# Why don't movie theaters play older franchise movies when the sequel is incoming? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [May 20, 2025, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-movie-theaters-play-older-franchise-movies-when-the-sequel-is-incoming/1018599 "2025-05-20T20:32:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2025, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-movie-theaters-play-older-franchise-movies-when-the-sequel-is-incoming/1018599/1 "2025-05-20T20:32:12Z")
I’ve only noticed this happening now but it’s too little too late, my local theater had a showing of the original Twister when Twisters was a month away, and currently they’re doing a showing of the original Karate Kid and the original 28 Days Later in anticipation for the sequels later this year. But there’s a ton of movies where this doesn’t happen, which is weird because sometimes I like to go see a previous movie in anticipation of a sequel in the theater, and I’d go see it in theaters if I could. And I don’t think this is a rare phenomenon because when I saw the original Twister airing the movie theater was packed and a lot of people were talking before the movie about how they were seeing this because they were also going to see Twisters later. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2025, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-movie-theaters-play-older-franchise-movies-when-the-sequel-is-incoming/1018599/2 "2025-05-20T20:53:40Z")
I suspect it depends on where you live. There are frequently such showings of older films, including ones whose sequel is opening soon, where I live. There are 49 movie theaters in the Washington, D.C. area. This doesn’t include some theaters only occasionally used to show films. If I were to include the Baltimore area, there are even more of them. There are even more if you include some others a little further away but still within driving distance. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2025, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-movie-theaters-play-older-franchise-movies-when-the-sequel-is-incoming/1018599/3 "2025-05-21T18:18:54Z")
They used to do this, way back when. I got to see most of the James Bond movies on reruns in the theaters before now ones came out (this was before VCRs and before they started broadcasting them on TV). Saw a lot of older movies that way. Nowadays they usually run the earlier movies of the franchise on cable channels or maybe streaming. I know that before a sequel comes out I can coiunt on seing it listed several times on my channel guide. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2025, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-movie-theaters-play-older-franchise-movies-when-the-sequel-is-incoming/1018599/4 "2025-05-21T18:39:22Z")
I often see previous movies in a franchise shown on TV, practically non-stop, before a new flick is released. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2025, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-movie-theaters-play-older-franchise-movies-when-the-sequel-is-incoming/1018599/5 "2025-05-21T18:54:52Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Nowadays they usually run the earlier movies of the franchise on cable channels or maybe streaming. This is likely the answer. I suspect for most films, other than the very biggest FX extravaganzas, and/or highly-anticipated sequels, most people who would want to see the earlier film(s) before going to see the new sequel in the theater are going to be more interested in being able to watch the older films at home. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2025, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-movie-theaters-play-older-franchise-movies-when-the-sequel-is-incoming/1018599/6 "2025-05-21T20:36:56Z")
Back when _Goldfinger_ was released, it did so well that many theaters followed it up with a double-feature re-release of _Dr. No_ and _From Russia with Love_ (two earlier films in the series). The strategy behind movie releases and theater bookings used to be a lot different. For example, we used to expect matinees to be different movies from the evening showings in single-screen theaters. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2025, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-movie-theaters-play-older-franchise-movies-when-the-sequel-is-incoming/1018599/7 "2025-05-22T01:51:20Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Nowadays they usually run the earlier movies of the franchise on cable channels or maybe streaming. I know that before a sequel comes out I can coiunt on seing it listed several times on my channel guide. Just to list a handful: Warner Brothers owns TNT Paramount owns Showtime Disney owns FX NBC Universal owns Peacock Etc., Etc. Why bother to re-release a blockbuster film through a bunch of independent theater chains when you can run it on your own network, generate audiences and revenue, while helping to fill the cavernous maw for content a cable network or streaming service needs. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2025, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-movie-theaters-play-older-franchise-movies-when-the-sequel-is-incoming/1018599/8 "2025-05-22T10:59:26Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > Back when _Goldfinger_ was released, it did so well that many theaters followed it up with a double-feature re-release of _Dr. No_ and _From Russia with Love_ (two earlier films in the series). The strategy behind movie releases and theater bookings used to be a lot different. This is what I was talking about above where I said that I saw almost all of the Bond films as re-releases , although it was a later vintage of re-releases than the time of Goldfinger. They did this again later on with other Bond films. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2025, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-movie-theaters-play-older-franchise-movies-when-the-sequel-is-incoming/1018599/9 "2025-05-22T11:52:24Z")
One technical question: Most cinemas have (as far as I know) changed to digital projectors and receive the movies as a digital package. Do movie distributors have digitized all of their backlist, or are some older movies that get little play in cinemas only available as classic film copies? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2025, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-movie-theaters-play-older-franchise-movies-when-the-sequel-is-incoming/1018599/10 "2025-05-22T14:02:32Z")
> [@Mops](#): > > Do movie distributors have digitized all of their backlist If a movie is still being shown on TV or streaming services, I’m fairly positive that it has been digitized at this point, as I think that those channels and services exclusively work with digital copies of pretty much everything now. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2025, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-movie-theaters-play-older-franchise-movies-when-the-sequel-is-incoming/1018599/11 "2025-05-22T14:05:57Z")
Cable/streaming TV has taken care of that. As an example, I watched IMF 7 part one, “Dead Reckoning”, just a week ago on TV. It set up “Dead Reckoning part two”, also referred to as “Final Reckoning” which is coming out this weekend in the theaters.