Question of the Week, For Movie Theatre Owners and Managers
Let's have a conversation. Let's engage, as Picard would say.
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Dear Moviegoers,
It was twenty years ago, in my college days when a good friend of mine flat-out stated that we should start a movie theatre. Of course, this wasn't the first time that the idea had come across my mind, as since a child, I had always wanted to build a screening room in my home. At doctor appointments, in the waiting room, I'd read (or look at the pictures) home entertainment magazines, the kind of publications that were, more or less, meant to sell tech products to consumers. Products like projectors, screens, seats, sound equipment, and more. Front cover to back, it was all so entrancing, and still is.
College was a breeding ground for crazy movie programming, as I was part of a misfit group of students that would show wild independent, and foreign films to the surprise of anyone who happened upon our usually underground showings on campus--sometimes with permission, sometimes without. My good friend and I shared a similar macabre approach to choosing movies, selecting titles to cause a stir among our fellow student audience, almost to encourage them to leave on purpose. It was fun at the time to be so antagonistic, but my sensibilities have changed a little since then.
One night, years later, I went to a midnight screening at the New Orleans single-screen theatre, the Uptown Prytania, of the first Human Centipede movie. A gross flick meant to make people squirm that, indeed, caused all of us to choke back some bile at times. During one particular sequence, at the height of disgust, I recognized that the theatre owner and manager, Robert Brunet, was standing in the doorway of the auditorium, taking all of our reactions in and laughing. He was laughing.
I love telling this small anecdote, because it represents something that I love about going to the movies: the opportunity to share experiences, no matter how pleasant or disturbing. To be challenged and to feel.
And so, I have a question for you, theatre owners and managers. To all current, former, and wannabe ones:
Is there a line or limit to what movies you're willing to screen to the public?
Please feel free to leave a comment below, message me here on Substack, or email me at binxmoviegoer@duck.com. I'll share the best and most interesting responses in a future post. You can remain anonymous if you'd like, though I'd be happy to let the world know of your cinema. Sharing is caring, after all.
Hi Bill. Thanks for including my post; I'm glad to have a small part in what has become an ongoing Substack conversation about the actual physical theater; @dariolinares is good on this, too. I'm still not buying the shared experience idea too fully: when I saw the latest Mission Impossible, my son had to ask a woman next to him to turn off her phone (she was browsing the CVS site during the movie) and the kid next to my wife just wouldn't shut up. Thank goodness it was in IMAX so the kid was drowned out for most of the time. In general, other people take away from the experience, at least for me. But that's all explained in my two posts.
Anyway--if I were in charge of programming for a movie theater, there wouldn't be too much of a line or limit. I wouldn't show anything like Human Centipede on the grounds that if one touches pitch, one becomes defiled, but I'd show the kinds of movies from all places and eras and genres that I watch in my regular life. Not everything would be for everyone (I just rewatched Dead Ringers and there is no way that I'm going to watch that with some members of my family) but there would be something for everyone. It would be like making the ultimate mix tape.
This is a great topic and I'm looking forward to the responses!