100 13 Ghosts/Rush Hour 2/Riding In Cars With Boys/The One/Heist
105 Legally Blonde/Serendipity/From Hell
110 Max Keeble's Big Move/Training Day
400 13 Ghosts/Rush Hour 2/Riding In Cars With Boys/Training Day/The One/Heist
405 Corky Romano/Legally Blonde/Serendipity/From Hell
700 13 Ghosts/Rush Hour 2/From Hell/Riding In Cars With Boys/Training Day/The One/Heist
705 Legally Blonde/Serendipity
710 Max Keeble's Big Move
900 13 Ghosts/Rush Hour 2
905 Corky Romano/Legally Blonde/Serendipity
910 The One
915 Heist
925 From Hell/Training Day
930 Riding In Cars With Boys

#2 - They just want to get it all over with and they're lazy.

#3 - (the likely choice, correct me if I'm wrong) Bankruptcy has forced them into interlocking one print through all of their projectors because of the lack financial backing...maybe they are Dreaming of Working with some real prints...

Oh yes...this reminds me of something that happened recently with a Carmike. I see where they get the name CARmike. We had a print (forgive me for not remembering its name) picked up from us one night. This guy calls our theater and says, "Hey, just leave the print as it is on the platter. Don't bother putting it in the cans. Leave the ring in it and I'll pick it up." He gets to the theater and has a ring in his hand with clamps on it. My projectionist and I look at eachother in dismay as this guy begins to brag about his excellent film handling and ex-management experience at Carmike...sorry, but this gets better. He tells my head projectionist, "Just leave your ring and I'll give you mine." Another confused glance later, my projectionist ignores him and swaps the rings anyway. The guy just shrugs and gives us the "have it your way" attitude while trying not to act offended. And, believe me, it was no offense to him, either...we're just not into the whole swapping thing (been screwed on it with our 60s). After he gets all four clamps into place, he and my projectionist pulled it off the platter, and while both of them are holding the (secure) print the guy says, "I got it from here," grabs it by the center ring and holds the entire print under his arm like a football with a hole in it. He jogs downstairs with print under arm, continuing to assure us of his booth skills and telling us how clean his booth is, and how undamaged his prints are. As he is saying this last little "ditty" he hurls the print into the back of his uncovered truck bed. I gave him the benefit of the doubt considering his "immaculate" print-handling skills, but he ends up driving off into the damp, cold, foggy night air...why, oh why do we take care of prints if people like these come to pick them up? Now, we DO NOT give people prints unless they are in the CANS. -THE END.

-Please don't take offense to this...this is only meant for good humor

I have had Cinemarks pick up prints directly from me and every time they BEG me to leave it built up. The first time the kid brought his own film clamps and proceeded to SLAM them into my platter deck, leaving massive scratches with a rough spot that snagged the payout until I could re-buff it a couple of days later. Thanks to that little shit, I threw a print that next day because of it. I never got my center ring back.

The next time I said "I will put the clamps on", but as soon as I had them on, the kid walked right up beside me, pushed me out of the way and proceeded to slide the print (with clamps) off of the edge of the platter, thus leaving another huge gash in my platter deck. (Hell, it's not THEIR platter, so that gives them the right to damage mine, right?) After repeated phone calls and me finally just showing up at their theater DEMANDING my center ring back, I was able to get it. (This theater didn't even use the same kind of platters and had no use for it.)

The third time I had another employee with me to keep them from touching the print until it was off of the platter. I clamped it, pulled it off with my employee and then we sat it on a table where we allowed the Cinemarkers to take it. The first thing these morons did was to say "wait a minute" and proceeded to take the clamps off. I thought perhaps they didn't like the way I clamped them or something, but the idiot pulled the center ring, handed it to me and re-clamped the print. He said "this way I don't have to bring your ring back" and proceeded to pick it up by himself and walk out the door, the film having completely collapsed in the clamps and most probably cinch scratched all to shit. If that didn't do it, I'm sure the fact that he threw it in the back seat of his car damaged it.

Another Cinemark picked up a print one time and was nice enough to bring me a replacement AW3 center ring in exchange on the spot. They were smart enough to keep the ring in tact for the move. I clamped and brought the print down to the lobby for them, but was horrified when they carried it out and tossed it in the bed of a pickup while it was sprinkling. After a minute the kid came back in and said "do you have a trash liner?" Of course I gave him a few, but he wasn't smart enough to secure it over the print. He just LAID it on top and drove off...leaving the liner in the parking lot.

I've heard the same horror stories from other UAs about Cinemarks picking up their prints, always wanting them built up and managing to damage them before they left the property. My favorite story was the guy who barely spoke English who came to pick up a trade screening print to run at the Mitchell's house. The projectionist was told to have it ready for pickup and was told nothing about leaving it built up. (After all, why would be be told to "have the print ready for pickup" if it was going to be clamped?) Apparently this guy commanded the UA projectionist to re-build the print! Needless to say, the guy left with the print in the cans.

After this I told these Cinemarkers that I would no longer allow them to take prints built-up from my theater. I would however break them down to 2 large reels so they would only have to mess with one splice. Of course I got bitched at because I was wasting their time! Nevertheless I stood my ground and they reluctantly accepted with one catch...they never returned my reels! I have lost several reels to these jerks!

Nowadays I have a strict policy that if the receiving theater does not want the print broken down that they MUST supply me with large reels BEFORE THE LAST SHOW ENDS. Why? First because I want my reels back. Second, they can't seem to understand why they cannot drive by at 1am and "swap" their bent up crappy reels for my nice ones when they pick up the print! Of course when the last show ends and there have been no large reels delivered, I break it down into the cans...and of course get bitched at from the local Cinemarker for causing him so much extra work. Awwwwwww, poor baby!

I know this may seem like an anti-Cinemark post, and hopefully Cinemarkers are not like this in other areas, but here in Dallas they are MORONS! (Paul Konen excluded who I met a couple of years ago and IS a good operator. Probably their only one.) I have only had such idiotic events happen with Cinemarks, thus my pointing fingers. My apologies to the GOOD Cinemarkers who care (I know you're out there), but at the local Cinemarks I get the answer "this is how our tech said to do it". Who is training these guys??? None of this crap happens with other chains.

And don't even get me started about when I get a print circuited from a Cinemark!!!

We have had problems with them wanting to pick up prints on clamps. I do not like to transport or see films transported in this way. If that is how the distributors wanted there films handles then they would have sent them out that way. So now if they want to pick one up like that, they must sighn a form that states if you drop or damage this print while in transportation from our platter to your theater. It is your fault not ours.

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As far as that ten screen with all those showtimes the same, bad management at the theatre or district level, or both. No excuse for that, if I have more than two big movie starting at once our DM calls us and says "Change it." If the above situation results from mandatory showtimes, I call him and ask, "Can I change it?" To which the answer is usually yes."

Now in this case, its bad management at the district and theatre level, second run movies never have mandatory times from the home office. I say bad management at the district not only because they should be instructing their managers on proper show scheduling, but also because they are the ones that enter the showtimes on Carmike's website (www.carmike.com).