Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: What is up with these showtimes

This is topic What is up with these showtimes in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Mike Croaro (Member # 3123) on 09-17-2017, 06:05 PM:

Greetings, I found an old picture of the Hillsdale Cinema onlione. It is from the 60's.

It depicts "The Games is Over" with Jane Fonda. Showtimes listed on marquee as 1:30, 3:28, 5:46, 7:54, 10:02.

Are these typical 1960's showtimes?

I posted the link to the picture below. Hope it works.

Mike
https://www.google.com/search?q=hillsdale+cinema+1960%27s&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjH0964qq3WAhXHx1QKHVwiAQ8Q_AUIDCgD&biw=1536&bih=758#imgrc=5z-EBDLTx_eXHM:&spf=1505689707080

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 09-17-2017, 06:43 PM:

And they are "now open for 1pm matinee daily".

So the matinee is 1pm and the next showtime is 1:30? Must be a very short matinee...

Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 09-17-2017, 07:59 PM:

In the day of shorter length features, we would do 1 3 5 7 and 9 showings seven days of the week.

Epic length and road show films were programmed accordingly.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 09-17-2017, 08:14 PM:

Those times seem like a throwback to the days of continuous shows, where you would go in anytime and sit through until whatever you were seeing started to repeat. But then, I think they would say "Continuous shows starting at 2pm" or similar. So...an old fashioned showman who was slowly adapting?

Posted by Don Furr (Member # 1469) on 09-17-2017, 09:10 PM:

Most of our dollar theatres back in the 90's ran 5 shows daily during the summer or in the case of longer run times, 4 shows daily.

Posted by Mike Croaro (Member # 3123) on 09-17-2017, 09:17 PM:

Hello Again,

I don't think there anything strange about 5 showtimes. It's the odd times each movie starts.

For example, instead of 3:28, 5:46, 7:54 and 10:02, why not 3:30, 5:45, 7:55, 10:00 so the showtimes are more "rounded".

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 09-17-2017, 09:22 PM:

Shortage of the right digits for the marquee?

Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 09-18-2017, 01:22 PM:

The feature is 98 minutes long, and supposing the opening movie logo hit the screen at 1:30, the movie would be over at 3:08. Now it seems to be going into 20 minute intervals, with the next one at 3:28...
I originally was thinking there may be something with the trailers in front of the program. Say there is 7 minutes in front...3:28 is when the trailers start and then the feature hits the screen at 3:35...
But then the next show would start at 5:53...?
These are indeed odd-ball times. Maybe it made sense to whoever did that 50 years ago...maybe...

Posted by Jason McMillan (Member # 5542) on 09-18-2017, 01:40 PM:

Back in the 90's there was a company called "Dollar Cinema Inc" here in Houston that specialized in sub-run venues. One of their theatres - the Parkview Twin in Pasadena, TX - always had these kind of oddball start times while none of their other cinemas did.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 09-22-2017, 04:58 PM:

There were a lot of cinemas in those days that ran continuous without intermissions between shows. Thus, the mgr would post these odd show times when the show actually ends.

Plus, in those days, there were no end credits. When the feature was over with, "the END", or "FIN" for the foreign films, would hit the screen.

This is why one would see cue marks at the end of the feature so the operator can begin the next reel, being Reel One of the beginning of the feature.

-Monte

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 09-22-2017, 05:55 PM:

I've always thought that it was a much more sensible way to do things when they put the credits at the start of the movie instead of at the end. There's an incentive to keep them reasonably concise, people will actually see them and they'll mean something that way.

Today's fifteen minute wall-of-text is being read by approximately no-one since everyone gets up and leaves as soon as the feature is over, and they're down the street and on their second beer by the time the credits get to the end. Even the efforts to incent people to sit through the credits by putting a "bonus scene" at the very end seem to be waste of time -- some people might sit there and wait, but nobody's paying any attention to the words on the screen.

Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 09-22-2017, 06:39 PM:

The showtimes are very typical of the 60's, although usually if they advertised they would have rounded up to the nearest 5 minutes (those specific times WOULD have appeared on the printed schedule in the box office window and ticket box inside where the usher tore your tickets. The 1pm time given would have been when the box office actually opened OR when the program started (probably a short subject, cartoon and previews). typically, if there waa ANY break between shows, it would be limited to 5 minutes. But, yes, they didn't round up to the nearest 5 minutes in the actual scheduling, just for the actual start of the feature.

Posted by Dave Bird (Member # 490) on 09-23-2017, 12:02 PM:

I was always tempted to not attach the reels that were "all credits". Certainly killed the lamp a time or two when the double or triple-feature ran late and I was tired. I don't think too many people read them either, though I would swear that something about still being "on screen" makes the lollygaggers lollygag just a bit longer...

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 09-23-2017, 04:14 PM:

quote: Frank Cox
Today's fifteen minute wall-of-text is being read by approximately no-one since everyone gets up and leaves as soon as the feature is over, and they're down the street and on their second beer by the time the credits get to the end. Even the efforts to incent people to sit through the credits by putting a "bonus scene" at the very end seem to be waste of time -- some people might sit there and wait, but nobody's paying any attention to the words on the screen.

For the average moviegoer, those credits are obviously pure nonsense. Also, we've got IMDB and Wikipedia nowadays, you can look up the credits right there.

Credits are part of the movie and parts of the movie going experience. As an exhibitor, you should honor them and obviously play them in full, at least if somebody is still watching.

Today's big budget movie productions have so many people involved, that's why those credits have exploded in the last 20 or so years. And everybody needs to be listed, even the chaiwala of the Indian sweat shop that did a 3-second special effect shot. I think it's also in part to blame on the Unions who demand everybody to be credited. There's even a company, Scarlet Letters, which is responsible for many of those overly long credits. I guess they bill by the letter.

Personally, I think those after-credits bonus featurettes are moronic. They might have been somewhat witty when they were "new", but really, cut the crap. If you have anything to tell me, do it DURING the movie, not when it's done.

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 09-23-2017, 04:37 PM:

quote: Marcel Birgelen
I think it's also in part to blame on the Unions who demand everybody to be credited.

It's a business. And part of the business is to be able to have references, which, in this business is getting your names in the credits. In the studio system days, you worked for a studio, so didn't need to be listed in the credits. No you work for a film production company and need to be able to prove you worked on a film. Hard to "blame" the unions for that situation.