Waiting ages for a film to come out

[Richard1978]

One thing that doesn't seem to happen these days is having a wait a long time for a popular film to go on full release.

This seemed to happen a lot in the 1970s & 80s, mainly due to the fact that at the time making full prints of films was very expensive &, so there were only so many to go round.

So often if a film is popular at top cinemas (ie at the West End & the bigger ones in other city centres) it will take a while for the prints to work down to the smaller places, especially if people are making the effort to travel further to see it.

I'm not an expert on film distribution so I might be totally wrong here.

I remember having to wait ages to see ET for just this reason & having to go a bit further to see it.

Does anyone else remember something similar?

[Star Attraction]

Re: Wating ages for a film to come out

Do you mean waiting ages for a film to come out on video after it's finished showing at the cinema?

In the case of ET, I remember that had its initial run at cinemas around the country, then it was taken down for a while, and had a re-run a few months later due to the popularity of the first run.

It was several years before ET came out on video, indeed some thought it might never be released on video. Why the long wait for ET to come out on video?

These days films tend to come out on DVD very soon after their final cinema showing. Australia was very quick to come out on DVD. Did that mean it had a poor take at cinemas?

[Richard1978]

Re: Wating ages for a film to come out

I wasn't refering to video releases, just popular films that seemed to take a long time to be shown at anywhere other than the top level of cinemas.

Until the early 1990s it could take a while for films to come out on video, eventually there seemed to be just a 6 month wait, shorter if a film flopped.

I know that Steven Spielberg has been very protective of ET, refusing to make a sequel from it.

It popular enough to be given a re-release in 1985, something which is now very rare at mainstream cinemas.

ET also took a long time to get shown on TV, Xmas 1990 was the UK premier showing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial

[branny]

Re: Waiting ages for a film to come out

My local cinema only had 2 screens, the smaller of which used to show certificate x movies. On the main screen films tended to only get a week (two if it was a blockbuster) before being replaced and for this reason some films used to take longer to get to us than others. I used to go nearly every week except for the odd occasion when both screens were showing cert x's.

I seem to remember that films used to take around nine months before being available to rent on video and a further twelve before sell through. Much better now though especailly the direct streaming.

I've not been to the cinema for a while but I believe they talk in movies these days.

[Jacqueline]

Re: Waiting ages for a film to come out

Yes Branny, the trouble with going to the cinema these days is that quite often the audience talk as well - often throughout the film.

[branny]

Re: Waiting ages for a film to come out

My Wife isn't really a film fan which pretty much means that avenue of pleasure closed along time ago as John Cleese once said. My Wife works shifts so if I finished work and knew she was working I'd go and watch a film on my own but have had to stop since we had our daughter. I think last thing we saw at the cinema was Marley and Me.