Posted on 12/24/2014 2:59:48 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
‘The Interview’ Release: More Than 300 Theaters Aboard As Deadline Passes
by Lisa de Moraes and Nellie Andreeva
December 23, 2014 6:14pm
2ND UPDATE. 6:22 PM: Sony Pictures’ president of Worldwide Distribution Rory Bruer tonight told Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr that more than 300 theaters lined up to screen The Interview. That total includes most major cities — New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Cleveland, Phoenix and Dallas among them — and more theaters than anyone expected considering the late notice and the fact Sony is finalizing plans to simultaneously release The Interview via a VOD/streaming strategy.
'The Interview' Release: Who's Showing The Pic
UPDATED WITH SONY COMMENTS: As indie theaters scramble to book Sony Pictures’ reinstated December 25 release of The Interview, word is that Sony is being inundated with requests ahead of a 6 PM PT deadline for venues to stake their claim to the pic. So much so that some are having a difficult time getting requests granted in time to show the movie on Christmas Day. By 4 PM, the number of the theaters that had secured the film’s release has climbed above 200. “Still waiting to hear from @SonyPictures,” Los Angeles’ the Cinefamily, which had announced its intent to show The Interview, wrote on Twitter at 1:30 PM. “Rumor is if they don’t book it in next hour, no one is at office till Jan. 5th.”
Cinefamily is hardly alone. There are multiple reports from different cities of theaters that have asked to carry the controversial comedy but have not received a confirmation. Very few are deterred by the prospect of the film getting a day-and-date VOD release.
(Excerpt) Read more at deadline.com ...
Darn it.
If they put one in my town I’ll have to go see it.
I think the studio figured out that it was an insider, and all this hype was a positive. You have a marginal two-star movie that will have the largest crowds of the year show up....which says something.
It’s New Coke all over again.
Why do I get the impression that this all came from the corner of Hype and Hoax?
You know, near the corner of Hope and Change?
interesting....a new marketing strategy never to be repeated again...but will it sell the movie - or will people not go see it for fear of idiots showing up with guns to commit violence because they cannot deduct a theory such as yours and realize that the HACK was a HOAX...
When I went to see the Batman movie after the massacre at the theatre in Colorado I was a bit nervous but it was like the nervous you have when you fly.
Batman - sure - I’d go see that...but I had no plans to run out and see this movie...it’s a parody about a “what if” - not that batman is real...so - I’m not going to go see it and will wait until Netflix carries it...
We’ve been Grubered?
Remember when movies were shown on film (that cost something like $3,000 per 35mm print per theater and took time to produce)?
Now people pay upwards of $20 to view “video on demand”.
It isn’t a new concept (it was done in the 1960s with concerts and pay per view boxing matches) and was even originally suggested by one of the inventors of television. He called them radio movies when transmissions would be screened in theaters, radiovision is what we call television (broadcast antenna), and television is what we call CABLE television (he couldn’t afford to lay out significant high grade wiring to homes to put that into practice in the 1920s).
The movies of today are shot on video, edited as video (sometimes processed ala photogram), and composed as video.
It saves production costs yet ticket prices go up and up.
I was surprised when a new multiplex was built nearby within the last dozen years; the whole concept seems so antiquated. Outside of kids too young to drive, who goes to see movies in a theater anymore? The last movie I saw in a theater was the second Hobbit movie about a year ago (with the kids), and I would have been quite content to wait to see it at home.
The whole idea of subdividing big areas into small viewing rooms just seems so inefficient.
I’ll wait until Kim Dung ick’s dissing is on Netflix.
There are technologies that are not in the home yet. I have yet to see a three-D movie and know there are a number of processes. One used for the Hobbit film used a faster refresh rate (just as IMAX films use faster frame rates) and that would be a unique viewing experience.
I went to the final Python performance but that was a live event. In the past I've been to a screening of a concert video (often scheduled about a month before the DVD release for Coachella or Ladies & Gentlemen The Rolling Stones).
I go see a movie in the theater when I get a free pass (maybe once every year or two) or sometimes a revival/repertoire screening at a museum on actual film).
You know, near the corner of Hope and Change?
I believe your thinking is exactly on course!
Another Liberal Weapon of Mass Distraction.
I’m not familiar with the technology involved.
I think a lot of people prefer to watch in the comfort of their home rather than be surrounded by hordes of strangers that look & speak less and less like them. They can pause it, watch it multiple times, share it, etc. - at a fraction of the cost, and eating whatever they’d like.
Theaters probably still have a small niche with young people, but I wouldn’t think it is large enough for constructing the large multiplexes. I rarely go, but a movie like “Saving Private Ryan” (where it literally sounds like bullets are whizzing past you with the surround-sound) was definitely worth seeing in a theater.
As I say, I don’t go regularly to the movies at all but it seems that tickets are like $15-20 now. You can buy the DVD for that (when it comes out).
I didn’t see World War Z when it came out but there was an option to spend $50 to see it (opening night?) and take it home on DVD (if I heard properly).
Even if tickets are ‘only’ $12, you are still looking at a chunk of change to watch a movie one time (for a couple or a family). And most people own a television and maybe a DVD player, VCR, or computer with youtube.
The multiplexes are a way for theaters to try to appeal to all ticket buyers (so they can sell the concessions that make the theater owners their money). No longer does a theater hope to sell tickets to just one movie for a week or month.
James Franco Tweet [Praises Obama, Guarantees I won’t see The Interview]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3240517/posts
Exactly. How is that YouTube just now creates the pay per view infrastructure to support paid streaming of this movie?
With this, they are guaranteed hundreds of thousands of sign ups for this new service.
Hollywood couldn’t have written a better script for this.
Oh wait, they did.
Movie Tavern is doing well because it combines dinner and a movie. It is better seen as a meal where you get a movie for a little more, versus going to the movies and paying for over-priced food.
The other model is Family Video and a pizza chain. You can order the pizza online and select a Family Video rental from that store, in short getting pizza and a movie without the hassle of hitting Redbox and then ordering dinner.
Both capitalize on convenience and getting entertainment with the food.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.