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Is it just me or is this one of the crudiest looking bunch of movies coming down the pike? Do I bother with any of them or take my chances on some of the August pix?

Bears as a matinee will do good. Get Batman and Fanatastic Four. Island is Horrible and Dukes looks really silly.
Beleive it or not the Penguin movie is attracting alot of attention?

Well, believe it or not I've been considering some of the stronger arthouse stuff lately, because of the quality of the major releases, but I am in a REALLY small market and I just don't think I can attract enough attention with something that isn't advertised heavily. Maybe I'll keep Bears on the schedule and kill off Dukes and Island????????? Fantastic Four, ya think? Jeez, it looks bad....

Let me turn this thing into a more generalized discussion. How much credence do you give critics? I surely don't follow any one critic faithfully, but if the majority think a particular movie stinks, does that play a role in your decision? Does its' performance nationally play a role? I figure if the majority of critics don't like it then that is strike one, and then if it underwhelms nationally that is strike two. Strike three occurs if it doesn't have "legs". Both Island and Bears have two strikes on them by that measure....

CRITICS <> Over the years I have almost always agreed with Roger Ebert's opinions, but as of the last several years he seems to have either mellowed, or sold out to the powers that be... Today, I still consider him to be the best, but with reservations (often major)... Conversely, anything that Rex Reed applauds I avoid like the plague... I doubt that critic's opinions sway many from seeing general audience pictures because the general audience probably doesn't seek out critical reviews of what they want to see... Art pictures are another matter, however...

BEARS <> The original was a MAJOR hit locally, but it had the perfect cast for the story it had to tell... Matthau was the ideal crudmudgeon foil for Tatum O'Neil's tough kid with a good heart, and the rest of the cast was just about perfect, as well... The followup (BNBs Go To Japan, as I recall) was a flop locally, like most spin offs usually are... You may have to do some local promotion to sell this year's Bears, but Ebert liked it, for whatever that's worth, and IF it's a carbon copy of the original, it oughta do well with a general audience, especially in small towns...

Lee - in your position I would think that "legs" is the most important criteria for picking pictures. That gives you an advantage over those of us who have to pick what to open up. Critics rarely influence a picture that much. Word of mouth is stronger for a later booking. Watching the national grosses helps you identify pictures with legs. Get Charlie. Bears is Ok, skip Island. Dukes is still a question mark as it isn't out there yet. Keep watching to make sure that the grosses continue to hold up - in other words - you don't want to book a one week wonder that will not do anything for you.

What happened to everyone who was cheering on "The Island"? Today my Sony guy called to dig it in a bit since I decline Stealth for Islandia. Oh well. What';s next to play?????

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Michael Hurley
Impresario

I honestly thought The Island was great ... I guess you win some, you lose some ... staying in business is just about having more wins than losses.

Island opened at my drive-in... in dead last place. Fan4/Smith and of course, Charlie beat the pants off of it. I didn't expect it to beat Charlie... but off-the-break shows usually do better here than Island did.

We're putting it up with "Stealth" this week... another one that I'm dubious about, but Sony's pushing it really hard, and the combo price wasn't too bad.

Anyone have good vibes about "Sky High"?

I never really thought of playing films weeks after the break was an advantage but, I guess, it allows me to get some good data points about a movies' success (or, in this case, failure) and then make a decision. I just don't want to be so far behind that if a blockbuster comes along it is all played out by the time it gets here.

Case in point is Star Wars 3. We had it in my typical zone of about six weeks after the break over the fourth of July weekend. By then, certainly all the die hards had seen it and many others as well. It did better than average but it was certainly nothing to write home about. The following week we had The Longest Yard and it blew SW3 away. Hell, I almost did as well the week after that with Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants!

I guess, to sum up, my newfound realization is that it is a balance of waiting to see how well a movie performs before I book it and letting people know I will be getting the new movie that just came out.... A fine line indeed.

Ask yourself the following questions.

Can Billy Bob possibly do a better job in BAD NEWS BEARS than the late Walter Matthau?

When did you last see a movie based on a tv series that you really enjoyed?

THE ISLAND is a microcosm of many Sci-Fi films of the past, so its not really new either. But do you take the chance?

I agree with jacker5, at least FANTASTIC FOUR is new and BATMAN BEGINS is a very interesting film that totally makes you forget about all those Bat films before it.

Sorry Mike. I really thought The Island would be big, but we totally tanked on it too, along with everyone else. And this weekend, we chose Must Love Dogs over both Stealth and Sky High and it looks like Sky High is the one doing the best. One of these days, I will learn to not under estimate the power of Disney marketing.

What's looking good to you all after Dukes of Hazzard,(opening against our Fair, which always kills us the first weekend of Aug.)?
Duece Bigalow, Skeleton Key, Red Eye. Brother Grimm??? Anything else?
I'd really like to pick up some of the "Smaller films" like March of the Penguins or Broken Flowers, but it will probably be weeks before prints are available to us.

Definately avoid The Island. Do not touch it with a ten foot pole. It's been doing very poorly at our theater; I don't think we could pay people to watch the movie.

Bears is doing okay. Just keep in mind that it's not a kids movie, even though we've seen quite a few parents bringing their kids to see the movie. Haven't really had any complaints, but it does have a lot of language in it so keep that in mind if your audience is primarily kids/family.

Hopefully Dukes will play. There has been some pretty good buzz about that movie so hopefully it'll come through.

Some of the movies that you should consider getting are Batman Begins, Fantastic Four, and Charlie. Herbie did fairly good for us.

I have officially crossed "The Island" off my list. Bears is gone too, since it is doing so poorly. Dukes is getting lots of advertising around here and I've had many requests for it. Must Love Dogs and Sky High are probably in too. Is it just me or is there way more crap movies this year then last.

We are playing Charlie, Bears, Stealth & Sky High. Charlie is still the hottest and deserves a place in your schedule. Stealth was not our choice, it was forced on us by a combination of Sony pressure, Booker pressure and getting declined by Warners for Must Love Dogs. We cater to a primarily family audience so Sky High was coming in regardless. We have not been bothered by complaints about Bears from parents. It is properly rated PG-13 and we are comfortable with it. The studio marketing seems to have done a good job informing the public that it has crude language. It will not complete a full 4 week contract here but I would certainly consider it a possiblity as a co-feature with something else which is not strong enough to run by itself. Possibly another Paramount feature? I'm not happy about Stealth as we think that Must Love Dogs would have filled a niche which is currently underserved. We will play it when we can get a print. Stealth will probably go out of here fast.

Looks like the weekend prelims are in:
1 WEDDING CRASHERS - $20.475 mil
2 Charlie/Chocolate Factory - $16.385 mil
3 Sky High - $14.59 mil
4 Stealth - $13.5 mil
5 Must Love Dogs - $13.05 mil

Looks like you really didn't lose much going with The Island over Stealth. Each of this week's releases were basically identical.