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Topic: WB plays hardball re: Harry

Charles Everett
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1470
From: New Jersey
Registered: May 2001

posted 11-16-2001 07:25 AM

Another heavily hyped movie -- and another example of its studio playing hardball with theaters!

Reported this morning by the Hollywood Reporter online edition:

"If Warner Bros. has its way, moviegoers flocking to theaters that are opening 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone' today will first have to sit through an unprecedented five minutes of movie trailers from the studio. Under established industry guidelines, a studio normally attaches only 2 1/2 minutes of trailers to the films it sends to exhibitors. But Warners is using the leverage of 'Potter's' expected boxoffice bonanza to demand that theater owners break with accepted practice. Warners has attached two trailers, totaling 3 1/2 minutes, directly to the 'Potter' prints, and it also has distributed a third trailer, running 1 1/2 minutes, which it is demanding that exhibitors show as well. According to rules governing trailers that have been approved by the MPAA and National Association of Theatre Owners, a studio can attach one or two trailers to a film as long as they don't exceed 2 1/2 minutes total. Warner Bros. requested an exemption from the rule, according to NATO, but its president, John Fithian, denied the request. Sources close to MPAA confirmed that the association supported NATO's decision as well. (Warner Bros. denies that it requested such an exemption.)"

Harry Potter breaks in 3,672 theaters with a total of 8,000+ prints -- a record. This means Harry will burn out fast after Thanksgiving and likely be out of smaller theaters by Xmas.

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Neil Hunter
Film Handler

Posts: 74
From: Salisbury, NC, USA
Registered: Oct 2001

posted 11-16-2001 07:33 AM

My theater opened four prints today. We got our technicolor ads this week that we have to run on our prints. They have seperate Harry Potter ads that run 4 minutes! This, on top of the 17 minutes of trailers that my theater requests we put on. Then you have to sit through the 2 hours and 45 minutes for the movie. This is crazy.

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Jerry Chase
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1068
From: Margate, FL, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 11-16-2001 09:00 AM

Hmmm, an auditorium dedicated to showing trailers.

Now why didn't I think of that?

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Greg Mueller
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1687
From: Port Gamble, WA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 11-16-2001 09:08 AM

At the local Regal, I've never seen less than 4 trailers on anything!

------------------
Greg Mueller
Amateur Astronomer, Machinist, Filmnut
http://www.muellersatomics.com/

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Ken Lackner
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1907
From: Atlanta, GA, USA
Registered: Sep 2001

posted 11-16-2001 10:55 AM

Regal always starts out with 5 trailers on new prints. Sometimes 6 if the movie is really big like HP. Most people don't bother to remove old trailers when the movies come out, so you are usually left with the same 5 or 6 trailers for the enitre run of the print. However, I have run prints with as little as 3 trailers because I removed old trailers and saw no need to replace them since the print had already been out for a month or two.

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John T. Hendrickson, Jr
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 889
From: Freehold, NJ, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 11-16-2001 07:44 PM

The trailer wars are just beginning. I got a call from Mirimax customer relations department less than an hour after we received our prints, asking if we were playing their Kate & Leopold trailer on Potter. Told them "no". We didn't want the trailers (including our policy trailer) to exceed 13 minutes.

If you want to talk about hardball, check out the terms Warner got for the feature. Keep sellin' that popcorn, folks!

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George Roher
Master Film Handler

Posts: 266
From: Washington DC
Registered: Jul 99

posted 11-16-2001 10:18 PM

A couple of theatres in my area also have at least 20 minutes of junk on the front of Harry Potter.

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Paul Turner
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 115
From: Corvallis, OR, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 11-16-2001 11:31 PM

Does anyone start the trailers before showtime? I've done this a couple times when I've stacked on the trailers before a long feature (most recently, Apocalypse Now Redux). Obviously, I put the newest trailers closest to the feature. That way, when the published showtime hits, there is usually only a couple trailers before the show. The few folks who piss and moan because the lights are up during the trailers are rapidly outnumbered by those who don't want 20 minutes of ads before the show.

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Ben Wales
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 602
From: Southampton. England
Registered: Jul 99

posted 11-17-2001 08:30 AM

They are lucky that you not watching "Harry Potter" in the UK.
there is approx 12 mins of cinema adverts and in some cinemas about four trailers making the pre-show movie programme up to 20mins long!

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Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 11-18-2001 12:58 AM

George, when you said 20 minutes of junk, I believe you. Some people are optimistic about the winter product, but from what I hae seen for previews, it looks feeble. I certainly hope I am wrong.

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Neil Hunter
Film Handler

Posts: 74
From: Salisbury, NC, USA
Registered: Oct 2001

posted 11-18-2001 12:14 PM

During the week we got our trailer request shhet(more like triler demands) and they requested A Walk To Remember to be on our four prints of H.P. Then, we got a second revision saying not to play SW Episode 2. Then we got a third revision saying to not play A Walk To Remember. On opening day of H.P., there were trailer checkers in each auditorium of H.P. and they all came out and yelled at the managers for not having A Walk To Remember on them. Then they wanted to yell at me and the other projectionists. Crazy, huh?

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Aldo Baez
Master Film Handler

Posts: 266
From: USA
Registered: Mar 2001

posted 11-21-2001 01:43 AM

Well my general manager allows 5 minutes before any movie, so it's a pain to get them on since usually our policy and the los angeles times one last about 4, but I put the 2 warner attached them star wars then the short lord of the rings one and everyone seems to be happy.

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