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I saw 21 GRAMS last night at the multiplex. There were nine adults in attendance when the movie started. Four left during the movie. Even though I had a very difficult time deciphering who was who throughout much of it, I thought this was a really good movie. I want to see it again. Maybe a couple times more. My opinion is, this is a much better movie than MYSTIC RIVER, which I never want to see again, but Sean Penn deserves an Oscar for his performance in both. I liked 21 GRAMS about as much as I liked MEMENTO, and that was my favorite movie for months. I must have watched MEMENTO ten times. What do you guys think?

Meant to submit this in SIDEWALK. Sorry.

[This message has been edited by BurneyFalls (edited February 18, 2004).]

I attend mostly art films and usually love the weird and confusing ones. Memento is still my favorite movie of all time. However, I hated 21 Grams. It was just plain one of the worst movies I have ever seen. It took me well over half the movie just to figure out who was who. All the characters were despicable and I couldn't have cared less about any of them. This was a confusing, pompous, boring movie.

[This message has been edited by Roger (edited February 19, 2004).]

MYSTIC RIVER in my hunble opinion was why better than 21 GRAMS. Remember Sean Penn way back in FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMOUNT HIGH? He sure has come a long way since those days. I look forward to all the movies he does now with anticipation.

If Burney likes it then I like it! (have not seen yet but now I want to)

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Michael Hurley
Impresario

I had 21 grams at my theater for 5 weeks.4 out of the five weeks it did good for us getting around 8 people per show(includes week and weekend)but the 5th week it just bombed and went from a 8 or 9 average to like 3 average.We changes it for The dreamers which we played for two weeks.First week did great averging like 40 people and the second it flopped like around 5 people.Not a good year so far for us.

sidedummy

How many shows do you run a day? How many screens are there in your theatre and how many seats per screen? Also, what is your ticket price structure?

I've been in this business for almost 40 years and can't even begin to imagine how you can keep a theatre open doing only 5 to 10 people per show. You said that you were doing great with an average of 40. I own and operate a small town 2nd run theatre and average about 105 people per show. Of course, that means that I do 250 to 300 people per show on weekends, and often 400 or more on a Saturday night 7 PM show, while only 50 to 75 on a weeknight show. On a good picture I'll do 100 even on a weeknight show. I had 107 tonight (Thursday)playing "Somethings Gotta Give". Yesterday (Wednesday) I had 97 for the evening show, but 120 for the matinee.

If I were to lose 15% of my patrons, I wouldn't be able to afford to keep this theatre open.

How do you do it?

WOW, I find these numbers very sobering!... You say you were averaging 8 to 9 customers per showing, and played this for 5 weeks... You don't mention the number of showings per week, but even if you're running 15 to 16 showings per week, that's something like 130 customers per week!... I can't imagine how you could break even with such low attendance... This is frightening, and sure doesn't bode well for the future of your location!...