9/11
Submitted by jim on Mon, 06/28/2004 - 10:17
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For the handful of you that haven't heard, Fahrenheit 911 isn't a joke in your town.
For the handful of you that haven't heard, Fahrenheit 911 isn't a joke in your town.
It was a joke in my town, the corporate headquarters for Carmike Cinemas. They decided not to open it here. However, the almost certainly horrible "White Chicks" managed to warrant multiple theaters in every local cineplexe. Urrghghh! I have just sent them a scathing e-mail which I'm sure will be ignored or go unread.
Here is my e-mail to them and their reply.
There are 33 first run Carmike screens in Columbus, Georgia, your corporate headquarters, and none of them carried Fareinheit 9/11 on it's opening weekend; and yet the Passion of the Christ opened in at least 10 in it's opening weekend. I, for one, am sick of your company's consistant lack of backbone in showing any films that do not meet your right-leaning standards of entertainment. Your total disregard for any opposing point of view is sickening and downright censorship. Any feeble attempt by your corporation to justify your decision not to show this movie in this area will be just corporate double-talk. Michael Moore is an Academy Award winning director, whether you agree with his films or not. It should be the viewing public's choice whether to endorse his film, not your corporation's. In the words of Micheal Moore's Academy Award acceptance speech, "Shame on you!"
and the reply was:
We do not subscribe to one political doctrine. We are a mainstream film exhibitor. Our product comes from the major distributors and their subsidiaries. The independent distributor for the film 911 does not have the resources to support a national release. We are hopeful that their box-office success this past weekend will lead to additional print buys in the coming weeks.
Sincerely,
xxxxxxxxxx
by the way, The Passion, which was in at least 10 local screens, was distributed by Newmarket Film Group(who?) with a list of a whopping 14 films to their credit.
ummmm. yeah, ok. This sounds like bullshit to me. According to the article provided by Jim,
"Lions Gate Entertainment is the premier independent producer and distributor of motion pictures, television programming, home entertainment, family entertainment and video-on-demand content. Its prestigious and prolific library of approximately 8000 titles is one of the largest in the entertainment industry."
and
"IFC Films, a leading theatrical film distribution company bringing the best of independent and specialized films to theaters"
Sounds like BS to me too, but to be fair I really have no idea how the process of how distributors decide where to send their movies, or whether theaters are restricted in what they choose to show by the # of available prints.
Take THAT, Republican party!
When I went to see a matinee of "Supersize Me", I got to the theater at 1:45, and the showing of "Fahrenheit 9/11" at 7:00 that night was already sold out. It's a beautiful thing.
I'm really eager to see how this stirs things up.
Probably not very much, considering it will be like other documentaries (Moore's being the exception, not the rule), meaning it will be in less than 100 theaters. Moreover, it doesn't have much of a production company (this being their only film), which doesn't make me think it really is going to get out into the public. Besides, right-wingers don't tend to go to docs, and art house theatres (which are likely to show them) tend to be in liberal-urban areas or universities. I don't see how this will have much impact.
Yeah, you're probably right. A shame, though; I always love a good controversy.
I'm glad it made some decent cash. I'm hoping now that it's been proven as commercially viable that they will expand the number of theaters it is in.