Does the closest theater to you play the critically acclaimed movies?

It seems like the theater in Annapolis always only plays the action/comedy/popcorn movies at the expense of the acclaimed fare. Of course then I look on IMDB.com and even though three Oscar contenders are being released today (Doubt, Reader, Gran Turino) NONE of them are playing outside of NY, LA, and San Fran.

Ya know, i betcha we wouldn't have so many people complaining about the sorry state of Hollywood if the actual good movies were played in the other 98% of the nation. I don't want to wait till January to see Gran Turino, and it doesn't even look like Doubt is being released nationwide, which sucks. Theaters might actually make more money if they showed the good movies, then those movies will in turn make more money, which in turn will lead to them making more of them. Then maybe we won't have to settle for Saw XIV or Tyler Perry Makes Another Awful Movie.


*gets off soapbox*

They're showing Slumdog Millionaire, Doubt, Milk, and Rachel Getting Married

only about 45 minutes from me, I might have to make a trip over there.

But they show the good movies and have a Giffords ice cream store next door.

We have an art house here that plays the good documentaries and indi flicks. They are the only one in town playing Fuel and Milk. Hardley anyone goes there. Everytime a good doc or foreign flick opens up it only lasts a week. It only stays open cause its owned by a senile old millionaire who doesn't give a shit.

is it because the public genuinely doesn't like the oscar dramas and indie flicks or because they haven't been exposed to enough of them? If the main theaters only play 2 or 3 of the serious movies a year, and for only a couple weeks as filler between blockbusters, the general public will never have the exposure to these decent movies. If the majority of your screens are playing the popcorn movies a majority of the time, of course your revenue is going to be heavily skewed away from the dramas and indies.

I used to work at one of the big fancy theaters in town that plays all the popcorn movies. I think the people who come to see movies are just retarded. Most of these people are drunk and have no idea of what they are seeing. They come out and complain if they accidentally walk into a foreign film or if the movie doesn't have any explosions. And the rest are teenagers who only want to see Step Up 2 or Twilight or High School Musical 8.


The company is planning to build a nice all art house theatre with a restaurant and bar in it. Its only supposed to play indie flicks and serious movies. However its only projected it to do something like 200,000 to 300,000 thousand a year. Which is kind of shitty for a new building with all this fancy shit in it. Its going to have to be a real expensive play to watch a movie. Its also going to have to be 18 and up only allowed which would make for a nice movie going experience but all the rubes in this town arent going to go. They are all lining up for Madagascar in IMAX.

Of course, I live in NYC. ;)

:rofl: In Charles County, Maryland? :rofl: All we get are the kid movies, the blockbuster dramas, the comedies - the more inane, the better - and the action & adventure films.

I'd drop my teeth if the one theater in Charles County played "Milk," for example.

To the north, at the Lagoon are:
Milk
Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer
JCVD
Let the Right One In
Rachel Getting Married

Also to the north, the Uptown is showing
A Christmas Tale

To the south of me, at the Edina are
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Cadillac Records
Slumdog Millionaire

It takes me 40 minutes to walk or 5 minutes to drive to the Edina. It takes an hour to walk or 10 minutes to drive to the first two, but there is no parking to speak of, so I take the bus.

We don't get any sub-titled movies out where I live.

And there's another great art house about two miles farther.

I rarely go to the movies anymore, but when I do, I notice that the multiplex is most often at least half empty, while both art houses are generally near capacity.

I agree that moving some of the acclaimed indie and foreign films to mainstream theaters would help Hollywood pursue more projects in that vein. It seems to happen in cycles every few years, but it never sticks.

Crying Game led to an introspection by Hollywood of the twisted psychological thriller, Life Is Beautiful seemed to spark an interest in a lot of other foreign films, and Blair Witch Project inspired a lot of low-budget filmmakers to get rolling. Unfortunately, it seems like the honest effort lasts only so long, and then the big bucks producers turn their attention back to the crap movies.

And despite what Hollywood might say about people just not wanting to see those kinds of art house films, I disagree. The box office might not be huge to start, but tastes in viewers can be formed by what's available to see. I don't always buy the "but crap is what people want" argument -- it's what people "want" now because it's about all they can get.

If you own a 14 screen theater and 13 of those screens are showing the popcorn movies, of course it's going to look like people only want the popcorn movies. You start devoting 6 screens to the serious movies, and the other 8 to the popcorn movies, you might see that revenue stream even out between the two.

They don't have the distractions that special effects megabudgets can provide, but the real emotional effect they have is genuine. Some people will never have the concentration to sit through a relatively quiet two-hour movie, but a good portion of the population would, if they got a taste of it and realized the emotional payoff is that much greater than what "Transformers" offers.

I think the Dark Knight and Iron Man are the rare exceptions, but there is definitely a relationship between the number of explosions and nude babes to the level of acting or lack thereof. Look at any Bruckheimer production. Those are fun to watch and you'll find me at most of the big blockbusters, but those aren't the ones I remember and contemplate. The Big Kahuna and it's one room set and miniscule budget stuck with me far longer than Transformers did. Only problem is that movies like the Big Kahuna or A Praire Home Companion weren't shown at 200,000 theaters as was Transformers.

You're right in that there will always be people who can't sit through a dialogue driven movie, but I imagine there is a silent majority who would appreciate truly good acting when they see it and would get the emotional impact of the serious movies.

Besides the general crap they play, it's the fact that 16 screens are occupied by about 6-8 movies, each a popcorn movie that plays on 2 or 3 screens.

movies like I Am Legend go every half hour, eating up 3 or 4 screens by itself.

Why have 16 screening rooms if you're just going to show 4 movies?

:banghead:

Here's where I always go:

http://www.filmforum.org/index.html

It's about 4 miles from me. Small theatres, plus they serve wine! :9

http://www.chelseavarsity.com/

There is usually a rare exception or two each year but in general the popcorn crap is what keeping movie theatres in business. Since theatres have to make all their money off concessions they need whatever is gonna drive the masses in over and over. Which is why the talking chihuahua movie is a hit and no one is going to see Fuel. Most of the people that go to the movies now are either teenagers or families. Teenagers like crap, they will pile into Step Up 2 or Twilight and drool all over it. Then you got parents and screaming kids going to see the cartoons all the while they are spending money at the concession stand.

Once I was working at the theatre and we were showing De Lovely in the middle of all the other big movies. A few people knew what it was and went to see it but for some reason people would go in there and not know what the movie was about and come out whining to me that it had gay stuff in it. What the fuck did he expect me to do about it? He wanted me to feel sorry for him for being stupid I guess.

Hell there were people who didnt want to go see Sin City cause it was in black and white. They didnt even want to know what it was about lol.

But from my experience in a South Texas theatre chain I would have to say its a combination of people in south texas are idiots and idiots like crap. This scenario is most likely the same thing in any other town.

I wouldn't even know what they play. I just watch movies online now when MegaVideo lets me back at the 72 minutes of watching the movie and 54 minutes of waiting because I cannot read Hong Kong-ese to register. Who knows what I'd be promising them in another language altogether?

and art movies. The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth has an arrangement with the Magnolia to screen some of their stuff on the weekends. Once in a great while other things will pop around.

I have seen some good stuff at the Modern, though.

Yep. And I like both the Inwood and the Magnolia. The two theaters nearest me are just normal run of the mill stuff, though.

and it isn't far away.

There's the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, Maryland.

http://www.afi.com/silver/new/

And of course there's the nonprofit Avalon Theatre on Connecticut Avenue in DC.

http://www.theavalon.org/

Even some of the chain movie theaters show interesting fare. The Majestic in Silver Spring is actually running Milk, which I thought would only make it to the Landmark theaters (E Street, Bethesda Row).

Oh, and don't forget the National Gallery and various Library of Congress theaters for interesting film programs. It'll be a drive, but there's a lot going on.

And doesn't Baltimore have some interesting movie theaters? I could have sworn there was an arts theater downtown.

On edit: Don't forget that at the Internet Movie Database website you can put in your ZIP Code and get a list of what's playing and where. It works both ways, too -- i.e., for film titles and locations. It can be a depressing exercise (A friend of mine wanted to see The Lives of Others and I realized she'd have to cross state lines or international borders to catch it, given the state of movie theaters in her town), but it can also save you a step or two when it comes time to pick a movie.

In the middle of East Texas Nowheresville. The nearest town has an unoplex, or monoplex.

The one 20 miles away has a 5 screen joint full of stupid movies. They would never show anything with thought or subtlety.

I have to go to Houston (140 miles) to see anything that is not mindless. I saw MILK at the River Oaks a couple of weeks ago and it was excellent.

They wouldn't show anything about gay people in East Texas. No way in hell.

...they didn't play W and they didn't play Religulous. (Is La Habra in Orange County? I forget...)

I had to go a few miles down the road to Norwalk...DEFINITELY NOT Orange County...lol.

That shows foreign, independent and documentary movies, but they're all second run - nothing made during the last half year or so. Parking near there is a pain since it's in the middle of all the downtown bars and restaurants. I have better luck with Netflix.