Radio City Music Hall
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
116 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 3,317 comments
Screened the World premiere of Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Yes 100k in ‘70 was pretty disastrous for such a large operation as the Hall’s. 145k was a very poor opening week. And as the Christmas show was already in rehearsal at the end of Oct and it used sets from previous shows especially The Nativity(what a loss that is! The Leonidoff pageant was a beauty) it would not have been difficult to get it in place in three weeks of rehearsal. Just from the first week’s poor showing the Music Hall audience had no interest in the film. If only the Music Hall had chosen one of Mel Brooks’ very best films The Twelve Chairs. A family friendly film perfect for the Music Hall audiences. Scrooge was a big success opening week and as previously the Christmas season didn’t start until early December it was shortly after that I noticed the season started earlier and earlier. Now it was acceptable to start making money off of Christmas mid Nov when before it would have been considered absurdly early. Manhattan merchants would have noticed this. And from there…
TNYT OCT 30 ‘70 Vincent Canby The real subject of the film, however, is one much closer to Mr. Wilder’s other movie fantasies (“Some Like It Hot,” “Kiss Me Stupid”). That is, sex. To put it bluntly, and profanely, were Holmes and Dr. Watson—Holmes’s biographer, his most earnest admirer and the sharer of his secrets and of his flat— lovers? I suspect that only Billy Wilder would have the nerve to raise such a question, and then to dispatch it in a movie that is gentle enough to become the Thanksgiving holiday attraction at the Music Hall.
TNYT NOV 20 ‘70 Vincent Canby “Scrooge” opened yesterday at the Radio City Music Hall as the Christmas attraction, approximately five weeks early. The last “A Christmas Carol” to play the Hall, a version produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz in 1938, was unveiled three days before Christmas. When the next version opens—I estimate in 2001—it may be on the Fourth of July.
vindanpar – I had a question about one of your old posts:
“The following year’s Billy Wilder disaster Sherlock Holmes which was considered the Thanksgiving film had to be pulled so Scrooge and the Nativity entered a couple of weeks early and precipitated the entire early/mid November Christmas cultural change.”
It’s an interesting idea. I poked around on Newspapers.com, and really can’t find any reports of when the New York stores put up their Christmas windows, so it’s hard to verify. The Rockefeller Center tree lighting has happened the first week in December from the early 30s until today.
I wonder, though, about the underlying premise of the post. Did you get the idea from the 2010 book Some Like It Wilder: “The movie had been booked at the Music Hall in late October as its Thanksgiving attraction, but it was withdrawn before Thanksgiving in the wake of lukewarm public reception.” The author of the book gives no citation.
The numbers from Variety didn’t look all that awful, although I don’t have a ton of comparisions. For instance, I know A Boy Named Charlie Brown, which did close to capacity business, did $290k its second week in 1969. Sherlock Holmes did $150,000 week one, $145,000 week two and $100,000 week three, which sound pretty respectable. Would this have been considered a disaster for a non-holiday booking? These would likely be a sizable piece of the total grosses of the picture.
What I’m guessing is UA knew they had a bomb, but Wilder was likely to do well in NY with sophisticated crowds (perhaps the way Woody Allen duds produced respectable numbers in NY.)
Scrooge got a wide release (outside metro NY) the same day as the Music Hall opening, which suggests the change in programs was planned in advance. The Christmas show requires a lot of logistics, so I doubt that could be moved easily.
Lastly, the only happy part of Walter Mirisch’s description of the Sherlock Holmes debacle in his memoir was the fact that it played at the Music Hall. He was still smarting about the mistakes made 40 years earlier, so I suspect he’d remember getting his show pulled early and not raise that as a positive.
BTW, in my opinion The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is a pretty good picture!
The “Christmas Spectacular” starring the Rockettes returns today, November 18th. Details, which include those for a new production number, can be viewed here
rcd55b, thank you for your response.
Radio City was always reel to reel. Sometimes they would bring in a platter for special screenings. When the change to digital started, our film premieres went down drastically. The last 35MM we premiered was Kevin Smith’s “Red State” in 2011. Since then, everything has been shown in digital. The only film we still run is 70MM 3D for the Christmas show.
rcdt55b Did you work there while projection systems changed from platter systems to digital, or was it the latter when you started?
I’m a projectionist there. I’ve been there since 2005. The department head has been there since 2000.
rcdt55b in what capacity do you work for Radio City Music Hall?
Sorry for sounding that way m00se1111. It just shows you how fast things can change. We got 3 new updates within 4 hours that day. The Friday that we shut down, there were about 1000 people in the audience for the 11AM show with people still coming in. 10 minutes before the show they cancelled it. Early that afternoon they tested the other cast and too many were infected so they had to cancel it all.
More confirmation of the inevitable here
cbs news says all shows are cancelled for the rest of the season.
Also, we do NOT follow what Broadway does.
I work there. I am not giving misinformation. In fact,we just got an update from management today. It is what I posted. The Christmas Show is not cancelling shows as of right now. Of course, this may change at some point. For now, the information I gave is correct.
Masks are optional at Radio City now and after December 26th for 12 and up. After December 26th, kids 5 and up must show proof of vax or they will not be admitted.
The new mandate is ONLY for places with no vax policy.
movies theaters that require vaccination guests only mask are optional
From what I heard on the news last night everyone indoors in NY is required to wear a mask no matter what the vaccinations status was. I thought Broadway has had mandatory masks no matter what your vaccination status is.
I haven’t heard one complaint from ANYONE here over the last 3 weeks about the policy.
A dispute has been raging over Covid-19 safeguards for this year’s “Christmas Spectacular,” which is due to open tomorrow. New York Times article can be found here
They performed during the parade in a prerecorded segment before Santa came on Thanksgiving on NBC.
An update on the current status of the Rockettes as a troupe can be found in this article from the Curbed section of New York Magazine. Click here
Screened the World premiere of “Goldeneye” on 13/11/1995.
Hello Big Apple : Nice to know that maintenance is on- going at Music Hall, great to know that we will have a new rug to prance upon when you re-open , someday!
Keep scrolling.
Found on page 77, but missing the 1970 to the last