Is there a market for older movies, older could mean anything from 1year old or older.. If so, do you buy the movies, or rent them.. What would be the benefit of buying the movies vs. renting them.. Are there any benefits..

BTW, I was a Film Forum member from July '92 until last month.

 |  IP: Logged

 |  IP: Logged

The matinee deal with the Chamber worked out so well that we have continued to do it every year since with a current film (usually Disney's holiday release). It's a win-win-win...the public gets to see a movie free, the Chamber gets great PR for promoting the latest greatest kids movie, and we get a full house and all the concessions.

Moral: People are cheapskates, as if we needed any proof of that...

quote:

---

Forget it! Whether it's older mainstream, classics, foreign, they'll beg you to run them but when you do, your staff and you will be the greatest part of the audience, THE PUBLIC WON'T SHOW UP.

---

That's absolutely the truth as far as surveying older people (around 40+)about whether they'd come out to see movies. They'll rant about how a theater should show "good movies, like they used to make" & say they'll come to see them, but don't show up. Ask, & the basic response is, "Well, we don't like to go downtown" or some sort of equivalent to "We're getting older, & just park our ass permanently at the house. But we'll still bitch about the selection of things made available to us that we'll never get up to go see anyway."

You really have to market older films differently, & simultaneously across different demos. Make them part of a series, with some semi-hip theme (a James Bond festival, etc.), & make sure that you understand that a BIG part of the audience is "film enthusiasts", who are going out to a theater to see things that *are* available on video. So you gotta put on a show. In a PAC, regular scheduling either for every weekend for a summer series or every other weekend for year round is essential, because people get into a habit of going to see the movie.

And if you want senior citizens, the only proven way of getting a significant number is to cut deals with retirement homes & get involved with arranging transportation.

Even colleges have a tough time drawing crowds. Especially those without a powerful film studies program.

------------------
Tao Yue
MIT '04: Course VI-2, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Projectionist, MIT Lecture Series Committee

Click onto the Film Forum as Charles suggested they are one of the Top theatres for this type of operation. Repertory and festival type of presentation have a definate place in exhibition. You will probably have to work a little harder it getting the proper films booked onto your screen.

Check out the Angelika in the So Ho section of New York and the Lincoln Plaza on Broadway. The Lincoln Plaza is owned by New Yorker Films whick itself distributes mmany foreign films.

You may want to speak with manager at the York Square Theatre in New Haven, which is surrounded by Yale University, and I know that they do repertory booking from time to time.

Hopefully your company is a member of CATO (Connecticut Association Of Theatre Owners) who meet every couple of months near you on the Berlin Turnpike. At there meeing you will meet fellow managers and owners many of whom do repertory and festival type of booking.

You never know unless you try.

I'll definetly look into the college areas, and themes would fit into my business plan, so again, thanks for your advice..

quote:

---

Even colleges have a tough time drawing crowds. Especially those without a powerful film studies program.

---

And it's because the idiot academics who make the decisions have mostly moved to projection video & gotten rid of 16mm & 35mm projection facilities. They say "we save money & it's easier to show videocassettes", then when they talk about declining attendance & you point out how NTSC video has lower resolution than 16mm, projection NTSC looks worse than that even, & ask why an audience should come out for something they can rent at Blockbuster & would look *better* at home...the academics get evasive, defensive, & start doing all sorts of embarassing-to-watch ego conservation.

Just like the exhibitors at corporate level, they have ways of insulating themselves from responsibility for the bad effects of putting on a poor show.

Don't get me started on college film programs, "media" studies, & the folks that run them. I know they're all different, there will be good & bad, but far too many have been responsible for things like:
wrecking the projection facilities at PAC's that wanted them, & thought they were doing better than a professional cinema service company because they could *actually get a real head of a university film department* to consult for them; some of these film departments have poisoned their local market for art & rep films via nasty projection NTSC in auditoriums, & collusion with the local papers local "Arts" editors conceals the fact that the rep house in the next town is actually running good looking 35mm, etc.

Too many "academics" are WILFULLY ignorant, & upon discovery that their performance & knowledge is inadequate, instead of trying to fix the problems they've created or keep them from happening again, bend all their energies into bluff to maintain face.

The 16mm educational rental market must be dropping like the stock maket. There are some good film programs & college series out there, but they are now absolutely in the minority.

Colleges without a powerful film program can't maintain film capability because they lack the funds to do so. And however much we may denounce professors who switch to NTSC, if they're given the choice of showing one film to their students or five videotapes/laserdiscs/DVDs to their students, the choice is clear.

At most colleges, film projection capability survives only because of the student film society. However, at MIT, attendance at LSC movies has dropped 75% in the last twenty years. Reasons: megaplexes opened in the area, and every dorm has a DVD player.

I don't think it's only or even mostly because colleges run NTSC that they can't get audiences. Most people don't know enough about technical quality to care. If they did, the entire film industry would be based on 70mm because nobody would go to movies shot on anything narrower. I think it's because of the availability of DVDs for classic films. Why see a potentially dirty, splicy, faded-to-pink print when you could see a digitally cleaned-up, color-corrected DVD?

------------------
Tao Yue
MIT '04: Course VI-2, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Projectionist, MIT Lecture Series Committee

quote:

---

Colleges without a powerful film program can't maintain film capability because they lack the funds to do so. And however much we may denounce professors who switch to NTSC, if they're given the choice of showing one film to their students or five videotapes/laserdiscs/DVDs to their students, the choice is clear.

---

The reasons I have been given by academics running film programs for switching to projection NTSC
1. Can rent from local video outlet
2. Just push a button, do not need a projectionist

quote:

---

Why see a potentially dirty, splicy, faded-to-pink print when you could see a digitally cleaned-up, color-corrected DVD?

---

There's the parallel with the academics having selective disclosure & no more ethical accountability than exhibition chains at corporate level.

Why watch a low-resolution, low contrast, pixelly NTSC projection video when you can project an enjoyable recently-struck 16mm print?

The answer is laziness, cheapness, the fact that the film program coordinators are technically less aware than film enthusiasts, & ethically the coordinators are interested only in how much they pack into their resume, not how good the show is or the effect upon the "art form".

There are exceptions; I know several here are affiliated with some college film exhibition, & even some are academics themselves. I wonder how Dr. Leo dealt mentally with instructors who had less practical & accurate information than he. My guess is that he just kept his head down.

quote:

---

I don't think it's only or even mostly because colleges run NTSC that they can't get audiences. Most people don't know enough about technical quality to care. If they did, the entire film industry would be based on 70mm because nobody would go to movies shot on anything narrower.

---

My observation is that people stop going to venues because they put on a poor show. The whole aim of a night at the movies is an enjoyable evening of entertainment, & just as you say, the audience does not know & shouldn't be expected to know technical details. If it's good, they'll come back. If it's middling or stinks, then it does not satisfy their requirements for an enjoyable evening of entertainment & they won't do it again. They do know when the show is poor, but lack the technical skills & vocabulary to describe the reasons for its shortcomings. That's why there is a technical side to the whole affair, to quantify & control the aspects of show. It is the responsibility of the people putting on the show to make it a good show; the audience only notes if it's good, bad, or indifferent, & is expected to act on that.

Successful film series are successful because they're good shows.

Video movie series reduce their own audiences, because they're poor or no better than what you can get at home. Why go out otherwise?

It's a saying older than the movies, & still true:
Bad publicity can't hurt you, but a bad show will ruin you.