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We can't really make up our minds on this one. Should we book Wallace & Gromit for 2 weekends, pay the higher percentage, and have an opening day picture.

Or should we put in 40 yr. old virgin which will be 7 weeks old by the time we get it?
Wallace & Gromit looks like a good picture, but then again, we bombed on Valiant which we played after it had been out 4 weeks.

Thanks for any advice.
-Eric

First, I wouldn't compare Valiant with Wallace and Gromit. Wallace and Gromit are fairly well-known characters and with the Halloween theme of the movie, it should hopefully play decently.

Secondly, what is your nearest competition? Did they play 40 Y/O Virgin? Whenever you play a movie that's been out for awhile, you always run of the risk of losing business because people who want to see the movie right away will go to the competition and see it right away.

And thirdly, what type of movies tend to do well for your theater? I know for our single screen, we tend to do well with children/family movies and we've done very well when we've opened movies like The Incredibles, Shark Tale, and Shrek 1 & 2 and only had to play them for 2 weekends. Hopefully this helps.

Wallace and Gromit is the pic for October. Take it. Be glad to get it.

For me - THE October pic is "The Gospel"

I think it depends on your location and the composition of your audience. If you are in a more remote location and your audience isn't made up of extreme conservatives (meaning ole fuddy duds), bringing in 40-Year-Old Virgin might be a good idea. Then bring in Gromit two or three weeks later at the lower percentage. Why aren't you playing Virgin now? I just played it here in my small community and it did better than average; but there were people (FD's)who walked out in every show.

I usually play off break for the cost savings, but will play big opening movies occasionally to bring in the folks who don't usually come in. It is to my benefit to play Harry Potter or something like Zorro, but it isn't more profitable to play just anything on the break.

Right now, my field of off-break selections is bleak to say the least. Valiant bombed here, too.

If Wallace and Gromit is the best there is in October, we all better get another job to supplement our incomes.

It is simply too British for most of the venues on this site.

I just saw Lord of War tonight. It is basically an art movie and definitely a college flick - not the mass market action movie they have tried to sell it as.

This sort of misleading advertising is just one more example of the problem with Hollywood these days. Emily Rose is really just an episode of Law and Order in the courtroom but was sold as an exorcism flick with a PG -13 rating so the teens could get in. Then (of course) the teens have no interst in watching and disturb those who really wanted to watch the flick. Think those customers who wanted to watch will back anytime soon?

[This message has been edited by muviebuf (edited September 20, 2005).]

[This message has been edited by muviebuf (edited September 20, 2005).]

[This message has been edited by muviebuf (edited September 20, 2005).]

We've had a lot of people, both young and old, take notice of our Wallace and Gromit poster that we have hanging in our lobby. Although this doesn't necessarily mean anything, I would say it's a pretty decent sign that people will hopefully come to watch the movie.

bentham: Do you have a loyal customer base, meaning that will people wait to watch a movie at your theater if they know you are going to have it? If that's the case, then you could probably hold off on Wallace and Gromit and get it on the 3rd or 4th week and pay a lower percentage. But if your audience tends to go elsewhere for the brand new movies, then maybe you might want to try showing W&G brand new and see how that does for your business. I agree that you wouldn't want to show every movie on the break and that you would only want to do it for those movies that might do very well at the box office.