Comments on: How to Make A Summer Blockbuster

By: Dave Munger

Dave Munger — Sat, 27 May 2006 04:55:01 +0000

I’m thinking, when I saw the trailers, I wanted to see the movie at the theater BADLY, yet I didn’t for some reason. I’m pretty sure everyone IS as in love with the Gernsback Continuum as you and I, but whatever kept me out of the theater kept everyone else out too. I can’t remember the reason I didn’t see it though, maybe it just dissapeared too fast.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 24 May 2006 20:39:07 +0000

There’s a saying that goes something like, “Success has a thousand parents, failure is an orphan.” There are always Monday morning quarterbacks trying to explain the success or failure of a movie–and I have almost given up trying to guess what will or won’t succeed for whatever reasons. While we are of the small group that saw the film, and smaller group still that liked it, I can only guess as to why it didn’t take off. Not everyone is as in love with the pre-WWII sci-fi/fantasy design that the film glories in, as I am. The actual digitized cinematopgraphy, which you might think is going for a 30s era look, is actually much darker and murkier than the Hollywood imagery of that era. This was more like an Amazing Stories magazine of 1938 come to life and apparently it lacked whatever current sensibility that appealed to the wider audience that made the Indiana Jones and Star Wars films hits. But now that we have the DVD, we can enjoy it anytime.

Thanks for reading and writing!
-Alex

By: Dave Munger

Dave Munger — Wed, 24 May 2006 20:10:56 +0000

The box office failure of Sky Captain is not explicable in terms of the movie itself, the movie is so good it makes you poop your pants. It had to have been some weird, external factor, like a conspiracy or something.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 18 May 2006 15:40:07 +0000

The prices sound amazing! Especially for a first run theater. It sounds like a small family-run theater we went to in GA for a while until it closed–everything sounds at least half the cost of chain cineplexes–that would keep me going more often.
We’ll be at Over the Hedge this weekend.
Thanks for writing!
-Alex

By: Dan Berger

Dan Berger — Thu, 18 May 2006 15:34:56 +0000

When was the last time you went, and how often do you go?

The last movie we went to was MI3; it was last Sunday afternoon at a cut-rate theater with a great sound system. My son and I thought it a great guy flick. But we don’t go to a theater more than about once a month, on average.

We watch a good many movies, but we largely get ‘em on DVD from the library. There are several reasons, few of them having to do with movie quality (though we won’t go see a crummy or evil movie just to go see something).

Mostly it’s the price of the movie plus popcorn that decides things. The theater we frequent (www.shannontheatre.com) charges $2 to $3 for admission, sells advance passes for $20 per 11 that are good at every showing of every movie, and you can get two drinks and a tub of popcorn for $4, with $1 refills on the popcorn. They also have one of the best sound systems in the area; they were tagged as the area opener for “The Phantom Menace.”

We just can’t see paying $7 a head, plus $10 for popcorn and a drink, to sit in a little box with a cheesy sound system. I realize that’s “cheap” for some areas… but not mine.