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I have been wondering if there are other "theme night" movies you can do this with on a regular basis. As I do business planning towards the purchase of a theater down the road I have always though Rocky could be a sucess on a regular basis. I was wondering if you did a theme night on a regular basis would movies such as Amercian Graffiti with the local hod rod club's cars in the parking lot, or a midnight showing of Satruday Night Fever also be a sucess.

There are a few other films that might work nicely. We're currently organizing a Willy Wonka screening with live performers and have considered Big Lebowski down the road. When you think about it there are many films that would lend themselves to a live performance.

As part of the www.comicartsfest.com we are making a mash-up of local Maine films: Thinner, Man Without a Face, Peyton Pace, Empire Falls etc... and having a local comedy cast do a Mystery Theatre 3000 commentary.

What damage do you ahve to watch out for with Rocky?

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Michael Hurley
Impresario

Our experience was that it started out HUGE! Eventually though, the novelty wore off. "Rocky Horror" worked best for us when the place was packed. Half of the fun is how the crowd feeds off itself. When that starts to die off, you can feel the difference.

In the 22 years we've been here, 3 companies have done "Rocky". Back when they were still around, even General Cinemas gave it a shot. In our county of 225,000, 2 months or so seems about the limit, given one or two shows on the weekend.

Anyhow, be pleased if it works in your area, but be prepared if it doesn't last too long.

This may be a silly question, but I'm new to the whole theater business (took a theater over from a friend of mine two months ago), but what is the cast?

Like I said, I'm new to this whole thing and it's a learning experience. Before owning a theater I was a mortgage loan officer and needles to say with this whole credit crunch, I had some free time.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

We have a shadow cast.They act out the movie as the film is playing...

The "cast" is live audience / cast members who sets the tone / play roles in the film/ and lead the madness: sing-dance-etc.

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Michael Hurley
Impresario

The good ones strongly resemble actual characters on the screen, and are usually dressed "in character". By itself, that's pretty entertaining.

As they are imitating what's on the screen,having an area near the front with a stage or at least no seats makes this work. In a dark theatre (I would keep the lights up a bit though), some kind of light on the cast should be provided.

The cast adds a lot to the show and keeps the audience focused. They're usually connected to whatever fan group you might be hooked up with, so a happy cast usually means a real clean theatre at the end of the night.