Another Op'nin', Another Snore
Looking at the list of releases this weekend, the only exciting thing to note is that A Scanner Darkly is opening on two screens at the local arthouse, Miracle 5. In the five years I've lived in Tallahassee, the "Miracle" is usually when a non-IndieBuster opens and lasts more than a week or two.
An IndieBuster is what I call arthouse movies that the broader audience not only boasts having seen to boost their Indie Cred or the impression that they are like totally deep and shit. Movies like Lost in Translation or mainstream foreign releases like Amelie are good examples of this.
Man 1: "Oh my god, Preston, I saw the most totally weird movie."
Man 2 (Prestron): "Oh, what was it like, bro?"
Man 1: "I mean, it was, like, weird...but awesome. Not awesome, but like weird awesome. You know?"
Preston: "Dude, I know what you mean. Have you seen the new M. Night--whatever his name is movie? It's totally weird and indie as shit. I heard they made for like seven bucks. J/k, j/k."
Man 1: "It reminds me of that one movie by that guy..."
Preston: "Yeah dude, it was just like that, I totally swear, bro...it was like, quality."
Arthouse movies are getting co-opted more and more by mainstream folks who want the status conferral from being able to say "I saw it". Check me out, I'm hot shit, I watch cool movies. I don't like or understand them, but I'll be damned if I don't watch them.
A Scanner Darkly won't pick up business in towns like Tallahassee until it's had a couple weeks to roll around through word of mouth. Bigger non-metropolis cities like Austin have big huge benefit pre-screenings of movies like this one sponsired by their local film societies. The Tallahassee Film Society does their best to facilitate a better moviegoing experience in Florida's Capitol City, but there's only so much you can do with AMC and Regal as the sole exhibitors in this burg.
Most people reading this have had access to An Inconvenient Truth since shortly after its release, but we got it weeks later, and as broadly as its been publicized, people don't hit up docs and other less First Weekend Dependents the first two weeks and then don't go, they find them throughout their run. The Regal booking mentality that rules the day with theatres like the Miracle is that if it's dead for two weeks, it's pointless to keep it there. If someone would just set up an Angelika or Alamo Drafthouse styled venue, we'd be a viable arthouse movie town.
Why hasn't someone stepped up to the plate? It's there for the taking...an art-hungry town that just wants the content delivered.
The answer, I've come to find, is that no one wants to put up their money and take any risk. What a surprise...
Everybody wants to steer the ship but not fund the expedition. Movie-going has become less of an outing than a herding, and it shows in the drop in attendance. It isn't just the movies, it's the sucktastic experience that people want nothing to do with too.
If you make it more difficult to see the good movies in a good venue, you are more a gate-closer than a gate-keeper. Not only are ad-sellers running exhibition now, but the three big companies (AMC Loews, Regal, and Cinemark) jointly own the preshow junk advertising company that everyone complains about, National CineMedia.
When you sit through 20-25 minutes of preshow garbage in addition to a movie that might be just O.K., you start to resent the fact that you're paying for it in the first place. This has been said before, but it's getting worse, and we can never stop complaining about it.
Needless to say, I'm going to start dissecting about each one of these CineMercials whenever I see them, which of course, is gonna be every time I go see a movie theatrically. Son of a bitch!