Posted by The Midknight at spider-wa012.proxy.aol.com on November 14, 1999 at 02:32:35:
On, Thursday, the managers in charge of placement of the films for my theater weren't sure what size house to put Dogma into, so they banished it to one of our small houses. Having seen it at the benefit screeening--btw, Thank you for doing that, it was a really cool thing for you to do and made that first viewing all the more memoroable. Thanks.--and knowing how great a movie it is, I tried as best as I could to convince them that the film deserved better, but I wasn't having any luck. Hell, they were even convinced that the movie would only last a week!! So, I shifted gears, and made some bets with them about the size of the crowds, the reactions and the duration of the theatrical run.
Finally, Friday rolled around, and Dogma just kept getting stronger and stronger. The first show of it had 50 people in it--that's really good for our location, especially on a weekday. The next show was even bigger and even prompted my main manager to switch Dogma's house with the house of the steadily-losing-business Pokemon. Dogma went into high gear, and for the rest of the night, ruled the box office!! It's 7 pm showing mopped the floor with the competition, drawing an attendance crowd of 300 people--again, that's good for my location, especially since its night time house is one of our big houses and seats 392. The very next showing, SOLD OUT 45 MINUTES BEFORE SHOWTIME!! It ended the day with a grand total of $4,100, second only to Pokemon--and that's only because Pokemon's on 2 screens!! Today was more of the same as the situation played itself out again, not as spectacularly as yesterday, but still showed very stongly. The showing attendance was just as good with a pair of over 300 showings after 6 and another box office take that was very close to Pokemon's.
The audience reaction to the film is PHENOMENAL!! The crowds LOVE it--they laugh (Jay and Bob are stealing the movie showing-after-showing); they cry (most notably at Silent Bob's weeping at Bethany's death); they have themselves a good time. I've only had ONE older woman walk out on the movie because she was disgusted with the language. One the flipside, I've also had an elderly couple tell me that they throughly enjoyed it, thought it was well written and very cute. The lady didn't even have a problem with the language!! She said that she understood it because that's how young people speak nowadays. When I asked them about the protesters, the old man just shook his head while the lady fired back with the best line, "They all need to get a life!!" Absolutely priceless!! She should be your ad campaign from now on for the movie. Hahaha!!
So, in conclusion, Kevin, the fine folks at Viewaskew and Lion's Gate, if my theater is any indication, you have hit yourselves a monster home run!! Congradulations, you've all earned it in stellar fashion!!
Oh yeah, just before I left this evening, we recieved a phone call from our home office. Dogma's locked in for a run no less than 3 weeks at our theater.
I wonder how the crow tastes for my co-workers. Hahahahaha!!!
Once again, congradulations on the success of you work, and I look forward to the next movie.
Nate, The Midknight