produced. I am very glad almost everyone agrees with me that Lucas is now a 'Has Been'. Despite the negative opinion many people have of him, he still has the audacity to dictate to the motion picture industry to put in digital projection equipment or else be left out when "EP3" is released. If I was a theatre owner, not only would I not put in digital equipment to oblige him but I would also tell him to take his film and shove it up you know where. Boy! It made me feel real good to say that.

-Claude

Posted by Tom Fermanian (Member # 1094) on 08-11-2002, 10:06 PM:

Fully Agree!,
SWEP3 was refused by a majority of Indy theatres(representing 60% of revenues in Quebec) here on it's release date,NOT ONE HAS TAKEN THE PICTURE OFF RELEASE AND PROBABLY WON'T, Hey they all have had an excelent summer despite the absence of SWEP3! Hey they have money left over so there!

Posted by Paul Konen (Member # 41) on 08-26-2002, 11:02 PM:

Going into Week #16 with EP2 on the smaller of the two screens for DLP. Signs on the other.

With the quality of movies that are coming out. It may last a couple more weeks.

BTW, it still pulls at least a 50% (133) capacity for a couple show a day during the weekend.

Paul.

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 08-27-2002, 01:26 AM:

Star Wars had a 5-week run at my discount theatre (7/19/02-8/22/02).

Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 08-27-2002, 05:54 PM:

After one whole month, Star Wars Episode 2 sill no longer playing at my theater.

------------------
Find me online
AOL: Dexter Caldwell
yahoo!: dexter_caldwell

"It is the opinion of the entire staff the Dexter is criminally insane."

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 08-27-2002, 07:18 PM:

That's right, Lucas is a has been and Episode II was a complete failure. That is why it's made $300 million. You guys need to understand the difference between not meeting expectations and being a 'flop.'

Posted by Richard C. Wolfe (Member # 431) on 08-27-2002, 11:45 PM:

Dustin, I have to basiclly agree with you. However, I do think that Lucas does deserve to be chastised for GREED. Had he sold the picture as any other potential summer blockbuster release with a minimun 4 week run at 70, 60, 50, 40 and 35 out over 90/10 it would have been considered a big hit. As you pointed out, even if sarcastically, a 300 million dollar gross is anything but a flop. If he truely believed in his picture and it had done the huge business that he had hoped for, he would have still gotten the big film rental as those grosses would have made the 90/10 kick in. But no, he had to get the big bucks even if it didn't perform. Had the picture had legs and held in, exhibitors would have thought nothing of holding it beyond four weeks. His terms seems to suggest that he wasn't convinced that he had the big winner that many expected, or at least hoped for. The ultimate price that he may have to pay is for the next one. It will be very hard for him to demand the high terms and long playing time that he forced upon theatre owners this time. And it will make it even harder to convince exhibitors to make the change to digital for the next one as well.

Even with 300 million, this one was a failure for most exhibitors, although maybe not for him. His failure will come next time, when it's time to pay the piper.

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 08-28-2002, 01:55 AM:

Lucas will get what he wants with Episode III as well. Everyone chanted the same lines they're chanting now after Episode I. But when push came to shove ... they shelled out the necessary terms.

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 08-28-2002, 11:14 AM:

That's generally true Mike, but the booking terms, at least in regards to restrictions on moving prints to different auditoriums, etc, were a lot less severe for Episode II than they were for I.

Richard, I see where you are coming from, but I have to disagree to this picture being a loser for most exhibitors. When we finally dropped Ep II after its 13th week (I can't say if we were locked into a 12 week contract or not), it was stilling filling half our smallest auditorium on the weekends. This is very rare for us, and I personally think the picture held up very well, at least in this area.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-28-2002, 02:09 PM:

Since we're in a small town, we had to wait three months for the movie. If we'd had it on the opening, or within a reasonable time (3 to 4 weeks off the break) we'd have grossed 2 to 5 times what we did on it. Thanks, George.

As for the terms next time....by the time EP III rolls around, I agree Lucas will get whatever he wants again, because expectations and hype for the film will be astronomic...but he may not have very many screens to open on, because supposedly he's going to "require" digital cinema everywhere. Good luck, George! Ever try grossing 300 million on under 1000 screens? (BTW, that screen count is just a speculative guess)

Posted by Justin McLeod (Member # 1329) on 09-02-2002, 06:32 PM:

AOTC may be dead in the theaters but in just 2 months it gets released on dvd and rumor has it that a good quality DVD rip has allready been up and running on the net.

If thats not enough star wars for you guys, here is another dose of it for you. Over on ebay, someone is selling a full sized replica of a starwars land speeder that is street legal and only has 800 miles or so on it. It has been made to look like is hovering. The current bid on it as I write this is 9000 $. A direct link to the page can be found over at the force.net . Look on the main page towards the bottom where it says "life size land speeder"

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 09-03-2002, 12:37 PM:

Justin wrote: "...someone is selling a full sized replica of a starwars land speeder that is street legal and only has 800 miles or so on it. It has been made to look like is hovering."

I recall the original "hovering" speeder effect was "done with mirrors". Mounting mirrors between the speeder and the ground just reflected the adjacent ground terrain as it moved past the camera, giving the impression of flying low as it sped by.

Posted by Paul Konen (Member # 41) on 09-20-2002, 10:08 AM:

Finally after 19 weeks and 1 day, My run of EP2 on DLP is over. I think this finally kills EP2 in the Dallas Area.

If you are interested, Signs took its place in the smaller theatre and Banger Sisters took the Big House. At least I didn't have Pluto Nash for a release like some others did.

Paul.

Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 09-20-2002, 10:55 AM:

If I remember correctly, from a behind the scenes of the Special Edition re-releses, Lucus said that the original hover/speeder had wheels and they just rubbed vaseline on the film in postproduction to hide them and to give it that hovering look.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 09-20-2002, 11:17 AM:

I recall a television special on the "Star Wars" EFX, showing the use of mirrors along the underbody of the speeder to give the "hovering" effect as it sped past the camera.
http://www.starwars.com/databank/vehicle/xp34landspeeder/index.html

Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 09-25-2002, 11:45 AM:

After two whole months, Star Wars Episode II still no longer playing at my theater.

------------------
Find me online
AOL: Dexter Caldwell
yahoo!: dexter_caldwell

"It is the opinion of the entire staff the Dexter is criminally insane."

Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 08-04-2004, 11:07 PM:

It has been 679 days since the last post.

Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 08-04-2004, 11:07 PM:

After two whole years, Star Wars Episode II still no longer playing at my theater!

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 08-05-2004, 01:48 AM:

Good to know! [thumbsup]

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 08-05-2004, 01:57 AM:

Didn't buy the DVD since it's different from the theatrical version.

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 08-05-2004, 03:16 AM:

all dvd's are!

carl

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 08-05-2004, 03:39 PM:

Heh - I was wondering which ending they were going to use on it. The probably went with the DLP versions ending.

Posted by Adam Wilbert (Member # 1184) on 08-05-2004, 11:53 PM:

James,
You had better knock on wood. You still have almost 2 months to go before your 2 years are up. You never know what will happen...
[Big Grin]

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 08-06-2004, 09:03 AM:

Did the DLP version really have a different ending?

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 08-07-2004, 02:56 AM:

Nothing special, just a little slight of hand.