Re: What Film would you pay to see Back on the Big Screen?
You might better ask which old movies I wouldn't pay to see.
Because I'd sooner pay to see an old movie projected than a new one, in most cases, and I'm much younger than Steve Shaffer (movies are not made for his age group and never were -- sorry, old man).
Take my advice: see every old movie that you can on a big screen whenever and as often as possible. Make a point of it. In fact, make it a priority in your life to attend every restoration, re-release, and repertory screening that comes to your area, or get in the car and drive to wherever it's happening. Old movies are still a happening if you give them a chance. Watching old movies projected on a big screen enriches your life. In 1983 and 1984 I watched five Hitchcock films from the 1950s projected theatrically. They had been out of circulation for some people's lifetime and as old as they were the audience's attention was riveted. I learned a lot about film making from watching them, repeatedly. I've seen re-releases of Chinatown, Touch of Evil, The Wild Bunch, The Passenger, The Searchers, How the West Was Won, House of Wax 3-D, Dial M For Murder 3-D, The Seventh Seal, North By Northwest, Day For Night, Don't Look Back, Bullett and Bonnie & Clyde, Blade Runner, Fantasia, That Darn Cat!, Gone With the Wind, The Jungle Book, 101 Dalmations, Horror of Dracula and The Curse of Frankenstein, Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Thudnerball, Golderfinger, On Her majesty's Secret Service, The Graduate, The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and Night of the Living Dead (you bet!) and many others entertain audiences even though they'd seen the films on the small screen before. Old movies still work on the big screen, oftentimes they work better than new movies do. I've seen a packed house react in unison to Gorilla At Large. If Gorilla At Large can still hold an audience, so can every other movie ever made.
I would like to see Hondo 3-D re-released in the fall, perhaps with some other fine westerns, to coincide with theatrical releases of the remake of 3:10 to Yuma and the new Jesse James. Hollywood hates old westerns, but the strange thing is, audiences are screaming for them. Screaming for theatrical re-releases of old westerns and screaming for new westerns. The industry isn't listening.