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Author
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Topic: A Hole in Our Schedule - What Movies to Fill In?
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Randy Stankey
Film God
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Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 04-28-2009 09:53 AM
quote: Martin McCaffery What's Hot or What's Good?
How about, "What makes money?"
On a a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 = "Stick to your principles" and 10 = "Play anything to sell tickets" I score myself at about 6 or 7.
I think it's important to maintain your principles but you also have to think about keeping the business alive. If that means you have to give in once in a while then so be it.
Further, I think that playing more popular movies can bring other customers to your theater who might not have come in the first place. Once they get inside the door and see the other movies you have to offer, they are more likely to come back.
Me... I'd like to play some classics and I'd like to play more movies in tune with movie history. "Back to the Future" sounds like a good idea to me.
Whenever there is an important date or anniversary in movie history, we should play a movie to celebrate. Anniversary showings of "Godfather" or other movies sound like great ideas to me.
When Humphrey Bogart died, we should have showed "Casablanca." When Cathreine Hepburn dies, we should have played "Woman of the Year." When Ingmar Bergman died, we should have had a salute to his movies. Okay, maybe it's a little morbid to show movies when people die. Maybe we could celebrate when somebody gets a Lifetime Achievement award? I don't know. It's about "connecting" people to the movies.
That's what *I* think...
My boss wants to stick to principles. That makes me feel like I've been painted into a corner. On one hand I'm being told that we need to fill the schedule and make money. On the other hand, I have to stick to principles.
I'm just sitting here trying to think what to do.
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Martin McCaffery
Film God
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Posts: 2481
From: Montgomery, AL
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 04-28-2009 10:39 AM
By Hot I of course meant, make money.
I guess you have to define your principles first. Pop Schlock is a part of movie history, and some things considered schlock at the time are now classics. So as long has you have a reason to show it, call it a classic and go with it.
Personally, I would love to show more old movies, but we've never had an audience for it. We don't have any other art/indie theatres within a couple hundred miles, so what little demand we have is directed towards art films. Your market may be inundated with art theatres, so classics could be the counter programming you are looking for.
As I said, it takes a lot of failure to figure out what the audience wants. They may say one thing, but it takes something else altogether to get them out of their houses. I say, Just Do It. Pay very close attention to what happens, and especially what else is happening that may cut into or ad to your audience.
You've got nothing to lose but money!
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Richard P. May
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 243
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: Jan 2006
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posted 04-29-2009 12:43 PM
Picking up on the series idea, and your comments about commemorative series, consider a group of films based on a well known star's career: Katherine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, Bogart, etc. In L.A. this summer, the Academy is running a weekly series of the Academy Award nominees of 1939, which includes GONE WITH THE WIND, MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, NINOTCHKA, THE WIZARD OF OZ... a total of 10 features that year. Most of these are available thru the repertory departments of their respective distributors. Something with an exploitable "hook" has been known to work well.
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Ky Boyd
Hey I'm #23
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Posts: 314
From: Santa Rosa, CA, USA
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 05-06-2009 08:55 PM
First of all, I take issue with the characterization that foreign films are all depressing. As a dedicated art house guy, I can vouch for a fact that isn't true. For example Shall We Kiss from Music Box films could hardly be called depressing. Paris 36 from Sony Classics also isn't depressing.
But back to Randy's question...titles that I would recommend considering include Gomorrah (IFC Films), Sin Nombre (Focus), Sunshine Cleaning (Overture) though it may have been wide enough to have played your Cinemark, Two Lovers (Magnolia) this one did well in areas with significant Jewish populations, Everlasting Moments (again IFC), Is Anybody There? (Story Island Entertainment), Sugar, Paris 36, the upcoming Tyson, Rudo y Cursi, Every Little Step (all Sony Classics), Goodbye Solo (Roadside Attractions), Valentino: The Last Emperor (Vitagraph - does good business but prints are very tight), Harvard Beats Yale (Kino) does well especially if you have significant alumni of either school in your area, and The Garden (Oscilloscope).
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