Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Next Week's Movies

There wasn't anything new available this week that I wanted to play. Precint B13 (The French movie) was available but that would have done zero business. Fox might have let us play The Omen but I didn't want it since we don't do well with horror movies.
I decided to play RV for the early show and keep MI3 as a late show. I'm curious to see how RV does, it's not as adult oriented as most of the movies we play. MI3 is doing well this week so I'm keeping it for another week.
I was kind of thinking Da Vinci Code might come off but I was told today it's still #4 at the Silver City. We'll probably get The Break Up, Over The Hedge and The Lake House before Da Vinci.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Studio Stipulations

The end of the last post reminded me of something the studios do. Sometimes they'll allow midnight showings the night before sometimes not. Sometimes they dictate no shows before noon opening day etc. I've never figured out why it changes for each film. Maybe they don't allow early shows for movies they don't think will get good word of mouth?

Looks like Superman Returns is Good!!


I get various business newsletters from Western Film's booking agent. Today I received two early reviews of Superman Returns. One is a newsletter, the other was an article from Variety. One said it was good the other was positively beaming.
I'm really glad it looks good. I've been waiting for this for a while but it really looked like one of those movies that could swing either way.
I'm considering tackling the opening night crowds to see this which I never do. I did see the midnight show of King Kong the day before it opened in general release. Maybe they will do the same for Superman.

Any Questions?

If anyone has any movie business or Western Film questions leave them as a comment and I'll answer them if I can.

Next Week's Movies.

I had two choices for next week, One was RV, the other was Mission Impossible 3. Guess which one I chose? I could have split them but I didn't want to play RV at 7pm and it wouldn't work as a late show since it's primarily a family film. I decided to do two shows of MI3 figuring there would be enough demand.
Unless patterns change we will be the only ones playing MI3. Paramount puts what is called per caps on most of their movies. Per caps basically means we pay a percentage of a phantom higher ticket price Paramount sets rather than our real prices. It doesn't usually add up to a lot extra. I've never seen Rainbow play a movie with per caps. I'm not sure if they don't want to pay the extra or just avoid the accounting hassle. That part is a pain. If anyone noticed we played Failure to Launch for two weeks before Rainbow played it per caps is why.
I have a tentative plan for next week. If nothing new comes off which I'm expecting and MI3 does as well as I hope I'll play RV at 7pm and MI3 for a late show.
However there is a small chance Da Vinci may come off. The next two weeks opens Click and Superman Returns so they will push some movies out.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Poster of the Week.


This is the teaser poster for Snakes on a Plane, the first movie to be greenlit and get a star (Samuel L. Jackson) purely by the title. The studio tried to change it and got blasted so bad they changed it back. It comes out in August and will be a big hit if it's any good, the internet buzz is incredible, again based on the title. I heard people are using the image on the poster for tattoos.

Will that be Butter, Topping or Golden Topping?

One thing we get called on occasionaly is asking if people want butter on their popcorn when it's not actually butter. It's a special popcorn topping made by Becel, pretty similar to margarine. However we don't really have a choice in the asking. When I first started here I told the staff to ask people if they wanted topping. We then had to explain what we were asking to about 60% of the customers. Some people thought we meant the powder seasonings. We went back to asking if they wanted butter. I guess most people know what we are asking and know it's not real butter. I remember being asked if I wanted golden topping at a first run theatre run, I bet that really confused people. I don't buy food at the Silver City any more so I don't know what they ask. They have both the topping and real butter (which is extra).

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Next Week's Movie.

Poseidon was the only movie available so I booked it for next week. I considered playing Thank You for Smoking as a late show but I don't think enough people know about it. I probably would have played it during the school year.
Since Poseidon didn't do very well (actually bombed) first run I'm only running one show a night. I'm curious to see how it does.
I saw Poseidon and thought it was fun, not great but not as bad as some people seemed to think. I do have to admit I expected more from Director Wolfgang Peterson, he normally makes really good films. I sorta got the impression the special effects took over the movie.

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Monty Python

I got some potentially bad news today. I was booking some shows for the midnight series in the fall. Two of the most requested movies are Life of Brian and Holy Grail. Unfortunatly Creative Exposure, the company that holds the rights in Canada is closing up next month. Both of the owners recently died. I believe they also own most of the repertory theatres in Toronto except the Bloor. Since no one knows what going to happen to the rights to the Monty Python movies I couldn't book them. Life of Brian was unavailable for years because it was in rights limbo before Creative Exposure got them somehow.

Pet Peeve #2

People who bring small children to adult movies or babies to any movie. I figure most of the time it's because they don't want to pay or can't afford a babysitter but I don't think it's fair to the other customers. Especially younger children who get bored and start talking. At least most of the time if a baby starts crying one of the parents will take it out of the theatre. We usually give them a free pass since they aren't getting to see the movie.

One thing that we are never sure how to deal with is when parents bring children to a movie they probably shouldn't see. We had someone bring some kids around 7 or 8 to V For Vendetta, not exactly a kid's movie. It's the parent's choice but sometimes I'll say something to imply the movie isn't for kids.
I remember when I was a kid my mother took me and my younger brother and sister to Heavy Metal. Since it was animated she probably assumed it was a kid's movie. I even remember thinking when I saw the naked animated sex I probably wasn't supposed to be there.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Next week's movie.

I booked Ice Age 2 for next week. I'm glad it was available since there was nothing else. It was also good timing because the movie is from Fox so we couldn't play any other movie anyway.
I did have to decide whether to play only one show at 7:00 like we have done the last couple weeks or add a late show.
I decided to do a 9:00 show for 2 reasons. The movie is so short the staff wouldn't have to stay much longer than they would have for just a single show. Also I figure there are people like myself who would go to a late show to avoid the possibly (probably?) noisy children at the early show.

The French Film.

To my mild surprise the movie mentioned in the previous post opened at the Silver City on Friday. It's called Precinct B-13. I went to see it Sunday night. It was relatively busy for a Sunday.
As soon as the subtitles came on I heard a bit of fussing. Some of them didn't know it was in French. I guess the trailers do work. I didn't see anyone leave.

The movie was a lot of fun and I recommend any fan of action films to go see it. The action was way over the top and a lot of it was real. Guys jumping over balconies and through windows. The story was kind of interesting too. I really enjoyed it. After a few minutes I don't even notice I have to read the dialogue. The nice thing about action films is there isn't a lot of dialogue to translate and the subtitles are closer to what is actually said.

Friday, June 02, 2006

Trailers for Foreign Films

There was a trailer playing front of X-Men 3 that was an example of how trailers for foreign films are almost always constructed in North America. It was for a movie called something like District B-12. It looked pretty cool. In the future the ghetto parts of Paris have been walled off but one of these districts had gotten ahold of a nuclear bomb. One policeman is sent in to find it. It's an action movie with completely over the top moves. It said it was from the 'something' of Ong Bak and Transporter 2. I couldn't tell if the action was real like Ong Bak or staged like Transporter 2. There were guys jumping through small windows etc.

Anyway, if you watch the trailer there is no dialogue. Except for the mention of Paris at the beginning and the credits at the end there's no indication it's a French movie.
I've noticed trailers for foreign movies almost always avoid showing dialogue. Do they think people will be fooled into seeing a movie with subtitles?

Luc Besson is the writer of the above movie so it should be good. He did the Fifth Element, one of my favorite movies.

A really stupid suggestion.

This has always stuck in my mind because it must be one of the stupidest suggestions I ever heard at Western Film. This was back when we played only on the weekends and played a different movie every night. Someone suggested we should play a football themed movie on Superbowl Sunday?! I'm not a football fan but if I was I'd be watching the Superbowl not going to a movie (even one about football ) that night.
What we usually ended up doing on Superbowl Sunday was counterprogramming, usually something that appealed mostly to women.