I stand corrected. The original contract was negotiated for 12 weeks exclusive but after the huge openings everywhere the pressure was on Fox to broaden the run, which they did. I originally agreed to put up $50,000 to Fox for the run; however, Fox bid the run in Louisville and they only got $40,000. They then came back and changed my deal to $40,000. The picture was a gamble because the deal was made more than six months prior to opening and all we really knew was it was being made in England, on a closed set, with no big name stars, directed by a fairly new guy named George Lucas. Fox wanted the Eastwood because of its 800 seats, projection, and reputation as a good theatre. There were other considerations, too. It wasn’t trade screened until just before the actual opening and … . I felt a whole lot better. It grossed about $50,000 a weekfor the first few weeks, which was capacity on most shows.
The Eastwood Theatre opened Sept 11, 1968 with Prudence and the Pill" which was a short run picture till Funny Girl" opened in Oct and ran 9 months. For “Star Wars” we purchased the first Dolby unit in Indiana, I think it was a CP50, and we had an exclusive run in Indy for the first 12 weeks. We had 35-70 projectors (made in Italy), 4-track magnetic and 6-track magnetic sound, with 5 large Altec speakers behind the screen. For “Tommy” which was 35mm with 4-track stereo, we took two speakers from behind the screen and mounted them in the rear corners of the auditorium, then tied them to the surround speakers. It was pretty impressive. In the ads, just for fun, we called it “Eastaphonic Stereo”.
I stand corrected. The original contract was negotiated for 12 weeks exclusive but after the huge openings everywhere the pressure was on Fox to broaden the run, which they did. I originally agreed to put up $50,000 to Fox for the run; however, Fox bid the run in Louisville and they only got $40,000. They then came back and changed my deal to $40,000. The picture was a gamble because the deal was made more than six months prior to opening and all we really knew was it was being made in England, on a closed set, with no big name stars, directed by a fairly new guy named George Lucas. Fox wanted the Eastwood because of its 800 seats, projection, and reputation as a good theatre. There were other considerations, too. It wasn’t trade screened until just before the actual opening and … . I felt a whole lot better. It grossed about $50,000 a weekfor the first few weeks, which was capacity on most shows.
The Eastwood Theatre opened Sept 11, 1968 with Prudence and the Pill" which was a short run picture till Funny Girl" opened in Oct and ran 9 months. For “Star Wars” we purchased the first Dolby unit in Indiana, I think it was a CP50, and we had an exclusive run in Indy for the first 12 weeks. We had 35-70 projectors (made in Italy), 4-track magnetic and 6-track magnetic sound, with 5 large Altec speakers behind the screen. For “Tommy” which was 35mm with 4-track stereo, we took two speakers from behind the screen and mounted them in the rear corners of the auditorium, then tied them to the surround speakers. It was pretty impressive. In the ads, just for fun, we called it “Eastaphonic Stereo”.