I’ve commented this before on Cinema threads on HN, but why don’t more cinemas show older releases? There’s 100+ years of film classics, I’m convinced there’s a market for this. I would love to take my kids to see Star Wars A New Hope. Much more than most of crap that came out this year. (There’s crap every year but the good stuff sticks, so there’s survivor bias)
back
8 comments
A local cinema here does this every other week or so - a late showing (usually 10pm) of some classic like Star Wars (or more recently, Pink Floyd's The Wall). It sells out every time, but I think that it wouldn't do so if that's what they showed every day.
Because it's niche and getting people into the theatre is dependent on the marketing budget behind the films themselves, and in particular, the celebrities.
There's too much noise in the world for people to realize that 'Blade Runner' is playing at some random theatre.
What could work are co-markted events, for example, playing 'Blade Runner' leading up to a new release, and, if it's promoted broadly.
Or 'film festival' type things - I'm also certain there's a market for Venice/Cannes/Oscars content even in the theatre chains but it'd require marketing coordination.
Finally - price. It's too expensive relative to the 'almost big screen' we have at home, and the shift to 'Big CGI Only' for theatres is real. This is a whole other problem.
I could see it working if it was marketed more like a recurring event where the focus wasn't on the particular film. I'd totally be into a series where it was like... every Tuesday at 8 we're going to show some classic pre-1990 film. We won't tell you in advance what it is, but it'll be good. (Maybe use the AFI lists, or a minimum of an 8.0 IMDB rating or something).
Yes, with a 'club membership' especially. Rando Sci-Fi Classic Tuesday etc..
Don't underestimate the lethargy and stupidity of mega corps. Content owners vastly overvalue their catalogues, and movie chain theatres are stupid and completely lacking in creativity.
They will go out of business before they even entertain an idea.
Maybe a Hawk and Chick festival?
I would speculate that it has a lot to do with distribution.
I expect that it's trivial to get a copy of a new release, and logistically challenging (and relatively expensive) to get a copy of an old one.
The main value in showing older content is variety. The more films you acquire to show, the more cost (plus overhead cost) you endure.
The studios that own the copyright to older films are the same corporations that want you showing their new lazy high-budget Action Hero XVII shit instead. They are likely to make restrictive deals with large theater chains (the ones with enough budget for quality projectors and seating) to set a schedule that aligns with box-store release dates.
This was one of the things that came up when Amazon bought MGM because MGM pre-Amazon takeover had one of the most-used "rescreening" programs of all the (former) major studios. As soon as the Amazon purchase completed, Amazon shut down a lot of MGM film distribution, including just about all of its rescreening efforts. Amazon only just announced (presumably at shareholder pressure) building a new film distributor and starting to move the large MGM back-catalog back out beyond the Prime fences.
Similarly, when Disney bought what used to be 20th Century Fox, they immediately changed the economics of their classic rescreening programs (as Disney's "Vault" procedures have always been anti-rescreening). That was said to have directly led to breaks in long runs of Rocky Horror Picture Show specifically as Disney's price changes made it tougher to keep it running in some cities that had previously run it regularly for decades. (Of course, that timing was around 2020 so in most cases that wasn't the only excuse to break such traditional people gatherings.)
(ETA snark: it's almost like copyright terms are too long and rent seeking too easy on cinema classics.)
>I’m convinced there’s a market for this
The market is very small, compared to new releases. It's not hard for an existing theater to test this
The ones that work have some unique spin, e.g. the Wurlitzer organist plays an overture, or it's a singalong, or a cult classic for meetups like RHPS, etc
There are cinemas like this out there, but they might not advertise well. I know in my city there are two small (state or city owned) cinemas that only show old (anything from 1920 onwards) or rare movies.
Because A: screenable prints often don't exist, nor do sufficiently good digitial transfers. even if A is met... guess what... the distributors still want their pound of flesh.
My favorite local boutique cinema plays the movies from retail blu-ray discs. They do quite well with that. They seem to always be at capacity.
Isn’t that illegal?
No, I did that also. You get a quote from the distributor, and usually have good connections to them.
Some companies suck (most big ones) but they dont have the good ones either. Best prices are for Asian movies or US indies.
European, Latin american and Indian movies do have prohibitive prices, so you cannot show them, their fault.
As others mentioned, marketing is an issue, but I think you could get some traction in smaller markets.
Have weeks centered around classic directors, stars or themes.
A week of Hitchcock films. Or Scorcese films. Or Classic Thrillers week. Or Murder Mystery week. etc.
Maybe the economics aren't there...? But many of the things I might want to see aren't on the streaming services I have anyway.
Completely agree. The difference is that with new releases the theaters don’t have to do any marketing of their own.