Marcus Theatres Won’t Show Cloverfield–Dumb? Or Just Really Dumb?
Here’s one for the Shooting Ourselves In The Foot Department—a theater chain called Marcus Theaters, as it’s relayed to me via horror-movies.ca, refuses to show Cloverfield in any of its theaters. They also refused to host any showings of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
There Are No Words For the Sheer Stupidity of Such Action
Seriously. I got nothing. All I can do is point at Marcus Theatres and laugh myself into a coma, that’s how dumbfounded I am at their unbelievable refusal to show two of the biggest movies of 2008 so far. What possible circumstances took place between these studios and Marcus Theatres that led to Marcus refusing to show two major box-office draws in their property?
I really, really wish I knew!
I Can’t Even Apply Marketing Logic To This Debacle
Not even my training in the mysteries of marketing gives me any clue here. Publicity? For what—to draw people to the rest of the movies they can’t see at Marcus Theatres, or the movies they can see anywhere else? This actually bodes well for absolutely every other theater chain or mom-and-pop theater anywhere near a Marcus theatre! They can build entire ad campaigns around it—“Can’t see it at Marcus? Come see it here at Fill In The Blank Cinemas!”
It’s just spectacularly, awe-inspiringly stupid, and if someone connected to Marcus Theaters reads this, I would love, LOVE, to hear more about what lead to this baffling decision.
But for the smart route, come on in and play Johnny Depp trivia at Kwanzoo. We’ll always carry the popular stuff!
Popularity: 4% [?]
i’ve worked with a marcus theatre for over 2 years, and from what i heard. they weren’t showing and paramount films bc the film company was asking too much money for the film. in my mind it’s what the customer, me and you, want to see at the movies. pay the money for the film if smaller theatres can afford it, why can’t marcus.
Oh sweet–thanks, Adam! I was hoping somebody from a Marcus theatre would weigh in on this. You saw all my reasons why this doesn’t make any sense at all, and I’m glad you agree. Everyone else will show the stuff, so clearly no one else has a problem with Paramount’s pricing structure. If theatres smaller than Marcus can afford to shell out the dough then what’s Marcus’ problem? If they’re just doing this out of principle then they really ARE just shooting themselves in the foot.