Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: polar express vs Incredibles

This is topic polar express vs Incredibles in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Ramin Hashemi (Member # 2694) on 11-09-2004, 07:10 PM:

For those who have seen both polar express and Incredibles, which one would you put on your DTS screen?

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 11-09-2004, 09:11 PM:

Assuming you have only the one digital house, put Incredibles in there. Polar's sound mix isn't all that great, but the Incredibles has a magnificent soundtrack.

Moving to Ground Level.

Posted by Chris Medley (Member # 2145) on 11-10-2004, 07:12 AM:

Incredibles

Posted by Jason M Miller (Member # 2597) on 11-11-2004, 09:35 AM:

So far on Wed Incredibles did better then Polar Express...but I think the reall test is going to be the weekend

Posted by Barry Martin (Member # 1376) on 11-11-2004, 04:55 PM:

Same thing here, we did 25 people for Incredibles (pretty good for a Wednesday night) and 5 for Polar [Roll Eyes]

I really didn't want two kids movies at the same time (we're a twin, I remind you) but Warner offered us a deal if Polar underperforms and we took it. Hopefully the weekend will be better.

Posted by Jason M Miller (Member # 2597) on 11-13-2004, 07:10 PM:

As of 8:10pm EST Incredibles ahead at 501 to 263 all day

Posted by Barry Martin (Member # 1376) on 11-14-2004, 12:16 AM:

Got 5 more for incredibles than Polar today, but I sold out the night show of Incredibles and turned away about 10-15 people [Frown]

Had 20 less people for Polar in the night show than Incredibles so I couldda fit them in the smaller house, if I could switch them.

Seems to me it would have been more intelligent for Warner to release Polar on the 22nd and Alexander on the 10th or 12th. After all, they wouldn't be competing with Incredibles and THEN Spongebob. Plus Alexander would make a good choice (being an R rated) for adults when the new movies were animated. And most of my patrons have been commenting it's a bit early for a christmas-themed movie.

Also got our first checker since I took over back in April. She works for TES and was contracted out by Warner to check Polar all 3 weeks (not even confirmed for 3 weeks yet!) and to check all shows on Saturday and Sunday. How ridiculous! We have 210 seats max, even if we weren't reporting 10% of those does the loss really pay for the checker to come for 3 weeks straight and stick around all day for the shows. Not that I mind being checked, and the woman was very nice about it (she's not happy to be giving up 3 saturdays and 3 sundays for this either) but where is the value in this service?

Plus, checking the trailer program. I was in such dire need of scope trailers before Incredibles and Polar came along that of COURSE I used 5 of the 7 enclosed. [Big Grin]

Why would I attatch trailers I ordered and sometimes paid for when there are freebies in the can. [thumbsup]

Posted by David Yauch (Member # 2754) on 11-15-2004, 01:45 AM:

We had roughly 10 times the traffic for incredibles compared to polar.

Of course we have 5 prints of incredibles compared to 6 polar plus a OC polar as well(print number 00001 [Smile]

)

The incredibles prints are picked up and moved to another projecter as soon as they drop so we can run it in 6 houses on 30 minute intervals. Polar plays in 30 minute intervals as well, but with 7 prints we have hour and a half turnarounds for some shows.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-15-2004, 03:04 AM:

Well the numbers are in. Polar Express was beat by Incredibles almost $2 to $1.

Warner Bros. has totally botched this release. Don't they get it? People are NOT IN THE CHRISTMAS MOOD YET, for cryin' out loud. To put out Polar Express 10 days after Halloween is just stupid.

They ought to cancel all their advertising right now, yank all prints after this Thursday, get plenty of quotes from Roger Ebert's review of the movie (he gave it 4 stars), create a new marketing campaign, and reissue the movie on December 10. Spongebob Squarepants will be dead by then, Incredibles will have petered out, and the kids' market will be wide open.

Posted by David Yauch (Member # 2754) on 11-15-2004, 03:29 AM:

I am with you Mike, I just don't see how they expected this to work.

We do have a huge three-interlock rental for polar express coming up though, which will roughly double the number of people who've seen it so far at our location, and we do VERY well for family/kids movies!