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I really miss the cartoons, that were shown before the movies. They have been replaced, here with 30 minutes of advertisements and new film trailers. Perhaps this was only done here locally. What are the chances of this making a comeback? Thanks

Verry, verry, bad to non existent!

The movies have become so segment marketed that the only place you could put cartoons would be on the g stuff.

Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworksand WB do often put shorts on the front of kid fliks.

Dats all folks! I miss them too even if I guess I am a big kid!

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Mike Hurley
www.bigscreenbiz.com

I still run cartoons before about 50% of my features. People love them. They don't have to be with kids films, as I think the adults like them more then the kids anyway. I don't run them before shows over 110 min. long. I also seldom run them prior to R rated movies. I also don't run a cartoon before a cartoon feature. Everything else is fair game.

I occasionally run a cartoon before a feature. When I first opened I was getting them through Kit Parker, but WB stopped that supply. Shipping was kinda expensive. Where do you get the ones you show Roxy?

I really miss the Toons. They were always a kind of welcome to the movies thing to me. I wish there was a movie house that played them close to me. They also promote interaction between parents and their children. The grandchildren love them!

Anyone have any idea where one might book cartoon shorts? I read that WB does have a about 30-40 variety 6 packs of cartoons that run about 30 mins. Any ideas of the cost to book those shorts? Also, since it's the WB Classics division, does that mean shipping will be very expensive?

Last I heard, the 6-packs were $250 for a week's run. Individual cartoons on some titles are available at $50 per.

And yes, shipping is via air freight, as is everything with WB Classics.

Ah, cartoons!... People loved 'em!... In the 1960's and mid-1970's they were STILL part of EVERY showing: cartoon first, short (if any, depending on feature length), local screen ads (if any, never more than 3 brief on 35mm sound film), one or two coming attraction trailers (NEVER more than two), the feature... Then, the cartoon (only) was repeated AFTER the feature!... Probably 90% of the audience (mostly adults) stayed for the cartoon repeat!... Of course, these were 20 minute reels with the pre-show stuff all spliced in ahead of the feature, and you could run part of the reel, stop it, de-thread, and hand rewind what had been shown, for the next showing... Often, the pre-show stuff was enough to make up a shorter reel to run before the feature...
In the 1960's cartoons cost a flat $2, or $2.50 each (depending on the distributor) for a week's playtime, and if shipped with a feature, there was NO additional charge... By the mid-1970's the cost had risen to $10 for most, and the prints were usually in sad shape, as most were the original prints from the 1950's and had a million miles on 'em... No one had made any NEW cartoons since the late 1950's and despite the huge catalogue of titles, we were repeating playdates... The (then new) Saturday morning cartoon shows on TV soon exhausted the backlog, so we were playing the same ones, and theaters lost still another EXCLUSIVE... Disney would, perhaps every couple of years, attach a new especially made cartoon to the head of one of their features, but other than that, we were paying upwards of $10 to $25 for playdates of old battered cartoon prints that were being show on free TV every Saturday morning!... AND the more extensive end credits which were becoming more commonplace, virtually eliminated repeating the cartoon for the small handfull of customers who would sit through 5 minutes of scrolldown to see the cartoon again...
By the mid-late 1970's I reluctantly did away with cartoons as part of the program, and another sad chapter closed on what was ONCE the most fun-oriented business you could participate in!... SAD, SAD, SAD...

Does anyone know of any cartoon trailers in public domain that could be purchased on 35mm and shown before the feature? I would assume that even if you had in your private collection some vintage cartoon trailers, you legally could not show them to customers who only paid to see the feature?

BTW, thanks for the history Outaframe!

[This message has been edited by lemonice1 (edited April 17, 2004).]

Get yourself a subscription to the Magazine Big reel and you can buy your own 35mm cartoons and show!
I know a theater that the projectionist has a very large collection of his own and plays them every so often and people love it!
And believe it or not, before R-rated features at night!
Tom and Jerry never gets old!

You're welcome, Lemonice: glad you found the ramblings of an 'ol fart interesting... You brought up a very good point about cartoons being in the public domain, but I strongly suspect that due to the exposure these had, and are still getting because of those Saturday morning TV shows, the original producers have, without a doubt, long since renewed their copyrights, and collect something equivalent to current rentals, even IF you own the print!... What Jacker suggests would only work UNLESS they find out, and THEN the sky will fall in on you!... They will probably go to great lengths to make an example, and you are likely to take some serious gas!... It just ain't worth taking that chance... Kinda like playing a DVD or tape (or film) without paying the copyright...

swank (www.swank.com) has a faily large selection of the old cartoons (speedy gonzales, bugs, foghorn leghorn, etc) that range in the $25-30 range. they also have a large selection of newsreels and other very interesting items for rent (usually flat fee). you have to ask about those specifically.

i show a cartoon before every movie except animation and the crowd, young and old, love it!

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'hey! there's no party here!'
jeff spicoli
fast times at ridgemont high

I'm a little confused. Just called Swank to inquire about renting cartoons as the above post relates. They said since I was a first run theatre, they could not help me. Did I miss something here?

Swank is strictly for non-theatrical bookings.