Ah, I recant my slander. My husband told me it was in “that one dinky rathole with bad sound” when he meant, “I don’t want to fight traffic, pay $10 per ticket plus $13 for parking and you probably won’t find out I lied. Soon enough it will open wider release and play at CineArts in Evanston where we see most things anyway.”
Ha, ok. I thought, if you thought the River East 21 theater was small and uncomfortable, you have VERY high standards. Glad to know it was a fib. We don’t have a car and don’t have to worry about parking, but I can understand it being a problem cost. I’m sure the COM will open in Evanston.
I love the Century 12/CineArts 6 too. They show good movies, their matinees are still reasonable, and their employees are fantastic. We’re not close to it, but there’s a bus that goes from 1/2 block away from our apartment that lets us off right in front of the theater. The bus doesn’t run after 7:30pm, but if we see late movies we can take the L (Purple/Red) and another bus (Lawrence) so we’re not stuck. The seats are less comfortable than the RE21, but the Exit signs at CineArts are wonderful: red on quiet and discreet black instead of Chicago’s red on bright, shining, always-washes-out-the-screen white.
I hear Century is being taken over by CineMark. I hope nothing major changes. One advantage would be the ability to buy discount passes at Costco. Right now Costco sells passes for AMC and CineMark. That’s why we go to so many AMC theaters, because all the CineMark theaters are way out in the burbs, which might as well be Denver. Evanston’s easy to get to.
On topic, Chicago suburbs seems pretty good about playing interesting films, based on the Reader showtimes. City theaters are on the left, Suburb theaters are on the right. Some of the films playing in the city are not in wide release yet.
I hope I never have to move to a cinema-deprived community, but the coming trend of day and date theatrical/download/DVD releases, especially of indie/art house/foreign films, would go a long way to ease the pain if I was ever so afflicted. The coming trend of digital presentations could also help sustain art houses in smaller communities. Movies on film stock cost a bitchload of money to print and ship. Theaters that show actual film will never die, but they need to become scarce. Digital is the way to get these movies to places that are ill-served by studios.
Even if he can’t spell ‘etc.’.
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It’s all about demographics. Who lives in the suburbs? Who goes to see movies in droves in the suburbs? Groups of teenagers and families with kids. When are these theatres packed? Nights (especially weekends) when the teens need something to do and want to see Saw IV, or weekend matinees when families want to see the latest Pixar flick or the latest Harry Potter.
I’m not saying Mom and Dad aren’t intellectual enough to want to see a thought provoking indie, they just don’t have the time, and Mom and Dad don’t go out to see movies by themselves. They have big houses. They have big TVs. They’ll watch them at home when they get a free couple hours.
Who lives in the urban areas? College students, singles, yuppies. When you have no kids and don’t have a lawn to mow you have the time to go see indies on a Wednesday night. And your not going to go drive “out” to the burbs to see a film, you’re going to walk around the corner.
They’re not only putting movies where their audiences are, they’re putting movies where their paying moviegoing audiences are.
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Reading this reminds me why I am so never going to live in the suburbs if I can help it.
Reading through this thread, I’m reminded of a Roger Ebert story. Ebert said once day back in '72, his phone at the Sun-Times rang and the following conversation ensued:
Caller: What can you tell me about this movie Cries and Whispers?
Ebert: I think it’s one of the best movies of the year.
Caller: Well, that doesn’t sound like anything I would want to see!
I think it’s at about this point in the thread that I confess I haven’t seen an art house film in more than 18 months.
I work 60+ hour weeks, travel abroad frequently, and live out in the country amid homes with huge acreage. In short, I’m part of the problem. 