Excellent story, Vito. I nearly got tossed from the Bergen Mall Theatre in Paramus, NJ for trying to do the same thing during a show! As someone who tries to have showmanship during my special presentations, I love reading your war stories of the days gone by.
Excellent story, Vito. I nearly got tossed from the Bergen Mall Theatre in Paramus, NJ for trying to do the same thing during a show! As someone who tries to have showmanship during my special presentations, I love reading your war stories of the days gone by.
According to Variety’s archive, the first week of the 1994 re-release of May Fair Lady did $18,764 at the Ziegfeld. That’s under $2700 a day, divide that by 3 shows a day and you had an average of about 150 a show for the week. Obviously, the night shows were more crowded and the daytime less so. When I saw a weekday matinee of it, there were around 50 people there. Compare that number with the 1989 Lawrence of Arabia re-release which did nearly $80,000 the first week.
I don’t know how the Ziegfeld in NYC survives but someone should run the National the same way. The Ziegfeld even runs “classic” films periodically. – posted by CinemaSightlines on Apr 18, 2007 at 5:45pm
Unfortunately, the Ziegfeld loses money, so I wouldn’t use it as a model for running the National.
It’s mid-town Manhattan, traffic means nothing. Of the 35 or so shows a week they run, I’d bet that fewer than 10 of them have any sort of crowd; I’ve been in there for weekend matinees 2 weeks into a run and there were 30 people inside. That’s why exclusive runs such as Dreamgirls make sense (except you need better films than Dreamgirls), but that’s not up to the theatre.
Exactly, William. And with studios wanting to shorten even further the window between theatrical and DVD release, the days of the exclusive run are over. By making everything a saturation release, they’ve diluted the value of the product.
While I don’t know of any current standard installations using dual-digital projection, I do know that Radio City used a temporary setup of two stacked DLP units when they ran a preview showing for an HBO film a few years ago. The two projectors were aligned together on the screen to boost the brightness.
While I don’t know of any current standard installations using dual-digital projection, I do know that Radio City used a temporary setup of two stacked DLP units when they ran a preview showing for an HBO film a few years ago. The two projectors were aligned together on the screen to boost the brightness (as an aside, the show ended up being cancelled in progress when the digital server went down and they had no backup).
What is “traditional anaglyph 3D”? Aside from those two awful Robert Rodriguez films – Spy Kids and Shark Girl – and a couple of one-off oddballs and two Universal reissues, all theatrical 3-D releases have been polarized. I realize it’s marketing department double-speak, but it’s annoyingly inaccurate.
Thanks, Bill. According to that info, the Rivoli’s curved screen was 50-feet wide (66' along the arc). When I last walked off the Ziegfeld’s screen, it was between 45-50'.
That’s quite a bit more that it was getting as a theatre – it was asking around $15,000-$20,000 a month plus taxes, IIRC, which was still way too much for it to survive.
The season opens this Saturday – March 10 – at 11:30am with Shirley Temple in The Little Princess, presented in 35mm dye-transfer IB Technicolor!
Here is the complete schedule for the spring:
March 10 – The Little Princess starring Shirley Temple, in Technicolor
March 17 – High Sierra starring Humphrey Bogart & Ida Lupino
March 24 – Sullivan’s Travels starring Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake
March 31 – Boy’s Town starring Spencer Tracey & Mickey Rooney
April 7 – The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland, presented in Technicolor
April 14 – A Night to Remember starring Kenneth More & Honor Blackman
April 21 – White Heat starring James Cagney & Edmund O'Brien
April 28 – The Thief of Bagdad starring Conrad Veidt & Sabu
May 5 – The Cameraman starring Buster Keaton, this silent comedy classic will have live Pipe Organ accompaniment by Jeff Barker
May 12 – Follow the Fleet starring Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers
May 19 – Howard Hawks' Scarface (1932) starring Paul Muni, George Raft, & Ann Dvorak
May 26 – Monkey Business starring The Four Marx Brothers
June 2 – Alfred Hitchcock’s Saboteur starring Robert Cummings & Priscilla Lane
June 9 – Mister Roberts starring Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon, James Cagney, William Powell, presented in CinemaScope
June 16 – The Looney Tunes & Comedy Festival featuring classic cartoons & other comic delights…
Regarding your 1/5/07 posting about Beatlemania. It opened theatrically in late-July 1981 in the New York area (don’t know how many theatres, but it wasn’t very many). I saw it at the tiny Rockaway Inner 6 in Rockaway, New Jersey. The Sylvester Stallone film “Victory” was playing in the auditorium next to it and I could sporadically hear portions of that film through the paper-thin walls.
The blue laws didn’t affect the other Paramus theatres, so they won’t affect this one either.
Looks like the re-release of Dirty Dancing is pushed back to August.
Excellent story, Vito. I nearly got tossed from the Bergen Mall Theatre in Paramus, NJ for trying to do the same thing during a show! As someone who tries to have showmanship during my special presentations, I love reading your war stories of the days gone by.
Excellent story, Vito. I nearly got tossed from the Bergen Mall Theatre in Paramus, NJ for trying to do the same thing during a show! As someone who tries to have showmanship during my special presentations, I love reading your war stories of the days gone by.
According to Variety’s archive, the first week of the 1994 re-release of May Fair Lady did $18,764 at the Ziegfeld. That’s under $2700 a day, divide that by 3 shows a day and you had an average of about 150 a show for the week. Obviously, the night shows were more crowded and the daytime less so. When I saw a weekday matinee of it, there were around 50 people there. Compare that number with the 1989 Lawrence of Arabia re-release which did nearly $80,000 the first week.
No, that linked story is about a fire in a Washington theatre showing the film.
I don’t know how the Ziegfeld in NYC survives but someone should run the National the same way. The Ziegfeld even runs “classic” films periodically. – posted by CinemaSightlines on Apr 18, 2007 at 5:45pm
Unfortunately, the Ziegfeld loses money, so I wouldn’t use it as a model for running the National.
Grindhouse is a financial disaster, they’re lucky they’re not running it.
It’s mid-town Manhattan, traffic means nothing. Of the 35 or so shows a week they run, I’d bet that fewer than 10 of them have any sort of crowd; I’ve been in there for weekend matinees 2 weeks into a run and there were 30 people inside. That’s why exclusive runs such as Dreamgirls make sense (except you need better films than Dreamgirls), but that’s not up to the theatre.
As far as I know, they are in the middle of a fairly long term lease.
The Senator has considerable financial troubles. As has the Ziegfeld.
Exactly, William. And with studios wanting to shorten even further the window between theatrical and DVD release, the days of the exclusive run are over. By making everything a saturation release, they’ve diluted the value of the product.
It’s a good caption – we’ve been using it for 5 years at the Lafayette Theatre’s Big Screen Classics shows.
Exactly – so he saw the film in the future? :)
chersfan –
The Sparta Theatre has been closed since last May. Perhaps you saw Zodiac in another city?
Vito:
While I don’t know of any current standard installations using dual-digital projection, I do know that Radio City used a temporary setup of two stacked DLP units when they ran a preview showing for an HBO film a few years ago. The two projectors were aligned together on the screen to boost the brightness.
Vito:
While I don’t know of any current standard installations using dual-digital projection, I do know that Radio City used a temporary setup of two stacked DLP units when they ran a preview showing for an HBO film a few years ago. The two projectors were aligned together on the screen to boost the brightness (as an aside, the show ended up being cancelled in progress when the digital server went down and they had no backup).
Cinema 12 in Parsippany is down almost 40% and Cinema 10 in Succasunna is down almost 25% since Rockaway opened.
I’ll check it out to satisfy my curiosity over the Real-D format. I wasn’t impressed with Chicken Little, so I’m hoping they’ve improved it.
What is “traditional anaglyph 3D”? Aside from those two awful Robert Rodriguez films – Spy Kids and Shark Girl – and a couple of one-off oddballs and two Universal reissues, all theatrical 3-D releases have been polarized. I realize it’s marketing department double-speak, but it’s annoyingly inaccurate.
Thanks, Bill. According to that info, the Rivoli’s curved screen was 50-feet wide (66' along the arc). When I last walked off the Ziegfeld’s screen, it was between 45-50'.
How’d they “fix” the Warner and Rivoli? I was never in them, so I don’t know how they enlarged their prosceniums.
That’s quite a bit more that it was getting as a theatre – it was asking around $15,000-$20,000 a month plus taxes, IIRC, which was still way too much for it to survive.
The season opens this Saturday – March 10 – at 11:30am with Shirley Temple in The Little Princess, presented in 35mm dye-transfer IB Technicolor!
Here is the complete schedule for the spring:
March 10 – The Little Princess starring Shirley Temple, in Technicolor
March 17 – High Sierra starring Humphrey Bogart & Ida Lupino
March 24 – Sullivan’s Travels starring Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake
March 31 – Boy’s Town starring Spencer Tracey & Mickey Rooney
April 7 – The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland, presented in Technicolor
April 14 – A Night to Remember starring Kenneth More & Honor Blackman
April 21 – White Heat starring James Cagney & Edmund O'Brien
April 28 – The Thief of Bagdad starring Conrad Veidt & Sabu
May 5 – The Cameraman starring Buster Keaton, this silent comedy classic will have live Pipe Organ accompaniment by Jeff Barker
May 12 – Follow the Fleet starring Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers
May 19 – Howard Hawks' Scarface (1932) starring Paul Muni, George Raft, & Ann Dvorak
May 26 – Monkey Business starring The Four Marx Brothers
June 2 – Alfred Hitchcock’s Saboteur starring Robert Cummings & Priscilla Lane
June 9 – Mister Roberts starring Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon, James Cagney, William Powell, presented in CinemaScope
June 16 – The Looney Tunes & Comedy Festival featuring classic cartoons & other comic delights…
G. Feret:
Regarding your 1/5/07 posting about Beatlemania. It opened theatrically in late-July 1981 in the New York area (don’t know how many theatres, but it wasn’t very many). I saw it at the tiny Rockaway Inner 6 in Rockaway, New Jersey. The Sylvester Stallone film “Victory” was playing in the auditorium next to it and I could sporadically hear portions of that film through the paper-thin walls.