Western Film is UWO's on-campus Movie Theatre, owned and operated by the University Student's Council.
This blog is dedicated to discussions about movies, movie theatres and the film business in general.
Your host for the evening will be James Waite, the Western Film Co-ordinator and lifelong movie buff.
The presence of the Pulp Fiction trailer on the 50 Top Trailers list below reminded me that it's playing in London on Jun 26th at 11:30 pm. Empire Cinemas Wellington 8 has been playing old films once a month. Last month was Grease and the month before was Ghostbusters.
I haven't decided whether to go or not. I've seen it so many times.
I don't normally mention films playing at other theatres for competition reasons but I figure this is a special case as it's only once a month and we aren't offering the same types of films currently.
I went to the last couple and there were a fair number of people there. Apparently they did Fight Club the month before but I never heard about it. How annoying, I love that film.
They are doing the screenings the last Friday of the month so check their website for details.
The booker told me last week ANGELS AND DEMONS might come off so I held off on booking in Wolverine which I knew was available. Angels was available so I booked it in. I thought for a bit about whether or not to play a late show but decided not to. It's a long film and caters more to adults who tend not to come to the late show.
These films were also available.
LAND OF THE LOST: I can't believe this came available after only two weeks?!, talk about a huge bomb. If I get a dead week I might throw it in but I don't plan to play it.
IMAGINE THAT: another huge bomb and too aimed at children for us to play it anyway.
WOLVERINE: I'm so pissed at Fox and their rules. This film has been off screen for two weeks and the only reason I couldn't play it already is because they make us wait two weeks. I ended up playing TWO LOVERS this week just to fill the space and it has rewarded me by being one of the worst attended movies ever at Western Film. It's a good film but the studio didn't do a good job promoting it and people haven't heard of it.
There is a possibility STAR TREK may come off for the following week so I didn't book Wolverine in. As I mentioned in a previous post I don't really think we will be losing much if we don't play Wolverine at all.
IFC.com has this really cool list of the 50 Best Movie Trailers. I watched quite a few of them. It's interesting to see how creative some of the older trailers were, some were practically short films. The trailer for Psycho was almost 7 minutes long?! Imagine how well that would go over these days when most trailers are 2 -2 /12 mins long.
#42 was the first trailer I thought of when I read about the list.
There are a couple I would have put on the list.
Needful Things: This is the only version I could find online but I'm almost sure there was a version using the same music but with no dialogue. I've always loved this piece of music and I remember going out to watch the trailer over and over again when it played in the theatre I was working projection at. I don't think I would have done that if it had the dialogue.
CLIFFHANGER: Again this isn't quite the right trailer. I'm pretty sure there was a trailer for this film edited to match almost perfectly with the same piece of music as the Needful Things trailer. I guess I'm either remembering things wrong or there are unusual versions of some of these trailers. There is a possibility they were Canada only trailers but I don't know if they would have made trailers for use just in Canada.
Again there wasn't anything new coming off so I had to be creative. This week there was a print of TWO LOVERS available so I booked it in. It's got low awareness but Sunshine Cleaning was in a similar situation and did surprisingly well here. It's also a good movie.
If that hadn't been available I was going to book in 17 AGAIN. I wouldn't have expected it to do well but I might have been surprised.
Wolverine is available to start Jun 26th but I decided not to book it in yet. The booker says Angels and Demons will probably come off since Transformers 2 is opening. I'd rather play that than Wolverine. I wouldn't be particularly upset if I didn't get a chance to play Wolverine. It's Fox with all the conditions that go along with that. While it wasn't a terrible movie it got a lot of negative buzz, I've noticed movies in that situation don't seem to do well at Western Film anymore. I think the fact it's a big movie would outweigh that but I wouldn't be surprised if I'm wrong.
A hard decision is going to be whether to play a late show of ANGELS AND DEMONS or WOLVERINE. I know my staff will want me to so they can get more hours but will enough people show up to justify it? I was way wrong on the late show for MONSTERS VS. ALIENS. The late show was a complete bust. We did 5 people on Tuesday?! Something I wouldn't have thought possible since it's our discount night and usually the busiest.
I have a soft spot for disaster movies and no one makes them better (or worse) than Roland Emmerich who is best known for Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow.
His new film coming out in November deals with the end of the world as prophesied by the Maya. The teaser trailer was interesting, it showed a mountain monastery getting pummelled by a mountain high wave of water. The new trailer is currently only on Yahoo and it doesn't have an embedding function. The new trailer shows much more of the destruction but still doesn't show exactly what causes it. My thought from the teaser was a comet or something hitting Antarctica and instantly melting all that water. I think I'm still on the right track but it's maybe multiple objects?
A lot of people think the movie will be bad but I don't think anyone can say it won't be worth watching for at least the absolutely awesome looking special effects.
The scene in Independence Day where an alien ship blows up the White House is one of the most famous destruct ions in movies. There's a scene near the end of the trailer that may outdo that one, this one involves an aircraft carrier.
This comment was left on a post. I'm not sure if anyone reads the comments on older posts so I thought I would repost my answer as I think some will find it interesting.
QUESTION: This is a naive question on my part, but why are movies still in film format and not digital? I am sure there is a reasonable explanation, but it seems cumbersome to have huge reels to take care of.Also, with all the CGI and digital enhancing that goes into a movie these days, do they have to transfer everything to traditional film in the end to make the reels?
ANSWER: Video projectors that can make an image even close to the quality of film are still about $100,000. More if you add 3-D. The problem is there's not any real difference between film and video presentation to the general public and so there's no real advantage to the theatres to make the investment in new projectors. 3-D is really the only driving factor there.The Studios will save hundreds of millions of dollars by not having to strike film prints and ship them around but so far have been dragging their feet on helping the theatres convert. This doesn't make much sense to me.The other issue is going to be all the small theatres that can't afford to convert. Most movies are shot on film, converted to digital for editing then put back on film to show in theatres. Some films are shot with digital cameras. Eventually it will all be digital but how long that will take varies widely depending on who you ask. I think in about 3-5 years it will be hard to run a theatre that hasn't converted.
I got this picture off a projectionist's forum. This isn't at Western Film, it's a print of Angels and Demons somewhere in Australia. That's the film all over the floor, where it's not supposed to be.
The piece of equipment in the middle is called a platter. It consists of three revolving discs about 4 ft wide. On the bottom one you'll see a film as it's supposed to look, nicely wound in a big spool with the beginning of the film in the center and the end on the outside.
When a film plays off a platter it pays out from the center, goes over some rollers, through the projector and back onto one of the other discs. It wraps around a ring placed in the center and ends up looking the same as it started, just on a different disc.
What happened here is somehow the film was not going back onto the platter but was just spilling onto the floor. There's several things that can cause this, mostly projectionist error but sometimes it can be a equipment problem. Even something like a momentary power drop out can cause this. That's why you'll always see the projectionist at Western Film go into the booth after the power blinks, even if the film seems to be running normally.
The scary thing is the average film is 12,000 ft long, that's a lot of film to try to wrap back up manually.
James Cameron is one of, if not my favorite directors. He's never made a bad film, even his weaker films are better than most movies and he has made several downright classics (Terminator 1 and 2, Aliens, Titanic.
His next film is Avatar which opens in the fall and supposedly will change the movie business again. I'm looking forward to it but I'm being sure not to get my hopes too high. No matter how good the movie is it will be compared to Titanic and how well that did. It's not a fair comparison as the combination of elements that allowed Titanic to be come the biggest grosser of all time will never be repeated. It's been 10 years and the movie business has changed. Titanic was still playing in theatres a year after it opened. I don't see that ever happening again.
One of the big variables with how Avatar does is the number of 3-D screens available. The movie apparently employs some of the highest quality 3-D ever done. But at this point there still only about 2000 or North America's 40,000 screens equipped for 3-D. The 3-D is so important to this film that Cameron says one of the reasons it took him so long to make this film was waiting for the technology to catch up to his vision.
The link is for a really interesting article at Totalfilm.com which summarizes what is known about Avatar which is surprisingly little. The movie comes out in 5 months but there's been no trailers, posters or even good stills. I think most of the illustrations in the article are from the video game, not the film.
I'll probably be in line opening night, how about you?
Next week was a weird week to book. The only new film that came off the first run screens was Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, however that Studio (Alliance) usually puts a week between first and second run so I initially wouldn't have been able to book it for next week. That left me in a bit of a scramble as I didn't have any other movies that I wanted to play. Nothing recently had done well enough to bring back. So I was going to have to play something I hadn't planned on playing. I was looking at these options.
TWO LOVERS: Not a high profile movie but a good one. I saw it at the Hyland and they kept it for a couple weeks. The showing I saw it at had a fair number of people. There weren't any prints of it available though.
WALTZ WITH BASHIER: This is one of those films I don't think will do well but I could get surprised by. However I decided not to take the chance this time of year.
ADVENTURELAND: a fairly good movie aimed at an audience who isn't here right now. (students), didn't do great in First Run though.
17 AGAIN: an okay movie aimed at an audience we don't really get a lot of, young girls. However it does star ZacEfron and did fairly good first run. It's also the highest profile so I decided to go with it and see what happens.
However in the end I ended up getting Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. The booker decided this was a good time to question the one week wait policy at Alliance. They had been inconsistent in applying the policy, doing it in some places with some movies but not in others. As a result we won't have to wait a week any more and I was able to book Ghosts. I did have to wait until Tuesday to get an answer which caused a bit of a reworking of the things the staff and I do on Monday and Tuesday nights.
Now watch the movie bomb, romantic comedies are usually a pretty safe bet for us.
The following week should be Wolverine, it's not playing anywhere first run as of Thursday. Fox also does the waiting bit but at least does it consistently. I'm pretty sure they usually only make us wait a week so Wolverine should be available. If it's not I'll probably try 17 Again as there isn't anything else new I see coming off.
The movie that finished tonight was Monsters Vs Aliens. I booked it last Monday, the only other choice was Dance Flick which I never planned to play.
During the summer we usually do matinees of any kid friendly pics. I also decided to do a late show of Monsters figuring some people would want to see it.
End of Week Update: This was one of those times when I was really off. Monsters did really bad. The matinees were dead and the late show was even deader. I'm quite surprised as I thought the film would at least do okay. I think a lot of it was the fact it finally got warm last weekend so people were doing things outside. It may or may not have been the fact it wasn't in 3-D. We only had a few people ask if it was then not see it.
There were three new films available for next week.
17 AGAIN: I've never really planned to play this film. I think it skews a little too young for our demographic, especially with school out. I'll keep it in the maybe file if nothing good comes off sometime in the next couple weeks.
MONSTERS Vs. ALIENS: I booked this in and then had a thought later, maybe it wasn't a good idea to put a kid's film up against the opening weekend of a new Pixar Film (UP). So I changed the booking and Monsters will play starting Jun 5th with a 7:00 show, weekend matinees and maybe a late show.
THE SOLOIST: I wasn't sure whether to play this but based on how Sunshine Cleaning and State of Play have done I think there's a good market for adult oriented dramas still. I think it will do well.
I'm hoping Wolverine comes off the week after Monsters plays. There's not much else I'm waiting for, maybe Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. Star Trek will be a while.
Great little video someone put a lot of work into. I've seen almost all of these movies. There's a few of the older ones I would like to see at some point.
I first saw the trailer for this film a few months ago and thought it looked funny but nothing special. However buzz from screenings has been building and it looks like it may be a major hit.
Here's the trailer:
Here's some comments WArner reported from a screening in Toronto. There's a lot of them and pretty consitent. It looks like I'll have to put up a slide before the movie starts telling the audience there's something in the credits and not to bolt at the first sign of a credit.
At the bottom is funny little promo clip from Funny or Die. Hopefully the embedding works better than the last time I tried. The link below the player should work.
Some comments from the “HANGOVER” screenings Thursday, May 21(from Tribute contest winners across Canada) (there are about 90+) Generally very very good! ================================================================================================== ====
It was so funny that I kept on laughing the whole way throuh. I definitely would recommend it to anyone. Loved it and I would watch it again in the theatres
This movie was awesomely funny and outrageous! The character that really added to the movie was the guy with the beard...don't we all have one of those in our lives?
very funny!
I was surprised by The Hangover - it turned out to be much better than I expected. Funny situational humor - at one point, it seemed impossible to resolve all of the loose ends, but it happened. Would recommend this.
This is one movie u actually have to stay to the end to see what really happens, absolutely loved it thanks again for the passes, Joyce
Yes, by far the funniest movie this year...not very often the whole theater is laughin. I may have to see it again as I was laughing so hard i may missed some jokes..
It was one of the funniest movies I have seen in years. We definitely have to see it again and will be recommending to all our friends.
So funny!!!
Worth going to if you want to have a good laugh. Loved the tiger and the whole story line. Some parts were x-rated, but on the whole, a very enjoyable and funny movie.
I laughed harder than I have in a long time - I was not disappointed!!! I have not stopped bragging about it to friends at work.
extremely funny, haven't laughed that hard in a long time
It was good. Really funny. More different from the other movies in it's genre than I expected. I did think the final scene was more graphic than it needed to be. They still could've got the point across with even half of the nudity in the photographs... or even none of it.
I thought it was pretty funny! Great cast and ridiculous storyline! Great laughs all around!
This movie was excellent. It was a lot of fun. The story is very well done. You don't know what to expect all along. Merci! Thanks for the free movie
This movie was hilarious. Every story had some kind of twist to it. I laughed so hard throughout the entire movie.
very funny and relaxing movie very nice
Super funny movie! Saw the advance screening and I'll probably watch it again once its released into theatres!
Some parts were funny, however, some parts of the movie were pretty dumb, I guess it will appeal to a very certain demographic.
Hilarious...had me laughing out loud, often. A little bit of a slow start..just to get the characters in place..then non-stop off-the-wall comedy!
Above average comedy. A lot smarter than Dance Flick, but that is to be expected.
The comedy built and built so that we laughed so hard my husband said it was a "Pee yourself funny movie". Everyone stayed to see the photos during the final credits and we were still laughing as we drove home.
I did not have high hopes for this movie, but it was hilarious. Some of the gross humour probably could have been left out, but it's worth seeing the movie if you want a good laugh. This movie is for anyone who thought Weekend at Bernie's was a scream.
It was very funny.
Quite funny
This was one of the best movies I have seen in a while. It was very funny, I especially loved the ending where they were showing the pictures.
The film was generally funny although there were some parts that dragged a little. I was very pleased during the film that it didn't take the "low road" by including lots of gratuitous sex and nudity for the sake of ratings. This was true unitl the closing credits when the photos of the lost night were shown. Out came the photos of strippers and oral sex. Very disappointing.
Crazy fun, I recommend this moving to every one who needs a good laugh!
Not laugh-a-minute, but the comedy is pretty even throughout. It's better than amusing and in the words of my brother, I wouldn't mind seeing it again or owning it on DVD.
A surprisingly funny movie about a plan to go awry gone awry. Very enjoyable.
This movie was absolutely hilarious, by far the funniest movie I have seen in a long time. The theatre was constantly filled with laughter. An excellent movie, and I would definately see it again!
Very funny. Wish they would have taken more time scrolling through the pictures at the end though.
Very funny . A kind of movie to forget life problems .
I enjoyed this movie immensely; it was hilarious and unpredictable. Each of the main characters' personalities played a role in the hijinks that these friends got into. Look for a significant cameo by Mike Tyson, and don't expect the chicken to be explained!
It was awesome, I enjoyed so many parts of this movie! Especially the tiger parts! haha!
It was hilarious, entertaining and long over due!!!!!!! I do not remember when last time I saw a good SUMMER type movie was.
In a world of murders, muggings, job losses, etc., it was a relief to watch a movie and be transported to a world of funny stuff. Thanks.
It had funny parts. The baby and tiger was awesome.
Hello, I really like this movie. Very funny and cleverly made especially since you only see waht really happened at the very end .
really funny. I liked how you only find out at the very end what truly happened in Vegas. One scene that was not really necessary was the one where they have the baby doing you know what... but other than that I enjoyed this movie very much. Thank you for choosing my name
Great Movie! Thoroughly enjoyed it. Light hearted, feel good movie. Put a smile on my face.
I went to the see the movie with my husband with not too high expectations but to our surprise we never laughed so much. Each actor portrayed their part so well. The story line was so interesting...trying to remember and retrace their steps to what happened in only 1 night was totally hilarious. Of course, the line What happens in Vegas...totally appropriate. I already recommended this movie to my co-workers. P.S. Baby is really adorable.
Thought the movie was very funny. Loved the little baby. Truly, enjoyed going.
when I first saw the preview for this movie I thought nah, it's just one of those stupid funny comedies. I have not laughed like that I'm a long time. It kept laughing throughout the whole movie!
very funny
I thought the movie was definitely one of the best I have seen in a while. It was remarkably funny, and it made me and my friend laugh alot. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I will most definitely be recommending this movie to all of my friends.
Incredibly funny! The story was non-stop twists that kept you laughing. Each scene was funnier than the last. Ed Helms from the Office played such a hilarious part...definitely a must see for any friends who've experienced one of those rough crazy nights!
I thought it was funny and quite believable considering the myths about Vegas!! lol
Pretty good!
It was the funniest movie I see in years. 5 stars
Very funny, laugh out loud movie. The fact that the guys have no memory of what they did the night before makes it unpredictable. Funniest movie I have seen in a while!
Very funny, I couldn't stop laughing. I am going to tell my friends to see this movie.
Pretty hilarious movie!
the movie is hilarious. Men hanging over with a baby with differents problems... Strongly recommended.. you won't waist your money at all
I expected it to be all Juvenile teenage boys jokes but was pleasantly suprised at the comedic content.
This movie is absolutely hilarious. Just when you think it can't get any worse, it does. It will have you rolling in the aisle with laughter. Truly, an enjoyable and fun movie to see.
Some very funny moments in the movie. My son enjoyed it more than I did. Maybe more a movie guys can identify with.
I had read that the movie tested very well and in advanced screenings and that the studio had already ordered production of the sequel, so I thought that I might be seeing a hidden gem. I found, however, that there were very few hearty laughs during the course of the movie and the most entertaining part came at the very end.
It has some funny parts - and was what I expected. Overall a good rental but I don't know if I'd come out and pay to see it in theatres.
the funniest film we have ever seen in 71 years!!
great movie!! very funny and the characters were fantastic! would pay to go and see it again!!
The Hangover is the funniest film I have ever seen in my 71 years, we went expecting not much, and laughed through the entire time, the film never lets up--you have a real winner here! Thank you so much for an hysterical evening. We are still laughing about it today!
Very funny movie! I think it will be good summer entertainment.
The most hilarious movie I have seen in a long time.Laughs from start to finish.
This movie was the funniest things I have seen in a LONG time. I laughed out loud until I cried. Actors were fabulous and movie was well directed. Good job guys. I would love to buy the DVD when it comes out to see all the bloopers. Just NON STOP laughing all throughout. I can't even pick my favorite moment because it was all too good!
This was the funniest movie that we've seen in a long time. It had surprise after surprise and you never knew what to expect next! Even the passing off of the tuxedos on the road was reasonable, but still unexpected! I would highly recommend this as a must-see and my boyfriend said after the movie that he would want it in his selective DVD collection.
Very funny. Although the premise has been done before, this was handled well, with just enough vugarity and filth to keep it interesting. The slideshow at the end was hilarious.
Laughted myself silly , had to wipe my eyes a few times . Please send me another pass to see it again .
Hilarious. Couldn't stop laughing. I had been looking forward to this since the first time I saw the trailer and it did not disappoint. Would recommend this to anyone that loves laughing. Mike Tyson singing? Nothing funnier. Will definitely purchase this DVD.
I find it great. The idea is original and we can not predict in advance what will happen. The guys are hilarious, I'm sure everyboday will enjoy this movie.
We thought this was a very funny film and I will not be hesitating to go see it again when it comes out June 5th.
We really enjoyed the movie and everyone was laughing from start to finish. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to see The Hangover. I will recommend to my family and friends. :)
It was good entertainment. There were plenty of laughs, not necessarily where you were doubled over with laughter, but it never dragged.The best part was how the characters kept leaping from one crazy situation to the next. The movie is not appropriate for children due to the extensive nudity.
I thought it was funny
My wife and I were lucky enough to view an advanced screening of this film and it was a riot! One of the funniest movies I've seen in a long while. Zach Galifianakis was hilarious from his first scene until his last. Not to say that the rest of the cast didn't do a bang up job, each were just as funny in their own right. Wolf-pack forever!
The cast, the plot,the trailer, what more can be said ! This is definately goin' to be a blockbuster,laughed my you know what off during the trailer.Really can't wait for this one,love a good comedy and this will for sure top the all time best list !
The movie is really good and funny to see. It's so cute. I suggest to go to see it. It's a good investment
HILARIOUS! The pictures at the end were the best!
The movie was funny with no political messages which I enjoy. A super summer movie that a lot of people both young and old will enjoy.
It was much better than I had expected it to be and I am so glad that I won tickets from Tribute. I will definitely be recommending this movie to my friends. Thanks, Tribute!
This was a super funny film. Its not very often that you laugh so hard that you can't stop. It touched all the right notes without being offensive. Was a great night out and I would recommend it highly for an evening of pure humour.
Hilarious and awesome
The movie was just what I needed that day! It was fun and one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time. The hilarity just never stopped. And the audience was great too - adding to the fun with great infectious laughter! I'd recommend it to anyone!
There were only 2 new films available for next week.
OBSESSED: The movie did well overall but wouldn't do anything at Western Film, especially this time of year. I might have played it as a late show when the students were still here.
STATE OF PLAY: based on the results of the Sunshine Cleaning experiment (see previous posts) I should play this film. It did okay and has fairly good awareness and star power. Reviews were generally positive. It's more of an adult film which is what I should be playing this time of year. I think it will do well but not great.
I'm pretty sure Monsters Vs. Aliens will come off for the following week. UP! will bump it out of the 3-D theatres which is probably the only reason it's still playing, that and the lack of family films until Night at the Museum 2 and then UP! come out.
I'm planning to play matinees and a late show. The late show may not work but I'm hoping there will be some adults who don't want to see it with kids in the audience. Matinees of kid's films are a pretty safe bet. One thing that might get interesting. This will be the first film Western Film has played that was strongly marketed as being in 3-D and WF can't play 3-D. I'm curious how many people will show up expecting 3-D, not realizing that it takes special, very expensive, equipment to play 3-D that not every theatre has.
If Monsters isn't available I might have to get creative again.
One thing I keep mentioning is how the attendance and hence booking patterns for Western Film are different from almost any other theatre. To illustrate this I'm going to compare two films.
FAST AND FURIOUS- $70 million dollar opening (biggest April opening ever), $153 million total box office, 4th in a series, some fairly well known names although Vin Diesel and Paul Walker aren't as big as they used to be. High awareness. Did about $500 for the week at Western Film which is quite low for us.
SUNSHINE CLEANING-$219,000 opening in 4 theatres, $11 million total, original, not a sequel or remake, some lesser but still well known names but on the way up (Amy Adams, Emily Blunt). Low awareness. Did almost $800 for the week, still low but not bad.
Seems counter intuitive doesn't it? This is a general pattern at Western Film although it does have exceptions. The Dark Knight was still one of the highest grossing films at Western Film.
There's several reasons I think this occurs- For many movies the audience who wants to see them go see them first run, this is why Western Film doesn't play horror films and most smaller action films. In many cases they don't want to wait until WF plays the film even if we are cheaper.
Part of it is timing, it depends on the time of year the film plays.
Smaller movies aimed at adults can do well here. Adults are more likely be willing to wait and/or want to see it for less money. Western Film is also less busy and crowded. Although I wouldn't mind seeing that change.
Smaller films often don't play in theatres much. Sunshine played for a couple weeks at the Westmount, F&F played at all the theatres in the city.
By the time WF gets a film word of mouth has spread and if it's bad it will affect us. The opposite effect can occur with good word of mouth for the smaller films that start in the bigger cities then spread out from there.
Being a University theatre our primary market is a more intellectual and discriminating group. They are more likely to take a chance on something that looks different. They are also less likely to seek out out only escapist fare.
The best example I can give is Hotel Rwanda. It was the biggest grossing movie at WF the year it came out however it did only $20 million in overall box office.
As written in an earlier post my decision to play Sunshine Cleaning the week that just ended was a bit of an experiment. There were no bigger movies to play and I didn't know how Sunshine would do as it had low awareness but good reviews. I heard 'never heard of it' a lot this last week. I decided to try it because with the lack of students I thought something more aimed at adults might do okay.
Result: The experiment worked. While it didn't go great overall it did better than a couple of the last films. It actually did a bit more than my most optimistic prediction. I can pretty much guarantee it did better than FIGHTING which was the only wide release film available.
