AMC & Universal Agree To A 17 Day Theatrical Window

[Marcel Birgelen]

One of my long-standing plans (which maybe I'll have the time to do now that things have ground to a halt) is to get the biggest TV I can find, set it on the stage in front of our screen (which is 30 feet wide) and take a picture and then draw a circle around (or an arrow pointing to) the TV set. Caption: "Big screen TV? That's cute."

You should install those curtains in front of your screen and put the TV on some kind of lift construction, so it can sink away. Then, you start the show on the TV, audio should also come out of the TV and then you open the curtains and switch over to the big screen.

[Martin McCaffery]

And on the tv screen should be the buffering reloading icon for when the internet connection goes wonky while streaming.

[Steve Guttag]

No..another thing these home theatre boobs always seem to have are these ugly speakers adorning their screens on either side and below (and now sometimes above). I swear, the speakers are larger than the screen. So do that as well...have some tower speakers on either side and some other thing below the TV too. I'm sure your QSCs will make themselves heard at the right time. Even a proper home screening room should put the speakers behind the screen...it isn't that hard or expensive. But their goal, I think is to partly show off their technology by having them very visible...the movie isn't the important part. So, perhaps, put up a slide of your system without the screen to drive the point "home." Oh...and that you're playing what the film maker made...not the near-field craptacular that "F" made of it.

Somewhere on F-T there is a picture of Joe Redifer's "set up" (a mocking of Andy Summers) that I think captures the spirit of the bullshit. It isn't that people are not setting up good screening rooms or that they shouldn't have great home theatres but they are nowhere near what a commercial cinema can do. Why would Brad Miller's home theatre compare? We because he built it like a comfortable commercial cinema with commercial cinema equipment. That isn't what the home theatre person does. They buy some esoteric piece that is supposed to make a movie even better than they actually made it.

[Mike Blakesley]

I did have a guy tell me one time that at his home "theater" he could hear the surrounds better than in the Roxy. I told him he was indeed hearing the surrounds, but they are seamlessly blended with the stage sound so as not to "stand out" unless for effect. I said, you're not supposed to hear them all the time. Of course you can never win an argument with one of those guys.

I just wish they'd quit calling it a home theater or home cinema or whatever. It's a damn TV set. You don't call your kitchen and dining table a home restaurant.

[Lyle Romer]

You should install those curtains in front of your screen and put the TV on some kind of lift construction, so it can sink away. Then, you start the show on the TV, audio should also come out of the TV and then you open the curtains and switch over to the big screen.

That would be a great idea. Use the TV sound to start as well. Then switch over to the theater sound system.

I once had an idea to create a trailer custom for each auditorium that showed a "big screen" tv at actual size on the screen. Then you have text on the screen that says something like "This is an 85" TV shown at actual size. Then an action scene starts showing on the TV. Text then says "you can watch a movie on TV" and fades out. Then new text says "or EXPERIENCE a movie here" as the picture expands to fill the screen and the sound gets louder.

[Mitchell Dvoskin]

Lyle’s post reminds me of the Star Wars Special Edition trailers from 1997. They open with a small NTSC television in the center of the screen floating in a Star field while playing a scene from Star Wars. The announcer says something to the effect that “this is how many of you have seen Star Wars, but this is how it should be seen” as the tv fades away and an Imperial Battle Cruiser enters the Star Field from the top and the stereo, sub bass and surrounds kick in. One of the all time great trailers.

[Ed Gordon]

20th Century Fox might have been the first to ridicule TV technology (in Cinemascope!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss1hu2sWgkI

[Kenneth Wuepper]

Before a showing of Hello Dolly in 70mm a member of the audience came to me and pointed to the PA cluster in the center of the proscenium and said, "you really need better speakers for your movies!"
I took him back sage and showed him the 5 across with a center Altec A2 and 4 RCA towers. His comment, "WOW!"
Another audience member came to me before the showing of Maltese Falcon and said he was just there to please his wife. He had just watched it at home so he didn't care about the movie. After the show he came to me and said, "I never saw so much detail in this movie at home. There were papers on the desk and a hat on the file cabinet."

We do have the original pipe organ before shows as well as a full hang of curtains and proper masking. Even foot lights and curtain warmers.

All of this is standing idle as we wait out the pandemic.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Do you still have those Altec A2s in production?

Lyle’s post reminds me of the Star Wars Special Edition trailers from 1997. They open with a small NTSC television in the center of the screen floating in a Star field while playing a scene from Star Wars. The announcer says something to the effect that “this is how many of you have seen Star Wars, but this is how it should be seen” as the tv fades away and an Imperial Battle Cruiser enters the Star Field from the top and the stereo, sub bass and surrounds kick in. One of the all time great trailers.

Not the same experience on YouTube, but I guess you're referring to this trailer.

[Andrew Thomas]

Disney officially ended 2020 and the hope of the livelihoods of many. 2020 is done, as I had predicted back in March when the first movies started slipping into 2021. Prepare to reinvent your business model if you want to continue in this industry. It will never be the same.

I'm now think a 50% contraction in screens when all is said and done may be GENEROUS.

[Martin McCaffery]

Maybe we can sell $30 tickets for Mulan on TV door-to-door.

[Allan Young]

Lyle’s post reminds me of the Star Wars Special Edition trailers from 1997. They open with a small NTSC television in the center of the screen floating in a Star field while playing a scene from Star Wars. The announcer says something to the effect that “this is how many of you have seen Star Wars, but this is how it should be seen” as the tv fades away and an Imperial Battle Cruiser enters the Star Field from the top and the stereo, sub bass and surrounds kick in. One of the all time great trailers.

There's also the rather effective opening to This Is Cinerama which features Lowell Thomas addressing the audience in a little Academy ratio black and white frame before the curtains part and the seven-track sound kicks in.

[Van Dalton]

No..another thing these home theatre boobs always seem to have are these ugly speakers adorning their screens on either side and below (and now sometimes above). I swear, the speakers are larger than the screen. So do that as well...have some tower speakers on either side

Ummm....

https://cinematour.com/picview.php?db=us&id=107162

Kiggins Theatre, Vancouver, WA. Built 1936; added stereo in the 50s. The recesses above the exits used to (maybe still do?) contain the left and right channels.

My grandad worked at the VA hospital a ways east of there (on the other side of Interstate 5), in the old section where the Clark County health department is now located. In 2001 they held his retirement in the VA's former (by that point long-disused) theatre where he ran stereo prints well into the 1980s. Wanna talk about ugly tower speakers on either side that were bigger than the screen?

[Steve Guttag]

Sure...there were some theatres that put Left/Right outside of the image...mostly due to it being all but impossible to put them behind the screen...as you pointed out. It was never correct or better and never did I see the speakers as larger/taller than the screen they were supporting. And, at least, the center speaker was behind the screen.

[Marcel Birgelen]

As we'll probably see a slow but progressive move towards LED-screens, we'll probably see an increase of speakers being placed around the screen.

Although there are LED screens that are transparent, those screens suffer from a low pixel-density and aren't necessarily suitable for a cinema presentation