Ace, I can confirm that it was still operating as the Bunny (and Bunny Roof) well into the thirties. By the late forties and early fifties it was known as the Dorset.
The sixties and seventies remain a mystery to me but by 1981 it was already the Nova and it became a twin around 1989-1990.
You’re right, Ron! That the photo in the Henderson book sure looks like the same location as that link.
Wallack’s was certainly mostly live theatre but it did show non-mainstream films also, mainly hunting and travel films sometimes accompanied by a lecture, not unlike Weber’s.
I am not sure it deserves a listing here but I am glad Henderson’s excellent book covers it.
Thanks Bryan. There were several Wallack’s locations over the years but the one I am enquiring about was located near Weber’s or was the same location as I cannot find an overlap.
It suspect that the promoter may have renamed the theatre when they leased it and then it reverted back to its old name like many Manhattan nightclub venues still do today.
The film has a “JFK” feel to it. It is false history footage treated as real and takes place in late 2007. I think the reason it was financed by UK TV is because the US is undergoing a really oppressive period for financing anything too controversial.
(I can’t wait for BORAT to hit the fan!)
I think those who say it is a small and minor film are correct, but then both Regal and Carmike have some theatres that do play such product.
I think Bush is a sacred cow for some and that is the reason this film upsets many who, if they saw it, would totally agree with the sentiments expressed anyway.
This movie is actually quite kind to Bush. I am sure anyone who is offended has not yet seen it.
Forget Bush for a moment. If an American president were assasinated under the current climate, how would the US react? Would we overact with incorrect assumptions. That is what this film is about.
Regal and Cinemark’s stupid “shoot from the hip” responses are perfect examples of what this film unveils.
Congratulations to those two exhibitors for making the filmmaker’s hypothesis a fact so soon.
People constantly complain about prices then pay double at the new multiplex across the street. We charge as much as £8.90 ($16.50) and as little as £2.50 ($4.60)on bargain days across the UK.
Big films sell out and flops play to empty seats, even on bargain days. We find price seems to have little effect, even in small markets with high unemployment as long as it is comparable to the local price of a couple of pints of beer.
When PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN or the latest HARRY POTTER come along, no one talks about prices as we turn crowds away. They happily pay extra to book in advance. When the feature of the hour is SNAKES ON A PLANE, every two-bit newspaper and magazine has a story waiting about the price of popcorn and how pricing and home entertainment is killing the movies.
You’d think by now they would have noticed they have been writing that same story since 1947.
I agree with all your points and understand that edgy screenplays are a bigger risk.
I can further say that the general drop is attendance (albeit slighter than we are lead to believe) is due to the over 35 audience who go to the movies once or twice a year and then can’t find a trailer enticing enough to prompt a quick return visit.
It also allows the suburban multiplex mall theatre to trump the older Cinemas Treasure that may count on older audience frequency. People still do want to get out of the house but the film diversity is just not there!
Studies have shown that movie-goers are movie-goers. Even those buying pirate DVDs go to the movies, rent and buy legitimate DVDs.
Where I think we drop the ball as an industry is the overwhelming focus on 15 to 24 year olds. There is a glut of product for that market at the expense of everyone else.
You are correct in that there have always been exploitation (crap?)films. There was even a bigger glut of product in the forties than there is now. What has changed is the number of quality non-formula films.
You can go back to any year in the last century and find ten interesting cutting edge films. You are hard pressed to find three these days. It is now October and outside of VOLVER from Spain, I can’t think of any other great film that has come out this year.
You mom is right. Even in the dire late sixties/ early seventies product shortage you could find an amazing variety of films being made. Now you will find ten versions of the same plot in the same year all badly told. You need to watch Korean, Chinese and Japanese films to get anything original and even Scorcese’s THE DEPARTED is a remake of one of those.
So what has happened to screenwriters in the US, Schmadrian? Even TV is more creative.
Cinema will continue to re-invent itself. Here are some signs of hope:
Real D, for example, brings a new 3D system that won’t be on home TV for another ten years. Old films can be remastered into 3D and although it is still quite expensive Lucas is redoing all STAR WARS and footage of SINGIN' IN THE RAIN in 3D is breathtaking. James Cameron is making his next film AVATAR in 3D.
Muvico is experimenting with splitting adult screens from under 21 screens and therefore segregating the mobile phone and audience participation crowd from those who need to focus more on the nuances of JACKASS NUMBER TWO. That rowdy crowd is not new. It is just getting more agressive in the way they enjoy their films and it may be time to bring back the Drive-In and leave them outside again.
Concerts and sporting events on Digital will allow families to experience Marylin Manson and football games “live on screen” matches without the arena violence many big city venues provide.
There is no doubt theatres are changing but so is the content of what we view there as well as at home. The success of MARCH OF THE PENGUINS, FAHRENHEIT 911 and AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH has been largely attributed to a belief that TV news is biased and that these films reveal something new.
They preach to the already converted willing to shell out ten dollars for a two hour newsreel with questionable facts. Can you imagine what these theatres would do if someone started to make good movies again?
Schmadrian, BUBBLE was released on DVD the same day as in theatres so it was boycotted by all major theatre chains. ROAD TO GUANTANAMO did the same in the UK with the DVD on sale two weeks after release.
DRIVING LESSON is being shown on UK TV this month, two months after the theatre release and DEATH OF A PRESIDENT is a made for TV UK movie getting a theatre run in the US. (It is actually on TV here tonight!)
The reason the theatre run is still so importrant is two-fold.
1) Most movies sell on DVD at the same percentage as their theatre gross. The bigger the hit in theatres, the more exposure the title gets, the more units they sell and rent to the public. Obscure titles remain obscure with few exceptions.
2) Many films are sold to DVD on an economic model based on the theatrical gross. The bigger the opening weeks, the better the price they get.
In the rare case of a movie being a hit on DVD but a failure at the box office, you can be almost certain some marketing team at a studio just got fired.
Although studios often own their DVD rights, the departments sometimes operate on a mutually exclusive and somtimes antagonistic level.
The theatrical release STILL drives the whole industry.
LI, some theatres chose not to show FARHENHEIT 911 and PASSION OF THE CHRIST for political reasons. It sent no message to Hollywood since people just saw them elsewhere and they were both huge hits world wide.
Theatre owners can only make a stance by refusing to play a film in big numbers as in the case of BUBBLE. Otherwise, only the public can send the message effectively.
Your caviar stance means nothing if your customers still buy it elsewhere. Also, are you certain that the Iranian or French products you are rejecting do not come from an American owned company there?
Remember that until recently Snapple was owned by the Bin Laden family.
Cineplex Odeon welcomed controversial films. They went as far as to produce THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST themselves although Universal took the abuse as the distributor.
This is not really consumer power is it? What if Regal and AMC decided to pass on BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN or DELIVER US FROM EVIL? Would we approve of the gesture?
I think only the paying public has the right to say “no!, as they did with GIGLI and DOGMA. JACKASS and the upcoming BORAT are very political films when you consider what they say about our society. If the public is buying tickets then the theatres should be showing them.
I find many films immoral and downright bad. (SUPERMAN RETURNS comes to mind) I would never consider that our company would not show them for this reason.
The only reason a company should reject a film is because it violates the DVD window. In the UK we passed on ROAD TO GUANTANAMO for that reason and only for that reason.
I just meant FLYBOYS has received some of the worst reviews of the year. As a war drama it rates lower in its genre than JACKASS did in its own “GROSS-OUT” genre.
The Lorraine management stated they were closing due to lack of quility films that weren’t “drivel”. What they really meant was that they were willing to play “drivel” if it didn’t insult their personal sensibilities.
I think when an exhibitor dictates morals to their paying customers by denying them a film it becomes censorship. We already have ratings and critics to help inform the public about content without some cinema manager acting as a nanny for adults.
I wonder how the Lorraine feels about DEATH OF A PRESIDENT, PASSION OF THE CHRIST and FAHRENHEIT 911?
Ed, I am shocked and appalled that you think I might be some kind of authority on strip joints!
Having gotten that out of my system, I am pretty sure the main entrance was on Broadway but there could have been other marquee signs as it seems to have been located somewhere within this complex as was the Mardi Gras Topless (huh?) disco.
Ed, it was not rare for that double feature to have multiple runs. The theatres owned the prints so they kept bringing them back. It is precisely the lack of consistent distributors that caused Variety to stop tracking the films and the reason for recent claims that DEEP THROAT may have grossed as much as 600 million dollars making it among the highest grossing films of all time. No one can prove it.
THE BIRTH OF A NATION is the other title with a similar dilemma. Both films are politically incorrect so their true effect on history is being denied and erased.
The Metropole is one venue I have attended. The “entertainment girls” chatted you up while ordering $10.00 bottles of “champagne”, ( I think it was dressed up Perrier), and you paid for it. That is how the Metropole made much of it’s money. The pole dancers were actually carefully chosen and quite beautiful, as you would expect in Times Square.
…and as Dolly Parton would say “There’s nothing dirty going on!”, as far as I could see.
It has improved although US sports films such as GRIDIRON and ethnic movies often get missed or dealyed for obvious reasons. The UK holidays do not always match the US so THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA is now on previews but STORM BREAKER (it opens the US this month) already came and went. HOODWINKED finally opened this week to fantastic grosses although you can order it from Amazon anytime on DVD.
The DVD day and date DVD release helps no one in the movie food chain. It simply burns movies out quicker. If you produce mindless sequels such a the X-MEN movies you could make it work if cinemas didn’t refuse to play them.
I wonder if the Lorraine was too proud to show those stupid films?
The latest in the UK is no four month window means no wide run. Julie Walters and that red-headed boy from HARRY POTTER means straight to TV for a great film: DRIVING LESSONS.
ROAD TO GUANTANAMO, missed it’s major audience by going straight to DVD here.
As long as someone makes movies such as BORAT, we have an industry that is alive, contemporary, belligerent and exciting. No matter what Bush’s America thinks.
LUST IN THE DUST (1985) played at the Embassy and New Yorker. The Carnegie Hall was playing very eclectic arthouse repertory at the time.
Ace, I show it reopened as a quad in 1992.
My guess is it twinned around 1971.
Something called the Cinema 181 was advertising in 1966 and I have yet to figure out where that was.
Ace, I can confirm that it was still operating as the Bunny (and Bunny Roof) well into the thirties. By the late forties and early fifties it was known as the Dorset.
The sixties and seventies remain a mystery to me but by 1981 it was already the Nova and it became a twin around 1989-1990.
You’re right, Ron! That the photo in the Henderson book sure looks like the same location as that link.
Wallack’s was certainly mostly live theatre but it did show non-mainstream films also, mainly hunting and travel films sometimes accompanied by a lecture, not unlike Weber’s.
I am not sure it deserves a listing here but I am glad Henderson’s excellent book covers it.
Thanks Bryan. There were several Wallack’s locations over the years but the one I am enquiring about was located near Weber’s or was the same location as I cannot find an overlap.
It suspect that the promoter may have renamed the theatre when they leased it and then it reverted back to its old name like many Manhattan nightclub venues still do today.
Here is a photo of the Wallack’s on 30th I am enquiring about.
View link
Whew! It’s back again and showing SCOOP. Flooding again, perhaps?
Does anyone know if this was also known as Wallack’s showing movies in 1915?
The film has a “JFK” feel to it. It is false history footage treated as real and takes place in late 2007. I think the reason it was financed by UK TV is because the US is undergoing a really oppressive period for financing anything too controversial.
(I can’t wait for BORAT to hit the fan!)
I think those who say it is a small and minor film are correct, but then both Regal and Carmike have some theatres that do play such product.
I think Bush is a sacred cow for some and that is the reason this film upsets many who, if they saw it, would totally agree with the sentiments expressed anyway.
This movie is actually quite kind to Bush. I am sure anyone who is offended has not yet seen it.
Forget Bush for a moment. If an American president were assasinated under the current climate, how would the US react? Would we overact with incorrect assumptions. That is what this film is about.
Regal and Cinemark’s stupid “shoot from the hip” responses are perfect examples of what this film unveils.
Congratulations to those two exhibitors for making the filmmaker’s hypothesis a fact so soon.
People constantly complain about prices then pay double at the new multiplex across the street. We charge as much as £8.90 ($16.50) and as little as £2.50 ($4.60)on bargain days across the UK.
Big films sell out and flops play to empty seats, even on bargain days. We find price seems to have little effect, even in small markets with high unemployment as long as it is comparable to the local price of a couple of pints of beer.
When PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN or the latest HARRY POTTER come along, no one talks about prices as we turn crowds away. They happily pay extra to book in advance. When the feature of the hour is SNAKES ON A PLANE, every two-bit newspaper and magazine has a story waiting about the price of popcorn and how pricing and home entertainment is killing the movies.
You’d think by now they would have noticed they have been writing that same story since 1947.
I agree with all your points and understand that edgy screenplays are a bigger risk.
I can further say that the general drop is attendance (albeit slighter than we are lead to believe) is due to the over 35 audience who go to the movies once or twice a year and then can’t find a trailer enticing enough to prompt a quick return visit.
It also allows the suburban multiplex mall theatre to trump the older Cinemas Treasure that may count on older audience frequency. People still do want to get out of the house but the film diversity is just not there!
Studies have shown that movie-goers are movie-goers. Even those buying pirate DVDs go to the movies, rent and buy legitimate DVDs.
Where I think we drop the ball as an industry is the overwhelming focus on 15 to 24 year olds. There is a glut of product for that market at the expense of everyone else.
You are correct in that there have always been exploitation (crap?)films. There was even a bigger glut of product in the forties than there is now. What has changed is the number of quality non-formula films.
You can go back to any year in the last century and find ten interesting cutting edge films. You are hard pressed to find three these days. It is now October and outside of VOLVER from Spain, I can’t think of any other great film that has come out this year.
You mom is right. Even in the dire late sixties/ early seventies product shortage you could find an amazing variety of films being made. Now you will find ten versions of the same plot in the same year all badly told. You need to watch Korean, Chinese and Japanese films to get anything original and even Scorcese’s THE DEPARTED is a remake of one of those.
So what has happened to screenwriters in the US, Schmadrian? Even TV is more creative.
Cinema will continue to re-invent itself. Here are some signs of hope:
Real D, for example, brings a new 3D system that won’t be on home TV for another ten years. Old films can be remastered into 3D and although it is still quite expensive Lucas is redoing all STAR WARS and footage of SINGIN' IN THE RAIN in 3D is breathtaking. James Cameron is making his next film AVATAR in 3D.
Muvico is experimenting with splitting adult screens from under 21 screens and therefore segregating the mobile phone and audience participation crowd from those who need to focus more on the nuances of JACKASS NUMBER TWO. That rowdy crowd is not new. It is just getting more agressive in the way they enjoy their films and it may be time to bring back the Drive-In and leave them outside again.
Concerts and sporting events on Digital will allow families to experience Marylin Manson and football games “live on screen” matches without the arena violence many big city venues provide.
There is no doubt theatres are changing but so is the content of what we view there as well as at home. The success of MARCH OF THE PENGUINS, FAHRENHEIT 911 and AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH has been largely attributed to a belief that TV news is biased and that these films reveal something new.
They preach to the already converted willing to shell out ten dollars for a two hour newsreel with questionable facts. Can you imagine what these theatres would do if someone started to make good movies again?
Schmadrian, BUBBLE was released on DVD the same day as in theatres so it was boycotted by all major theatre chains. ROAD TO GUANTANAMO did the same in the UK with the DVD on sale two weeks after release.
DRIVING LESSON is being shown on UK TV this month, two months after the theatre release and DEATH OF A PRESIDENT is a made for TV UK movie getting a theatre run in the US. (It is actually on TV here tonight!)
The reason the theatre run is still so importrant is two-fold.
1) Most movies sell on DVD at the same percentage as their theatre gross. The bigger the hit in theatres, the more exposure the title gets, the more units they sell and rent to the public. Obscure titles remain obscure with few exceptions.
2) Many films are sold to DVD on an economic model based on the theatrical gross. The bigger the opening weeks, the better the price they get.
In the rare case of a movie being a hit on DVD but a failure at the box office, you can be almost certain some marketing team at a studio just got fired.
Although studios often own their DVD rights, the departments sometimes operate on a mutually exclusive and somtimes antagonistic level.
The theatrical release STILL drives the whole industry.
LI, some theatres chose not to show FARHENHEIT 911 and PASSION OF THE CHRIST for political reasons. It sent no message to Hollywood since people just saw them elsewhere and they were both huge hits world wide.
Theatre owners can only make a stance by refusing to play a film in big numbers as in the case of BUBBLE. Otherwise, only the public can send the message effectively.
Your caviar stance means nothing if your customers still buy it elsewhere. Also, are you certain that the Iranian or French products you are rejecting do not come from an American owned company there?
Remember that until recently Snapple was owned by the Bin Laden family.
Cineplex Odeon welcomed controversial films. They went as far as to produce THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST themselves although Universal took the abuse as the distributor.
This is not really consumer power is it? What if Regal and AMC decided to pass on BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN or DELIVER US FROM EVIL? Would we approve of the gesture?
I think only the paying public has the right to say “no!, as they did with GIGLI and DOGMA. JACKASS and the upcoming BORAT are very political films when you consider what they say about our society. If the public is buying tickets then the theatres should be showing them.
I find many films immoral and downright bad. (SUPERMAN RETURNS comes to mind) I would never consider that our company would not show them for this reason.
The only reason a company should reject a film is because it violates the DVD window. In the UK we passed on ROAD TO GUANTANAMO for that reason and only for that reason.
LOL. Good Morning, Schmadrian.
I just meant FLYBOYS has received some of the worst reviews of the year. As a war drama it rates lower in its genre than JACKASS did in its own “GROSS-OUT” genre.
The Lorraine management stated they were closing due to lack of quility films that weren’t “drivel”. What they really meant was that they were willing to play “drivel” if it didn’t insult their personal sensibilities.
I think when an exhibitor dictates morals to their paying customers by denying them a film it becomes censorship. We already have ratings and critics to help inform the public about content without some cinema manager acting as a nanny for adults.
I wonder how the Lorraine feels about DEATH OF A PRESIDENT, PASSION OF THE CHRIST and FAHRENHEIT 911?
I see now that stinkbomb FLYBOYS is good enough to re-open the Lorraine.
So this had nothing to do with quality but rather censorship and good old fashioned family values after all.
We all know a good war is nowhere as obsene as toilet humour.
That sure is it, LM. That marquee was the best place to stand on New Year’s eve.
Ed, I am shocked and appalled that you think I might be some kind of authority on strip joints!
Having gotten that out of my system, I am pretty sure the main entrance was on Broadway but there could have been other marquee signs as it seems to have been located somewhere within this complex as was the Mardi Gras Topless (huh?) disco.
Did the Kitty Kat play movies?
Ed, it was not rare for that double feature to have multiple runs. The theatres owned the prints so they kept bringing them back. It is precisely the lack of consistent distributors that caused Variety to stop tracking the films and the reason for recent claims that DEEP THROAT may have grossed as much as 600 million dollars making it among the highest grossing films of all time. No one can prove it.
THE BIRTH OF A NATION is the other title with a similar dilemma. Both films are politically incorrect so their true effect on history is being denied and erased.
The Metropole is one venue I have attended. The “entertainment girls” chatted you up while ordering $10.00 bottles of “champagne”, ( I think it was dressed up Perrier), and you paid for it. That is how the Metropole made much of it’s money. The pole dancers were actually carefully chosen and quite beautiful, as you would expect in Times Square.
…and as Dolly Parton would say “There’s nothing dirty going on!”, as far as I could see.
It has improved although US sports films such as GRIDIRON and ethnic movies often get missed or dealyed for obvious reasons. The UK holidays do not always match the US so THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA is now on previews but STORM BREAKER (it opens the US this month) already came and went. HOODWINKED finally opened this week to fantastic grosses although you can order it from Amazon anytime on DVD.
The DVD day and date DVD release helps no one in the movie food chain. It simply burns movies out quicker. If you produce mindless sequels such a the X-MEN movies you could make it work if cinemas didn’t refuse to play them.
I wonder if the Lorraine was too proud to show those stupid films?
The latest in the UK is no four month window means no wide run. Julie Walters and that red-headed boy from HARRY POTTER means straight to TV for a great film: DRIVING LESSONS.
ROAD TO GUANTANAMO, missed it’s major audience by going straight to DVD here.
BUBBLE. What BUBBLE?
If Mark Cuban thinks cinema is over he should sell Landmark and start producing TV reality shows like UGLY BETTY. Derivative cliché is his best mode.
As long as someone makes movies such as BORAT, we have an industry that is alive, contemporary, belligerent and exciting. No matter what Bush’s America thinks.