This is topic Spiderman in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 04-29-2002, 07:48 PM:
Does anyone else agree with me when I say that the markets are being deluged with Spiderman prints becuase it's gonna bomb out?I mean, three prints (at my location), come on.... This is more of a niche film than it is a crossover based film, IMHO. Then again, I've been known to be wrong before!
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The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese!
Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 04-29-2002, 09:08 PM:
Funny most bookers feel it will outdo StarWars
Posted by Aldo Baez (Member # 790) on 04-29-2002, 09:17 PM:
I highly doubt it will outdo Starwars but we will see.
Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 04-29-2002, 10:44 PM:
Been hearing some posative things about it. But who knows till the thing opens. People have been calling asking when tickets go onsale. Could be huge or another Godzilla. 
Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 04-29-2002, 11:10 PM:
This, and M.I.B. 2 are Sony's big movies for the year.
They are putting a lot of faith in them, hence the wide releases.In N.Z. they are also going quite wide.
However Godzilla did rather well in my wee town.
Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 04-30-2002, 01:41 AM:
The running time is 121. If it was going to bomb, like say Time Machine, they would have cut it down to 5 reels, say 96 or 98 minutes, so they could squeeze in 5 shows a day. A 2 hour running time (without trailers mind you) indicates that the studio has faith in the picture.However, all that doesn't change the fact that Star Wars, a movie that will draw from exactly the same demographic as Spiderman, opens 13 days after Spiderman. The saturation release (our location gets 3 prints also) could probably be compared more to Monsters, Inc. That movie was great, but Disney had to contend with Harry Porrter just two weeks down the road.
Posted by Gracia L. Babbidge (Member # 582) on 04-30-2002, 12:44 PM:
I know that I'll be building up two prints of Spiderman this week. *mock enthusiasm* whee.As far as I know, most of the people I work with just aren't too psyched up for it either.
Comic book superheroes just never did it for me. Oh well.
It's not like I'd actually be able to watch the screening anyway, as lately our bookers seem to have a fascination with changing enough stuff to make me a busy little bee! Recently it's been a bunch of weeks with 3 in, 4 out; or vice versa, and we've been playing 12+ different titles for quite some time, on 10 screens. 
Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 04-30-2002, 01:18 PM:
Don't you just love it when the distributors force your bookers to hold over a print of "x movie" when it only grossed $500 for the week?"Distributor" 'Well, we want you to hold over "x movie" for anotehr week. Go to one show if needed, we just want it there one more week so it makes another $100. Plus, we like causing your operators as much trouble as we can'.
"Booker" Well, we'd rather final, but we'll hold this one for you"
"Manager" 'This makes NO sense whatsoever.. 16 screens with 3 Spiderman prints and double ups on 4 screens.... WTF?'
"Operator" 'If they only had to do this double billing shit once, they'd understand'
"Customer" 'Why is 'x movie' only playing at 9:50? I'd like to see it at 2....
It never ends...
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The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese!
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 04-30-2002, 02:35 PM:
Spider-Man won't outgross Star Wars 2, but I don't think it'll be another Godzilla either. I'm thinking more like "The Grinch" ... a well-known character that spans the generations. As long as it doesn't suck, it will be a huge hit.
Posted by Jacob Huber (Member # 1138) on 04-30-2002, 02:55 PM:
I certainly hope it's nothing like The Grinch. We got hit bad by the Grinch, and I mean BAD. We had two or three prints playing 5 times a day, and every single show sold out every single day for about 2 weeks straight. 'Twas a nightmare, for I was still downstairs at the time.
Posted by Adam Fraser (Member # 1074) on 04-30-2002, 04:07 PM:
Jacob,
I dont see that as a bad thing, I hope we fill up for every showing of Spiderman, that is what keeps us in business.------------------
Adam Fraser
www.pinestheatre.com
Posted by Jacob Huber (Member # 1138) on 04-30-2002, 10:16 PM:
Not really a bad thing per se, but just a pain in the arse considering I was getting paid only $5.75/hour to deal with thousands of people a day and much of our staff was new, leading to long lines everywhere.
Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 05-01-2002, 08:40 AM:
David F: Sony has a big lineup this summer -- Spider-Man, Enough (with J.Lo ), Mr. Deeds (with Adam Sandler), MIIB (Men in Black II), Stuart Little 2, xXx (with Vin Diesel ). The weekly print edition of Variety had a story about the Sony slate a few weeks back.Most chains' websites have been pushing advance tickets for Spider-Man. Few people are buying advance tickets, though. I did that for Star Wars Episode 1 and have vowed "Never Again!"
Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 05-01-2002, 10:00 AM:
Why all the complaining about the bookers intentionally trying to make you do more work? There is a lot more to booking than meets the eye. If you piss a film company off, you risk losing their product. That's why you have to play junk like "Freddy Got Fingered" from Fox. Doubling up prints isn't really that big of a headache anyways. I remember a couple of weeks last fall when I had 15 prints here in my 10-screen. I can count on one hand the number of weeks in the last year when I only had 10 movies showing. It's just part of the job. And for those that still want to complain about their booker, why don't you try doing their job for a week, and then tell me how you like it? Plus most bookers used to be in your shoes. "If they only had to do this double billing shit once, they'd understand." HOW FREAKING DIFFICULT IS IT? I assume you have a 3-deck platter system. All you do is thread a different show! The only way I could possibly see it being a pain is if you don't have automated masking and turret changes. In which case disregard the previous statement.Rant over.
Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 05-01-2002, 10:19 AM:
I only saw it a pain a couple of times and that is when they booked us with three prints in the same house. If possable I could connect two of them but when not possable we had to move the prints.
Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 05-01-2002, 11:38 AM:
Yeah ... I had to do that once in Kansas City. That was interesting. Supernova, Any Given Sunday, and Snow Falling On Cedars. We stole a platter (Christie) from a tree that only had one film ... and just set the extra print (on the platter) on the floor next to the projector. That way we didn't have to clamp the print every show. At least the platters were easily removable.
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 05-01-2002, 12:29 PM:
Mike -- interesting solution, but don't you need two people to lift a complete platter?Actually, triple features aren't really a problem as long as the theatre has the flat disks that sit on the platter surface and which can be used to move prints (we call them "cookie sheets," but I don't know if that is the official term). Just take the print up on a cookie sheet and move it to another platter or rest it on the legs of the same platter (not the floor, please!). This can be done easily by one person and avoids the use of clamps completely.
With motorized masking and either lens turrets or properly set lens collars, none of this should be a big deal.
Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 05-01-2002, 01:11 PM:
Scott - we didn't have any of those discs. The platter solution was the easiest, but it still required two people.
Posted by Christopher Duvall (Member # 284) on 05-01-2002, 03:08 PM:
We call those discs "donuts".
Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 05-01-2002, 03:14 PM:
Getting this back on topic . . .Sony is gunning for a record based on the bookings I've seen.
AMC Hamilton: 5 prints, first show 10:15 AM, last show 11:30 PM.
Loews New Brunswick: 5 prints, first show 10 AM, last show 12:30 AM.
That means the staff has to get in extra early on Friday to prep the theater before the doors open. And that last show won't let out until the wee hours of the morning. Then you've got to do it all over again Saturday and Sunday. 
Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 05-01-2002, 05:28 PM:
This is just my opinion.Spider Man has a shelf life of exactly 13 days. The studios and the exhibitors know that they will need to wring every possible dollar out of the American public during those 13 days. So it only makes sense to open as many prints on as many screens as possible. That way you can dump quite a few screens and open that little art film from George on May 16th.
As soon as Star Wars opens I believe that everybody will have forgotten about Spider Man. Now, I have seen Spider Man and it is faithful to the spirit of the comic but I don't believe it breaks any new ground. Therefore I don't believe that it has a life after Star Wars opens. Even if this doesn't turn out to be true, I believe that this is the mindset of the distributors and the exhibitors.
Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 05-02-2002, 07:36 PM:
OK, just watched the film and overall, I enjoyed it. I *really enjoyed Willem Dafoe's line.... "God Speed Spiderman.... Ohhh..."
Brought out a good laugh... Anyway, I was surprised at the decency of the film, but I still dont' see it as being good for small kids, which will surely be begging mom/dads to bring them out tomorrow.We'll see... Anyone else care to share their opinion of it?
Now back to work to screen Deuces Wild... Yippeeee... <sarcasm mode off>
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The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese!
Posted by Wes Hughes (Member # 981) on 05-03-2002, 02:24 AM:
When you guys have to triple up films on one platter stack, why don't you just "piggyback" two of them? By this I mean have two films on one deck tail to head? If you platters are well timed, normal sized, and generally in fair shape it is no problem. I do it fairly regularly on POTTS (Strong) platters with no film retainers of any kind (just a tuck) and never have trouble.Just make sure your operators ALWAYS run the films that are piggybacked even if no one is in the theatre so that the film on outside of the roll won't be trapped by the one in the center of the roll!
Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 05-03-2002, 07:35 PM:
I watched "Spiderman" and enjoyed it pretty well. It's not the best superhero movie I have seen, but it is worth the ticket price to see.One big problem I have with it though brings up this question: who did the quality control on these prints!!!???? Good Lord, parts of it just looked terrible. I think it had to be in maybe reel 3 or reel 4 where some of the worst stuff happened (when Peter Parker takes out the garbage at night and chats with Mary Jane) there was all this blotchy and spotty looking stuff coming up every once in awhile. It looked like the film had a bunch of liquid dripped on parts of it basically. The color quality was also pretty drained as well.
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 05-03-2002, 07:53 PM:
I had to replace a reel 3 of mine for exactly that same reason. I forget what causes it (but John will be around in a few minutes to remind me), but I wonder how many reel 3s that could have plagued before it was caught.
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 05-03-2002, 09:25 PM:
Was the problem on the soundtrack (left-hand) edge of the print? If so, then it's a soundtrack application problem at the lab.[cue Pytlak-vs-Guttag thread on the relative sound quality of silver-track vs. high-magenta vs. cyan-dye soundtracks]
Posted by Gracia L. Babbidge (Member # 582) on 05-04-2002, 01:47 PM:
I've got a screen tripled up right now. Which isn't anything new and different, since January, there have probably been 4-5 weeks when there weren't any screens tripled up! 
grrr...And of course, we don't have any of those spiffy 'donut' / 'cookie sheet' things either.
Nor is it feasible to 'piggyback' any of the prints, because Clockstoppers plays the first two matinee shows, Y Tu Mamá También plays the third matinee show, then Murder By Numbers plays the two evening shows.
That leaves option 3 - clamp and move prints every day, preferrably with assistance, but it rarely happens that someone able-bodied enough to be of help has the five minutes to dash upstairs!
'aggravation-cha-cha-cha!'
<-has biceps like steel! 
Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 05-04-2002, 01:56 PM:
<<When you guys have to triple up films on one platter stack, why don't you just "piggyback" two of them? By this I mean have two films on one deck tail to head? If you platters are well timed, normal sized, and generally in fair shape it is no problem. I do it fairly regularly on POTTS (Strong) platters with no film retainers of any kind (just a tuck) and never have trouble.>>I have done this. But you must have the showtimes set for this to be possable. Sometime that can not be done because of this Example.
1st show= monsters inc.
2nd show= Black knight
3rd show= Black knight
4th show= Ali
It is these situations where I wish I had the eprad double mutt system where that third print with one show could be ran on a large 12,000 foot reel. Then all you had to do was rewind the print.
Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 05-04-2002, 06:59 PM:
Quality control:
Every reel of every print got visually checked where I saw Spiderman being shipped. However... the print check stations run the film at a horrendous speed, I will guess 10X so a reel takes 2 minutes. All anyone could see is a major disaster (goodly scratch or streaks/blotches/blank film from a printer fault) and if the checker blinks a good sized bad section could be missed. They were rejecting a few reels though - no idea if that scrapped the reel or it went back for a second look.
Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 05-04-2002, 07:57 PM:
I had wondered if visual inspection of prints was still done or not, given today's high-volume-in-a-few-days release printing schedules. It's good to hear that it is still checked, even if it is of limitted utility.I watched it at a local theatre last night and was annoyed at the dye spots on R2. I assume it was printed at Deluxe Toronto, as they seem to be characteristic. Also 3 lab splices (average I guess) and a hair in the aperture (removal request [apparently] ignored). Alas, alack...
--jhawk
Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 05-04-2002, 08:58 PM:
Also the check staions use a prismatic shutter system that is at best flawed
Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 05-05-2002, 01:38 AM:
Yea we had sound problems on one of our prints too. At the beginning of reel 2 the sound cut out for 10 - 15 seconds and near the beginning of reel 6 we got what sounded like a feed back going through the speakers. The problems seem isolated to the SRD track for some reason because it runs fine in DTS. I informed Technocolor of the problem but didn't bother ordering replacements reels. When it comes time to drop one of our prints (you know when that space movie opens) I just make sure that this ones goes first.
Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 05-05-2002, 12:51 PM:
Michael,It might be wise to post the print number you are currently playing with the sound issues here, os the next theatre that gets it will be aware that it has a problem as well. What happens if the next theatre has no DTS unit?
Also, you might want to put a note in the cans stating such... Just in case...
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The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese!
Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 05-06-2002, 02:01 PM:
Here's how the silver is redeveloped in current dye+silver analog soundtracks:
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/support/processing/h249/h2409_05.shtml The soundtrack redeveloper is a thick, viscous, caustic liquid that is applied to only the soundtrack area during processing with an applicator wheel or hopper. If the developer spreads or splashes into an adjacent picture area, silver will be developed there too, resulting in a dark colored "blotch". If there is a problem, it is usually caught during print inspection, but some defective reels may get missed and need to be replaced.
Here is the information about silverless (cyan dye) soundtracks:
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/support/dyetrack.shtml
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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion