Theater in Ohio showing classic Disney-owned films starting June 13

[Mike Blakesley]

Local movie theater changes format, will start showing different films


BOARDMAN, Ohio (WKBN) – A major change is coming to a Boardman movie theater.

Starting this Friday, Movies 8 on Route 224 will only show older Disney and FOX films — all the classics. Movies like “Beauty and the Beast,” “Cinderella,” “Die Hard,” “Star Wars” and “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

Movies 8 will also be able to show new Disney and FOX films, but it must wait six months from the release date.

This new format change is for one year.

Link: https://www.wkbn.com/news/local-news...fferent-films/

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(This is Mike)
I wonder how this came about? Is it some kind of Disney experiment? Or will Disney allow anyone to do this if they agree to the above format?

For some movies, they will probably will do quite well; and then the novelty will wear off and they'll revert to whatever they were doing before. I'm curious what their film terms are.

EDIT: I looked at the theater's Facebook page, and it says despite what the news story implies, they're not 'just' showing old Disney-owned films. They're opening one or two auditoriums to the classics but the rest of their screens will still show standard product. So they must have made a tradeoff with Disney: Yes, you can show our classics but you have to wait 6 months for our new stuff.

If only Disney would get off their high horse and realize they are cutting their own throats with this policy. Just let' em show the new movies too, ya boneheads.

[Ryan Gallagher]

This feels like a expansion of Disney+ back into rep physical cinemas. If they sweetened the deal and allowed 1st run Disney and FOX titles before streaming, that would be tempting... but this sounds like the entire streaming catalog just in another format?

Considering we just do classics and they do quite well, this might work out nice. Hard to say, depends on the region and customer base.

The fact it is just a couple screens is interesting, are the other screens restricted from the 1st run Disney/FOX titles? Or just the screens participating in this rep experiment?

[Frank Angel]

I don't understand...how is this different from what most art/rep house do, other than every classic comes from one distributor? Having delt with The Rodent for decades, I can't imagine that the term will be anything that will put a big smile on an exhibitor's face. The difference I suppose from an art house perspective, there will be a lot more other-than-Disney titles to choose from given that, ya know...they're like Pakman, gobbling up other studios, but the downside is, at least when we were dealing with Disney, it was always like pulling teeth just to get a title booked, and then once you got an OK, it was "terms shock" at what they thought their old stuff was worth. In the days when Fox was Fox, we got their library titles at reasonable rates. If I know Disney, terms will be equally unpleasant for all their titles regardless if it's a Fox title. And it isn't clear whether or not the exhibitor at that venue is able to curate those classics as to their liking or is Disney setting up a release package of titles that the theatre is required to follow? And is Disney going to support this deal with some sort of publicity for each it or is the exhibitor on his own when it comes to promo materials? The positive or negative of this deal is in the details. For example, if I want to include say, CAROUSEL a Fox title as part of my "Classic Summer at the Movies," will Disney give me the same deal I used to get from Fox when I played it quite a few times, i.e, 35% vs $250 open-ended, run it as long as it's filling seats or pull it when it isn't? Yah, like THAT gonna happen.

[Ryan Gallagher]

I did glance at their schedule, there did seem to be ALOT of repetition (as in multiple show times and days/weeks) of a given disney/fox classic title. Considering they seem to have a small market despite being situated half way between two metro areas, I can't imagine any of them doing that well. Makes me assume disney has a heavy hand in the terms still.

The trick with classics seems to be to capitalize on the restricted access, if you only show it once in a programming season, it feels more special, and folks start to realize they need to pay attention and make time for their favorites, bringing attendence up slightly over all, rather than the apathetic approach of assuming they can catch it later.

This assumes of course you have a room capacity to satisfy demand, multiple screenings and days may be required for small rooms, but make an event out of it, put it on as many screens at the same time as you can etc. Part of the whole classics deal is the fan community... the more of them you can get in the building at the same time the better... it starts to resemble a community event and not a bunch of individual screenings. Our classics fans are often hanging out under the marquee LONG after I've shut everything down and made my way out for the evening.