When Jared Comess, vice president of marketing and public relations at Paragon Entertainment Group, gets questions about scheduling, he likes to advise people to look at the showtimes on Tuesday afternoons. “That’s because they are waiting to see how their current films perform at the box office this Friday and Saturday, which helps them decide what films to drop in order to make space for next week’s new releases,” Long explained over email. Long added that as of Thursday night, his two local multiplexes in Champaign had yet to set most screening times for next Friday. “Theaters get most of their ticket revenue on weekends, so a lot of what determines showtime scheduling at multiplexes is the performance of films the previous weekend,” said Derek Long, an assistant professor of media and cinema studies at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
A QUIET PLACE SHOWTIMES MOVIE
Setting movie showtimes - their exact times and how far in advance - is a delicate balancing act that takes into consideration the movie’s financial performance, the type of film, moviegoers’ needs and the agreements theaters have with the studios.
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“Film scheduling is an art, honestly” said Guy Austin, vice president of film and content acquisition for CMX Cinemas, which has locations in several states, including Alabama, Florida and Virginia. But we may not know a lot about the skill it takes to book that film for the theater screen. When many of us go to the movies, we’re aware of the amount of skill that went into the production. Why can’t I get movie times more than a few days in advance? Listener Amy Ford from Suffolk, Virginia, asks: Ever wondered if recycling is worth it ? Or how store brands stack up against name brands? Check out more from the series here.
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This is just one of the stories from our “I’ve Always Wondered” series, where we tackle all of your questions about the world of business, no matter how big or small.