Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: USA ... Q and A.

This is topic USA ... Q and A. in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Chris Byrne (Member # 1563) on 01-17-2003, 09:05 PM:

Since a large proportion of users of this site are American cinema workers, I am interested to know the following

I am assuming Readings is pretty big over there (its first Australian site was started here in 1996), however what other big chains are over there?

Is projection as we know it (35mm, etc) a dying trade or has it years left?

Are there any of you who have the big celebrities regularly attend your cinema?

Have any of you visited Australian cinemas? Is there any comparisons that you have drawn?

I apologize for my ignorance on the above. I must have been staring out too many port holes [beer]

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 01-18-2003, 12:05 AM:

Moving to Yak.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 01-18-2003, 01:48 AM:

quote:
Are there any of you who have the big celebrities regularly attend your cinema?

I used to be Phyllis George's favorite projectionist, when she was First Lady of Kentucky. [Embarrassed]

What a tall drink of water she was!

Posted by Christopher Duvall (Member # 284) on 01-18-2003, 04:29 AM:

Living in Vegas is a major perk as far as stars are concerned. It is even better now that I am in a casino as well with private viewing booths. The stars I have seen in the 2 years living here...

Kevin Sorbo (regularly/ Lives in Vegas)
Mike Tyson (regularly/ Lives in Vegas)
Tyra Banks
George Clooney (regularly/friends with casino owner)
Cindy Crawford (used to be regular/used to own bar in casino with her hubby)
More sports stars than I can mention
Many professional wrestlers
Pat Morita
Ginger Fish (Marilyn Manson drummer)
Matt Damon
Tommy Chong
David Leisure
Matt LeBlanc
Bill Clinton
and so many others that I cannot remember.

Now, some these celebs never watched a movie. They just came down just to see the theatre while they were at the casino. The most recent was David Leisure (Joe Izuzu). He came in and asked me if he could purchase some popcorn.
It just plain gets crazy around ShoWest. I can probably safely speak for all Vegas theatres that many, MANY stars, producers, directors, Hollywood types are swarming at all theatres. The closer to the strip...the worse it gets. [Eek!]

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 01-18-2003, 10:47 AM:

Reading is not known, promotion wise, in the USA. the Reading group includes City Cinemas in New York and thru partners involved in other regional circuits and Angelika chain. They had a chain of cinemas in Puerto Rico in which they lost tons of money trying to compete with the competitor that I was doing the design and equipping for...they had a habit of doing a pretty building, bad parking and going cheap in the projection, sound and furnishing vs the competition. They sold out and the Austrialian operations are better due to the well establish Hoyts and Village Roadshow competition.
Richard Fowler
In my pre-Kinoton America life.

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 01-18-2003, 12:01 PM:

Haven't had too many celebrities visit our theater in Royal Palm, but they did come occasionally:

Donald Trump (came a few times)
Billy Baldwin
Tommy Lee Jones
some of the cast and crew from "The Red Violin"

Can't remember a couple others. This was back when we were the only game in town with stadium, the largest screens, and digital in every house. Now, there's at least 3 others in the area [Frown]

=TMP=

Posted by Gracia L. Babbidge (Member # 582) on 01-18-2003, 12:24 PM:

When Message In A Bottle was being filmed, Kevin Costner stopped in at the Hoyts in Brunswick a few times to see a couple different movies. That theater isn't anything particularly spectacular, but it was the only multiplex less than a 45 minute drive from the filming location (Phippsburg). Never saw Paul Newman or Robin Wright Penn at that theater, though I tought I saw Sean Penn one day, else it was his long lost twin!
The crew from that movie visited the theater too.
Stephen King has been known to see movies at the Hoyts in Auburn, and the Flagship Cinemas in Oxford.

Haven't seen much celebrity action at my current theater, other than the whole big to-do over that little known Shadow Glories flick. Which was filmed locally, so they wanted to do something special with that one, locally. The Thursday before it was officially released, we ran something of a premier - an invitation only showing. A fair portion of the cast showed up, as well as Ziad Hamzeh, who directed.
Naturally, no previews were to show ahead of the feature, and me being the bum that I am, didn't want to drop a set of trailers into the print after the show. My solution - build as normal, thread like normal, motor through towards the end of the last trailer, stopping before the 'lights down' cue passed the reader. At showtime, have a nametag with a cue sticker on the back ready to trip a 'start show' cue, hit the start, wait for the 'lights down' cue to be read, and the lights start to dim, then flash the nametag under the cue reader - huzzah! Perfect.
Mr. Hamzeh complimented the entire presentation of the film. [Big Grin]

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 01-18-2003, 01:17 PM:

The following celebrities have actually patronized (as opposed to appearances at festivals) the Cinema West Fairfax and Tiburon Playhouse theatres: *=regular visitors

Tiburon Playhouse:

Drew Barrymore (even signed 'Home Fries' posters for employees!)
Minnie Driver
Tom Snyder*
Leeza Gibbons*
Robin Williams (went behind the snack bar in Tiburon and 'took over' as only Robin Williams could!!)
Lars Ulrich (Metallica)*
Grace Slick (Jefferson Airplane/Starship)
Carlos Santana
the late Jerry Garcia (Grateful Dead) (signed a time card for the manager)
George Lucas
Kate Capshaw

Fairfax Theatre:

Carlos Santana
Sean Penn*
Robin Wright Penn*
George Lucas

-Aaron

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 01-18-2003, 01:22 PM:

quote:
Drew Barrymore (even signed 'Home Fries' posters for employees!)

I bet those are worth a fortune on eBay [Roll Eyes]

=TMP=

Posted by William Leland III (Member # 1400) on 01-18-2003, 03:15 PM:

My third day training at the Charleston IMAX Dan Marino and his family came to watch "Super Speedway". The funny thing is his wife left her sunglasses in the theatre and they had to wait until the next show ended before they could find them. Dan Marino was on his stomach between the rows looking for his wives sunglasses. [Big Grin]

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 01-18-2003, 06:08 PM:

Haven't had any actors that I'm aware of but we've had a few others that attract attention.

Gerry Schwartz (Onex Corp. CEO)
Pat Burns and a few other Toronto Maple Leafs Head Coaches
Kim Mitchell
Big Sugar (entire band) and a few other bands

Oh yeah, Ronald McDonald.

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 01-18-2003, 06:51 PM:

35mm projection has many years of robust life left in it.

Working at the Telluride Film Festival we have had many celebrities.

Here at the Rialto we have had Cate Blanchett and Berry Levinson.

I haven't been to Australia yet but I wish to go. I have seen films in England, Scotland, France, Tunisia and Mexico.

Posted by Chris Byrne (Member # 1563) on 01-18-2003, 08:08 PM:

To have all those celebs come and go seems so surreal from my World. I am especially impressed with the likes of Lars Ulrich and Mike Tyson (although I think he is a psycho wannabe _ don't tell him that though [Eek!]

)

I thought Readings musn't be doing so flash, as I heard word that they stopped funding for Australian cinemas. Tom Cruise was meant to come over for the opening of the one here, but it didn't happen!

Anyone else have any views on how long 35mm will be a flourishing source of film medium? I was told 10 years when I first started back in 1994. Somehow I can't see it happening that soon?

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 01-18-2003, 10:19 PM:

quote:
how long 35mm will be a flourishing source of film medium? I was told 10 years

Oh, it'll be out by the end of next year. They said it would.
[Razz]

Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 01-18-2003, 11:00 PM:

Readings have just last year opened a 10 plex in Wellington & are due to open in Christchusrh this year.

Posted by Adam Fraser (Member # 1074) on 01-18-2003, 11:07 PM:

Our one and only real celebrity visitor was Charlton Heston in 1976, he grew up in the area and owns property here (other than political figures and some lesser known actors). Thats fine for me though, I would guess he is the celebrity that fits our theatre best. I'd hate to see one of those extreme animal rights activists in our theatre. [Big Grin]

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 01-19-2003, 11:20 AM:

Animals don't have rights. They can have rights when they can take responsibility.

/Mitchell

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 01-19-2003, 07:51 PM:

Emmanuel Lewis, Evander Holyfield

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 01-19-2003, 10:05 PM:

Mitchell, according to your logic children have no rights either until they are old enough to handle responsibility. What about mentally handicapped or retarded people? Do they have no rights?

As for celebrities, we had Mel Gibson, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, Tim Burton, Tim Roth, Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz, Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Tobey Maguire, Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones and a few others as we often did the German premieres of big movies. Mel Gibson is a very small man.

The only really famous person I can remember who visited privately was David Copperfield. He was in Berlin for a couple of shows and came to watch a movie every night. All our female ushers around 20 waited until the show was finished to get his autograph on their scarfs and shirts. One night, when he walked down the foyer with his bodyguard, I said to him: "Hey, I know you from TV, you`re Siegfried and Roy!"
He laughed heartily, but the girls hated me for that.

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 01-20-2003, 08:34 AM:

I wonder if he ever read the book he took his stage name from. At last report he had not. Glad Claudia moved on.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 01-21-2003, 12:16 PM:

I thought the book was named after him...

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 01-21-2003, 03:31 PM:

Hi Michael,

In fact, children and the severely mentally handicaped to not really have rights, they have guardians, and above them, a society that makes laws on how they can be treated. While these laws are often called "rights", they are not, they are just laws regulating behavor.

/Mitchell

Posted by Geoffrey Weiss (Member # 882) on 01-21-2003, 03:54 PM:

At the Vogue in Louisville we had some one-time visitors

Barbara Billingsley
William Shatner
Mercedes Ruehl
Clancy Brown

the latter two came together during their run of MacBeth at Actor's Theatre Louisville.

BTW--for you stage folks, should we have to call it "the Scottish play" in a movie theatre?

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 01-21-2003, 04:44 PM:

Jeff Daniels did a premiere here in 1990 for "Arachnophobia", held at Moyer's West 11th MovieLand 6 (now closed). I think his family lived here or something and the studio agreed to a big shindig for him in his home town. I've been told it was quite a big deal for that theater. The studio sent someone to do a complete A & B chain alignment and they did a full runthrough of the print ahead of time.

Tom Cruise was here in 1998 to attend the premiere of a film he produced about famed runner Steve Prefontaine, "Without Limits". This was at the historic McDonald Theatre in downtown Eugene.

In 1995 Cinemark Movies 12 had a test screening of a film called Timemaster, produced & directed by one James Glickenhaus, and starring Glickenhaus's son. The Glickenhaus clan was there at the screening. "Timemaster" never showed up here again in general release, which leads me to think maybe it went straight to video, but IMDB says it was released in the US on 12/27/1995.