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OK. Many of us here are working small town theatres and living on small town theatre wages. Some of us have to work other jobs in order to be able to work a theatre! Maybe how we make it should be relevant.
Anyway, we've done ok. My wife and I have two cars, a Mazda Miata and a Ford Ranger 2 door. A baby is on the way and the car seat and diaper bags won't work in either vehicles.
I can buy a 2011 Toyota Prius and was planning on doing that. however, a 1952 Studebaker has become available for less than $4,000.00. It is a daily driver. (Very similiar to the Muppets car.)Parts are easy to come by for this car. It will get half the gas mileage of the Prius but it is a fraction of the price to buy so that's ok.
And the trunk is big enough to haul film. I can't believe, unlike VPF, that Kodak and Fuji will allow film to just die. And Technicolor is still selling the 3D film system.
Anway, I digress. Is the Studebaker nuts or great marketing? In a town of 12,000 everyone will know the theatre family in the Studebaker. Am I nuts?
Next we will discuss if it makes sense to buy toilet paper from Costco or if that is false economy.
We've got to pull together to discuss the full picture of operating movie theatres and making a living wage and living on it.
I'm glad I found this forum.
Allen D.

The Studebaker is a great choice.
You can use it to haul film and diaper bags until at least 2050.
You can also use to to take your projectors and Technicolor systems to the junk yard in 2015 after they've collected dust for a few years.

Go for it. You can't beat 9 miles to the gallon.

I'd paint it bright orange with neon green letters to help market your theater.
Then, for sure, everyone will know you.

Where you from, Allen?

Dear VPF:
You seem to mock me.
I admit my tongue was slightly in cheek when I made the original post. I would not put a new child in a Studebaker (no seatbelts or air bags) any more than I would put the child in a Mazda sports car.
However, I'll buy the 1952 Studebaker because it will be fun and in a small town (have you been to a small town?) it will be noticed.
You do not paint Studebakers weird colors and they get closer to 25 miles per gallon thanks to straight V-6's and standard transmissions. Standard transmissions are with a clutch.
I have spent a few years with the family running movie theatres. I'm most familiar on a day to day basis with an old vaudeville house that was double twined some years ago but I also help with the family's other theatres.
I'm with you that 35 mm, sadly, is next to dead and that in truth it wouldn't be worth the trouble to thrown in the Studebaker's trunk.
My small town theatre is all digital because we want to survive.
All move over-subrun-discount houses are in their death throes. There won't be product and digital may support some strong sub run houses but you can't pay for new equipment at four or five dollars a ticket.
Anyone who thinks that film isn't going away probably is still mad about talkies overcoming silents.
I don't say this to be mean, just a sad fact of life.
Who among us wouldn't stay with cheap reliable 35 mm if we could?
AllenD

Back on topic.

I do not think you will get much bang for the buck in this case. Some initially but will die quickly. Now if we are talking about a Ghostbusters' car......that would get noticed a bunch more but those suckers are expensive.

In VPFs defense, it seemed that you were in the "film will be here for a long time" camp from reading your original post. At least that is what I thought.

Mr. Jack:
I do love film and I'm frankly surprised that Kodak isn't putting up more of a fight and disappointed that Technicolor would continue to solicit customers for their film 3 D program. The life expectancy of Technicolor 3 D doesn't seem very long unless the studios really continue to support it. Have the studios promised a particular lifespan for this product?
Anyway, my love for film has nothing to do with my admission that it is dying as a business form. It hasn't and won't die in my heart, but it will die commercially.
AllenD

Technicolor has been very forthcoming in selling their system as a short term solution for 3d until a complex goes 100% digital. They started in earnest pushing the system last spring and the contracts then were for 3 years. Contracts they are writing now are for 2 years.

So they are certainly in line with what most people are saying about the digital conversion.

Thanks for clearing up my Technicolor 3 D misperception. I should know more about the system.

AllenD

A friend of mine and I went to see Thor at the Main Street theater in Queens,NY saw it in 3-D on the Technicolor film system. You can't tell the difference. After seeing that, I thought Purchasing a digital may not be necessary for YEARS.

jacker5 wrote:
These are the options as I see them:

1) Have plans/agreements in place to in 12 mos to have equipment installed by Sept 2012 to receive VPFs
2) Wait till the last possible minute with the hopes that equipment will drop in price after the built-in demand goes away

Since every significant chain (let's say 10 or more locations) has announced plans to convert (and it is being done to receive the VPFs) by the end of next year, 2/3rds of the screens accounting for over 90% of the box office gross will be digital. Probably 95%+. If you do not believe pull up your Rentrak account and look at the grosses.

Now if this was 2013 this summer instead of 2011; I believe you could still get the big movies on film: Panda 2, POTC, Transformers, Green Lantern, etc. But what are you going to play in the spring and fall. A movie like Water For Elephants or Soul Surfer at approx. 2800 and 2200 locations respectively might only have a couple hundred film prints (Soul Surfer maybe ZERO). Then what???

Why will a studio chase after 5% of the business that may cost them 80% or more to get??

Rufusjack says:

"Now if this was 2013 this summer instead of 2011; I believe you could still get the big movies on film: Panda 2, POTC, Transformers, Green Lantern, etc. But what are you going to play in the spring and fall. A movie like Water For Elephants or Soul Surfer at approx. 2800 and 2200 locations respectively might only have a couple hundred film prints (Soul Surfer maybe ZERO). Then what???

Why will a studio chase after 5% of the business that may cost them 80% or more to get?? "

We may not like this conclusion, but it is the correct conclusion. Well said by Rufusjack.

AllenD

Agreed. Rufus is the man.
Get on board with digital.