Blow to hopes for FH 9/11 in small towns

[southlandshari]

For those of you that wondered why some DU'ers were worried about being able to see Fahrenheit 9/11 opening weekend, this may help explain what many of us face. Carmike (which operates mostly in small towns) president's quote sums it up...


"This is in the biggest part of our season, and business is great this year, and you think I'm going to play a documentary `Spider-Man'?" said Mike Patrick, president of Carmike Cinemas, which operates almost exclusively in towns of 100,000 or less. "I'm not so sure that has commercial appeal compared to `Spider-Man' or `The Notebook' or `White Chicks' or `Around the World in 80 Days' and the other seven or eight pictures I have doing great business."

So Carmike "may not have any interest" in booking "Fahrenheit," he said. "Art pictures do not normally play very well in hometown America."

More:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/arts/chi-0406200389jun20,1,7772194.story?coll=chi-leisurearts-hed

I'll still drive 60 miles to see the film Friday, but have probably lost some of those I'd recruited to come. And it is the folks not willing to go the extra mile to see FH 9/11 that need to see it the most!

[Wickerman]

1. They don't have to see it opening day

soon the hype and controversy will be so strong that they'll drive their own damn selves to see it.

[lazarus]

2. I can't say I blame him

These small theatres are in rural America, and generally only have one or two screens. Historically, booking a documentary is a quick way to go broke.

[graham67]

6. I'm in the middle...

of f-ing nowhere and we have a 9 screen Carmike complex. This is a smokescreen...Michael Moore movies do well at the box office so the excuse about a documentary not doing well is just not true.

[southlandshari]

9. think again

At last count (March 2002), Carmike operated 312 theaters in 35 states with a combined 2,275 screens, an average of about 7 screens per theater. I'm betting the majority of the Carmike theaters are like the one in my town, which is a 16 screen multiplex that is the only movie theater in a multi-county area.

Carmike targets towns of 50,000 to 250,000. Not really rural America to most of us that don't live in metropolis. Half the state capitals in the south fall into Carmike's target market, though it is the smaller end of that range that really gets the shaft of a cinematic monopoly!

[lazarus]

18. Ah, then in that case

I change my mind. :D

50-250k isn't really "small town" to me, as I grew up in a town of only 10k, and lived 8 miles out of town at that.

[tcfrogs]

3. I looked up where I grew up - Des Moines area

And it's only playing at the "art-house" theater. Surprising to me, since the Des Moines area has grown to over half a million, and I think Carmike Theaters still operates there.

[Darkseid69]

4. If it makes money..

It will pickup business. Even in smallville.

[eyesroll]

5. Well, it does make business sense

If you have Spider-Man and Harry Potter and a bunch of easy-to-sell blockbusters, why book an unknown quanitity?

If F911 beats expectations, though, expect Carmike to reconsider...

[yorgatron]

8. everyone i've talked to that's seen the commercial for

"white chicks" think it has zero appeal.it'll bomb,mark my words.F/911 is bound to be a hit IMHO

[Momof1]

7. 5 years ago, we only had carmike

Now we have a few others. Fahrenheit is playing in my hometown. The population there is only about 10,000.

Emailing the theaters really WORK!!

[alarcojon]

11. Apparently it does!

It's coming to Carmike cinema in Eau Claire, WI, population 60,000. Our local peace and justice group put on an e-mail campaign to get it here. I must say we weren't optimistic, but it's coming on June 25.

They'll show it if they're convinced the $$$ are there.

[southlandshari]

14. Surprise

I was told by someone at Carmike HQ that the only place FH9/11 would open in a Carmike theater was MN. I'm glad to know that not all Carmike theaters are left out of distribution.

My local theater manager, who was hopeful the film would make it here when we talked yesterday, today said not only would FH 9/11 not open here, it is highly doubtful it will ever be booked. And there were a number of us lobbying locally and to Carmike HQ in favor of bringing the movie here. I do live in a college town (home to the largest university in the state); even if it is in Alabama, I thought that would count for something.

[mark0rama]

15. Exactly, Carmike is not the enemy.

Sure, I'd like to see them put prints of the film in more markets, but I'm not going to second-guess their business decisions. I'm just glad they didn't make the ideological decision to stay away from it.

And if it has a kickass opening weekend, expect it to show up in a lot more places the next weekend, if Spidey hasn't taken over all the screens!

[vivalarev]

12. In Philly its only at 2 theatres....

and one of them is 45 minutes from center city

[Shakespeare]

10. If the per-screen gross is high after this weekend....

...look for more freeper-owners like this guy to swallow hard and add it to their lineup. $$$$$$$ matters, and this one may look too profitable for them to pass up.

[osaMABUSh]

13. BS - I live in the fastest growing town in PA and we have Carmike

North suburb of Pittsburgh and all we have is a dinky Carmike 8 with no F-911. Big cineplex is the works.

Me and my 13 year old may drive 100 miles North to see it with other liberals we know and make a party of it instead of driving into Pittsburgh.

[southlandshari]

16. don't shoot the messenger!

Hey! I didn't say Carmike operated "exclusively" in small towns, just "mostly". And that was taken from the linked Chicago Tribune article ("almost exclusively in towns of 100,000 or less"), and Carmike's website, which states it targets "small to medium" markets of "50,000 - 250,000"

[graham67]

17. Ok, that's funny....

I'm going to be driving 60 miles TO Pittsburgh to see it.

[Miss Authoritiva]

19. Not going to play at my local multiplexes either.

I'm not going to attribute any political motivations to this fact. All the local movie theaters play exactly the same movies, and they're always the big budget, mainstream films. If something super-big comes out, like a Harry Potter film, then the theaters dedicate 3 or 4 screens to the movie. That's just how it goes. There are never any foreign films, any documentaries, any collection of short films.

This is suburbia -- all McDonald's, the GAP, and Adam Sandler movies all the freakin' time.