Anyone else think that the Notebook "may" be a surprise hit?

The ladies seem to have a high want to see for this film.

I think the picture looks good but would be better suited for the fall. The disappointing grosses for The Terminal and Stepford Wives is not a good sign for The Notebook. It could be the best quality picture released this summer.

Very true. Part of the Terminal's problem I beleive is the title. Terminal what?
And Tom's last picture had him swearing a blue streak continously for 2 hrs. Turned a lot of people off to him.

It's too bad about Stepford. Not a bad picture. Story's a little disjointed, but the audience I watched it with got a kick out of it.

Shawshank Redemption......huh is what I heard from lot of my customers at the time. Too bad, one of the best films ever made with one of the worst titles ever. Film companies marketing depts have their heads where the sun don't shine way too often these days. Disney's marketing dept simply can't get a picture open anymore.


Reason I ask about the Notebook. Something that rarely happens in my theatre has been happening A LOT for a least 3 months. Females asking when Notebook starts. That's rare for me to have anyone to ask specifically about a film.


Another thing that bothers me and I'm sure is having an affect. The friggin quick release's of DVD's. The film Co's without a DOUBT are purposely working at training consumers to wait for DVD's. We are just a step in the marketing program for the DVD these days.

You are correct about the dvd market. It is ridiculous. Yet, these films nationwide continue to make millions of dollars. I've always heard that 20% of theatres gross 80% of the boxoffice total.

I would definately play a picture that will bring women to the movies

We are agreeing too much, Looney LOL! Shawshank was an awesome movie but with a non-marketable title.

Disney has a histoy of being one of the worst film companies to deal with, especially for small market theatres. If it weren't for Pixar, they would have had very little in the past few years worth marketing.

But what do I know - I didn't open Forrest Gump because who would come see a movie with 'Gump' in the title. Hindsight!

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Originally posted by Jason:

We are agreeing too much, Looney LOL! Shawshank was an awesome movie but with a non-marketable title.

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Mmmm, I must be bringing you to the darkside Luke......er uh Jason.

Notebook is a great movie. I liked it and my wife really liked it. The fact that they handed you tisue on the way into the screening does say something too. It's not a fun filled family film for the summer. Probably a fall or winter release would bring in a lot more of these people. We have so little room that we passed on it because Shrek, Garfield and Harry are still bringing in the families and I can not pass on their concession business.

I'm glad Harry is still drawing for someone. It was all down hill after opening day here. 3rd wk it was toast. While Shrek continued to draw.

Harry 3 opened like a Star Trek movie. Two wks and out.

I think people are weary of CGI, they want story, they want characters they care about.

Bring'em out crying at the end, you have a hit!

Harry Potter 3 did all of it's business here on it's first weekend. It died after that and is now dead.

Looney and I seem to have similar markets for family movies.

Are you opening White Chicks? I expect it to do well in my town for a couple of weeks. Movies just do not have the legs anymore since so many are released in a short time frame.

No, not playing White Chicks. In hind sight wished I had instead of Terminal.
3 screens doesn't leave much room.
Opening Notebook, 2nd wk Terminal, 3rd final wk of Garfield. Spidey next Wed to replace Garfield.

No legs is partly caused I believe by each of the following:
Dvd release patterns.

Multiple prints in the mega plex's. When Shrek 2 opened, my competition had 23 showtimes PER DAY of Shrek. All demand is sucked up quickly. Looking at the national grosses yesterday, I don't ever recall ever seeing so many 50%-60% drops from the previous week as there was this past weekend. Yikes.

Most films simply suck. No word of mouth to keep them going. Slick marketing (when it happens) opens them, then reality hits. Too many films are simply loud and obnoxious (practically everything last summer), so only appeal to a narrow democraphic. Think back to films made just 10-15 years ago. Most still hold up well today. Much more so than today's films will 10-15 yrs from now.

The film co's could care less. As long as the DVD release does well, they're happy.

This is apparent by today's release patterns, if you have a screen, you can play "most" wide release's. Throw a sheet on the side of a building, you can have a print. They want as much exposure for a film as quickly as possible. This was not the case just a couple of years ago. Small towns had to beg, or wait. I know of a town of 750 population, with two screens, that pretty much play's what they want on the break. 5 years ago, they would have NEVER gotten a film on the break! So, it's obvious the Film co's want as much as fast as they can from the theatres, even if it's only exposure for the title, and move on to the DVD release as soon as possible.

HDTV's are only going to make things worse. I have several acquantance's that have gone the HDTV route, and are supporting Netflix, and have stopped going to theatres all together. And they used to go couple of times per month. And I'll have to admit, HBO,Starz and Showtime all in HD is pretty compelling with a good home theatre system. Puts a lot of mediocre theatres to shame.

Off my soapbox now.

Harry is dead for us too just nothing to replace it with or the booker is giving the impression they won't let us replace it yet. Booker wanted us to drop shrek for terminal and Shrek is doing more $ than HP right now and bringing in good concession. Didn't think terminal would go over for my customers.

We did tremendious on the other HP movies but this one barely had a good first weekend. Shrek2 on its first and second weekend way out did HP for me. Hope spiderman can bring it back but it looks like they are putting it on every screen like HP so that takes from our share too just like Looney's.

I did replace Shrek with Terminal. What a mistake. I also have three screens and dedicated one to White Chicks at the beginning of the summer.

I will have to agree with all your points, Looney. I don't think film companies care whether a movie has legs or not if it will do $200-$300 mil in a few weeks. Neither would I. But all the reasons you mentioned hurt us small markets worse than the metros.

I hope there is other product to play when HP4 comes out so I can skip it. WB's terms were ridiculous for such a dud.

down here our biggest problem is piracy. As you guys up there open sometimes 6 months before us down here we find that a lot of people have downloaded or bought copies of films (dvd's) from the states. Infact there was a government run school here running a dvd to the public of Cat in the Hat 2 weeks before its release down here. Plus my daughter bought home a permission slip (anything over a g rating here the schools must get parents permission for the kids to view the film)to watch a screening of Shrek 2 before it opened in Downhere. Thank goodness the piracy people acted on that one and read the riot act to all our local schools

Someone should have had more than their hands slapped.

It's technically illegal for schools to show a DVD even if it's been released to DVD. They are not for public showings.

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Originally posted by Jason:
I hope there is other product to play when HP4 comes out so I can skip it. WB's terms were ridiculous for such a dud.

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I agree, that alos goes for anymore Matrix or Star Wars films.

I've seen a trend, when the studios get greedy with terms, look out, your gonna get burnt with a one week wonder.

Jaso you were sayiny earlier about the terms? what were the terms and policy for HP3? Be interestered to compare with the downunder policy/terms

Terms vary for most films depending on your location and grossing potential. I usually get decent terms being in a small market but I did not consider HP3's terms decent.

I am not sure if terms should be discussed on a public forum. Let's ask Looney first hehe.

Huh? Did someone appoint me hall monitor without telling me?

LOL, Looney.

I figured you might have a valuable opinion as to whether terms should be discussed here. I don't think this is the place to divulge such information. Your thoughts?

Nope, this isn't the place to discuss such things. But Jon, you can figure Warners will want your first and second born child.
Besides, it vary's too much for it to matter. The first booker I had when I was getting started in this biz, an "old timer" that had been around this biz since the 40's, always told me when it comes to business "If someone ask's for the time, tell them your watch is broke". :-)

Ok, Notebook disappointed, just like most everything else this summer has. BUT, it shows signs of growing. My Tuesday gross is the best gross I've had so far this week for it.
So word of mouth must be taking hold.
Anyone else?