September Slump

[James Wyrembelski]

While every end of summer brings brings with it the bleak wasteland of films until we hit October, this year feels a bit tighter. Well, maybe more than a bit.

What are your plans to bridge the gap?

I've been looking at the calendar over the past couple days and we do have some fillers at the time being. They had one week runs of Bullet Train already so we jumped on that. Bringing in Thor next week and doing another run of Top Gun to help with Labor Day. After that is when I can't see anything until Lyle in October. The grosses for any summer season film are getting atrocious as they've already played out.

I see some small locations are branching out to live performance as filler, some doing classic weekends, and a few are just going to temporarily close. I've already decided on one week in Sept to be closed just to have a break and unless I can get a one week run of "TTYOL" it might be two. The big guys appear to be doing major staffing cutbacks in anticipation.

I know there's hyped up drama in the headlines every year during this time as the box office slips, but this year does feel pretty slim.

[Frank Cox]

I play offbeat movies sometimes, so I'll just do more of that. It's a chance to play stuff I personally think looks interesting (Fall and Don't Worry Darling), something for the old ladies (Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris) and a chick flick (After Ever Happy).

I played the other After We Did This and That movies and while people weren't knocking the door down to see them, they do better than nothing.

[Mike Blakesley]

I wish the reissues of Jaws and ET weren’t just going to the stupid IMAX theatres. They are probably going to leave some $$ on the table by cutting out the other 99% of us.

[David Ferguson]

something for the old ladies (Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris)

I must have seen the trailer for this... nearly 10 times by now. The trailer's been showing since at least mid/early June, and the film isn't coming out in the UK until the end of September, and with my current rate of going to the cinema once a week, I'll see it at least 4 more times! It's actually growing on me the more I see the trailer, and I think I have it all memorised by now.

[Jon Dent]

Spiderman: No Way Home is being re released with a different ending in a few weeks, and we'll be picking that up. Elvis starts again for us this week and Top Gun is in September.


Like a 2022 greatest hits reel.

[Geoff Jones]

I wish the reissues of Jaws and ET weren’t just going to the stupid IMAX theatres.

According to Google, E.T. is showing at 15 different theaters in my area. It isn't playing at the state's only 4k Laser Imax screen. It does appear to be playing on some 2k Liemax screens (which are like watching a movie through a screen door).

However, it is also playing on a bunch of small, non-imax screens (none of which are worth leaving home for).

FYI

[Mike Blakesley]

Maybe Universal changed their mind on E.T.... according to the trailer, it's "exclusively" in Imax.

I'd be curious if they are using the doctored-up version in which the cops' guns are all replaced with walkie-talkies.

[Geoff Jones]

Spielberg admitted that the walkie-talkies were stupid years ago and no release since then included those changes. I'd be very surprised if the 2022 re-issue includes them.

I'd be happy to confirm that for you, if only it was playing at a theater where I was confident I could get a significantly better experience than my 14-year-old 1080p projector.

[James Wyrembelski]

I see they're re-releasing Spider Man NWH again but this time with 11 additional minutes of never seen footage. I suppose it's only going to be released to theatres and that's the only way anyone would be able to view it. I passed but I'll be curious to see what it does given such a quiet landscape.

Crawdads again this weekend, Top Gun to follow soon after. I tried Bullet Train since I was given a one week deal and OUCH. I suppose I should have held on to Elvis longer.

I've noticed over the summer it's the older crowd that's really brought back business to the pre pandemic days. But, I keep reading about how that's the hold out group. That's not the case in these parts. They've saved me!

[Mike Blakesley]

I talked to our booker about E.T. being available for regular screens and he said he would check on it. I'm a little nervous about the Spidey reissue -- what's odd is, they sent us a one-sheet for it today but there was no mention on the one-sheet about the extra footage! If we could get that for one-week I'd be all over it, but I'm sure it will be a two-week thing so we're going to do Top Gun on that weekend.

I feel for all these places with 20 or more screens to fill. Going to be a long two months, even for small potato guys like us here.

[Jill Mobley]

My booker at Sony told me one week for the Spidey re-release.

[James Wyrembelski]

My booker at Sony told me one week for the Spidey re-release.

I was told the same as well.

[Terry Monohan]

I don't think the slump will be that bad. Many seniors like the small movies not the big action movies. These three new features may be word of mouth and fill the gap for a few weeks.

Coming this week 'Honk For Jesus' & 'Gigi & Nate' look like fun movies that adults, seniors and families will enjoy. Also the new doc 'Free Puppies!' movie looks good and will bring in all the dog movie lovers. Just put up all the Puppy movie posters in your display windows and the kids will tell their parents they want to see It as they pass by.

The young ones and school teens may be now back in school but many still go to mats during the weekend in the Fall to get away from there parents and sit in a AC cinema before the weather turns cold.

[Mike Blakesley]

We always get clobbered during September and October because of football and volleyball seasons (oh, and some kids go to school as well) so it'll be business as usual here. Still a letdown after the good summer we had.

[Mark Lane]

We will official run out of profitable movies. We brought Top Gun back during fan appreciation week. We are showing Spiderman No Way Home this coming week. We showed Elvis and will show Crawdads. In September we are hosting a movies in the park with some older movies and even going to show a Bela Lugosi movie and War with the Army with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. These movies will be priced at .35¢ since they are public domain movies and don't cost us anything... Call it throw back days. We are looking at showing Grease but the studio wants more for Grease than we are paying for Spiderman. The studios have been helpful with promotional material for the newer movies but that allow is not enough to bring people in. Just hoping to break even in September while giving back to the community.