Is ScreenCheck completely dead? Is NATO or TAP not interested in providing some push for exhibitors to get themselves in gear? (And I'm not talking about issuing some fluff newsletter with a cheezy pep talk.) Even THX is letting the sound quality of their theaters turn to shit and doesn't care about maintaining standards (at least locally). Movies are having ridiculous amounts of prints struck nowadays and even big "event" films are exhausting themselves in opening week. What is left?

Or maybe repeat business is a good thing? That is an interesting idea! Customers coming back again and again and showing their support by continuing to spend their hard earned dollars at the theater. This concept is radical, but maybe, just maybe it has a chance.

The Kodak ScreenCheck program is alive and well, but the emphasis has changed. Theatre circuits were unwilling or unable to pay for routine evaluations of presentation quality, but were interested in Projection Training programs, and in Cinema Evaluation on a per-site basis. Most recently, ScreenCheck has been used by motion picture studios that need projection equipment at high-end theatre locations throughout the US checked and optimized before their movies premiere to the public:
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/screencheck/

Yes, it is true. People are continuing to come to the cinema. Sometimes you'll see people that last time said that will never come to that cinema...
However, since we are talking with numbers...
At my theater, in Italy, we have the "Giornale dello spettacolo", a monthly magazine where you can find some news about the film world.
There is also the list of city, classified for number of customers.
Some time ago I wrote in this forum about Multiplex ARCADIA, that is the best Italy's theater (I would say World's). Its owner has an incredible care in presentation's quality.
So, with few simple calculation I had the number of customers for day for screen in all major city.
Since Arcadia is the only theater in its city, the values of that city can be considered about Arcadia itself.
The result was that in all cities the average number of customers for screen for day is between 150 to 250. No more not even in bigger city.
Melzo (the city where Arcadia is placed) has an average of 496 customers for day, for screen.
During these day, Arcadia is the first theater in Italy showing "Atlantis" in Digital and from 1st January it will start with Imax 8/70.

But with standard 35/70mm projections Arcadia gives to its customers the best possible quality.

And, you saw, it has a results with numbers.
So I can't understand owner that are making a "film done bad".

Also, let me to express my disappointment with THX. I knew that at least in USA they care their installation.

The main difference is that there was an "owner" (oh, sure I know, he's highly leveraged and will never "own" any of it, but has a tremendous upside if "his" restaurant succeeds). You could see him walking the floor, making sure all was well, picking up messes, getting the "presentation" right.

The point is that there are dozens of pizza joints I could've gone to. Theatres haven't had this kind of competition. But they'd better realize that their customers are starting to believe that there is an alternative, wait for the DVD. Maybe it's time they "franchised" out each location, made it worth somebody's while to be
flawless. Meanwhile, find me at the mom 'n pop!

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

They demand a 90/10 split first two weeks then flood the market with prints. Then they advertise the hell out of it for then only, then after that, you are stuck with a print that makes nothing. You get nothing for it. You usually take a loss on the prints themselves and hope to hell that the public will actually stop sneaking in thier own damn popcorn and stop trying to put you out of business.

Damn popcorn.

While I don't think the entire problem lies out of theatre owners hands, I do think the last minute shipping of tons of quickly made prints is one of the more STUPID ideas ever to grace the planet.

90/10 over nut is a problem, but demands for multiple screens is a bigger one, IMO. If only a state could legislate that only a single print of a film could show in a multiplex, you would see the return of "legs" and a revival of the big screens we all fondly remember.

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