Loach attacks "closed off" cinema screens

He is the one making claims of being a wronged party with no proof, he should provide real evidence for his position rather than rely on cheap outrage at "the man". I don't think tarentino would say such a thing, and even if he did, his record contradicts the claim in the first place. His films built an audience and he quickly earned the right to large openings based on his record. Not by labelling himself as a genius and trying to force his work on people who didn't want it.

If an audience doesn't feel like reading subtitles, that is their right, you don't dictate the market. If spirited away does well dubbed or on dvd that is fine. I disagree with it being that great anyways. Even with the full promotional muscle of disney and star redub cast it couldn't make more than 10mil in the us release, showing how weak demand was for such things. I haven't found any of miyazakis recent works to match his early films. I think he's coasting on his reputation.




The doors aren't shut, if your film merits it, it will get its audience. Its a false crisis, in fact the doors are more open than ever before as i've already pointed out. So in the end this is all really about loach crying wolf.




As i've said, from the thousanRAB of films out there they are culled by a series of gate keepers. In the end you do have to rely on distributors and critics and film festivals. Its just not practical to have a thousand+ indi films a year stream through theatres. How will you hear about a film if its not shown yet? Come on dude, the obsessives online chatter about films continuously while they are still in production, sometimes while in preproduction even. There are sites and followings for most anything, and so if theres an audience, eventually someone will be interested and follow on the progress of most any film. If a film maker can't even be bothered to promote their film on the web, they don't have anyone to blame but themselves for failure. Its not perfect, but its better than any other arbitrary system. As for the ring, it gained enough notice that it got a remake. The simple fact is japanese horror only tenRAB to sell well on dvd, not in the cinema in western markets. In fact you could say the "promotion" for the ring WAS the remake. I'm sure the originals sales spiked once the remake was a hit.




I don't think i've claimed loach said anything more than he did, he essentially made the age old claim that the "man" or "system" is keeping him down, casting him and his brethren and the "good guy anti-establishment outcast/rebels", which is just clever marketing spin as ever. Its just rather tiresome to hear it from someone so old, as its been used to death over the ages. And it really is getting weaker by the day as new media/internet makes the whole idea of being able to keep people away from information they want totally obsolete. One shouldn't care who says something, it only really matters if its right or wrong. But in this case, he's wrong and also has his own agenda for being wrong. Its just rationalization for market failure and old marketing tricks of the snobby lot.
 
I'm on the mailing list for my loacl cineword and I've not been told of anything oher than Sex in the City coming to that one.

I did put in my postcode and that is how it found a film being shown over 8 miles away despite there being at least 4 nearer than that. Time Out doesn't work like that on their website only for major capital cities.
Since my last post Cineworld have updated their website and details of films staring on Friday are now on there. They know earlier than 4 days before the date what is opening so why bot put it on your own website?

Regardless it still doesn't alter the fact the cinemas are clogged up showing the same film on more than one screen often overlapping each other when they could be showing something else.
This Friday for Sex in the City.

10:30 (AD) 11:30 (AD) 13:45 (AD) 14:45 (AD) 15:45 (AD) 17:00 (AD) 18:00 (AD) 19:00 (AD) 19:45 (AD) 20:15 (AD) 21:15 (AD) 22:15 (AD)

How can they justify having a film starting an hour after each other during the day (off peak time) and in the evening as little as 30 minutes (19:45 and 20:15) between each other.
That is just one film. In the same cinema you also have overlapping screenings of Prince of Persia, Robin Hood and Street Dance 3D.
At one point during the day out of 14 screens you have 6 screens showing 3 films. One screen short of half the cinema showing 3 films off peak time is ridiculous.
 
Pocatello, I don't think we are going to agree about this so I am going to leave this alone. I personally think you have some valid points, not ones I entirely agree with but valid and you are more than right to post them. I think I have valid points but as I say I don't wish to continue to drag this out or have it end in some kind of a flame war.
 
It does work by postcode. You go to www.timeout.com/film and in the "search cinema listings" enter a postcode for the area you want to find films in. It then brings up a list of cinemas in distance order.

For example, I entered the postcode for the University of Aberdeen and it found the Belmont Picture House (1.2 miles), Vue Aberdeen (1.3), Cineworld (1.3), Odeon Dundee (56 miles!) and so on. Click on the cinema and it tells you the times of films day-by-day.

So to find out times at the Vue Greenwich I put in a nearby postcode and it listed the Greenwich Picturehouse, Odeon Greenwich, Vue Greenwich, Cineworld West India Quay and so on. Clicked on the Vue, selected Saturday and it lists times for

A Nightmare on Elm Street
Furry Vengeance
Hot Tub Time Machine
Iron Man 2
Kites
Prince of Persia: The SanRAB of Time
Robin Hood
Sex and the City 2
Streetdance 3D
The Back-up Plan
The Losers
The Princess and the Frog
The Tooth Fairy

OK, it's not perfect but it does enable you to find out what's on at all the cinemas in your area, and check the times at different cinemas to see which one suits you best. I agree with the main point that some films get too many screenings and there should be more opportunities for people living outside the major cities to see a wider choice of films. But it's not hard to track down when and where a film is showing if you really want to see it.
 
Loach attacks "closed off" cinema screens

Thanks for the info. :)
As I mentioned in my previous post Cineworld have updated their site yesterday. maybe they are the same and they only get confirmed details at the start of the weeek or get their info from the various cinema chains websites on the same day.Not great if you want to plan ahead more than a few days is it?
I as a filmgoer shouldn't have to go through various sites on the off chance I get lucky.
As I also mentioned I get information about wha is on at various local theatres months or even a year or so in advance.
Orchard Theatre, Dartford= Kevin Bishop, Wed 27 Oct. 7;30pm
 
He makes a good point. It is the irony of living in an era of the multiplex that a lot of the time it is the same film being shown on multiple screens.

There are local rep cinemas around the country. Thinking back to when I used to live in Kent - Canterbury had the Gulbenkian - they used to show quite a lot of arthouse stuff.

I should also mention that local independent cinemas sometimes show an old film once a week(the Empire in Sandwich still do it). I suppose the local independents are probably finding business against the multiplexes a bit tough nowadays. A shame as well as showing a wider variety of films, they seem more interesting places.

Outside of London and big cities it is hard to find arthouse and foreign films you do have to try and find a local rep cinema. Thinking back to last year and trying to find "Moon" outside of a cinema in London was difficult! Likewise with trying to find a cinema showing "Let the Last One In" as well!
 
Thats ok.

:)

I'm just saying he's making the same mistakes that the film studios make when they pretend one audience is the same as another. Like when they claim losses due to piracy, with the assumption that every download is a lost ticket/dvd sale. Its the same mistake loach is making.
 
Loach attacks "closed off" cinema screens

The simple fact is, we live in the age of extreme capitalism, which means 10 screens of SITC2 or Avatar will always happen, over offering a diverse selection of movies. Someone has already made the point of irony that the age of multiplex cinema often result in multiple screenings of the same film simultaneously.

Sure, I don't expect every single film to be shown at my local cinema(s), but I certainly expect a wider choice. I am a huge indie/world cinema fan, as I prefer a bit more substance, but that's my choice. As a parent with young children, DVD is my main media of choice due to restrictions of getting out often, but I really like the occasional cinema experience, and don't wish to have to travel 30-40 miles to see a screening of a particular film.

I find the Empire in Swindon is better than the Cineworld in terms of showing more independent films, albeit on a very limited distribution. I managed to see Un Prophete this year, with Che and Brick previously, so it isn't all bad, but could certainly be improved upon.

Multiscreen should equate to multi-films, but as long as the News of the World-mainstream audience continue to be wowed by average films with a bit of fancy CGI or 3D, then this will never happen. It's all about the $/
 
I'm not sure that is ironic though. When multiplexes first arrived in the UK the idea was that they would replace the old idea of going to the cinema at a fixed time with a more flexible approach: you would turn up, find which films were about to begin, and make your choice on the spot.

There have been a few threaRAB recently which show that people don't actually think like that, but instead they want to plan ahead, maybe several days or longer, to see a particular film that they've heard about. So the irony is not that films are getting several screenings at once, but that audiences are treating multiplexes as old-school cinemas where you have to plan everything in advance.

Of course if multiplex owners accepted that the public would rather have a wider choice of films than a wider choice of film times we might get to see the films that currently don't get shown. But in the face of competition from Blu-ray, Sky and good old-fashioned piracy the cinemas may be worried about losing customers if they make filmgoing less convenient. To some extent you're paying to see a film when it suits you, and if the cinemas can't provide that someone else will.
 
As said, if what you were saying were true, the independent cinemas would be raking in fistfulls of cash. They test your assumptions in reality, and find that it doesn't quite match the pretty theory of people wanting loaRAB more of obscure/small film. So the incessant calls for multiplex owners to "if only they did this or that" are really based on a fantasy. I'm not sure what blockage is preventing you guys from accepting that your hypothesis on this issue is already/has been tested thoroughly by the independent cinema chains, revealing the market reality which does not match your opinion. Theres also a nostalgia factor, did you really think you had more choice back in the day when theatres had few screens and movies stayed around for much longer? Back when tv was just a few channels and not even broadcasting most of the time? There were no good old days for this stuff. In a perfect world theatres would show any film you wanted at the time of your convenience, but in the real world they need to make money.
 
People plan ahead for showings because they have busy lives, not because of limited showings or such. Long time ago there was not all that much to do beyond go to the pub in the evenings, now people can do all sorts of things, in some places 24/7. So now you have to schedule around meeting your frienRAB, coordinating schedules, the multiple showings at multiplexes only make this easier, not harder. You can always generally find a showing to slot in with your schedule, if there were fewer showings as in your fantasy scenario many people would just not go at all.
 
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