Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Did anyone run 24hr opening day marathons?

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Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 12-13-2010, 02:32 PM:

Its been a long time since I have seen a theatre do one of these for a brand new movie.

I was working the night Cineplex Odeon decided to run Jurassic Park: The Lost Work for 24hrs on opening day. We ran all 6 screens through out opening night, we had 12:00-6am set of shows, then a small break until 7:45am. After the JP2 disaster, we never ran another overnight.

I remember a few people showing up.

We did it because Famous Players was doing this at the Coliseum 10 in Mississauga all summer long in 1997. They did it all summer for movies up until Batman And Robin if I remember correctly.

Anyone ever do these?

Posted by Jason Whyte (Member # 1433) on 12-13-2010, 03:06 PM:

I remember the Granville 7 in Vancouver did an all-nighter for INDEPENDENCE DAY for the first few days. I really can't understand anyone going to a movie at 6:45am.

You're lucky to get a midnight show in Victoria, let alone a 3am show (last one I recall here was in 1999, when EPISODE 1 had a second set of shows starting at 3:30am!)

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 12-13-2010, 04:13 PM:

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome played 24 hrs opening weekend at the State Theatre in Sydney. It was never repeated so not sure of its success.

Posted by Michael Coate (Member # 757) on 12-13-2010, 05:03 PM:

I'm guessing the first time anyone tried one of these 24-hour round-the-clock stunts was in 1980 when the UA Egyptian, in Los Angeles, and the UA Cinema 150, in Seattle, opened "The Empire Strikes Back" with an all-day, first-day marathon commencing at midnight. The trades reported capacity business all day.

Actually, now that I think about it, they may have done something similar in New York in 1974 for the opening of "The Godfather Part II."

For this sort of stunt to work I think it is evident that you need a very high-profile sequel and the booking(s) to have some degree of exclusivity.

I never worked a round-the-clock opening but did work a few midnight openings, including "Batman" in '89 and "Dick Tracy" the following year (with the ticket stub t-shirts). This was in a small town, and I recall the midnight screenings going over poorly.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 12-13-2010, 08:02 PM:

The last 24-hour screening thing I recall was when I was working in Redmond and the Regal down the street was doing Star Wars Episode I. One of the managers I worked with happened to drive by it, dropping something off at her bank and found people sleeping in line for morning shows and a half-awake box office worker.

And most of the shows apparently didn't sell since so few people bothered showing up through the night.

Posted by Brian Jupp (Member # 2801) on 12-14-2010, 12:49 AM:

For Star Wars: Episode 1 we ran over 24 hours straight for the first day: 12am, 3am, 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 10pm, 1am. Although it wasn't busy at all for some of those shows, it was good press at the time. I'm sure we'll never do it again.

Posted by Jason Whyte (Member # 1433) on 12-14-2010, 01:03 AM:

Brian,

As soon as you said "press", memories flooded back of a Times Colonist mention about your theater running the all nighter. University 4 went as far as 3:30 and called it a night at 6am. [Smile]

Posted by Ron Lacheur (Member # 1126) on 12-14-2010, 01:16 AM:

Episode 1 was the last time I can recall a 24hr opening day run in this city.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 12-14-2010, 02:23 AM:

We ran Episode I on the 24 hour marathon. Although we didn't sell out every show late in the night, they were pretty packed. I was also interlocking between multiple medium auditoriums, as well as the two big screens with 750 people each.

Posted by Christopher Crouch (Member # 3784) on 12-14-2010, 04:16 AM:

Unfortunately, I was on duty when someone deemed "Titanic" worthy of a round the clock opening schedule. The problem was that the person who made this decision did so at the proverbial last minute. He managed to obtain corporate approval, but it was far too late for any sort of advertising. We had some sell out spill over from the promoted show times, but nothing close to warranting the extra shows (a situation which grew incrementaly worse as the night/morning wore on). Nothing quite like looking out over a virtually empty auditorium in the middle of your unexpected sixteen hour shift.

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 12-14-2010, 04:39 AM:

The GCC Plymouth Meeting ran shows of Episode I around the clock for almost the entire opening weekend.

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 12-14-2010, 09:59 AM:

I'm surprised somebody would have done that with "Titanic", considering the public in general knew little about how good the movie was going to be until people actually started seeing it...THEN word-of-mouth and publicity went through the roof.

The only thing I knew about the movie itself going in was that everybody expected it to be a financial disaster.

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 12-14-2010, 10:47 AM:

During the summer The Prince Charles cinema in London ran 3 day maraton of every single episode of the TV show Lost.

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web page
Thought the Twin Peaks weekender or the Star Trek season were excessive? Think again: the Prince Charles cinema is to host a host a Lost Marathon next month, with all 121 episodes screened in a single sitting.

The show, which began in 2004, concerned a group of plane-crash survivors marooned on a strange island, who (despite having no running water and little in the way of soap) still managed to look glamorous and sexy.

At its peak, Lost was a huge critical and commercial success, but after some dubious narrative decisions (time travel is seldom an ideal deus ex machina), it was deserted by many fans. When it limped to a conclusion earlier this year, the finale of season six was greeted with a huge sense of anticlimax and disappointment. But the dismal denouement masked the fact that, during its glory years (roughly seasons two through four), the show was addictive viewing.

The marathon begins at 10am, September 13th, and will run for three days, as the 80 hours spool out. The Sun reports that paramedics will be on hand to help out any fans overcome by the enormity of the task (or just sheer boredom). Though the event is free, but only 280 places are available, and it’s first-come, first-served. Attendees are invited to dress up as their favourite character (bonus points for anyone who achieves a realistic Smoke Monster costume), and pillows, snacks, sleeping bags, etc. should also be brought along

Posted by Jake Spell (Member # 5294) on 12-14-2010, 03:41 PM:

THe grand oppening at the Hippodrome Widescreen where I work ran a hour marathon of Star Trek. Shows starting all though the moring with attendance at everyone. Not a single no show!! Wish I could say the same about it now...

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 12-14-2010, 04:03 PM:

One of the first 24hr marathons happened back in April of 1953 with the 24 hour Premiere Marathon for Warner Bros. "House of Wax" in 3D WarnerPhonic Sound at the 3600 seat Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles.

Posted by Robert John Jeromson (Member # 2559) on 12-15-2010, 12:14 AM:

The last one I ran was Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. We ran it every hour on the hour from midnight in three auditoriums, two 35mm and one digital.

Posted by Christopher Crouch (Member # 3784) on 12-19-2010, 04:44 AM:

quote: Sam Graham
I'm surprised somebody would have done that with "Titanic", considering the public in general knew little about how good the movie was going to be until people actually started seeing it...THEN word-of-mouth and publicity went through the roof.

This particular individual made a lot of "over the top" moves, all in an attempt to get noticed and climb the corporate ladder at AMC. His approach definitely worked, for a time, as he went from management trainee to megaplex GM within a couple of years and moved on to being one of the company's "big names" shortly after that. However, his "look at me" style eventually backfired, as the self drawn spotlight shined on one too many bad decisions.

Posted by Michael Barry (Member # 237) on 12-19-2010, 08:03 AM:

Unfortunately, I never got to run a 24 hour marathon. I say that, because I would have loved to have run one! [Smile]

The last one I remember in Sydney was Batman (1989) which ran 24 hours at least for the first weekend in George St in the city. At least one print was 70MM.