4 ms·

I can think of at least 4 big movie theaters in DC that did this. The Uptown used to do revivals between big releases. I saw Blade Runner, Ben Hur, 2001, and o

I can think of at least 4 big movie theaters in DC that did this. The Uptown used to do revivals between big releases. I saw Blade Runner, Ben Hur, 2001, and other classics there. They did not make money on those and had to convert to 100% current releases. I think it is now closed. The Air & Space IMAX theater used to do “Sci Fi Sundays” where they played a classic science fiction movie on Sunday evenings as the last showing. The Avalon is in one of the richest neighborhoods on DC/MD border. When it went bankrupt all the neighbors pooled their money and started a nonprofit to keep it open. The AFI has a theater in a MD suburb, which shows all sorts of revivals and classics year round. In every one of these theaters I am always shocked to see how few people a classic pulls in. Went to see Blade Runner “Final Cut” at AFI on a huge screen and there were like 40 people. 2001 in a 70mm print was about half full. Inception or Interstellar in IMAX (the real one, 70 ft tall screen) was less than half full. A small takeaway is that, with so much historical catalog, the audience is very finely chopped up. Only a relatively small % of people love each old movie enough to rally to the theater at a specific night and time. The big takeaway is how crucial strong marketing is for theater attendance. Undoubtedly there were many available casual fans who simply did not know about these showings. Mass marketing is hard and expensive.

lastofthemojito 5y ago
I used to live pretty close to the AFI in Silver Spring and while I thought their selection of older movies was pretty great, I didn't end up going terribly often. I think it's linked to the fact that for most people (certainly me), going to the movies is a social occasion (I don't think I've ever gone to a movie theater by myself - I know people do, but I suspect that's a fairly small minority). Anyhow, marketing does it's job - lots of people have some awareness of new movies coming out, and they're curious about that thing that they've heard about but haven't seen. It just seems tougher to drum up interest to go see Officespace or Edward Scissorhands or Seven Samurai or whatever - "I just saw that on TV", "Seen it a million times", "Never heard of it", etc.
dogorman 5y ago
> In every one of these theaters I am always shocked to see how few people a classic pulls in. Went to see Blade Runner “Final Cut” at AFI on a huge screen and there were like 40 people. 2001 in a 70mm print was about half full. Inception or Interstellar in IMAX (the real one, 70 ft tall screen) was less than half full. Maybe you chose bad examples.. but all of these movies are movies I like quite a lot and I would not have gone to see any of them in the theater. Why? Because I've seen all of them a dozen times already and I'm sure I'm not alone. If they want to pull in more people, they should probably pick movies people haven't already watched repeatedly to the point of fatigue.
- sgerenser 5y ago
  I have to imagine an obscure 1970s sci if film is almost certainly going to get a smaller audience than Blade Runner.
erikpukinskis 5y ago
Comparing individual theaters doing a handful of showings to AMC running 10 showings a day of a film with ads all over YouTube and a McDonalds tie-in is not a fair comparison. A fair comparison would be a re-release with advertising, a press tour, collabs with social media personalities, and a nationwide multi-week run. People see movies because their brother in Florida said it was fun, or because they have seen the trailer four times. What on earth would compel someone to look up the schedule of random showings at their local theater?
dredmorbius 5y ago
There are repertory cinemas. One that at least some HN readers might be familiar with is the Stanford Theatre, on University Avenue in Palo Alto, which shows almost exclusively black-and-white films from the golden age of Hollywood. As with so much else, it's been closed due to COVID-19, but looks to be reopening. The 2019--2020 season featured films from 80 years prior: 1939--1940. https://stanfordtheatre.org/ https://stanfordtheatre.org/ https://stanfordtheatre.org/calendars/1939.html https://stanfordtheatre.org/calendars/1939.html
3finmunchousen 5y ago
I'd be curious to see if this approach could work with targeted marketing instead of mass marketing. If the criterion collection promoted a rotating wide theatrical rerelease with it's streaming service I think you might have something. Include 4 tickets to the chosen criterion film a month with the streaming subscription as a kind of moviepass lite.

lastofthemojito 5y ago

I used to live pretty close to the AFI in Silver Spring and while I thought their selection of older movies was pretty great, I didn't end up going terribly often. I think it's linked to the fact that for most people (certainly me), going to the movies is a social occasion (I don't think I've ever gone to a movie theater by myself - I know people do, but I suspect that's a fairly small minority). Anyhow, marketing does it's job - lots of people have some awareness of new movies coming out, and they're curious about that thing that they've heard about but haven't seen. It just seems tougher to drum up interest to go see Officespace or Edward Scissorhands or Seven Samurai or whatever - "I just saw that on TV", "Seen it a million times", "Never heard of it", etc.

dogorman 5y ago

> In every one of these theaters I am always shocked to see how few people a classic pulls in. Went to see Blade Runner “Final Cut” at AFI on a huge screen and there were like 40 people. 2001 in a 70mm print was about half full. Inception or Interstellar in IMAX (the real one, 70 ft tall screen) was less than half full. Maybe you chose bad examples.. but all of these movies are movies I like quite a lot and I would not have gone to see any of them in the theater. Why? Because I've seen all of them a dozen times already and I'm sure I'm not alone. If they want to pull in more people, they should probably pick movies people haven't already watched repeatedly to the point of fatigue.

sgerenser 5y ago
I have to imagine an obscure 1970s sci if film is almost certainly going to get a smaller audience than Blade Runner.

erikpukinskis 5y ago

Comparing individual theaters doing a handful of showings to AMC running 10 showings a day of a film with ads all over YouTube and a McDonalds tie-in is not a fair comparison. A fair comparison would be a re-release with advertising, a press tour, collabs with social media personalities, and a nationwide multi-week run. People see movies because their brother in Florida said it was fun, or because they have seen the trailer four times. What on earth would compel someone to look up the schedule of random showings at their local theater?

dredmorbius 5y ago

There are repertory cinemas. One that at least some HN readers might be familiar with is the Stanford Theatre, on University Avenue in Palo Alto, which shows almost exclusively black-and-white films from the golden age of Hollywood. As with so much else, it's been closed due to COVID-19, but looks to be reopening. The 2019--2020 season featured films from 80 years prior: 1939--1940. https://stanfordtheatre.org/ https://stanfordtheatre.org/ https://stanfordtheatre.org/calendars/1939.html https://stanfordtheatre.org/calendars/1939.html

3finmunchousen 5y ago

I'd be curious to see if this approach could work with targeted marketing instead of mass marketing. If the criterion collection promoted a rotating wide theatrical rerelease with it's streaming service I think you might have something. Include 4 tickets to the chosen criterion film a month with the streaming subscription as a kind of moviepass lite.