Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: 3D clashes!

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Posted by Thomas Pitt (Member # 4322) on 10-21-2010, 04:14 PM:

This week, theaters in the UK are facing a 3D booking dilemma. Most only have one or two 3D screens, yet there are two new 3D films (Alpha & Omega, Legend of the Guardians) out this week. Not only that, but Despicable Me is only in its second week of showing and should still be shown in 3D!

What do you do in your theater when there are multiple 3D films competing for your limited number of 3D screens? Do you alternate between movies in each screen? Do you simply not book (or play 2D-only) one of the movies? Or do you do something drastic like split the movie into two halves?

The VUE Leeds Light appears not to be showing Legend of the Guardians, while Cineworld in Bradford looks to be alternating showings in their 3D screen.

Posted by Chase Taylor (Member # 778) on 10-21-2010, 04:20 PM:

Don't run Alpha & Omega, you will thank me later. That movie was a turd.

Posted by Jeremy Weigel (Member # 4208) on 10-21-2010, 05:02 PM:

It did quite well for us...

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 10-21-2010, 05:40 PM:

Share the screens? Surely they're not asking for so many sessions of LOTG or A+O not to be able to do this.

Despicable Me should keep its own screen though this early into the run.

BTW, the 3D in LOTG is quite excellent.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-21-2010, 06:17 PM:

Whatever you do, keep Despicable Me on your 3D screen as long as you can. That movie has great word of mouth.

I have also heard that LOTG has great imagery but a lot of people are "upset" that it's too scary for li'l kids.

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 10-21-2010, 08:09 PM:

my neighborhood theater only has one 3D screen, and I think they are going with Megamind and not Saw 3D. [Frown]

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 10-21-2010, 11:56 PM:

There's no dilemma if you have two 3D houses in the UK this week, you try and show Alpha and Omega as little as possible in 3D in the smaller screen, as it's by far and away the weaker title. Despicable Me will do great business through the school holiday, and LOTG 3D should be strong.

I work for the major exhibitor you didn't mention in the first post, and we've pretty much rolled out enough 3D screens to avoid these situations. Our site near the ones you mention has four 3D screens.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-22-2010, 12:15 PM:

quote: Jonathan Goeldner
my neighborhood theater only has one 3D screen, and I think they are going with Megamind and not Saw 3D.

That's smart...Megamind will have way better legs than Saw 3D.

Posted by Mike Frese (Member # 4361) on 10-22-2010, 01:09 PM:

It is my understanding that Lionsgate is allowing just one week 3d for Saw 7 to get screens just like Universal did with My Soul to Take. Two 8-plexes near me played 1 week 3d of My Soul To Take and then played week 2 35mm.

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 10-22-2010, 07:11 PM:

We are ok with our 4 screens, 1 alpha & Omega, 1 LOTG and 2 Despicable me.

quote: Thomas Pitt
The VUE Leeds Light appears not to be showing Legend of the Guardians, while Cineworld in Bradford looks to be alternating showings in their 3D screen.

Looking at the website they have 1 Despicable Me, 1 Apha & Omega and 1 LOTG.

I thought Cineworld had at least 4 or 5 3D capable screens at that site.

quote: Jonathan Goeldner
my neighborhood theater only has one 3D screen, and I think they are going with Megamind and not Saw 3D.

Would have thought they'd play Megamind during the day with 1 or 2 evening shows of Saw.

Posted by Mike Frese (Member # 4361) on 10-23-2010, 12:00 AM:

No way you could split during first week in the U.S. anything. Do the studios allow you to split on week one in the U.K.?

Posted by Aaron Lane Morris (Member # 5902) on 10-25-2010, 08:35 PM:

We have two 3D screens out of eight total.

We have doubled up at times, but more recently we drop a previously 3D movie to a 2D screening. For instance we are showing Jackass 3D and My Soul to Take right now. Next week we will drop Soul down to 2D to make room for Saw.

Posted by Thomas Pitt (Member # 4322) on 10-26-2010, 07:08 AM:

Next week with Saw 3D (Megamind isn't showing on the 'coming soon' pages yet), it appears that it's only showing in the evenings at VUE sites. Presumably they have Guardians, Alpha & Omega and Despicable Me during the day since it's school half term, and the 18-rated Saw is relegated to evening showings.

Looking around the various VUE sites, the earliest time I can find Saw 3D on a weekday is 7:30pm! I think the Cineworld in Sheffield has more 3D screens though; they're showing it during the day.

I wonder how theaters would react if FOUR 3D films came out at the same time?

Posted by Marc Jensen (Member # 3561) on 10-26-2010, 07:14 AM:

Two different movies alternating on one digital system shouldn't be a problem. I'm just finishing up a week of running five different movies on one digital projector, each of the first four movies getting one show a day and the last movie with two evening sessions.

The only tricky part is the system is due to be set up with automation in some upcoming week and until the new gear goes in we've been running shows with a fair bit of manual operation.

Posted by David E. Nedrow (Member # 4981) on 10-26-2010, 10:56 AM:

Marc,

It's not the technical side of sharing a screen that the question was about. In the US, it's virtually impossible to convince the studios to allow more than one first run film to alternate with another. Sometimes, a smaller distrib MIGHT allow you to show two of THEIR films at teh same time on one screen, buit otherwise it doesn't happen here with first run.

I wish that weren't the case, because it makes the business of a single screen difficult.

-David

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 10-26-2010, 02:28 PM:

quote: Thomas Pitt
Looking around the various VUE sites, the earliest time I can find Saw 3D on a weekday is 7:30pm! I think the Cineworld in Sheffield has more 3D screens though; they're showing it during the day.

Leeds Light has the 1st show going on at 16:35

Cineworld Sheffield the lst goes on at 10:55AM !

Posted by Ross Oba (Member # 3433) on 10-26-2010, 02:43 PM:

To my knowledge, there hasn't been more than 1 3D release in any given week. However, on December 17 both TRON Legacy and Yogi Bear are being released at the same time. Both have very good potential, however I would say TRON Legacy will have better legs since it's being touted as the next Avatar (in terms of tech, not necessarily $$$).

Posted by Marc Jensen (Member # 3561) on 10-26-2010, 05:55 PM:

Thanks David. I was wondering if there was an movie booking explanation as to why one movie would dominate one screen, and now I know.

I find it weird though. If a system is found to have a glaring flaw, or doesn't keep up with the times, then wouldn't it be more logical for the industry to update the thinking and revise the systems?

Posted by Kurt Zupin (Member # 2751) on 10-27-2010, 08:45 PM:

quote: Ross Oba
However, on December 17 both TRON Legacy and Yogi Bear are being released at the same time. Both have very good potential

Yogi Bear has zero potential. If anyone books Yogi over Tron they will regret it. Tron will be big.

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 10-29-2010, 11:45 AM:

I've seen about 10 minutes of Tron in IMAX Digital 3D and it looks great, and took away a lot of my concerns over the format. I would worry about not booking Tron anyway because Disney have a good 2011 slate and you wouldn't want to piss them off.

The UK is the same as the USA with regards to screen sharing in opening week. With 3D you can share a screen but you still have to make it up with 2D shows in another house.

The Owl film did nowhere near what I expected it to do in the UK. I think Red being a 12A (PG13) took some families away.

For most Cinemas there's no point playing Saw 3D during the day. You make your money off a horror film opening Friday and Saturday night, then it dies down. Somewhere like Cineworld Sheffield is a top 50 grossing location (large city and near their large mall I believe) so they're going to play the top 12 films all day.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-29-2010, 04:58 PM:

quote: Kurt Zupin
Yogi Bear has zero potential.

Whoever decided that should be a Christmas movie should be fired. They should have released it in August when there were no kid movies, or held it till next summer. As is, it's gonna get stomped.

Posted by Mike Frese (Member # 4361) on 10-29-2010, 08:07 PM:

Mike,

What else is out there for little kids over Christmas? A weak Christmas will still outperform an August release.

Posted by Kurt Zupin (Member # 2751) on 10-29-2010, 10:30 PM:

You've got Narnia coming out, and Tangled will do well over Christmas as well. To think that Yogi is some how going to have even a decent return I think is really fooling themselves. It does not look good at all, and just some numbers for you to crunch. Movies that are from the same cartoon Generation and their respective boxoffice results. Dudley Do-Right(August 27th, 1999)Total Gross $9,974.410 and The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (June 30th, 2000) Total Gross $26,005,820.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-29-2010, 11:53 PM:

Plus some kids will still be going to Harry Potter then too. And lots of kids will be drawn to Tron Legacy.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 10-30-2010, 03:59 AM:

The HARRY PORTER film scheduled for December that was announced it was coming out in 3-D was cancelled and will only be released in 2-D and IMAX. The 2nd part of the film scheduled for next year however will be in 3-D.

-Claude

Posted by Mike Frese (Member # 4361) on 10-30-2010, 04:15 AM:

Harry Potter will be 5 weeks old then. The last Harry Potter had 92% of its total gross after 4 weeks 2 days. All of those movies will be playing at theaters that account for 90+% of box office gross anyway. (Us small theaters really make up a small amount of the studio's take.) Boxoffice.com has a $64 million cume prediction. Yogi's est. opening weekend gross is higher (2x)than the last Harry Potter's week 5.

Keep in mind if WB had played this in another time of the year there is a good chance that it would have been cut back enough to where many of us would not have gotten it.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-30-2010, 09:16 AM:

quote: Mike Frese
Keep in mind if WB had played this in another time of the year there is a good chance that it would have been cut back enough to where many of us would not have gotten it.

I doubt that. The studio wants a hit in the summer the same as in the winter. They could have played it in mid-July to mid-August and had the field all to themselves. Or they could have taken a page from the "Ice Age" playbook and gone for early spring.

Posted by Mike Frese (Member # 4361) on 10-30-2010, 04:14 PM:

Mid-July? Despicable Me was rocking, Toy Story 3 was still going strong. Cats & Dogs 2 came out 7/30 so a 8/6 release would have cannibalized it. The only box office for kid movies greater than $35 million occur when the movie is released on the first weekend. The rest of month has not been done very much for good reason. (Shorts $20.9 m, Clone Wars $35.1m). So mid-august would have been out. Next July-Aug looks quite full already as well.

It just sucks for the small theaters when they release many crowd appealing movies at the same time. I can't blame the studios as I would do the same thing. In my district (KC) the top 50% of theaters gross over 95% of the total (according to Rentrak including the theaters that allow their numbers to be seen).

Christmas is a appealing time for movies, especially kid movies.

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 11-03-2010, 03:23 PM:

There is a local multplex near me that has 1 digital screen.

As of next week they have a few shows of Despicable Me during the day, then it alternates shows of Jackass and Saw in the evening. Bet they with they had a 2nd 3D screen this week so they could have full evening shows of both Jackass (1st week) and Saw (week 2).

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-03-2010, 03:56 PM:

quote: Mike Frese
Cats & Dogs 2 came out 7/30 so a 8/6 release would have cannibalized it.

The best idea would have been to just shit-can Cats & Dogs 2 and put out Yogi Bear instead.