Welcome to BigScreenBiz.com

Mike, I think you hit on something that has been in the back of my mind for several months now. Do you see it as an advantage or a disadvantage to so many screens? I think there are strengths and drawbacks. You are absolutely right that for my single screen to survive there needs to be high demand every week (or at least medium demand, whatever that is). Thus, Brokeback Mountain will never play here as I'd never be able to sell it to the at-large population and, frankly, there are so many other titles to choose from, particularly at this point in the calendar. You, by contrast, have 14 screens to fill and need to get as many titles as possible. You don't need for every one of those titles to have high demand (wouldn't it be nice, though!) you just need to AVERAGE well. I think it would be a challenge either way, but you don't need to be as choosy on your selection as us single screeners are. Or, am I missing somthing?

Greetings Friends: Mike here. Benevolent dictator of bigscreenbiz and arbiter of all that is right and correct. We have managed to meet and talk here for nearly 7 years with nearly zero incidents of insults or combativeness. It's a record I cherish. The current estimate is 10% of our population is gay. In my town, a small coastal community in Maine, we have plenty of out gay people and we are simply "over it" and don't even really think about is someone gay or not. Maine is a bastion of respected differences. Don't tell me how to do things and I'll do the same for you. That sums up Maine. So we have a lot of individuality. I find it funny that at the same time that Wolf Creek is playing that people can find one movie about a couple of gay guys offensive. The exhib biz routinely show slasher and murder films as if 10% of us have ever had anything to do with edged tool murderers. But that's okay. The good guys can mow down 10,000 enemy and that's okay. Fart jokes, etc. etc. All okay. But let two guys kiss each other on hoss back and life imitating art has apparently gone way too far.

I like whoever said : I do not run my theatres as a personal soap box but choose to show films that keep a good mix and which the community may want to see and buy some popcorn while at it.

Let's remember to keep discourse civil and respectful.

---

Michael Hurley
Impresario

I believe it is good to have these kind of discussions amongst ourselves so we can view an issue from all sides and help prevent a mistake in programming at our theatres. I too hope we can all avoid name-calling and stereotyping and stick to the issue.

Not everyone has the same moral compass. Every community in our country is made up of different groups of people and thus have different moral standards. As an extreme example...San Fransisco has a much more liberal view of Homosexuality than, lets say Tulsa Oklahoma. So, how do we then determine which community , on the whole, has a higher moral standard. I think we can all agree that the standard for determining these things has been the the Bible for hundreds and hundreds of years. Without turning this into sunday school, I believe the Bible is clear on this particular issue. With this in mind, not everyone accepts homosexuality. When we determine what to play at our theatres, we must decide if the short term gain from showing a movie to a small, albeit motivated, percentage of our population is worth the alienation of a much larger percentage of the population. To go even deeper, the Christian theatre owner struggles with how God will view his/her operation of their theatre. We He be pleased.

I have been blessed. With the end of the year only a few days ago, I am able to report a 13% increase in ATTENDANCE over 2004.

Mike, the all knowing and great Grand Poobah of this my favorite website, makes a great point regarding Wolf Creek. My point is that there are community standards in place everywhere and we, as bookers, have to know the limits of our community. Certain movies might not perform well in certain communities because they go over the line morally for a majority of the population.

One more thing, as for equal rights, my homosexual brother cannot marry another man but then neither can I. That equality bothers him, not me.
Jeff

My point is: debate without insults and anything is on the table. I've been boycotted and threatened for F 9-11 and The Passion and I just say: I don't make 'em... I show 'em.

---

Michael Hurley
Impresario

I have good reason to believe we are being deceived by Izzy. According to the official Brokeback website, The only theatre playing the movie in Wisconsin is in Milwaukee at a Landmark house. Also, Izzy claims to have played Narnia prior to Brokeback. Disney held me to a minimum of 3 weeks on Narnia and I dont know of any two week deals that would allow this picture to leave prior to Christmas. Also, I cannot find any mention of the Historic Izzy Theatre or the Bonita-Vue Drive-in in Cinematreasures.com, Cinematour.com, Drive-in.com or even the Verizon superpages...yellow or white.
Also, why start Geisha on a Thursday?

I try to shy away from being a conspiricy theorist (a.k.a. Kook), but is it possible that someone with an agenda is using this site to promote the widespread acceptance of this movie among theatre owners and bookers? Something to think about. Meanwhile, Maybe Maybelle can let us all rest easy and tell us where we go to get tickets to her theatre to see North Central Wisconsins only showing of Brokeback Mountain.

Also, why start Geisha on a Thursday?

In Australia our opening days are always a Thursday.. when do you guys start your week?? I always thought we were the same (ok, I never really thought about it)

Now, I'm curious. I tried to play Sherlock Holmes by doing a little web surfing to either confirm or deny Orpheum's suspicions.

I can't seem to find any reference to "Israel's Rain" anywhere on the web. The Israel's Rain Chamber of Commerce and the Israel's Rain Historical Society helped fund the Izzy theater's holiday film festival.

Quote from the "How did Christmas eve/day do you for?" thread posted December 30, 2005 11:37 PM-- Izzytheatre22 wrote:

"Then on Christmas Day, the Mehan Family, the Israel's Rain chamber of commerce and the Israel's Rain historical society/museum partnered to bring the community a free classic Christmas film festival including White Christmas, Holiday Inn and The Bishop's Wife."

Also it seems that Izzy is a nickname for a person (or perhaps a place) with the first name Israel. Therefore, I would expect that the Izzy Theater would be located in or near this place called Israel's Rain. I just can't figure out where it is.

This seems strange, because if it is too small to be on a map, or even be mentioned anywhere on the Google indexed web, then it must be very tiny indeed. If it is so tiny, how does it have a movie theater, a chamber of commerce, and a historical society/museum? It must have existed for some time if it has a historical society. I would think that it has had plenty of time to make its presence known on the web. One of the aforementioned organizations would likely have a website, or at least have been mentioned on another one.

I checked a list of Wisconsin chambers of commerce and couldn't find Israel's Rain. I also checked wikipedia's list of Wisconsin cities, towns, and villages with no success. If Israel's Rain has a chamber of commerce, they sure aren't doing their job of publicizing the town and it's businesses.

Based on the mysterious lack of information available, I can only conclude that something is not as it has been represented here on the forum. I conclude that there is no place called Israel's Rain in Wisconsin or anywhere else in the U.S.A. I find it hard to believe there is any theater called the Izzy.

Pieman: Here in the U.S., our starting day is usually on Fridays. Once in awhile, we might have new releases come out on a Wednesday, espeically during holiday weekends. Not too often do we have a new release come out on any other day, though it happens (i.e. had a movie released on Christmas Day this year, a Sunday).

What is it about a couple of cowpokes neckin' that drives people bonkers?

5 US soliers died in Iraq yesterday and that really gets me thinking.

re:the Izzy. very interesting work there Junior Sleuths. You can't hide from Google. Or as Homer Simpson said "The internet?.... is that thing still around!"

---

Michael Hurley
Impresario

It doesn't really bother me but it does bother lots of people in my community. I'm in southeastern KY and it was not worth the headache involved to show this film. I am showing Hostel, but with an usher checking tickets stationed at the door to make sure no one under 17 gets in. This is a pain to me, but if an adult wants to see this film, I'll give them the opportunity to see it because I know my grosses would cover the ushers minimum wage. I could have chosen to do the same with Brokeback, but doubt I could've paid the usher. Maybe I'm wrong, but we all have to make these calls for ourselves depending on who we are and who our customers are. What prompted my to write after reading this very hot thread, is to respond to Mike. As Administrator, you dismissed the fact that there is someone who has been falsely representing themselves for quite some time to push an agenda on this site. Instead, you chose to bring up the Iraq War? Maybe if we were discussing Jarhead, that would have been appropriate, but I'm bothered by that complete disconnect from the topic at hand.

" What prompted my to write after reading this very hot thread, is to respond to Mike. As Administrator, you dismissed the fact that there is someone who has been falsely representing themselves for quite some time to push an agenda on this site. "

There is no proof that anyone is falsly representing themsleves.. just because they haven't found them on the internet doesn't mean they don't exist!! I don't know about you, but often when i look for something specific on google I can't find it!! or if i do ive had to sift thought pages on totally non related things first!

It seems to me that when someone contributes to this forum they want to have their views respected. One way to gain respect is to give their background in the business. The longer someone has been in the business, the more respect they usually command.

Izzy comes along and has an agenda. She wants widespread acceptance of a very controversial issue. She gives her background and immediately everyone falls for her. One little problem. Her posts are littered with lies. Her silence now is deafening.

I believe izzy is actually one of us, still in the closet. We probably would recognize the real name very well.

Seems like Izzy was all over this site, and now nothing. Please respond, Izzy, and defend yourself if you can.

I do have to agree that it is strange that izzy has gone completely silent after the 'conspirasy'(sp?) theory was announced. I just said what I said because someone was saying it like it was fact that izzy wasn't real, when it was just an idea put forward. You are most likly right that it is a front for someone else. who knows!!

I don't think anyone ever stated their disbelief in Izzy as a fact. Orpheum simply stated what information he couldn't find and the conclusion he drew from that. I did the same thing. To present something as a fact, I wouldn't use phrases such as "I conclude..." or "I find it hard to believe..." I would have been much more direct if I were presenting something as fact.

I still believe that someone misrepresented themselves. I also had considered the possibility that it was one of the other forum members who took on an alternate identity. However, I see no signifant evidence to support that fact other than Izzy's seeming knowledge of the exhibition industry. She talked about carbon arcs, 2k reels, tube amps, etc. However, this proves nothing other than she (or maybe he) knows how to read.