No Box Office Magazine

[Terry Monohan]

Have not got any print copy of Box Office magazine in the last 4 months. Looks like they are not printing anymore or at least till ,movie theatres can re open. Too bad we like this classic movie theatre information periodical.

Also miss 'Film Journal' that does not publish anymore, they merged with Box Office some time a year ago but It is not the same.

I collect the old Box Office mags from the 1930's, 40's 50's and 60's with the once a month 'Modern Theatre' section, great info and photos from the old days of SHOWMANSHIP !

Also the no longer published 'Motion Picture Herald', 'Film Journal' & the once a year 'Theatre Catalog' book had a ton of images and information from the by gone days of movie theatre entertainment.

The best issue years for me were 1953 up to the late 1960's. In the 1970's when AMC started their small multiplex cinemas and UA started to twin their big houses and get rid of union projectionists the cinemas started to go downhill in my opinion.

In the early 1950's you had all the new screen anti TV processes like CinemaScope® ,Cinerama®, 3D, VistaVision®, Todd-AO® Superscope® Super Panavision 70®, Roadshow 70mm movies, 6 track magnetic sound and many more. All the classic photos and information from the candy counters to the projection booths, neon marquees, drive-in movies plus grand lobbies, light fixtures of that time were printed in these classic glossy magazines. And to think Boxoffice published each week with different editions for each part of the USA. Let's hope the monthly Box Office Magazine makes It back soon!

[Martin McCaffery]

In case you haven't discovered the Media History Digital Library
http://mediahistoryproject.org
You can't collect, but there is great historical stuff.

[Mark Ogden]

I'm frankly surprised the Box Office still supports a print edition. I had a 25+ year subscription, but I let it lapse about 15 years ago. The last issue I got was so thin it was staple-bound because it didn't have enough pages to be perfect-bound.

I agree with you, though, about how much fun it is to look at old issues. I worked in a booth in the late seventies where the head operator kept a 20 year stack of old International Projectionist issues on a shelf in the booth loo. Great nostalgic reading while taking a bathroom break between changeovers.

[Scott Norwood]

I think that the last copy that I got was in March (which would have been the Showest issue). I kind of don't blame them for not publishing anything right now. I mean, what would they possibly cover during a time with zero new movie releases, very few open cinemas, and zero industry events? I suppose that they could put together one issue with some articles about drive-ins and maybe some technical articles, but it would still be pretty pointless right now. What _would_ be interesting would be some articles about safety and cleaning protocols when cinemas are able to re-open en masse.

I wonder if they will extend existing subscriptions to compensate for the missed issues?

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

IN a way thats kind of strange becuse you wold think they'd be writing articles on approved ways to reopen during the Covid.

[Mike Blakesley]

Maybe they are like all of us..... not knowing what's going to happen or when, since everyone keeps moving the goalposts.

I just wish the studios would release some movies to the areas that CAN open.... we could be open right now. Although, they're not really MAKING movies now either, so if they start releasing things, the pipeline will empty and then where will we be next year at this time?

Combine all of this virus shit with all the other "things" going on in the country right now, I find myself wishing there was a different planet to migrate to, like in the movie "Passengers." Plus a 90-year snooze would be nice.

[Frank Cox]

The tagline that I'm using on my email right now is "Can we uninstall 2020 and install it again? This one has a virus."

I didn't get much out of Trolls when I re-opened, and everything since then has been even less than that. For this week's movie (Invisible Man) I had one person on Friday, nobody at all on Saturday and seven last night. I figured that when all of the other theatres around here are closed more people might come to my theatre since that's currently their only option, but that doesn't seem to have happened, at least not so far.

[Jim Cassedy]

A week or so ago, I looked at the website for a theater where I had been sent in Y2k17 to
run the 70mm Dunkirk Shows. They have 20 screens. (One is IMAX) . When I checked
last week, they were only using 10 of the auditoriums. (Or perhaps they were alternating
shows in each auditorium to allow for 'extreme cleaning' between movies)
Of the 10 films they were running;
> Only two were were "New" flicks. ("Relic" & "The Outpost")
> The other 8 movies were all previously released titles, with several being more
than a decade old.
> ALL of the movies they were playing are available online at one or more
streaming service. Some for as low as $2.99(us)

I'd be curious to know how they are doing, business-wise.

[Marcel Birgelen]

The tagline that I'm using on my email right now is "Can we uninstall 2020 and install it again? This one has a virus."

This virus is one with a time bomb, it deployed itself already in 2019. So, if we go back to the backup of December 31st 2019, we'll end up in this same mess again.

Maybe we can get some kind of lame movie plot out of this?

[Randy Stankey]

Why can’t we just click “UNDO?”

[Frank Cox]

Not just "doo-doo" ?

[Marcel Birgelen]

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The DooDoo button is related to the DoDo button? And if the DoDo button was related to the extinction of the Dodo, what will the DooDoo button do?

[Frank Cox]

Now don't make me bring out the woodchuck!.....

[Marcel Birgelen]

As long you don't bring out the Gimp, I'm all fine over here.

[Scott Norwood]

Well, the August issue arrived in my mailbox today, so that's something.