When all is said and done, I bet we get the same print back.

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Exactly. One hopes they point out the silliness and inconvenience of these moves but I would like to ask someone of long experience whether or not this sort of thing was the norm in the bygone reel to reel age. Maybe this is the way they always ran previews. If so then this is simply the reality of the business and if a theatre chooses to go to a single projector then this is one of the downsides just like long Thursday nights.

Similarly, it's kind of ridiculous to blame TES for lack of inspection or the "integrity inspected" issues if that is only what the studios are paying for. As long as the studios are not being misled then any complaints should go to them and not TES.

There are plenty of things to complain about regarding TES (the broken reels, for one) and Airborne (pickup policies) but when they're following orders from the studio then you're barking up the wrong tree to bitch about TES.

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No, it wasn't the norm in the 1970s. The whole issue came about because of videotape. Some security is required, but these print moves are overkill. Nailing the piraters is the real answer.

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On another note, Technicolors "motion picture print management system" automatically generates a pickup for the day after a print comes off screen...even for "sneak" screenings. With that in mind, you should always assume this to be the case if you do not feel like calling Technicolor on the telephone to check and see if they will allow you to hold the film over until it opens at your complex.

I started doing this after I received a couple of sneak prints that were perfect, then a few days later after returning them I got beaten up sneak prints for my actual playdate. TES just ended up having to swap out my second *playdate* print until I got one I was happy with, so this automatic practice of theirs is really quite foolish.

Then the other question is, who orders the sneak? It is the theatre saying, yeah, we want in on that sneak, or it is the distributor saying, if you want to book this or that title, you have to play a sneak? I don't work in a commercial setting so I don't know the logistics of how this sneak thing works.

If it is the theatre wanting to play the sneak, then in lieu of the studios making any changes in the present sneak system, the exhib needs to evaluate the cost of running that sneak -- booth overtime for makeup and breakdown, the inevitable late charges when it can't physically be done for the next day ship-out, etc. Maybe it might be better to just say, "hey, if we can't keep the print for our normal run, or if you can't give us a full 24 hours to break it down, then we won't run it." Problem solved. It's simply a matter of economics.

If it is the studio demanding that a sneak be played, then as the exhibitor I would charge back to the distributor any costs that running the sneak forces me to incur.

We run sneaks, but it is out of the publicity offices of the distribs. They pay US to use our theatre to promote their product. If I have to keep a projectionist an extra 2 hours on overtime to get a print ready for a next-day ship-out, you can be sure that is going to be tacked on to the total rental fee I charge them. TES ususally has Airborne pickup two days, sometimes more, after we play the sneak. Then again, there were a few times they just forgot to put us on the rotation and left a print for over a week. Another time they returned it to us a few days later, even though we weren't playing it other than the one night sneak showing.

Evidently this isn't as scientific a system as one might think.

We got an email saying the TES will not attempt to pick up any prints of The Rookie from theaters that are scheduled to play it when it is released. Probablly a nation-wide thing, with all circuits, not just Regal.