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We played it in July when people were mildly aware of it. We have a one week hole this wek so we are putting it back in against Harry Who-ter. What the heck! No advance, no minimum weeks, 50%.

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IFC's next picture is a drama called
"Safety of Objects". The running time is 120mins 26 sec.. It's no "Greek Wedding".

I did manage to book a print of MBFGW today for that smalltown firstrun that I referred to in my last post. Two weeks at 50% each week. It's the only hole we had until after the new year.

If I were able to play it at my theatre (the intermediate run house with a $3.00/$1.50 admission price)for Thanksgiving I would expect to gross around $5,000 for the week, maybe more. At 50% the distributor will garner $2,500 per week. John... don't you think that should be enough?

By the way, IFC told me today the video release has been moved back to February.

Deleted duplicate post.


[This message has been edited by RoxyVaudeville (edited November 11, 2002).]

Good news on February video release. Thanks.

Its amazing to me how short sighted film distributors get - as soon as they get a hit or a string of hits. When they are flying high they tend to be imperious and to rub everyone's face in it. Then when the pendelum swings and they need dates and favors, they can't understand why you don't want to do business with them. Everything cycles yet distribtuors seem slow to learn you can't screw someone one day and expect them to want to do business with you the nnext.

I personally avoid Miramax whenever I can after years of abuse by the local salesperson.

Anybody want to bet the the fellows at IFC will be out of a job by this time next year?

I think it's more a case of overwhelmed than arrogant or anything else. A company like IFC simply does not deal with a mega hit very often. It takes them a lot to ramp up to catch up. They took and returned my calls and I was trying to book it for a 3 scrteen in Maine that could not gross enough considering the potential of other locations. They offered me the deal, once there was an actual print available: 50% with a 2500.00 film rental guarantee for 2 weeks. 5000.00 advance. I said no. No hard feelings. One month later: 50% no mins on nothing. Miramax has always been good to me. It's so dependent on salesperson, company, what they're doing at the time, etc. I look at it this way: when I have 3 big hits and people are pouring in and out and we're cleaning like madmen, making corn, finding lost stuff: how much time do we have for that extra personal touch? Same for distribs.

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Well said Mike. IFC has been around for a while now, not just as a distrib but also as a financier of films. Among the films they helped make are Boys Don't Cry, Monsoon Wedding, Tadpole, and a host of others.

Footnote: I see Greek Wedding has passed the $200M mark and is still in the Top 10. It amazes me that it continues to hold onto 2 screens here in Eugene/Springfield. Full set of shows at both locations too.

Looks like I finally might be able to get Greek Wedding for Christmas.

Does anybody have a sense as to what sort of shape the GW prints are in?

The last time I got a movie this late was the original Home Alone in 1991. Like Greek Wedding, Fox was unprepared for the hit that Home Alone turned out to be and consequently did not have enough prints and (of course) refused to make any additional or replacement prints. When I finally got Home Alone, Fox provided me with two seperate complete prints - the print manager told me he gave me two because the prints were in such bad shape that he hoped that I might manage to get a runable print from a composite of the two. However both were scratched beyond belief. Both of those prints were Deluxe General prints and it seems in my experience over the years that Deluxe General seem to scratch (particularly the deep green ones) a lot more easily than Technicolor prints.

Unlikely that one lab's prints would scratch more than another, unless one lab was following the SMPTE Recommended Practice of waxing prints. Just as with fine furniture or an automobile, proper waxing reduces the risk of scratching the finish.

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One of my accounts just came off a 22 week run of GREEK WEDDING.The print he returned was in pristine condition.If all theatres were as careful as this,there would be no "bad print" problems.Alas,the "circuits" seem to treat prints as "spoilage".Most independents are more respectful of their product.

Technicolor prints scratch just as easy as
Deluxe prints. It is all in the film
handling in the booth and the build-ups.
At a theatre I worked at we had a EK print
of "Forrest Gump" that played for 8 months.
When that print left our theatre it looked
so pristine, just like day one. It all depends on how many theatres or people
that have handled that print.
As for "Greek Wedding" it opened with 108
theatres, it peaked at 2016 theatres.
Now it is down to 1257 theatres as of last
weekend. Over the last few weeks, each week
it has lost around 300 screens. If you
get lucky and get a print that has played
in the same theatre complex, you get a
good one. It all depends how many theatres
that print has been at. Bad & poor film handling scratches film.

How true...The other projectionist I work with is terrible at building up and handling the prints. He can't cue, he can't splice. I'm supprised that he can even start the projectors. When he built up James Bond he cut the heads and tails wrong and left black frames in the movie, they were very noticable, about 2 or 3 seconds. I think he is on thin ice with his job now. He ends up scratching prints, Im not too sure how he manages it but he does.

carl

[This message has been edited by carlpalko (edited December 13, 2002).]

Carl,
I must have received your co-workers print! Some idiot left about ten frames of black leader on the end of reel one. The whole print was/is messed up with tears on the sound side of the sprockets and scrunched up frames. One splice mid reel had about five layers of wrinkled splicing tape on it. I told Technicolor I need a whole new print, but repaired the old one as best I could figuring there is no way Technicolor will get me a print today. Frustrating.