Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: "Pirates 3" Intermission Prints at Odeon

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Posted by Ben Wales (Member # 92) on 05-27-2007, 05:13 PM:

I have heard that there are some Intermission Prints of "Pirates3" being played at some Odeon/UCI sites in the UK. [Roll Eyes]

Can anyone give a reason why?
Is it a Sale's thing, certainly not a Technical reason.

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 05-27-2007, 06:43 PM:

If you go to the Odeon website, go to 'select film' and choose Pirates w/intermission you can see which sites are playing the film in two parts.

quote: Ben Wales
Is it a Sale's thing, certainly not a Technical reason.

Does not having enough prints to satisfy expected demand therefore bicycling some of them come under sales or technical? I'd go for the former.

My initial thought when seeing this was maybe the screens had towers that couldn't take the 3hr+ programme but thats unlikely, right?

Posted by Justin Gorka (Member # 3727) on 05-27-2007, 06:55 PM:

Bizarre thing intermissions. We never get asked to do one except for the odd Billowed we show. Have never received a reason as to why 3hr+ Bolly's get an intermission set 3hr+ English language films don't. Anyone out there care to guess?

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 05-27-2007, 07:06 PM:

Cultural, have been told most films in India run with intermissions even Hollywood ones. The amount British Asians spend on food at the cinema I'd run an intermission with every Bollywood.

Posted by Justin Gorka (Member # 3727) on 05-27-2007, 07:12 PM:

Not in our site, the sneak their own in. Sorri for the Bollywood spelling mistake, used the dreaded spellchecker then it was too late!!!

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 05-27-2007, 07:16 PM:

Bollywoods are about the only films people don't sneak food in to at our site. Pret a Manger do better business from our customers than we do for first showings!

Posted by Dick Vaughan (Member # 540) on 05-28-2007, 03:41 AM:

quote: Caleb Johnstone-Cowan
Cultural, have been told most films in India run with intermissions even Hollywood ones.

I've also been told that virtually all films run in Iceland have an intermission no matter how long they are.

Posted by Patrick de Groot (Member # 858) on 05-28-2007, 04:39 AM:

A film like Pirates 3 can use an intermission because of the runtime. No problem with that. Also concession sales go up.

In The Netherlands intermissions are a common thing. Some cinema groups do not plan intermissions, while others do it all the time.

I like a 10 minute break anyway, no matter what film.

Posted by Dan Harris (Member # 1759) on 05-28-2007, 05:36 AM:

Yeh, all sites with multiple prints have intermissions on the 2nd and 3rd print, and selected sites with a single print also have them. It's a 15 minutes interval - firstly it was supposed to be at the end of reel 5, then around 5pm on the opening Friday we get told to re-edit the intermission slightly back from the end of reel 5 to fit in with a scene change.

It's purely a Sales thing, apparently (so were told) it's quite common in Germany for films 2h+ to have intermissions. Our retail sales have benefitted, but I personally don't think it's a good idea.

And it was fully agreed with BVI - they even popped intermission titles in the film cans for us.

Posted by Timothy Eiler (Member # 383) on 05-28-2007, 08:48 AM:

quote: Dan Harris
And it was fully agreed with BVI - they even popped intermission titles in the film cans for us.

After what reel was the intermission ?

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 05-29-2007, 12:04 AM:

Says in the above post the intermission is during reel 5.

Was this a ticket sales decision, or kiosk sales, or both?

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 06-04-2007, 04:14 PM:

Its not only an Odeon thing.

I visited a nearby Vue site recently (to see another film) and they had signs posted up stating that some of their Pirates showings had 15 minute intermissions.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-04-2007, 06:24 PM:

I think all movie directors should get a large cup of their beverage of choice and try to sit through their movie without a bathroom break. Then call the editor back in. I'll bet we'd see a flood of 93 minute movies.

Posted by Ray Faultless (Member # 903) on 06-04-2007, 06:54 PM:

I saw Pirates today at a 11:15am show. I choose this time because it did have an intermission. There were 35 people there and I counted as best I could how many came back carrying snacks popcorn or drinks. The count was at least 21 so that was pretty good sales.15 mins is a bit long 10 would easy be long enough.

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 06-04-2007, 07:13 PM:

Maybe some sites have difficulties when bicycling the print so 15 minutes gives some leeway.

Posted by Tim Asten (Member # 4051) on 06-08-2007, 03:43 PM:

We have five prints of this movie(Cineworld)and as of yet we have not had any intermissions. This is unusual as Cineworld never miss a trick to screw as much profit as they can out of sales breaks. However the next long film we get this situation may change. For the record I think it is a bad idea to have a half-assed break in a film where clearly there was not meant to be one. The last major film I remember having an intermission was Gandhi in 1983 which had perfectly placed tasteful break in the middle followed by a five minute musical intro on the film leading in to part two. The DVD also carries this exact intermission for old times sake. Gandhi was a long drama (195 mins) which warrented a break but an action film like Pirates does not. Here in England we pay quite a hefty licence fee to the BBC to have TV without commercial breaks and this should be the case in the cinema.

[ 06-09-2007, 02:22 PM: Message edited by: Tim Asten ]

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 06-08-2007, 04:33 PM:

Maybe we screwed Odeon for once, getting more prints of a Hollywood film than they did, forcing them in to the bicycle situation?

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-08-2007, 05:31 PM:

quote: Tim Asten
Gandhi was a long drama (195 mins) which warrented a break but an action film like Pirates does not.

If anything, an action film needs a break even more than a "long drama" because the theatre is full of younger people who swill gigantic drinks. Bladder capacity doesn't depend on what type of movie you're viewing. Besides, with Pirates it would have given the audience a chance to discuss their theories on what the hell they thought was going on.

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 06-09-2007, 09:24 PM:

I don't think it's anything to do with bycycling prints. As far as i'm aware each screen had it's own print but we chose to put the intermissions in.