Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Theater treats kids expecting to see Chicken Little to the wrong movie

my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

»	Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE » Operations » Ground Level » Theater treats kids expecting to see Chicken Little to the wrong movie (Page 1)

This topic comprises 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5

Author

Topic: Theater treats kids expecting to see Chicken Little to the wrong movie

Mark J. Marshall
Film God

Posts: 3188
From: New Castle, DE, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 11-06-2005 03:43 PM

Holy cow!

Talk about a major screw up. In my 15 years in the business, I've threaded the wrong movie before, but this takes the cake...

Link

quote:
A Times Square movie theater laid an egg at a showing of "Chicken Little" last night.

Adults and kids expecting to watch Disney's G-rated animated flick at the AMC Empire 25 theater on 42nd St. were instead presented with a foreign film that opened with a young man committing suicide.

"It's pandemonium," Joshua Gallo, 30, told the Daily News as he rushed out of the theater with his 5-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter. "The kids are crying. The mothers are screaming for the managers to stop the film."

Terrified children didn't know what to do as they watched a young boy hang himself from a tree at the 8:45 p.m. screening.

After five minutes, "Andrea," a Spanish drama opening today, was turned off and "Chicken Little" was played.

Patrons got a coupon for a free movie.

| IP: Logged

Mike Spaeth
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1129
From: Marietta, GA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 11-06-2005 04:24 PM

There is no excuse for threading the wrong movie. I terminated for this once ... they started "Scary Movie 2" instead of "Shrek 2".

| IP: Logged

Matt Fields
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 545
From: Ohio, United States
Registered: Jun 2005

posted 11-06-2005 04:32 PM

I worked at a theatre where they started Basic Instinct instead of Beauty and the Beast.

Chaos insued.

| IP: Logged

Amanda Jones
Film Handler

Posts: 92
From: Indianapolis, IN, USA
Registered: Aug 2005

posted 11-06-2005 05:01 PM

Yeah I woke up this morning and quickly ran to the phone because I forgot to do print moves before I left last night. Luckily they noticed it this morning. Would have hated to see when we started Saw II instead of Chicken Little.

| IP: Logged

Mark J. Marshall
Film God

Posts: 3188
From: New Castle, DE, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 11-06-2005 05:16 PM

quote: Mike Spaeth
There is no excuse for threading the wrong movie.

Maybe not in an ideal setup, but when you work in a theater where the GM likes to change the theaters around in the middle of the day, and you end up with conflicting copies of performance schedules laying around when you come in for the night shift, and no one bothered to leave any notes, .... well, all bets are off. I'm not making excuses for this particular situation, but that happened to me. You also have situations like this occur when the ushers "forget" to move the signs around when movies change houses.

quote: Matt Fields
I worked at a theatre where they started Basic Instinct instead of Beauty and the Beast.

That sounds familiar. If that wasn't a theater that I'm familiar with, I definitely heard that before.

| IP: Logged

Dennis Benjamin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1445
From: Denton, MD
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 11-06-2005 05:27 PM

I have seen people fired over this before. People do make mistakes. This one would be a doozy.

/rant on/

However, I will ask the obvious question. Why would someone book a hard "R" and a soft "G" film in the same auditorium?Knowing full well that an 18 year old making $7.XX an hour will not pay too much attention to what film they are threading?

I think it is a two fold problem. These two types of films should not be booked together. If the industry is going to book like the theatres are professionally run - then the theatres should be professionally run by operators getting paid a decent wage. AND NO - I don't think the AMC Empire 25 has a union projectionist running around up there.

/rant off/

| IP: Logged

Gordon McLeod
Film God

Posts: 9532
From: Toronto Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 99

posted 11-06-2005 05:51 PM

I think the propblem is booth staff that don't check the title of what they thread up before they pres "play "
many theatres do prints moves based on seating capacity requirements or split bookings through out the course of a day and if that is the way the theatre chooses to run then the booth staff should get with the plan and take the correct precautions

| IP: Logged

Robert Harrison
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 239
From: Harwood Heights, Illinois, USA
Registered: Jun 2005

posted 11-06-2005 05:58 PM

We had something similar back in the 80s, when the old fellow who was projectionist at that time made a changeover from the first 6000' reel of some kids movie (back in the days of SATURDAY & SUNDAY MATINEES ONLY for some features) to the middle (second 6000' foot reel) of "An Officer and a Gentleman." And what scene was it but the nude love scene between Richard Gere and Debra Winger!

That guy made a lot of mistakes, but the union would never replace him. Finally, we got out of the contract on some yearly gross technicality.

| IP: Logged

Darryl Spicer
Film God

Posts: 3250
From: Lexington, KY, USA
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 11-06-2005 06:27 PM

I remember a time years ago at one of the old theatres I used to work at. We had 6000' reel to reel operations in two of the auditoriums. One of them was playing a matinee and evening double up. The Rescuers and Scarface....you guessed it....Rescuers changed over to one of the reels for Scarface so everyone was smacked in the face with "Fuck you motherfucker, you die" People came running out from everywhere.

| IP: Logged

Jim Ziegler
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 753
From: West Hollywood, CA
Registered: Jul 99

posted 11-06-2005 07:38 PM

You think the operator would have noticed this one in the trailers - even if they didn't check the name on the print...

| IP: Logged

Louis Bornwasser
Film God

Posts: 4441
From: prospect ky usa
Registered: Mar 2005

posted 11-06-2005 07:52 PM

This booking "problem" is caused by the fact that Disney does well in the day/"R's" do well ay night. Therefore; they tend to split the house: R vs Disney. Can't YOU see this problem coming? Louis (Color code the print leader: RED equals check everything before pushing start.)

| IP: Logged

David Stambaugh
Film God

Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 11-06-2005 07:59 PM

AMC Empire 25: "Set It and Forget It!" [Razz]

| IP: Logged

Frank Dubrois
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 896
From: Cleveland, OH
Registered: Mar 2005

posted 11-06-2005 08:09 PM

quote: Jim Ziegler
You think the operator would have noticed this one in the trailers - even if they didn't check the name on the print...

But when your a single projectionist at a 15-20 plex, you really dont have the time to sit and watch the previews. I am in full agreement that "R" and "G" movies shouldnt be in the same house. Mistakes happen....

| IP: Logged

David Stambaugh
Film God

Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 11-06-2005 08:12 PM

With tens of thousands of shows every day, and prints being moved around, the only surprising thing is this doesn't happen more often. I bet whoever threaded up that movie at AMC Empire 25 felt pretty bad about it.

| IP: Logged

Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 11-06-2005 08:39 PM

quote: Frank Dubrois
But when your a single projectionist at a 15-20 plex, you really dont have the time to sit and watch the previews.

Not only that BUT many theaters are still running rolling stock ads as the first thing that hits the screen and you can't always judge by those either. Furthermore, a PG trailer could be on an R movie as well as that Disney movie.

A policy of mine that works very well is on double up screens with platters that have removable brains was to take one brain and put it on the floor below the platter and that brain was "off limits" for that week as a booth policy. This way when the projectionist went to thread that screen, if he HAD to move the brain to thread the next show, it was a wakeup signal "hey buddy, there's TWO movies playing in this auditorium - check your schedule". Once that policy was implemented, the problem of threading the wrong movie stopped. It really does work very well and is sort of along the same line as storing the dts disc for the movie not running inside the center ring where the brain would sit. That then REQUIRED the projectionist to pick up the disc in order to be able to mount the brain so he could thread and served as a reminder to swap the discs.

Simple policies like this if strictly enforced DO put an end to silly goofs like this.

| IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5

Printer-friendly view of this topic

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.