Star Wars had a record run at the Chinese. It ran around the clock for months. West Side Story did not run shows at two in the morning. Adjusted for inflation Star Wars holds the record for most money. It also holds the record for number of tickets sold for a single movie. It also started a fight between the Chinese and Fox when they had to move it to another theater for six weeks.
Yes parts of HTWWW were shot in Ultra Panavision and don’t look as sharp as the footage shot with Cinerama cameras. To really tell the difference you have to sit close and have good eye site.
Digital is a long long way from matching film. I don’t pay top prices to see a digital show. I wouldn’t go see digital versions of Cinerama movies they just lack the detail.
You have done your homework great update CTCrouch. I doubt that anything will happen to the dome it’s such an icon. It has a future as a specialty theater whether they develop that or not is the question. It’s one of the only theaters that can present 2001 the way it was meant to be seen. Besides being able to run three projector Cinerama.
Someone needs to tell the news stations that Oppenheimer is not the first time there was an early morning show at the Chinese. All the LA stations are saying how the 6:00 am show is the earliest show they have ever run; WRONG. I seem to remember a movie called Star Wars and they ran the theater pretty much around the clock for weeks.
To CP200 Love the handle nothing to date can replace the CP200 even the so called “experts” from Dolby with their QSYS and Crestron. Film presentations are getting harder and harder to do. Just ran some pristine 70mm mag just testing but the sound was a problem. Yea the dialog was there but it sill wasn’t right. Can’t replace the CP 200 and it works great with Special Venue DTS.
The Village theater was once a premier venue. Current management hasn’t done any real maintenance for years. The curtain has been broken for a while. Are there any good theaters left in Los Angeles? The Million Dollar in downtown, one of the oldest theaters in Los Angeles, is running movies again.
I just did a tec service call for house One. They are running three films in 70mm the first weekend in May. This is one of the best 70mm theaters I have seen. Theater number one has two Norelco AA 35/70 projectors. The 70mm picture is wall to wall.
If a theater agreed to run a film for a certain length of time that theater was committed. Star Wars was booked for only a few weeks at the Chinese and because of a previous booking of another film it was moved to another theater so that another film could play the Chinese. Once the run of that film was done Star Wars was put back at the Chinese for a long run. The theater did not accept any more bookings until Star Wars was played out. For Cinerama theaters there might not have been any product to put in theaters like the Warner. But if the theater agreed to run a film for a certain length of time they did even if was at a loss.
Ben Sack a theater owner in Boston booked a turkey. When he couldn’t get out of running it he let people in for free and started a long running feud with the producer.
I stand corrected if it was 68 2001 would have been running at the Boston Cinerama Theater but it did run at the Astor probably right after the Cinerama run.
lufweg 2001 ran at the Astor in 70mm probably in 68 and from your description it sounds like you were at the Astor when you saw it. That was right before Sack started block booking everything released and the Astor couldn’t get first run films.
Tenet 70mm ran at the Legion Theater in Hollywood and it looked great it was a brand new print never run before. The people involved spent a great deal of money on this theater and manage to get film prints in 35mm and 70mm. Tonight Dunkirk in 70mm.
They also run a small drive-in theater the first ever in Hollywood and the only drive-in in California that can run film.
This is the reason why versions of these movies are lost. People doing restoration work are not familiar with practices and standards of years past.
Back in the 1970’s I saw an original roadshow print of My Fair Lady in New York City in one of those old barns of a theater with a huge screen. The projectionist was very friendly he let me hang out in the projection room and I spent quite a bit of time talking to him. There were a lot of film cans as he had multiple prints and different versions. He said “The exchange sent me all the 70mm prints they had and just to pick out the best ones to run.” The print he chose of MY Fair Lady was probably the backup print that had never been run. He had a version of South Pacific with Spanish sub titles burned in. I commented on how big the theater screen was and he replied “You should have seen it before they reduced the size. It used to be bigger.” The theater had Century JJ projectors with 13.6 carbon arc and he was running the arc at 200 amps. (yes I know the rated current was 160 ) The picture was clear and bright I could count the threads per inch in Rex Harrison’s tweed coat. I was impressed.
The theater was at the time called The Strand and was the New York City Cinerama theater. It was the Broadway Theater where they ran the roadshow of It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.
For 50 years I have worked on the equipment in these theaters. You pick up a thing or two in fifty years.
Citizen Kane was filmed on nitrate stock very flammable and is prone to spontaneous combustion unless kept cold or frozen. So if any of the films in the vault went up it consumed all that was in that small room. There are still vaults filled with nitrate.
The studios are well know for destroying or losing original source material such as camera negative and original sound. Now and then someone saves footage from being destroyed but many times after a long run the general release version is the only thing left. The roadshow prints are either damaged, lost or destroyed. Fotokem has made new prints from the original negative of many 70mm films. Some of those films are complete. In some cases the negatives were in fair condition in other cases not. If a lot of copies were made off the original negative then that negative might be in rough shape or just unusable. Often times the camera negative survives but the sound doesn’t.
The camera negative for the 30FPS version of Around the World in Eighty Days is no longer available but the 24FPS negative survived. So the roadshow version of that movie is not available. The 30FPS negative of Around the World in Eighty Days was just worn out and damaged after making release prints off the original negative. In many cases the negative gets worn out from making multiple release prints. Usually there is an internegative or interpositive leaving a copy that can be used to make a print. For most movies shot on film there were prints made directly from the original negative and these are much better quality than a print made off an internegative.
Most Roadshow prints were made directly from the original camera negative and in the case of a popular movie that required multiple prints that negative was badly worn by the end of the roadshow run. If a reel of a print was damaged during the run a replacement had to be struck. New roadshow prints had to be struck to replace worn out prints. Again original negatives took a beating.
Until they closed it the film exchange in Boston had a full roadshow print of Around the World but it was badly faded. My guess is it was cut up with a bandsaw and sent to the recycler.
Collectors have some film that is thought to be lost.
It was common practice to recycle old film negative that was no longer needed and prints that were old. So as a result only a small percentage of original source material survives. Fox destroyed millions of feet of nitrate not wanting to store it. Universal lost original negative in several fires over the years. Many times in the past a film vault loaded with nitrate would catch fire and burn and this was common at many studios. The original negative for Citizen Kane burned but there were high quality copies in good condition.
Star Wars had a record run at the Chinese. It ran around the clock for months. West Side Story did not run shows at two in the morning. Adjusted for inflation Star Wars holds the record for most money. It also holds the record for number of tickets sold for a single movie. It also started a fight between the Chinese and Fox when they had to move it to another theater for six weeks.
Yes parts of HTWWW were shot in Ultra Panavision and don’t look as sharp as the footage shot with Cinerama cameras. To really tell the difference you have to sit close and have good eye site.
Digital is a long long way from matching film. I don’t pay top prices to see a digital show. I wouldn’t go see digital versions of Cinerama movies they just lack the detail.
You have done your homework great update CTCrouch. I doubt that anything will happen to the dome it’s such an icon. It has a future as a specialty theater whether they develop that or not is the question. It’s one of the only theaters that can present 2001 the way it was meant to be seen. Besides being able to run three projector Cinerama.
Are there new owners of the Cinerama Dome?
mOOse1111 the media doesn’t seem to care anymore about getting it right
Someone needs to tell the news stations that Oppenheimer is not the first time there was an early morning show at the Chinese. All the LA stations are saying how the 6:00 am show is the earliest show they have ever run; WRONG. I seem to remember a movie called Star Wars and they ran the theater pretty much around the clock for weeks.
Testing was not at the Dome. No news yet about when they are scheduled to reopen.
To CP200 Love the handle nothing to date can replace the CP200 even the so called “experts” from Dolby with their QSYS and Crestron. Film presentations are getting harder and harder to do. Just ran some pristine 70mm mag just testing but the sound was a problem. Yea the dialog was there but it sill wasn’t right. Can’t replace the CP 200 and it works great with Special Venue DTS.
The new theaters at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles are state of the art.
The Village theater was once a premier venue. Current management hasn’t done any real maintenance for years. The curtain has been broken for a while. Are there any good theaters left in Los Angeles? The Million Dollar in downtown, one of the oldest theaters in Los Angeles, is running movies again.
I just did a tec service call for house One. They are running three films in 70mm the first weekend in May. This is one of the best 70mm theaters I have seen. Theater number one has two Norelco AA 35/70 projectors. The 70mm picture is wall to wall.
The Chinese Theater has landmark status I doubt they will tear it down to build housing. Everything around it maybe.
If a theater agreed to run a film for a certain length of time that theater was committed. Star Wars was booked for only a few weeks at the Chinese and because of a previous booking of another film it was moved to another theater so that another film could play the Chinese. Once the run of that film was done Star Wars was put back at the Chinese for a long run. The theater did not accept any more bookings until Star Wars was played out. For Cinerama theaters there might not have been any product to put in theaters like the Warner. But if the theater agreed to run a film for a certain length of time they did even if was at a loss.
Ben Sack a theater owner in Boston booked a turkey. When he couldn’t get out of running it he let people in for free and started a long running feud with the producer.
I stand corrected if it was 68 2001 would have been running at the Boston Cinerama Theater but it did run at the Astor probably right after the Cinerama run.
lufweg 2001 ran at the Astor in 70mm probably in 68 and from your description it sounds like you were at the Astor when you saw it. That was right before Sack started block booking everything released and the Astor couldn’t get first run films.
Tenet 70mm ran at the Legion Theater in Hollywood and it looked great it was a brand new print never run before. The people involved spent a great deal of money on this theater and manage to get film prints in 35mm and 70mm. Tonight Dunkirk in 70mm.
They also run a small drive-in theater the first ever in Hollywood and the only drive-in in California that can run film.
Looks like they are going to run a 70mm print of Tenet at the Legion Theater in Hollywood.
The theater is protected as a Landmark I believe
And it can’t mysteriously catch fire and burn down like the old days
So it will probably be around for a while
To bigjoe
This is the reason why versions of these movies are lost. People doing restoration work are not familiar with practices and standards of years past.
Back in the 1970’s I saw an original roadshow print of My Fair Lady in New York City in one of those old barns of a theater with a huge screen. The projectionist was very friendly he let me hang out in the projection room and I spent quite a bit of time talking to him. There were a lot of film cans as he had multiple prints and different versions. He said “The exchange sent me all the 70mm prints they had and just to pick out the best ones to run.” The print he chose of MY Fair Lady was probably the backup print that had never been run. He had a version of South Pacific with Spanish sub titles burned in. I commented on how big the theater screen was and he replied “You should have seen it before they reduced the size. It used to be bigger.” The theater had Century JJ projectors with 13.6 carbon arc and he was running the arc at 200 amps. (yes I know the rated current was 160 ) The picture was clear and bright I could count the threads per inch in Rex Harrison’s tweed coat. I was impressed.
The theater was at the time called The Strand and was the New York City Cinerama theater. It was the Broadway Theater where they ran the roadshow of It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.
For 50 years I have worked on the equipment in these theaters. You pick up a thing or two in fifty years.
I am waiting for you to prove what I am writing to be wrong.
Why bother to post here just to have some studio type to tell me I am wrong when I have seen release prints off the original negative.
Well waiting for and answer where is that 30FPS Todd-AO negative THAT IS IN PERFECT CONDITION?
Prints were, and are, made from the original negative they are called show prints. There was also an answer print that is made off the negative.
Fox has a print of Sound of Music made off the original negative on Kodak Vision 3 stock and it looks incredible.
The original camera negative for Days of Heaven was used to make liquid gate blow up prints 35mm to 70mm
That camera internegative is probably camera negative not internegative.
Citizen Kane was filmed on nitrate stock very flammable and is prone to spontaneous combustion unless kept cold or frozen. So if any of the films in the vault went up it consumed all that was in that small room. There are still vaults filled with nitrate.
The studios are well know for destroying or losing original source material such as camera negative and original sound. Now and then someone saves footage from being destroyed but many times after a long run the general release version is the only thing left. The roadshow prints are either damaged, lost or destroyed. Fotokem has made new prints from the original negative of many 70mm films. Some of those films are complete. In some cases the negatives were in fair condition in other cases not. If a lot of copies were made off the original negative then that negative might be in rough shape or just unusable. Often times the camera negative survives but the sound doesn’t.
The camera negative for the 30FPS version of Around the World in Eighty Days is no longer available but the 24FPS negative survived. So the roadshow version of that movie is not available. The 30FPS negative of Around the World in Eighty Days was just worn out and damaged after making release prints off the original negative. In many cases the negative gets worn out from making multiple release prints. Usually there is an internegative or interpositive leaving a copy that can be used to make a print. For most movies shot on film there were prints made directly from the original negative and these are much better quality than a print made off an internegative.
Most Roadshow prints were made directly from the original camera negative and in the case of a popular movie that required multiple prints that negative was badly worn by the end of the roadshow run. If a reel of a print was damaged during the run a replacement had to be struck. New roadshow prints had to be struck to replace worn out prints. Again original negatives took a beating.
Until they closed it the film exchange in Boston had a full roadshow print of Around the World but it was badly faded. My guess is it was cut up with a bandsaw and sent to the recycler.
Collectors have some film that is thought to be lost.
It was common practice to recycle old film negative that was no longer needed and prints that were old. So as a result only a small percentage of original source material survives. Fox destroyed millions of feet of nitrate not wanting to store it. Universal lost original negative in several fires over the years. Many times in the past a film vault loaded with nitrate would catch fire and burn and this was common at many studios. The original negative for Citizen Kane burned but there were high quality copies in good condition.