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Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Do Anime Movies Play On Weeknights?
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Paiprince
 Posts: 593 |
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My local arthouse movie theater is cool enough to screen anime films on the Weekends as much as they can. It's surprising that's not the norm all over.
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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I wish I could act entitled enough to ask for anime to be played on Fridays and Saturdays. I just want them to come to theaters closer to me so I wouldn't have to drive like an hour away. If that's on a Wednesday night, all the better, makes it easier to park and get concessions when the theater isn't mobbed.
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Triltaison
 Posts: 792 |
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Same for me. Mine is currently doing a month of Ghibli films that play only during the weekend. This does make me curious about how it works for art house theaters, though. Do they pay out of pocket, or is it the same rules as described in the article? |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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Arthouses can do what they want (literally, they're usually independently owned or by regional-local companies and manage their own programming)-- Which is why they can showcase an anime movie as the feature audience draw.
Ever since the DBZ movies, Funi knows it can make more money four-walling (I didn't know anyone still remembered that term since the days when Sunn Classic Pictures bought little mom-&-pop 70's theaters to show "In Search of Noah's Ark") their hi-promoted anime-feature tentpoles in corporate chains that manage all their theaters' programming at once--Since those can play for a week during otherwise slow seasons, and Fathom only has a few chains (AMC, Cinemark) and limits themselves to one or two nights for a live event and a rerun. Even a high-profile anime release has to deal with the fact that half the audience--and for anime in particular--knows for a fact it's coming to Blu-ray anyway, which is what killed theatrical re-issues, and that's leaving aside how "niche" they see their audience anyway. DBZ has the benefit of being the most mainstream chain most audiences know from cable, while a standalone art-feature like "The Boy and the Beast" is more arthouse fare if it's GKids, or put in limited theaters if it's crossover-greedy Funi. |
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief
 Posts: 1684 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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[quote="Triltaison"]
It's the same as mentioned in the article. Indie/art house theater managers tend to be a little more adventurous, however. Also, anime aimed at families (i.e. Ghibli retrospectives) tend to do better business in weekend matinees, so those tend to get more preferential treatment than, say, Love Live. |
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mgosdin
 Posts: 1302 Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA |
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We don't get too many anime theatrical releases despite Orlando being an entertainment mecca, or maybe because. In any case I went to see The Wind Rises at Downtown Disney on a Sunday and the theater was about 2/3 full. But that was Ghibli, something like Love Live probably won't play closer than Miami and maybe not in Florida at all.
Mark Gosdin |
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Vaisaga
 Posts: 13239 |
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I guess things are different in Canada? Because every time an anime movie has come here there was a showing on Tuesday and Saturday. The Attack on Titan movies are the only films that didn't have a weekend showing.
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Fullmental
Posts: 8 |
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And because of this, I've missed *every single theatrical release* so far this year. Whether or not there's a good explanation for it, this still sucks for anyone that doesn't have free time on random weeknights for a single or two week span at most, particularly when the closest theater that consistently shows these movies is over an hour and a half away... I really hope these releases pick up more steam so it can get easier to see them.
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Zendervai
 Posts: 201 |
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That's probably because Canada only really has one big chain, Cineplex. There's the occasional Landmark cinema and I think there's another small chain out west competing with Cineplex. Because of that, I guess Cineplex isn't super worried about people going to another chain. The other thing is that Cineplex tends to stick the weekend showings at like 1 P.M. Like, the first showing of the day, when usually at many locations they don't start using all the screens for the Hollywood movies until like 5. There's usually some showings in the early afternoon, but several of the theatres are probably empty at the time. They're not really losing any money by adding a showing on when there usually isn't one. |
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Barbobot
 Posts: 460 |
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The nearest theater to me that often airs anime movies will often have them on Saturdays, but it's always something like an 11am or Noon timeslot. Definitely much easier for me to get to than the 7pm weekday shows that are usually available as well since it's a 45minute drive without traffic and I have no desire to combat rush hour traffic to get there.
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4533 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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Honestly, as someone without a car who is reliant on public transit to get around, I actually *prefer* seeing movies, anime or otherwise, on weeknights.
Tickets are cheap on Tuesday and the buses are more reliable on weekdays than on weekends. |
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Triltaison
Posts: 792 |
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Thanks for the quick response, Justin. I had wondered about that since the theater I mentioned almost always has whatever anime is announced as having a theatrical release. It was even possible to see Only Yesterday and the Psycho-Pass movie on the same day this past spring, which just blew my mind with two anime playing in an American theater simultaneously.
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Fenrin
 Posts: 703 Location: SoCal |
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Makes sense, but saving money this way means loosing people who can't come weekdays. I was surprised my local small theater played the Project Itoh movies for a whole week, and that it was so close in the first place.
I wanted to see Doukyuusei in LA but sadly I couldn't make it out there, but if I could I would have gone to MikuExpo instead which was happening at the same time, that seems like poor planning on their part. Last edited by Fenrin on Fri Jun 03, 2016 4:57 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11584 |
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You apparently have better transit service than my city, since evening showings of any movie are right out for me. The movies never let out before the last light rail leaves. :/ |
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Dfens
Posts: 462 |
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What I can't understand their is a small one screen movie theater located in San Francisco that was formally owned by Viz, and would mostly be closed and would show movies once and awhile.
And when it did have a film showing it was a big name title from Aniplex or Funimation and would always have them showing on a Thursday and Friday night. The worst time and place to try to get into the city. Could never understand since during the week movies aren't playing so they have the problem mentioned in article. So weekend showings should be ok but unfortunately not. Only time I can remember them having showings on weekends is during a Japanese festival. |
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