Can a Summer Movie Still Have Legs? (1 Viewer)

[EdHoch]

You're absolutely right. Back in 1977, there was no home video market to speak of, no HBO, no cable TV. You had to wait for the movie to appear on "broadcast television." and who knew how long that would take.

So you went as many times as you could to see the movie in the theater, and Star Wars ran for 18 months straight (at least it did at the Westgate Theater in Beaverton Oregon...)

You also had much less competition in terms of the number of motion pictures released. I wonder if there are statistics somewhere for the number of films released in theaters in 1977, versus 2002...would be an interesting comparison.

 

[Chris]

When I saw "Empire" in the theater the concept of VHS was nowhere near mainstream, people who had them were rare.. the year after, we purchased our first VHS deck.. a top-loading unit (you pressed a large button and the top "sprung" out on hinges) w two "dials" (one for VHF other for UHF) .. The concept of "Home Video" was almost non-existant.

 

[WayneG]

In the summer of 1975 my friends told me there was a movie playing about a killer shark, so we went to see it and it was lined up around the block. I lived in a small city in Ontario with one screen (this city currently has zero screens but is getting a tri-plex next year).

In 1977 my mother told me there was a movie on that looked like a Western set in outer space. I looked at the ad in the paper and it looked kind of cool. We made a picnic and went with my friend. This was mid-July.

In neither case did I know anything else about these movies before seeing them. Nothing. Also, I don't remember either summer featuring 16 sequels and 3 remakes.

The entire nature of the industry has changed. Now we're bombarded before opening. Then the film is ignored to make way for the blockbuster opening next weekend.

Films with legs now really are only the hidden treasures that people discover and spread by word of mouth - films that do a consistent take for weeks or months.

 

[Keith Yatsuhashi]

Chris,

Don't forget that back in the VHS days, Lucas was the same Lucas he was today. By that I mean that I took FOREVER for him to buy into the home video idea and release Star Wars on tape.

 

[Joshua_Y]

I thought about TMP Joshua, but TMP didn't have the good word of mouth that Lion King did.

I dont care if it had good word of mouth or not...I happen to remember that people were enjoying it...it still played through til Sept.-Oct.

And I believe Theaters were obligated to show TPM for 8 weeks...and it was still playing here til Oct. people were seeing the movie and it played for a very long time!

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Don't forget that back in the VHS days, Lucas was the same Lucas he was today. By that I mean that I took FOREVER for him to buy into the home video idea and release Star Wars on tape.

Define "forever". I didn't think GL delayed that excessively long given the slow growth of the format. Dunno exactly when Star Wars first hit, but I know it was already out when we got out first VCR in early 1983. IIRC, Empire arrived in late 1984, and I think Jedi came out in spring 1986. Slow? Yes, but not radically so, especially not for Star Wars itself...

 

[Chris Dugger]

Joshua...

FOX contracted ALL THEATRES with a MINIMUM playoff on TPM at 12 weeks....and THEATRES were required (although most ignored this after week 3 due to vacating attendence) that theatres must display this film in their largest house for the contracted period.

All locations that forced a drop before this 12 week period were FINED by FOX for each and every week of the contract that it do not play.

75% of theatres were served this FINE because the film dropped dead after week 5 and with the glut of product available, it made no sense to contiue to give a screen to TPM.

As maybe some theatres contiued for their own reason. TPM (as well as AOTC) were very front loaded nationally.

Certainly this thread is looking at it nationwise and not so much on a local level.

As you have pointed out, you location continued to hold through the Sept - Oct months meaning full well that they continued to do some level of biz with it or they ended up paying out so much to the studios on the early weeks that they were trying to recoup what they could.

Dugger

 

[Keith Yatsuhashi]

Joshua,

I guess what I was getting at was that while TMP did well at the BO, it wasn't a movie that had people buzzing about it. How about we go back and name some summer movies with legs. I keep forgetting alot of them, so maybe it's worth the time to do it.

T2
Lion King
Signs
ID4(????)
Jurassic Park (?)
ET

I will say though, that it seems that SW ANH started it all. It was a phenomenon that changed the summer movie going experience. It was still showing up on magazine covers well after it left the theater. It came back to the theaters the following year, and every now and again after that. I can't think of a movie that's done that since. It held the country's attention for a very long time, especially for a space opera. That's part of what I was getting at. Can you remember a summer movie that took the country by storm like SW did? The studious used to reach for that type of blockbuster. It doesn't seem like they do anymore. IMHO it's as if they shoot for some BO take, run some marketing strategy to get it, and that's it. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm nostalgic, but I miss the days when a movie grabbed you and didn't let you go. Titanic did it for alot of people. From reading some posts here, it looks like the Matrix does it for alot of people. LOTR does it for me again....thank God for PJ

BTW, my earlier comments about SW on VHS were really that Lucas took his sweet time in releasing ANH on VHS. That was an event. It cost somthing like $120 to buy it. At one point it looked unlikely that it would ever be on VHS....Lucas stated that he hated home video. When ESB came out, VHS in alot more homes. Parallels to Lucas' DVD strategy? I don't know, really, but my memory makes it seem alot like his statements about DVD.