No Vindanpar, I never saw Todd AO and I think the travelogue novelty on the big screen was better suited for the 1950’s. I found the fake sets in “SOUTH PACIFIC” impossible to imagine being anywhere except inside a theatre. “ICE STATION ZEBRA” also loses its charm on TV.
I liked “GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS”, “PAINT YOUR WAGON”, “CLEOPATRA”, “THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE”, “ICE STATION ZEBRA” and “PORGY AND BESS”. All have been trashed over the years. I disliked “AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS”, “SOUTH PACIFIC”, and “LAWRENCE OF ARABIA”, all classics today. I found the latter beautiful to watch and about an hour too long.
There is no answer to that, bigjoe. If the boxoffice pre-sales were weak the studio would start planning the wide release immediately but run the roadshow for snob appeal prestige. “MARAT/DESADE” and “FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD” would be examples. In the case of “STAR!” they were just tried to salvage whatever income they could get with the edited version entitled “THOSE WERE THE HAPPY TIMES”.
Any film that did not meet their budget AND marketing costs and didn’t even receive many good reviews could be seen as a “bomb”. “HELLO,DOLLY!”, “PAINT YOUR WAGON” and “TORA! TORA! TORA!” failed to do all three. Okay, how about “flop”, “turkey”, “stinker”, “dud” or “failure”? Only until “Heaven’s Gate” made the term epic did this become an issue.
Mike (saps) makes a good point. But cinema is a matter of personal choice. “Hello, Dolly” and “Tora!” could have been better. Channing over Streisand or no Japanese opinions could have been better. But “Vertigo”, in my opinion, still sucks, anyway.
“The Old Man and the Sea” played for ten weeks. It was followed by another roadshow (“A Night To Remember”) that played only nine weeks. Films are often called “bombs” because they fell short of expectation at the boxoffice, had such huge budgets they failed to make a profit or as in the case of “Tora!Tora!Tora!”, they also had pretty awful reviews nationwide.
He went ahead and made “THE GREAT GATSBY” to spite Ali McGraw for whom he had bought the rights. Remember those desperate Peter Max posters trying to make “PAINT YOUR WAGON” mod?
According to Evan’s book (THE KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE), those big budget musicals were already in progress when he took over the studio and he was unable to stop them. Of course, no studio head will admit sole responsibility for a box office flop.
“Hard to find” is not really accurate. The problem was that patrons expected it to be at the Plaza Hotel and would show up at the Paris or Cinema 3 at showtime looking for the Plaza movie they wanted.
bigjoe, they had dome the same research as for any roadshow but audience behavior was rapidly changing and movies not aimed at the youth market were failing.
“Romeo and Juliet” was removed from a roadshow run when audience studies showed that the film appealed to a core audience of teenagers and college students. That same audience had made a hit out of “2001”, although that film had terrible pre-sales but always seemed to sell out at showtime. Robert Evans targeted the “Goodbye, Columbus” and “If…” audience instead of the “Shrew” audience.
You are correct, Vinanpar. It was “THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD” followed by other Cinerama films at the Sheridan that must have put “MUSIC” into the Colony.
“The Stewardesses” moved to the Astor while the Rivoli was being prepared for “Fiddler”, so it was closed for a few weeks. The Sheridan on Miami Beach was closed for months before it re-opened with “Deep Throat”, by an independent operator. It did not open “The Sound of Music” because “Khartoum” was still playing there.
I was General Manager for the Cineplex Odeon multiplex re-opening in 1988. Ex-manager Edward Bernhardt, who refused to run a multiplex version of the theatre, became my assistant, bedrock, co-conspirator and best friend.
David, the Rialto 2 had an entrance on 42nd street and was in the basement of this same theatre. Once inside you could go from one to the other without being harassed. There is no reason to remove the 42nd street photos since this was basically a twin with two boxoffices and two entrances until Cineplex Odeon mothballed the fully remodelled twin two due to subway noise.
ridethectrain, the movie’s title was “Boccaccio ‘70”, not “Three Stories of the Sexes”. That ad continues on the next page.
No Vindanpar, I never saw Todd AO and I think the travelogue novelty on the big screen was better suited for the 1950’s. I found the fake sets in “SOUTH PACIFIC” impossible to imagine being anywhere except inside a theatre. “ICE STATION ZEBRA” also loses its charm on TV.
I liked “GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS”, “PAINT YOUR WAGON”, “CLEOPATRA”, “THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE”, “ICE STATION ZEBRA” and “PORGY AND BESS”. All have been trashed over the years. I disliked “AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS”, “SOUTH PACIFIC”, and “LAWRENCE OF ARABIA”, all classics today. I found the latter beautiful to watch and about an hour too long.
There is no answer to that, bigjoe. If the boxoffice pre-sales were weak the studio would start planning the wide release immediately but run the roadshow for snob appeal prestige. “MARAT/DESADE” and “FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD” would be examples. In the case of “STAR!” they were just tried to salvage whatever income they could get with the edited version entitled “THOSE WERE THE HAPPY TIMES”.
bigjoe, nobody makes a movie to break even.
Any film that did not meet their budget AND marketing costs and didn’t even receive many good reviews could be seen as a “bomb”. “HELLO,DOLLY!”, “PAINT YOUR WAGON” and “TORA! TORA! TORA!” failed to do all three. Okay, how about “flop”, “turkey”, “stinker”, “dud” or “failure”? Only until “Heaven’s Gate” made the term epic did this become an issue.
Mike (saps) makes a good point. But cinema is a matter of personal choice. “Hello, Dolly” and “Tora!” could have been better. Channing over Streisand or no Japanese opinions could have been better. But “Vertigo”, in my opinion, still sucks, anyway.
“The Old Man and the Sea” played for ten weeks. It was followed by another roadshow (“A Night To Remember”) that played only nine weeks. Films are often called “bombs” because they fell short of expectation at the boxoffice, had such huge budgets they failed to make a profit or as in the case of “Tora!Tora!Tora!”, they also had pretty awful reviews nationwide.
He went ahead and made “THE GREAT GATSBY” to spite Ali McGraw for whom he had bought the rights. Remember those desperate Peter Max posters trying to make “PAINT YOUR WAGON” mod?
According to Evan’s book (THE KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE), those big budget musicals were already in progress when he took over the studio and he was unable to stop them. Of course, no studio head will admit sole responsibility for a box office flop.
“Hard to find” is not really accurate. The problem was that patrons expected it to be at the Plaza Hotel and would show up at the Paris or Cinema 3 at showtime looking for the Plaza movie they wanted.
bigjoe, they had dome the same research as for any roadshow but audience behavior was rapidly changing and movies not aimed at the youth market were failing.
“Romeo and Juliet” was removed from a roadshow run when audience studies showed that the film appealed to a core audience of teenagers and college students. That same audience had made a hit out of “2001”, although that film had terrible pre-sales but always seemed to sell out at showtime. Robert Evans targeted the “Goodbye, Columbus” and “If…” audience instead of the “Shrew” audience.
Thanks, Howard.
I wonder if City Cinemas alone is behind this or if someone else failed to make a deal. Perhaps, an impossible deal.
Didn’t Pathe still hold the lease?
You are correct, Vinanpar. It was “THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD” followed by other Cinerama films at the Sheridan that must have put “MUSIC” into the Colony.
“The Stewardesses” moved to the Astor while the Rivoli was being prepared for “Fiddler”, so it was closed for a few weeks. The Sheridan on Miami Beach was closed for months before it re-opened with “Deep Throat”, by an independent operator. It did not open “The Sound of Music” because “Khartoum” was still playing there.
“Hello, Dolly!” had bad reviews but a pretty good run. Most of the bad rep came from a “too young” Streisand who actually delivered.
Vindapar, I have the same nightmare. Is it from the Sheridan in Miami Beach going from FIDDLER to DEEP THROAT?
I was General Manager for the Cineplex Odeon multiplex re-opening in 1988. Ex-manager Edward Bernhardt, who refused to run a multiplex version of the theatre, became my assistant, bedrock, co-conspirator and best friend.
Look at this, Eddie!
Thank you, buddy.
David, although the marquee was next door I believe the theatre was upstairs and shared the same address as the Pussycat.
David, the Rialto 2 had an entrance on 42nd street and was in the basement of this same theatre. Once inside you could go from one to the other without being harassed. There is no reason to remove the 42nd street photos since this was basically a twin with two boxoffices and two entrances until Cineplex Odeon mothballed the fully remodelled twin two due to subway noise.
You saw it at the Rivoli?
Movies were about fifteen minutes long in 1910. No theatre was ever built for that. As bigjoe has often been told, Regency and Rialto are the answer.
What kind of theatre closes during summer for conversions? They obviously do not need 15 screens.