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This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
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Author
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Topic: Article on small town Digital conversion
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Steven J Hart
Master Film Handler
Posts: 282
From: WALES, ND, USA
Registered: Mar 2004
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posted 05-10-2011 08:25 AM
Article from Grand Forks Herald
RYAN BAKKEN: Rocky future for the Roxy?
Sometimes, progress stinks.
That’s the case in Langdon, N.D., which is threatened by the loss of its movie theater unless community members rally.
Again.
The first rally was necessary in 1995, when the Roxy Theater closed after almost 60 years. But the Northern Lights Art Council organized a community fundraising campaign that secured $68,000 for new projection equipment, new seats, a new roof and other improvements. The Roxy reopened after a three-year hiatus.
Now, it’s on life support again. Box office receipts and popcorn sales aren’t to blame. Other than one year, the Roxy has turned a modest profit despite bargain ticket prices of $6 for adults and $4 for children. The four-figure annual profits always go toward improvements.
The blame instead goes to progress. Starting in 2013, studios will stop supplying movies on 35 millimeter film. So, the Roxy will need to buy a projection system for that newfangled digital.
The cost is $70,000.
“Basically, we either switch to digital or close some time in the next two years because we won’t be able to get product,” said Steve Hart, the theater manager since the 1998 reopening.
The nonprofit NLAC again is taking the town’s temperature for donations to salvage the operation, which offers movies four nights a week.
If residents respond again, quality of life and nostalgia will be their motivators. For quite a while, smaller communities have used public money to subsidize cafes and grocery stores that provide convenience. Recently, similar help has been given to maintain entertainment options for young and old in shrinking burgs with fewer things to do.
The Roxy, with its old-school marquee and quaint inside, also provides memories. “We have great-grandparents who remember going to the movies there as kids,” Hart said.
Small town movie theaters certainly have their charm, especially those kept alive by grassroots efforts. The Roxy, Cando’s Audi, Park River’s Lyric and the Rockford in New Rockford were part of feel-good features in 2010 produced by the New York Times and NBC Nightly News. The theme of both stories was about small towns preserving their way of life.
The problem is a shrinking customer base. Recent census numbers show Cavalier County lost 17.3 percent of its population from 10 years ago, falling below 4,000 people. About half live in Langdon. Given that trend, what’s the future of small-town theaters?
Langdon likely will soon provide one answer.
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Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 05-10-2011 09:19 PM
Got a copy here of Fithian's exact remarks from the convention, as follows:
"...based on our assessment of the roll-out schedule and our conversations with our distribution partners, I believe that film prints could be unavailable as early as the end of 2013. Simply put, if you don't make the decision to get on the digital train soon, you will be making the decision to get out of the business."
(Me again) Re: Booking: I can tell you for sure that we've had less trouble getting movies since our conversion. There have been several off-break films where there were no 35MM available but there were digital prints; and we've had at least one instance so far where we got a 3-D print on the break but our neighboring theatre could not get a 35MM booked on the break.
One thing to consider (which I never even dreamed would be a problem), is that even with digital there is still a "set" number of digital prints. Stupid as that is, that's the way it is. Once that number of prints is reached by whatever means, that's it -- you can't get a print, same as with film.
Another thing is the studios don't make any allowance for the higher 3D ticket prices when insisting that you keep a print over. For example, "Rio" would have normally been a 2-week booking for us, but the 3D prices pushed our second-week gross high enough that Fox wanted us to keep it another week. That third week was pretty soft (although we played the movie in 2-D that week and advertised it as such, so we picked up a few non-3-D fans that we would have missed otherwise).
I'm hoping that the studios will eventually wake up to the fact that we and they could make more money if they would address these issues. We'd love to play a movie on the break every week, thereby increasing our grosses and our film rental paid, but we can't play everything for 2 or 3 or 4 weeks.
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