The Repertory Conundrum

In the downstairs bathroom, adjacent to my family/movie room is an original from the Nuart theater in Los Angeles for March of 1975.? I often look at this schedule and am awed that during March of 1975, the Nuart screened over 40 movies. The ticket price was a dollar and the scope and variety of the movies screened were immense. From Conrad Rooks “Siddhartha”, to John Houston’s “ Fat City” to Ted Kotcheff’s “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz”. I often reflect on this especially in light of the challenges that have been faced by theaters today.

I was more than lucky to cinematically grow up with an amazing repertory theater. It was amazing, I got to see movies from “The Maltese Falcon” to “El Topo”, and? “Dark Star” to foreign language movies like “Mediterraneo”. Like the Nuart, the Plaza theater screened over 40 movies a month and I received a cinematic education in a very short period of time. For a culture of movie going these repertory theaters provided diversity and passion and created a huge amount of buzz and excitement about going to the movies.

Now I look back on movie theater schedules and I see that although the theaters did not label themselves as either “repertory cinema” or an “arthouse” that due to the release patterns favoring the great downtown theater, many secondary markets showed two or three movies a week. I got hold of a movie ad for the 1940’s for the Majestic Theater in Conway, New Hampshire. During the week of August 21st to September 1st, the theater showed 10 movies, including “Copacabana” starring Groucho Marx and most interesting “Miracle on 34th Street” , a Christmas classic. The need for more and steady amounts of programming were needed in order to maintain an audience base.

Like I have said before, what is past is prologue. Most feel that the varied programming erupted from the rise of the midnight movies and the release of Jadowrsky’s opus “El Topo”.? There have been arthouses in cinemas since the 1920's, usually in major centers. But repertory cinema has been in place for decades. The phenomena of the blockbuster totally rewrote the movie going handbook and often not for the better.

2024 marks the tenth anniversary of Christopher Nolan’s movie “Interstellar”.? The tenth year anniversary release day box office surpassed $25 million (not too shabby) and solidly outperformed the Marvel picture “Kraven The Hunter”. This is for a release that was only placed on 165 screens. There were reports that in Manhattan on a Tuesday afternoon “Interstellar” played to sold out audiences. I find this fascinating but it also reveals again that there is a deep demand for moviegoing that is not being met by the studios.

The re-release of the movie “Coraline” in celebration of its 15th anniversary saw a global box office of $50 million. These are solid numbers. For the week “Interstellar” was the number 3 picture on North American screens. This really says a lot. People want to go to the movies, but the content on the screen is not engaging the public.

Imagine a rerelease of “Pulp Fiction” and a relaunching of titles like “Seven” or “Wayne’s World”. Fathom does release a solid flow of rerelease movies but economics behind their business model is not beneficial to the theater circuit and/or operator. I feel that the studios should offer a slate of titles they feel could do some business. Ask for a 30% box office rental (yes I am talking to you Disney) and start creating traction for once dormant titles. I know that this strategy would also revitalize the streaming market.

There are too many dormant auditoriums, there is an increasing cost of operation that has to be shared by fewer pictures. An aggressive pattern of re-release could meet the money being left on the table by the studios and provide theater an opportunity to program revenue producing titles in the slow period. If the studios truly are interested in sustaining movie going then they will see this as a win/win situation. A strategy that could sustain them and as well bring in an increased amount of ancillary revenue.

In 2024 we saw a deep downturn in the centralized movie economy in Los Angeles. Thousands of movie workers are leaving the business or leaving Los Angeles. About 50% of the revenue seen at the box office were for animated movies. There are a ton of markets not being addressed. Markets that want to go to the movies. A structured pattern of re-released hits may be the opening of the door that is needed by the business of exhibition.