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Author
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Topic: AMC to start showing indie movies
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Dan Roben
Member
Posts: 155
From: Seattle, WA
Registered: May 2003
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posted May 06, 2006 11:06 PM
I second the nonsense! But in Seattle, there's a wrinkle. Apparently, The Promise is not 'independent' enough to warrant the oh-so-special "AMC Select" label. I guess it's just a 'regular' film.
In Seattle, AMC is using this dubious marketing scheme at the Meridian 16, Pacific Place 11, Uptown 3, Alderwood 16, and (most oddly) the Renton Village 8, located in a heavy blue-collar area. Of course this can be explained by the booking of Thank You for Smoking there, likely on it's last gasp (pun intended).
Landmark, which has a large presence in Seattle proper, but nothing in the 'burbs, has nothing to worry about.
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Mark Richey
Member
Posts: 90
From: Fort Worth, TX
Registered: Feb 2003
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posted May 07, 2006 01:35 PM
quote:
They're just pointing out to Joe Q. Public "Look at us! We're cool! We have ART MOVIES!!!" The minute a blockbuster comes along, they'll replace those screens with first-run, mainstream product.
AMC did that 11 years ago when the Grand opened in Dallas. I remember they made a big deal about how they were going to devote a few screens to art films. Its first weekend, they actually did have 4 art titles playing (including, I believe, The Bride With White Hair). The next week, all 4 titles were gone, and as far as I know, they've never run another, unless it had gone at least semi-wide.
As for AMC's current announcement, more art screens would have been plenty welcome back then, since there was just the 3-screen Landmark Inwood and 2-screen UA Cine 1n 1995. Now, there are 16 screens in Dallas devoted to art films (and that's not counting the Angelika Plano, which usually runs titles also playing in Dallas).
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John J. Fink
Member
Posts: 123
From: Buffalo, NY
Registered: Aug 2005
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posted May 14, 2006 07:55 AM
It's irrelvant, AMC Select is a brand, I doubt it will be met with much fan fare. AMC will always show movies like Akeelah and The Bee and Goal! The Dream Begins (these features are listed as AMC Select). I agree, they own enough of the market share to create an upscale sophisitcated cinema that is rebranded in some way, even setting aside that small screen at the 30-plex and re-tooling it with leather seats or something.
AMC Select is bassicly Regal CinemaArt - it doesn't mean anything. Regal CinemaArt lists a wide aray of cinemas, some are multiplexes (like Winter Park Village in Orlando) that show two or three art films a week (ussually though true art pictures, I saw Kontroll, from Hungry, at Winter Park Village last August when I was in town). Now if AMC was to start showing Hungiarian movies at Clifton Commons, that would really be bold but they play what will attract the largest crowd. To be fair to AMC they claim that it will play art films that apeal to the masses, but Akeelah and The Bee, which was a brillent movie isn't really an art movie, after all it did have a wide release.
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John J. Fink
Member
Posts: 123
From: Buffalo, NY
Registered: Aug 2005
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posted June 19, 2006 07:02 PM
You know I've actually started to warm up a bit to the AMC Select brand, my over reaction to it was based on the news articles written about it - they jumped to conclusions that were wrong - AMC/Loews has always shown these types of movies, they are really nothing new. They are giving these movies distinction and hopefully added attention, most are worthy of this attention I guess. Now, the question we really have to ask is anyone visiting the AMC select section at AMC's website to find out if that inventive modestly budgeted, smart studio counter-programed movie is playing locally and what its about. AMC likely wouldn't create an art chain within the chain. They don't really have "branded" theaters (aside from the Loews theaters sites which may eventually be folded in and exclusivly known as AMC) the way that National Amusements does with The Bridge, Showcase, Multiplex, and Cinema De Lux brands (Showcase and Multiplex offer the same experience, Cinema De Lux offers higher end movie going, and The Bridge is almost like going out to a club). Truth be told if I could see my art movies at my local AMC with stadium seating I would probably opt to see them there over a crummy art house theater with poor projection and uncomfortable seating (and come on, we all know art house theaters that are like that - The Clairidge in Montclair, NJ springs to mind right now). If this brings at least one movie wider exposure than I guess morally it worked. Even though I still think indie film isn't the type of thing that can ever be marketed to a wide audience, certain films require you to be of a certain cultural mind frame or open to experiences that the audience that saw, say, Larry The Cable Guy at their AMC may not be up to. AMC doesn't claim to, they are pitching accessable movies to mainstream AMC types of audiences. In places where Loews played more daring movies (like NYC) those movies will continue I'm sure.
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