8mm Forum: Those were the days ...

This is topic Those were the days ... in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on May 15, 2008, 09:05 PM:

I was reminded on a post of the regular 8mm forum, about just how much even theater going has changed.

I remember Raider of the Lost fart playing in Boise Idaho for just about a year and a half as well. That would be unthinkable these days! I remember the Star Wars trilogy also playing for an incredible amount of time. Since the studio's have video and DVD to recoup thier costs (and far above in some cases), films do not have to play as long, but it was neat to think that I could take my latest sweetie to the movie theater
and expect to see A Star Wars or Indiana Jones film.

When did this long term engagements style of theater stuff start to die out? I would guess somewhere with video beginning to gain popularity.

Posted by John Clancy (Member # 49) on May 16, 2008, 02:33 AM:

Aliens (1986) ran for six weeks at the Odeon Leicester Square before moving next door to the Leicester Square Theatre. That's the last film I can recall that was on general release for many months.

Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 67) on May 16, 2008, 07:51 AM:

As the number of multiplex screens have increased....some plexes have the same movie running on several screens at once all day. It takes far less time to run through the potential audience. Even when "everyone" wants to see a certain movie, it takes a lot less time for "everyone" to see it these days. Also as the number of films being released has gone up, there is pressure to get those new films into houses. Also, as someone pointed out, these days it's not like the film disappears for any amount of time, but quickly resurfaces on the pay per view cable circuit and the home dvd circuit. People know if they miss the relatively short time a film plays at the theater, they will eventually get to see it anyway. I frankly found the old days of one movie taking up a huge theater for months at a time to be an annoyance. Once you had seen it , you had to wait forever for another film to play there.

Posted by Alan Rik (Member # 73) on May 16, 2008, 08:46 AM:

I think one of the things that made Super 8 really great in the heyday of film before Video was that it was the ONLY way to see parts of the film until it was re-released in the theatres. Remember that? When every now and then a film was re-released as a double feature with a new film? The last one I remember was seeing "The Big Brawl" with Jackie Chan playing with "Enter the Dragon". Double Bill. That was a good one.
Disney use to release their classic films in the theatres every 7 years. This was also the time that Disney swore that "Snow White" would never be released on Video. [Smile]

Does Disney do that anymore? I can't remember this happening anymore.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on May 16, 2008, 08:54 AM:

I was up in our "Take One" cinema a few days ago, in the booth, and was quite struck by the "platter" form of projection. It probably takes a lot less work. No reel changes, and rewinds must be fairly easy. I was struck that it looked a lot like the optical super 8 sound cartiridge system used on airlines ...

Just minus the cartridge ... and a lot bigger!

Posted by David Kilderry (Member # 549) on May 17, 2008, 02:20 AM:

It was the wide release policy of the studios that killed the long city (downtown) runs of films, not video. As multiscreen locations increased in the suburbs they could all offer minimum seasons on all the major films. The exclusivity factor was gone.

Back To The Future was the last year long film I screened (Forum June 85 - June 86). Later in 1986 the first suburban 8 screen multiplexes opened here and that changed everything. Prior to that the suburbs here were full of drive-ins and hardtop twins.
Now Melbourne has over 400 screens!

The first platter systems appeared here a long time ago, but by 1976 the major chains started using them, so even the platter is
mature technology now.

David

Posted by Wade Epler (Member # 1158) on May 20, 2008, 05:59 AM:

The local independent theater here screened My Big Fat Greek Wedding for 8 weeks! I'm with Gary on what an annoyance that one was...

I remember with what loathing I greeted this film with when it premiered, and how my girlfriend had really wanted to see it. I kept making excuses to avoid going, but I just couldn't keep it up for two solid months!

I talked with the owner about it later, and he said that it really covered the overhead in what is usually such an uncertain business.

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