Show Times, Release Dates, and Previews

How do you decide which previews to place on a movie?
There are three factors that go into our selection of previews.

1.) Do we intend to play the movie. We will never program a preview (or trailer) for a movie we do not intend to play. However, the previews often come out months before we know if we will play the movie.

2.) Film company requests. Each week we get requests from the film companies to program certain previews on certain movies. To keep the film companies happy, we make every effort to follow their requests. In some cases, a film company may require us to play a certain preview with a movie.

3.) Appropriateness of the preview. Not only do we make sure to program previews with similar themes to the feature, but we also make sure that the content of the preview (and the movie it's promoting) are a good match for the feature. We wouldn't place previews for action movies with a romantic comedy feature. We will also try to place previews for upcoming movies that have the same actor/actress as the feature.

When it comes to programming previews, we are very careful to keep the ratings in mind. And we would never program a preview for a movie that is rated "R" (and in most cases "PG-13") with a "G" or "PG" rated feature.

We try our best to keep up to date on current and upcoming movies, so we usually know which previews are best suited for each movie we are playing. back to top

When do you change your movie times?
Usually our movie times change on Friday (but it can be other days of the week). During the school year we don't run late shows (shows starting after 8:00pm) Sunday through Thursday.

I saw a preview at your theatre and I want to know if you will play that movie.
When we place a preview, we intend to play the movie. However, many of the previews come out weeks or months before we know whether or not we will play the movie. back to top

Why did a movie open later at your theatre than it did everywhere else?
Most movies open everywhere at the same time. However, there are some movies that only open in big cities for the first couple of weeks and then expand to the rest of the country - either all at once or in several "platforms". This is often done to test the demand for a movie or to build word of mouth. Because we are considered a small market, we are not able to get those films that are released "limited".

Also, there are times when there are too many movies opening in a week and we are forced to pass on one or more of those movies. If demand is high enough and we have an opening in our schedule, then we will try to play the movie at a later date. Back to top

Why didn't you play that movie?
Although we try to play as many first run movies as possible, there are many factors affecting which movies we will play. These include: how wide the film is being released, contract obligations for other movies, predicted revenue for the movie, local demand, previous performance of similar movies, and more. The biggest factor is whether we can accommodate the movie while keeping everything else in high demand. Back to top

Why did you play that movie for such a short time?
Sometimes we have a hole in our schedule which allows us to bringing in a limited interest film (such as a foriegn language film). When we do play these movies, it is often the case that we can only play them for one week. If this is the case, it will usually be stated everywhere you find our show times.

There are also times when we must drop a movie because it simply isn't doing any business. If you join our mailing list, we will send you an email each week (usually on Tuesday) saying which movies are leaving and what new movies are coming in. Back to top

Why is the movie I want to see only playing once or twice a day?
When a movie's business starts to fall off, we will make every attempt to continue playing the movie as long as there is a reasonable level of interest. Unfortunately, sometimes the only way we can do this is to have the film share a screen with another movie which will limit the number of show times each day. The alternative is to not have the movie at all. Back to top

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