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Author
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Topic: Madagascar 3 vs. Prometheus - which to put in largest/premium auditorium?
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Scott Jentsch
Phenomenal Film Handler
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Posts: 1061
From: New Berlin, WI, USA
Registered: Apr 2003
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posted 06-07-2012 02:54 PM
Tomorrow is opening day for both Madagascar 3 and Prometheus. Two movies which couldn't have more disparate target audiences. Madagascar is on 4,000 screens vs. ~3,400 for Prometheus. Both are available in 2D and 3D.
I would imagine that a theater owner is faced with a tough choice about which movie to put in their largest auditorium, which is usually also the premium auditorium (ETX/RPX/XD/UltraScreen).
I am very interested in seeing Prometheus, and I would need substantial persuasion to see the other one, so I am a little biased towards the movie done by the director of the original Alien and Gladiator over the third installment of a franchise that should have stopped at one.
Imagine my disappointment to find out that the dominant chain in the SE Wisconsin region (Marcus) is not showing Prometheus in any of their UltraScreens, except for the midnight shows tonight.
This tells me that they are predicting Madagascar 3 to draw the lion's share of the crowds this weekend, so they're dedicating their biggest screens to getting the most people in the door as possible.
What I find mysterious, however, is that they are not at least showing Prometheus in the UltraScreens for the last shows of the night (after 9pm). I would think that the cartoon crowd is in bed by then, and the target audience for Prometheus wouldn't mind waiting until 9 or 10pm to see the movie on the big screen.
I contacted Marcus about it, and the response I received was that they don't split shows. This seems like a film-based mentality that says that it's too hard to move a title from one auditorium to the next, but these auditoriums are all Digital Cinema.
Then I started thinking that it might be a studio requirement, where they can't move Madagascar 3 out of the "big" auditoriums (in the case of one location, both UltraScreens are taken up by Madagascar 3), even for one showtime a night.
Is this a possible scenario? Or is it a lack of desire/justification to be flexible in which movies are playing in which auditoriums?
This is one of those no-brainer situations that mystify me about the industry at times...
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