TCL Chinese Theatre

I looks like the Chinese will Get VALKYRIE, MARLEY & ME and TALES OF DESPERAUX as thier Christmas line up. That is according to the Arclight flier I picked up this weekend. These are the films NOT booked into Arclight Hollywood. MARLEY & ME looks to be the one of the three that has box office potential. It is sad that this great theatre is losing its edge.

A low point for the Chinese: they are running Punisher: War Zone in the main auditorium.

Meanwhile, a list of 70mm engagements at the Chinese:

10/2/1930 The Big Trail
4/9/1958 Windjammer
5/10/1961 The King and I (Reissue)
12/14/1961 West Side Story
2/22/1968 Half A Sixpence
12/20/1968 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
12/20/1969 Hello, Dolly
11/16/1971 House Of Wax in 3-D (Reissue)
12/3/1975 Gone With The Wind (Reissue)
12/19/1976 A Star Is Born
5/25/1977 Star Wars
8/3/1977 Star Wars (moveover)
12/15/1978 Superman
4/13/1979 Hurricane
5/4/1979 The Exorcist (Reissue)
11/9/1979 Sleeping Beauty (Reissue)
12/21/1979 The Black Hole
2/29/1980 The Ninth Configuration
9/26/1980 Divine Madness
12/31/1980 Altered States
2/27/1981 Sleeping Beauty/The Black Hole
5/22/1981 Outland
6/12/1981 Raiders Of The Lost Ark
6/19/1981 Superman II (on two screens, possibly at the Twin)
11/13/1981 Raiders Of The Lost Ark (Reissue)
5/21/1982 Annie
5/28/1982 Rocky III (possibly at the Twin)
6/4/1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan
7/9/1982 Tron
9/24/1982 Raiders Of The Lost Ark (Reissue)
1/28/1983 The Road Warrior (Reissue)
3/25/1983 Raiders Of The Lost Ark (Reissue)
5/13/1983 Blue Thunder
5/20/1983 Raiders Of The Lost Ark (Reissue, possibly at the Twin)
6/17/1983 Superman III
7/15/1983 Staying Alive
7/29/1983 Krull (possibly at the Twin)
9/16/1983 Raiders Of The Lost Ark (Reissue)
10/7/1983 Never Say Never Again
10/21/1983 The Right Stuff
3/30/1984 Greystoke: The Legend Of Tarzan
5/23/1984 Indiana Jones and The Temple Of Doom (in THX, also at the Twin)
6/8/1984 Ghostbusters (at the Twin)
6/8/1984 Gremlins (at the Twin)
10/19/1984 The Razor’s Edge (in THX)
12/7/1984 City Heat (in THX)
12/14/1984 Dune (at the Twin)
12/14/1984 Starman (at the Twin)
6/7/1985 The Goonies (in THX)
6/21/1985 Return To Oz (in THX, possibly at the Twin)
7/10/1985 Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (in THX)
7/10/1985 Silverado (in THX, possibly at the Twin)
7/12/1985 Explorers (in THX, possibly at the Twin)
7/24/1985 The Black Cauldron (in THX, possibly at the Twin)
8/16/1985 Year Of The Dragon (in THX)
11/27/1985 Rocky IV (in THX)
12/4/1985 Young Sherlock Holmes (in THX, possibly at the Twin)
12/6/1985 Spies Like Us (in THX, possibly at the Twin)
1/24/1986 The Clan Of The Cave Bear (in THX)
5/16/1986 Top Gun (in THX, possibly moved over to the Twin)
5/22/1986 Cobra (in THX)
8/15/1986 Manhunter (in THX)
10/3/1986 Tough Guys (in THX)
12/19/1986 Little Shop Of Horrors (in THX)
2/13/1987 Over The Top (in THX)
3/6/1987 Lethal Weapon (in THX)
6/12/1987 The Witches Of Eastwick (in THX)
7/1/1987 Innerspace (in THX)
8/7/1987 Who’s That Girl? (in THX)
12/9/1987 Empire Of The Sun (in THX)
12/20/1987 The Last Emperor (in THX, possibly at the Twin)
5/20/1988 Willow (in THX, also at the Twin)
6/10/1988 The Presidio (in THX)
8/12/1988 Tucker: The Man and His Dream (in THX)
8/19/1988 The Big Blue (in THX, possibly at the Twin)
5/24/1989 Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (in THX)
6/23/1989 Batman (in THX)
7/7/1989 Lethal Weapon 2 (in THX)
8/18/1989 Casualties Of War (in THX)
9/22/1989 Black Rain (in THX)
12/22/1989 Tango and Cash (in THX)
5/16/1990 The Hunt For Red October (in THX, possibly at the Twin)
6/27/1990 Days Of Thunder (in THX, first appearance of digital sound at the Chinese)
8/10/1990 Flatliners (in THX)
12/7/1990 The Rookie (in THX)
12/21/1990 The Bonfire Of The Vanities (in THX)
12/25/1990 The Godfather Part III (in THX, possibly at the Twin)
12/6/1991 Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (in THX)
12/13/1991 The Last Boy Scout (in THX, possibly at the Twin)
4/10/1992 Beauty and The Beast (in THX)
5/15/1992 Lethal Weapon 3 (in THX)
6/5/1992 Patriot Games (in THX)
10/9/1992 1492: Conquest Of Paradise (in THX)
7/15/1994 True Lies (in THX)
12/19/1997 Titanic (in THX)

According to their official website, the upcoming releases scheduled to open at the Arclight include:

• Bedtime Stories
• Last Chance Harvey
• Marley & Me
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Doubt
• Gran Torino
• Revolutionary Road
• Seven Pounds
• The remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still
• The Spirit
• The Wrestler

Pretty sure Yes Man will be at the ArcLights.

I’d guess Yes Man. Mann is real big on the Warner Bros. titles.

Seems like the Arclight these days is grabbing all, holding it for at least 2 weeks since that is when most of the income for a film happens and then getting rid of them quicker than usual

The Chinese should have attempted to get Che instead of The Landmark. A true epic in a roadshow release should be getting the deluxe treatment in one of Los Angeles’s premiere houses instead of a megaplex with small auditoriums.

However it’s getting the Ziegfeld in New York, one of that city’s last premiere houses.

It reminds me of the Grove in Los Angeles-a fake city. I prefer the real thing.

This sounds like a bad B-movie script, but it’s a real story in the LA Times, dated July 2, 1952. I’ve condensed it somewhat.

Minutes after a red-haired girl robbed a Grauman’s Chinese Theater cashier of $55.91 last night, she was arrested a mile away and confessed, police say. “You can’t live on love alone”, police say she explained.

The say she confessed not only to the theater hold-up but also to the hold-up last Friday of a candy store on Wilshire Boulevard, netting $6, and to the attempted hold-up of another candy store two blocks from the theater yesterday afternoon.

The girl’s sweetheart, a 20 year-old Frenchman, here on a visitor’s visa, was arrested about the same time she was arrested but half a mile away. Each was booked on suspicion of robbery.

The girl talked freely, saying romance between the two blossomed when she was a salesclerk and he a stock boy and elevator operator in a downtown department store. Both left their jobs about two weeks ago.

At the theater, the girl walked up to the cashier, handed her a paper bag and said, “Put all the money in the bag. There’s a man down the street with a gun, making me do this.” When the cashier tried to temporize, the redhead became excited and snapped,“Don’t pick up the phone or call police. Put the money in the bag.”

She was arrested by cruising police who saw her walking on Hollywood Boulevard. She was still carrying the paper bag containing the money. Police quoted her as saying, “I was hungry. I have been days without food or a place to go. I decided I would pull the robberies to try to get some money for a place to sleep and something to eat.”

Thanks for the clarification on that, Mark; having never seen a film at the Chinese, I had no idea the newer six screens had stadium seating. Still, I wonder why Mann Theatres doesn’t try to negotiate for product-splitting with the Arclight. I’d have to think, based on the history of the Chinese and the quality moviegoing atmosphere at the Arclight (where I have been fortunate enough to see a couple of films), that such an agreement wouldn’t hurt either theatre greatly, if even by any negligible margin…

Is there any possibility that the Chinese 6 auditoriums could be converted to stadium seating and/or that the Chinese and the Arclight could share product, much as the Landmark and the AMC Century City 15 did last summer with ‘The Dark Knight’ and ‘Mamma Mia!’?

So, was that protest just a publicity stunt or were they serious?

Protest in front of the Chinese in 1983, from the LAPL:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00077/00077889.jpg