What with being in between jobs, I’ve taken to exploring some options I would not have otherwise entertained. One of those is trying to open a movie theatre here in Calgary which would only show old sci-fi movies, from the original Star Wars flicks to moldy-goldy classics like Godzilla. By showing older movies, we could keep ticket prices down (maybe in the $5 range) and give people a chance to see some great shows on the big screen, as God intended.
The big question is this: is there even a market for such a place? I honestly don’t know if other towns might have venues which do this, or even if anyone would show up. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Hell, I’d go. If I was in Calgary, anyway. And not currently broke. Just make sure to get a couple of good Geek and/or Nerd advisors to help with your movie choices. If you show otherwise hard to find movies that have a good cult following (Like the MST3K movie), people will come from quite some distance to the theater. AND quickly build your reputation among movie buffs.
Ranchoth
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Just show “The Secret of NIMH” when I’m in town, and I’ll waive my consulting fee. )
BTW, Ranchoth, when the missus and I were waiting for 45 minutes for our food at Boston Pizza yesterday (that’s a whole other thread), MST3K did come up as a possibility. Other thoughts included an all-superhero month featuring Superman the Movie, Batman, X-Men, and Spiderman; annual or semi-annual showings of Battlestar Gallactica; and perhaps a small meeting room where we could broadcast T.V. shows, such as Buffy, for our loyal patrons.
Oh, I don’t think Dread Pirate Jimbo has much need for hardcore geek advisors (other than myself, of course :D). This is a man who is currently cruising the net in a room full of light sabers, a couple of Darth Vaders, an R2D2 model, models of every Enterprise ever, a Millenium Falcon, and a ceramic Yoda. Oh, I forgot about the Superman poster, the Enterprise communicators, the Lord of the Rings keychain, the Jedi cloak - the list goes on and on on on…and yet, I still married him. Gotta love those geek bois.
My single criteria for seeing a movie is ‘Does it have a spaceship’ so while some like Godzilla don’t I would be there more often than not. But as per leechbabe, Melbourne is too far to travel to see a spaceship.
Personally, I don’t think the theater would survive. Very few specialized theaters make it, and those that do work to bring in different kinds of audiences with different kinds of films.
I think Yojomboguy’s right - you might make it if you were a speciality-based theatre, but I think you’d need to have a broader base than just sci-fi. Funnily enough, my (now-ex) bro-in-law looked very, very seriously at doing this in his home town when the local theatre was put out of business by a new multiplex. Couldn’t raise the cash, unfortunately, but he sounded a lot of people out, and generally got a very favourable reaction…
When I lived in Rochester, N.Y. in the early 1980’s, someone opened a “classic” theater that showed really good stuff (including Forbidden Planet and other good SF).
It went broke and closed in very short order.
And this was before videotape players were common and Classic Movie Cable Channels existed, so that your only choice if you wanted a classic movie was to see it in a theater.
So, sadly, I have to agree with yojimboguy and Xerxes in saying that this is a really iffy venture.
Although… a posibility might be to have another draw other than just the movie… such as food and/or drinks served at the theatre. Have a unique atmosphere/seating arangement. Possibly have tables and chairs in a cabaret-type setting to watch the movie and have a few drinks. Then you could also use the space when you’re not showing a film for other things. Rent it to local gaming groups, or have some sort of coffee house.
It’ll be key to make sure your place is bringing in some sort of income most hours of the day, otherwise you’ll go under. I know even I, who would love to go see some classic films on a big screen, wouldn’t go all that often.
We have a couple of specialties theaters around here and they do OK, but they don’t concnetrate on one exclusive genre. However, one of them DOES make a decent go of it with “theme months” - where all movies shown that month are of a single genre. They occasionally do “All Sci-Fi” and it was great to FINALLY see Soylent Green uncut and on the big screen.
There’s got to be someplace out there to do objective research on this topic, right??
I think a lure beyond the movie would be something we’d want to add, whether it be a novelty shop or a rentable conference room or something along those lines, because I do agree with some of the above commentary on how tough it would be to make the venture stand up strictly on the theatre’s merit alone.
There was a classic movie theater in Salt Lake City when I lived there that had an attached video store that sold and rented classic movies – an interesting mix. But I still think it went under.
There are a few “revival” theaters here in the Twin Cities, but I’ve never seen a revival theater that focused on a specific genre all the time. It might be better to focus on classic movies in all genres rather than just on sci-fi. That way, you could cater to film buffs as well as sci-fi buffs. You could show sci-fi movies on, say, Saturday nights at midnight to get a good “geek” crowd going every week. (I know that some theaters still show Rocky Horror every week, if you want to deal with that mess.)
You might want to talk to your local newspaper’s film critic. He or she would likely have a good handle on the size of Calgary’s film-buff community and might be able to tell you how likely it would be that such a venture would succeed. Also, of course, go to local gaming stores, etc. to probe the opinions of sci-fi buffs. I know that the gaming stores around here sell a lot of anime, so that might be a market you could attract as well.
You might want to have a mini-festival of “Metropolis”-as many versions as you can find. The new restored version, the Moroder version, and Tezuka’s version, even.
Thanks for youe thoughts, Tamex. However, as it happens, there are three theatres in Calgary that show limited run pictures as well as old classics (I’ve seen Bugs Bunny festivals and Gone With The Wind at those venues – actually, seeing those places continue to function was what gave me the idea in the first place), so I suspect trying to jump into that arena would just over-saturate the market. However, the suggestions on who else to talk to are excellent. We’ll look in that direction.
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