Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Product Turnover

This is topic Product Turnover in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Paul Konen (Member # 41) on 12-17-2002, 09:41 AM:

How many of you are turning over a majority of your prints within the next couple of weeks.

12/13/02 Open 7 prints - 4 titles
12/18/02 Open 3 prints - 1 title
12/20/02 Open 8 prints - 4 titles
12/25/02 Open 5 prints - 4 titles
12/27/02 Open 1 prints - 1 title

And I am a 24 screen complex. It's not fun to try and place all this product because it is forced to go into smaller auditoriums with in a few days and doesn't get a chance to make any money because of that.

Your thoughts?

Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 12-17-2002, 12:11 PM:

The films are not going to make money not because they are being forced into the smaller auditoriums (it's not like they are selling out in even those theaters) but they are not making money because of the sheer number of product that is comming out. People are simply not going to spend the money to see 20 different movies in such a short period of time. They are going to pick 3 or 4 that they really want to see and wait for the others to come out on DVD.

All these film companies try to open their product at the same time because they believe "thats where the money is" but in reality many of these movies are losing money. Take StarTrek for instance. They would not only have had a much bigger opening but the movie would probably stay in the theaters a lot longer if they had waited another month. Instead you have a lot of people buying advance tickets to LOTR: The Two Towers instead of seeing StarTrek.

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 12-17-2002, 12:22 PM:

That is our business in the 21st Century. It is a sad thing -when a majority of reciepts for the films are made opening weekend. Companies like Regal Cinemas have overscreened a majority of the U.S. The rest of have to suffer becasue of this and it has definately affected the industry. There is a glimmer of hope - my theatre carried "Big Fat Greek Wedding" for 6 months. I hope they make more films like that. I have had "The Ring" for a good 9 or 10 weeks now.But a majority of the films released die after opening weekend. Remember the term "legs" ? I can only name a handful of films that had really good "legs" this past year.

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 12-17-2002, 01:46 PM:

We've been turning over product like pancakes!

Last Week:
LEFT - Extreme Ops, They, Harry Potter, 8 Crazy Nights, Solaris
CAME - Star Trek, Maid In Manhattan, Hot Chick, Drumline

This Week:
LEFT - Santa Clause 2
CAME - Lord Of The Rings

And next week we have Wild Thornberrys, Two Weeks Notice, and Gangs of NY coming. My guess is 007, Treasure Planet and Analyze That are leaving. Oh, and we're an 8-screen [Wink]

=TMP=

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 12-17-2002, 04:25 PM:

This week we are getting rid of 5 titles from our 5-plex. But that leaves us with 5 titles as well. We are putting our MOVIES IN THE MORINING program on hiatis for the holidays.

We are opening one print for the 20th and one print for the 25th.

But watch out for January! [Eek!]

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 12-17-2002, 06:08 PM:

I think some big mistakes were made this holiday season on releasing some films. Here are some of them. First off, Santa Clause should have been released on Thanksgiving and Treasure Planet should have came out on November 1st. Star Trek should have been released during Thanks giving. Gangs of N.Y. should have came out limited and expanded in January. That's just my thoughts. Movies like Solaris, Extreme ops and Hot Chick should have been reserved for those off peak seasons.

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 12-18-2002, 12:31 PM:

I've been of the opinion that the distributors shoot hemselves in the foot each week with the (often) ridiculous release practices they use. I mean, come one, with ticket/concession prices as they are, what family makes multiple movies each week? It's one or the other, plain and simple. If they would spread out the product amonst the 52 wknds/year they would all get a higer portion of the public to see each of their films. There would, of course, be the wknds where you'd get the glut of "dogs" but the way things are now, that typifies each weekend anyway.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 03-12-2003, 03:28 PM:

Here we go into the product glut: 3 new titles this week, 4 for 3/21, 3 for 3/28, 3 for 4/4, 1 for 4/11, 4 for Easter, 5 for 4/25. It would have been worse except Miramax decided only 2 days ago to pull Prozac Nation from its scheduled release this week.

Quite a few theaters had to scramble when Prozac Nation got pulled. This week the UA Southampton is getting back Far from Heaven -- which the UA East Hampton played at Thanksgiving. Town Center Plaza in East Windsor NJ (National Amusements/ex-Regal) is picking up Talk to Her as a programmer.