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This owner does seem to have a lot of odd ways of doing things. Article does state he runs it from his home in Fresno CA. If he was looking for national press coverage. He sure got it!

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, helvetica">quote:</font><HR> (from me)
My choice, my business, my life, my sandbox, my consequences. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, helvetica">quote:</font><HR>(from Big Guy)
I agree you can show whatever you want and charge whatever you want, and set whatever policies you want. And I have a right to never visit a business again if I disagree with any of the things they are doing, and that was really my point. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


... and on those points, we are fully agreeable!

[This message has been edited by rodeojack (edited October 02, 2006).]

If one person shows up: we run the picture.

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Michael Hurley
Impresario

Same here. You make the effort to show up - we show the picture.

While we don't love showing for 1 or 2 people, it becomes sort of roulette if everyone is afraid to show up for fear they will be the only ones to show up and the owner will decide that is not enough people. Then no one shows up. Much better to show everything that you have advertised regardless of the number of people. Our only requirement is that someone must show up within ten minutes of the scheduled start. Later than that and the show will be cancelled. But that is a whole other discussion on another thread.
No one commented on the fact that Jackass 2 is rated R and clearly not for children so that if he had booked it there would still have been nothing for children to see. I wouldn't have booked it purely on that basis. We seldom booking anything R rated as we serve the family market.

[This message has been edited by BECKWITH1 (edited October 02, 2006).]

Ummmm. I would think that he would have a hard time getting any product from any studio after that stunt. I don't know about your theatre, but we have to be open 365 days out of the year. The only day we have limited showtimes are on Christmas eve, where we are only open for one matinee show.

[This message has been edited by MovieGuy (edited October 02, 2006).]

The studio has no say in the matter. There are plenty of theatres out there that don't run a 7-day schedule. Some (like drive-ins) are closed for 5-6 months out of the year, and have no problems booking whatever they want when they are open.

I always close on July 4, regardless what day it falls on. I've been doing it for 20 years, and anyone who cares, knows about it.

So the guy chose not to book the movie. The studio doesn't care. I'm sure they found another screen to place the print at and promptly forgot about the guy... if they even knew what was going on in the first place.

[This message has been edited by rodeojack (edited October 03, 2006).]

There is always other product to show. I was offered the movie today and turned it down. Nothing else was said. The sales reps understand the small theatre or small town dilemma.

I think this particular case should be called Jackass vs Jackass 2. And the winner will still be a _______.

I too, play a movie if someone shows up. I might not be a happy camper as a result, but I want them to come back next time. I think I may have mentioned this before, but a long time ago when I first took over my theatre, I had only two people show up for a movie. I told them I wasn't going to play it. They left. Fortunately they came back again a few weeks later. I learned then that they drive over 50 miles each way to come to my theatre. I haven't turned anyone away since.

Discounts for locals? Not here.

BTW, I saw Jackass 2. It was funny in some parts, embarassing, disgusting, idiotic or just plain stupid in others. I was probably 35 years older than everyone else in the audience and feeling a little old.

you are missing the point........great pr for his theater and someone needs to send a message .......

Most of us send the message by not playing the film. If you look at what makes money its not this type of film its the PG G that gross most of the $$$ and that is where we spend most of our time promoting etc.

If you only have a couple of people at show time and don't show the film what happens when another 10 people show at 5 after the start time. We show it if there is a paying customer.

While our bread and butter is still the family product-these type of R films do make money. Jack has held up very well for a 2nd week. Summer of 05 two of the best performing
moveies were 40 year Virgin and Wedding Crashers-both R rated. Look for Texas and Saw 3 to open potently in the next couple of weeks.
Our attempt is to offer a variety of film for all our customers regardless of my personal feelings.
I don't believe the film companies received any message by his closing but I do agree it was good PR for the owner.

I just turned down Grudge 2 and booked Jackass 2 instead. One is strupid and gross and the other is vicarious murder. I choose stupid and gross.

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Michael Hurley
Impresario

I guess the bottom line here is freedom of choice. He has the right to boycott the film but others have the same right to see it. My opinion is that when I see a film like JACKASS II it reaffirms sanity and as a result I go away from the film feeling good.

We showed Jackass 2 last week. Unfortunately the turn out wasn't as good as the first Jackass. But our local school had their homecoming that weekend so we lost a good portion of the "target market". We had a few younger people attend the movie, but we made sure to have our ticket seller inform them that it was a rated R movie. About the youngest person that came was probably 5 or 6, but his parents didn't seem to mind (and considering the mess they left afterwards, I guess it was no wonder). Most of the people really enjoyed the movie; we only had one elderly couple leave about 30 mins into the movies (I guess they didn't watch the first Jackass).

As far as the guy closing down his theater, I think there has to be more to it then just "having nothing to show". When we use to have our 4-screen theater, there were pleanty of movies that we didn't play, either because we didn't have room for it, weren't able to open it, or it was a movie we didn't care to play. But even when we had an opening, we could always backtrack and pick up a movie we missed the first time around. If this guy didn't want to show Jackass 2 or Beerfest, there should have been pleanty of other choices to pick from. Perhaps he just wanted to have a break from the theater. In the long run, I think it only hurt his business by not giving his patrons anything to watch.