maingon

Just noticed my main theater is starting to show older movies, chain of theaters is called celebration cinema and they are just starting a thing called celebrating the classics.

they are showing on there DLP digital screen...

Casablanca (1942)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

now and soon they are gonna be showing

Goldfinger (1964)
To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
High Noon (1952)
The Thin Man (1934)

in the next month and a more coming including frankenstien and North by Northwest etc


I hope more theaters start doing this and movies from different eras

JPRaup

any website about this? thats fucking awesome.

Mondo Kane

Not to steer off topic a bit, but I wish this could continue the way it did back in '97-'02. We had the Star Wars trilogy, Wizard of Oz, Gone With The Wind, and Grease getting wide re-releases, but it all seemed to end when the re-release of E.T. didn't make as much money as the others did. I'd love to see another attempt with different movies.

My Other Self

I enjoy seeing older films on the big screen (to me, I guess older is 70s and 80s ). The theaters here stopped showing their retro series which really sucked. I got to see Ghostbusters, Mallrats, and South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut for a couple of bucks a pop.

chris_sc77

Well the thing is that many times nowadays theaters are using dvd's and showing them and not the actual film prints.

Michael Sheridan

The Ziegfield in NYC used to do this all the time...

I saw the Indiana Jones trilogy there, as well as the first 2 Godfather films.

Havent seen them do it recently, though.

DthRdrX

I would be there all the time if it was actual film prints.

MBoyd

The Paramount in Austin uses actual film prints and shows older films in the summer. They usually have a pretty awesome line-up. In 2007 I posted a list and there wasn't any interest here.

Here was 2008's list which I missed.

http://www.paramountsummerfilms.com/...m_schedule.pdf

Sanjuro37

I saw Psycho in October because my theater ran a different horror movie every Tuesday that month. One of my favorite theater experiences, even though I was the only one in there.

Dusty Bottoms

The Belcourt Theatre in Nashville usually has classic films running along with current foreign and independent releases. They are getting ready to start a "Restrikes & Restorals" series. I don't have the full list in front of me, but they are showing new 35mm film prints of Contempt, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Some Like It Hot, Planet Of The Apes, and a few others.

kantonburg

That's most likely why. I'd love to go see a movie and be the only one there.

I'd love it if more theaters did this.

mhg83

The theater in orland park always has a summer movie program. They show a classic film on sunday nights all through summer

Boba Fett

Theaters around Portland do it all the time. One chain shows HD prints of classics; I suspect they're using Blu-Rays or HD-DVDs though.

You have to be wary though even when they show actual prints; I went to see Clockwork Orange and it was an old print from the UK and in pretty bad shape.

Other times though, I've seen remastered prints of Lawrence of Arabia and the first two Indiana Jones films.

Matthew Chmiel

Theaters have tried this in Vegas and have just failed due to lack of promotion or word of mouth.

My buddy and I went to a midnight screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark (a 35mm print I might add) a year or so ago and we were one of the twelve in the theater.

MBoyd

They have midnight shows in Dallas at the Inwood theater on Fridays. I haven't been for years, but saw Brazil there. It's just too late now for us old Gen Xers. Hell, for all I know they went to a DVD screening system now. It would be a shame.

The Anjelika in Plano did this for their Hitchcock Month last October. I made the mistake of going to see The Birds. It was packed, people were talking through it, and it looked like shit. My friends thought it looked fine.

Gerry P.

Imagine going to a theater to see 2001 expecting 70mm but instead having a Blu-ray projected.

Boba Fett

If a theater claimed 70mm or even that it was film and it ended up being DVD or Blu-Ray, I'd have half the mind to contact Warner. I can't imagine them being ok with theaters buying a $25 Blu-Ray and making 100x that a night.

The only time I've seen DVD projected is at a Grindhouse festival. They had remastered prints of Shaw Bros. films but at the last minute the prints of Lady Snowblood and King Boxer didn't arrive, so they put up a notice that they were gonna show DVDs. Anyone who had bought a ticket was offered a refund though.

Giles

AFI Silver recently showed a dvd of Ryan's Daughter - bad move, didn't attend as a result.

as a kid during the 70's, I remember Disney reissuing alot of their films (live action and animated ones) on the big screen - miss that alot. Home video pretty much nixed that rollout of classics from Disney.

My Other Self

An old theater where I used to live had yearly Three Stooges festivals. In all the years I went, they played them with original 35mm prints.

Then, as soon as the DVDs started coming out, they just used those. It wasn't the same and I could tell.

I stopped going.

doubledown44

I would love to see Some Like It Hot on the big screen.

Travis McClain

You wouldn't guess it, but Louisville, KY has an incredible theater (Baxter Avenue Theater) that shows classic, cult-favorites every other Saturday night at midnight. You're not going to get Turner Classic Movies-type fare, but you're going to get stuff that's fun and draws a lively, though well-behaved, crowd. They only screen original prints; no DVD projections. This year alone we made it out to see Dick Tracy and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, both of which were great.

They celebrated their 100th night of the run with the Back to the Future trilogy. $10 got you in for all three films, and before the second one started, they fed you delivered pizza and Red Bull. Their sister theater (Village 8 Theater) did a run of classic MGM films this summer; we made it out to catch The Spy Who Loved Me, but passed on Goldfinger because nothing will ever compare to seeing it at Fort Knox last year, outside and literally across the street from the gold depository building.

MBoyd

I was lucky enough to see that in Ft Worth at the Modern Art Museum. Film print, big screen. Great experience.

In Barcelona, I saw The Third Man and the original To Be Or Not To Be - which is a highly revered film there because the Franco regime had banned it for so long. Unfortunately, it was slightly matted or something and some tops of heads were chopped off. Maybe matted at 1.66.

Off the top of my head I have also been fortunate to watch after release at special screenings the following.

Brazil
Blade Runner (3x, once being the work print)
Alien,
Aliens
Young Frankenstein
2001 (70mm)
Vertigo (70mm)
Rear Window
Mean Streets
Reservoir Dogs
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Two For The Road
The Women
Citizen Kane
Touch of Evil
Raiders of The Lost Ark (3x)
Taxi Driver
The Godfather

It's early, I'm sure there's a few I forgot.

My Other Self

That's fucking awesome. I'm coming to Kentucky.

Abob Teff

I had predicted, and I still fully expect, that as digital projection begins to spread we will see more "revivals." Why? Digital = cheap projection. You're not talking about tons of money spent on producing a massive physical product (celluloid film) and having to ship it from location to location.

Example -- one of the theaters that I worked at was hit by a tornado (we lost the roof over 3 of our 5 auditoriums). When we re-opened those auditoriums, we wanted to show Twister. Warner Bros. wanted $3,500 to pull the print off the shelf, and we would have to pay for the shipping both ways. Plus they wanted a cut of the ticket sales (they wouldn't allow us to show it for free). We passed. With digital, we could have dialed up their system and downloaded the movie with little to no effort on either party's end.

My question is: how can places simply show DVDs? They are not licensed for public exhibition. If I were a theater (and I spent many years in that business) I wouldn't even dream of doing this ... that's a surefire way to ruin your relationship with a studio.

MBoyd

I see what you are saying showing older films in Digital. But don't you think the majority of people attending would be more interested in a seeing a film print?