BoxOffice® Pro - May 2010

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A 

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Antonio Banderas 

talks about 

Soccer, Salvador Dalí 

and 

FOREVER AFTER 

INSIDE WHICH SUMMER BLOCKBUSTERS WILL BURN UP THE BOX OFFICE 

WE CONGRATULATE C. CRETORS & COMPANY ON ITS 125TH BIRTHDAY 

FESTIVAL FILMS THAT MADE BANK—AND THE ONES TO BOOK IN 2010 

The Official Magazine of NATO

S O L A R I A 

A NEW WORLD OF 2K. THE FUTURE OF 4K. 

THE UNIVERSE IS EXPANDING 

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Recipients of the 2009 Academy Plaque are D. Scott Dewald, 

Greg Pettitt, Brad Walker and Bill Werner. 

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MAY2010 VOL. 146 NO. 5 

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BOXOFFICE MEDIA 

PUBLISHER 

Peter Cane 

CREATIVE DIRECTOR 

Kenneth James Bacon 

the business of movies the business of movies ® 

SUMMER 2010 

30 BOXOFFICE PREDICTS THE SUMMER HITS > 

We measure the firepower of the season’s hottest releases 

36 FESTIVAL FAVES > 

· We’ve traveled the circuit to pick the best bets from the indie world 

· David Ansen, artistic director of the Los Angeles Film Festival, opines on how 

to sell tickets to independent and foreign films 

· BOXOFFICE’s Richard Mowe on the crammed festival calendar 

· Unmined gems: Seven indies that need—and deserve—distribution 

46 BIG PICTURE > 

SHREK FOREVER AFTER 

Green giant: Shrek director Mike Mitchell on unleashing the ogre’s inner beast 

in the series’ surprising climax … Curse o’ the Irish: As the villian Rumpelstiltskin, 

long-time Shrek multi-hyphenate Walt Dohrn finds his voice … Nine lives: Antonio 

Banderas on his swashbuckling cat who is springing from the Shrek finale to star in 

his own spinoff 

DEPARTMENTS 

4 CHARTS & GRPAHS 

Indie indices for 2009 

6 INDUSTRY BRIEFS 

Lastest announcements from the world of 

exhibition 

8 EXECUTIVE SUITE 

ShoWest 2010—a great success: A week of 

celebration and clarification 

10 INDUSTRY REPORT 

Making deals: The finance team behind 

the VPF structure announces they’ll help 

small and mid-sized exhibitors convert to 

digital … Get slim? Get real: At ShoWest, 

five exhibitors respond to the studio call for 

narrower windows and healthier concessions 

12 SHOW BUSINESS 

The future of ticketing?: Forget stubs, bring 

your cell phone … The news cycle attacks 

3D: Riding high just last month, the film 

industry needs to fight its critics with quality 

product 

14 TIMECODE 

Rocket Man and the Method Man … One 

you can’t get away from and one you can’t 

quite recall 

16 FRONT LINE AWARD 

DINO CARDONA 

18 FRONT OFFICE AWARD 

DALE SWEET 

20 MARQUEE AWARD 

MADISON ART CINEMAS 

62 MARKETPLACE 

64 CLASSIFIEDS 

THE SLATE 

54 ON THE HORIZON 

Predators: The most dangerous game … 

Inception: Daring dreamscape … Salt: That 

special spice 

56 COMING ATTRACTIONS 

Robin Hood: These Merry Men ain’t in tights 

… Mother and Child: The ties that bind 

… Solitary Man: Alone in a crowd … Just 

Right: Locker room romance … Micmacs: 

Watch your back, Halliburton … George A. 

Romero’s Survival of the Dead: Resurrection 

of the Zombie King … Letters to Juliet: Take 

a letter, Sophie … Iron Man 2: Now the time 

is here 

58 QUICKTAKES 

Capsule reviews of films soon to be in release. 

Complete reviews of these and other films can 

be found at BOXOFFICE.com 

60 BOOKING GUIDE 

Booking information for over 250 upcoming 

theatrical releases from majors, mini-majors and 

independent distributors 

BOXOFFICE MAGAZINE 

EDITOR 

Amy Nicholson 

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR 

Sara Schieron 

INDUSTRY CONTRIBUTOR 

John Fithian 

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS 

Pam Grady 

Pete Hammond 

Cole Hornaday 

Richard Mowe 

Matthew Nestel 

Steve Ramos 

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT 

Ally McMurray 

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2 

Boxoffi ce · The Business of Movies December 2008

STOPPRESS 

UNANIMOUS CONSENT 

There were, as usual, lots of spirited discussions at ShoWest this year. Release 

windows, saturated fats at the concession stand and analog 3-D fueled debates 

both public and private. But just about every conversation I had started out on the 

same theme—these are good times for the exhibition industry. Back-to-back (toback-to-back) 

record years at the box office, increased admissions and real traction 

for digitization spread plenty of good cheer throughout this final version of 

ShoWest, and everyone I spoke to is truly looking forward to next year’s NATO-run 

CinemaCon at Caesars Palace. But any industry that has survived more than a century 

knows that cautious optimism is the best kind. The release window challenge 

in particular requires vigilance in these good times, and I commend to your attention 

this month’s column from my friend John Fithian on this crucial topic. 

Our other pages aren’t bad, either. Enjoy (and second-guess) our predictions for 

this summer’s studio tentpoles, and check out our handpicked list of independent 

films to round out the season. 

Insurance 

Services 

for the 

Theatre 

Industry 

Best, 

peter@boxoffice.com 

To read this issue of BOXOFFICE online, go to 

boxoffice.com/gogreen/ and type in this access code: PS827429 

IN MAY AT BOXOFFICE.COM 

REVIEWS 

The summer movie season strikes! In May, prepare for Iron 

Man 2, Robin Hood, Shrek Forever After, Sex and the City 

2 and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Which flicks will 

become blockbusters? (And which are doomed to be duds?) 

WEEKLY ANTICIPATION INDEX 

Each week BOXOFFICE takes a look at the financial prospects for 

the most promising upcoming releases. Be ahead of the curve: 

read our analysis. 

THE BOXOFFICE REPORT 

Sign up for our email newsletter and receive more detailed content 

behind the stories that appear on BOXOFFICE.com as well 

as news alerts for film reviews and other breaking stories. 

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS 

BOXOFFICE talks to the creative talent behind the films you 

need to know. 

NEWS-REELING? 

Let BOXOFFICE.com digest all the reports and rumors for you! 

Check our site daily for breaking industry news. 

Boxoffice (ISSN 0006-8527). Published monthly by BOXOFFICE Media, LLC, 230 Park Avenue, Ste. 1000, 

New York, NY 10169. Subscriptions: U.S. $59.95 per year; Canada and Mexico $89.95; overseas $125 

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CHARTS&GRAPHS 

with data from Boxoffice.com 

THINK SMALL 

This month, Boxoffice toasts both the Goliaths 

and the Davids of the box office. In this 

issue’s special section—Summer Sensations 

(beginning on page 29)—we preview this 

year’s big festival buys that are competing 

for giant money. And it’s out there. See our 

chart on the left for the the 50 biggest indie 

hits of 2009, and below, which independent 

distributors are cleaning up, especially 

those who bet on sparkly vampires or Tyler 

Perry. 

SUMMER SIZZLE: 

Memorial Day is for the Majors 

The summer tentpoles will be getting a 

head start on the competition (Iron Man 2 

has claimed the first weekend in May), the 

traditional start of the season hits on May 

28th with Disney’s video game adaptation, 

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Here are 

the top ten all-time Memorial Day Weekend 

grossers as tabulated by Boxoffice.com’s 

Daniel Garris: 

Pirates of the 

Caribbean: 

At World’s End 

Indiana Jones and 

the Kingdom of the 

Crystal Skull 

Disney $139,803,335 

Paramount $126,917,504 

X-Men: The Last Stand Fox $122,860,968 

Shrek 2 DreamWorks $95,581,379 

The Lost World: 

Jurassic Park 

The Day After 

Tomorrow 

Universal $90,161,484 

Fox $85,807,484 

Bruce Almighty Universal $85,734,067 

Pearl Harbor Disney $75,176,802 

Mission: Impossible II 

Night at the Museum: 

Battle of the 

Smithsonian 

Paramount/ 

DreamWorks 

$70,816,603 

Fox $70,051,276 

HIGHEST GROSSING “INDEPENDENT” FILMS FOR 2009 

FILM DISTRIBUTOR DOM. GROSS 

1 The Twilight Saga: New Moon Summit $296,619,304 

2 Inglourious Basterds The Weinstein Co. $120,540,719 

3 Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail Lionsgate $90,508,336 

4 Knowing Summit $79,957,634 

5 Coraline Focus Features $75,286,229 

6 Law Abiding Citizen Overture $73,357,727 

7 The Haunting in Connecticut Lionsgate $55,389,516 

8 Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself Lionsgate $51,733,921 

9 My Bloody Valentine 3D Lionsgate $51,545,952 

10 Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire Lionsgate $47,566,524 

11 Crazy Heart Fox Searchlight $38,349,555 

12 Notorious Fox Seachlight $36,843,682 

13 Halloween II The Weinstein Co. $33,392,973 

14 The Men Who Stare at Goats Overture $32,428,195 

15 (500) Days of Summer Fox Searchlight $32,391,374 

16 Push Summit $31,811,527 

17 9 Focus Features $31,749,894 

18 Brothers Lionsgate $28,544,157 

19 Saw VI Lionsgate $27,693,292 

20 Gamer Lionsgate $20,534,907 

21 Nine The Weinstein Co. $19,670,263 

22 Astro Boy Summit $19,551,067 

23 New in Town Lionsate $16,734,283 

24 The Hurt Locker Summit $15,700,000 

25 The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard Paramount Vantage $15,122,676 

26 Capitalism: A Love Story Overture $14,363,397 

27 Amelia Fox Searchlight $14,246,488 

28 Crank: High Voltage Lionsgate $13,684,249 

29 Whip It Fox Searchlight $13,034,417 

30 Sunshine Cleaning Overture $12,062,558 

31 Sorority Row Summit $11,965,282 

32 Extract Miramax $10,823,158 

33 The Young Victoria Apparition $10,806,750 

34 Pandorum Overture $10,330,853 

35 The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day Apparition $10,244,070 

36 Next Day Air Summit $10,027,047 

37 Away We Go Focus Features $9,451,946 

38 A Serious Man Focus Features $9,228,768 

39 Everybody’s Fine Miramax $9,090,895 

40 A Single Man The Weinstein Company $9,045,467 

41 My Life in Ruins Fox Searchlight $8,665,206 

42 The Road The Weinstein Co. $8,108,770 

43 Pirate Radio Focus Features $8,017,917 

44 The Collector Freestyle $7,712,114 

45 The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Sony Pictures Classics $7,567,930 

46 Taking Woodstock Focus Features $7,460,204 

47 3 Idiots Reliance $6,523,137 

48 Post Grad Fox $6,380,019 

49 Coco Before Chanel Sony Pictures Classics $6,095,004 

50 Whatever Works Sony Pictures Classics $5,306,706 

DOMESTIC GROSSES FOR TOP 12 “INDEPENDENTS” FOR 2009 

30% Summit $470,842,849 2% Sony Pictures Classics $23,979,803 

25% Lionsgate $403,935,137 1% Apparition $21,050,820 

12% The Weinstein Co. $190,758,192 1% Miramax $19,914,053 

9% Fox Searchlight $149,910,741 1% Paramount Vantage $15,122,676 

9% Overture $142,542,730

The fi rst name in 4K. 

Sony launched the fi rst 4K digital cinema projectors in 2005 to meet the industry’s highest specifi cations. 

Our research proved that audiences appreciate the 4K advantage. After careful evaluation, our customers 

agree. And now competitors are jumping in. It’s no surprise. Sony has long been synonymous with advanced 

engineering, innovation and picture quality. No wonder the industry is choosing Sony 4K. First and foremost. 

Visit sony.com/4K to see the full list of Sony Digital Cinema 4K theaters or to schedule a demonstration. 

© 2010 Sony Electronics Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Features and specifi cations are subject to change without notice. 

Sony, Sony Digital Cinema, Sony Digital Cinema 4K, make.believe and their respective logos are trademarks of Sony.

INDUSTRY BRIEFS 

MARCUS THEATRES continues its digital 3D expansion with plans 

to install 10 RealD 3D systems in new theater locations throughout 

the Midwest. The company also plans to install nine RealD 3D 

systems at existing 3D locations in select Marcus Theatres. With 

the addition of the 19 new 3D systems, Marcus Theatres will offer 

digital 3D at 53 screens at 43 locations in seven states, nearly 80 

percent of the company’s locations. 

In Chicago, AMC ENTERTAINMENT INC. installed RealD Corp. 

3D technology into six screens at the end of March. Out of AMC’s 

247 screens in Chicago, only 20 were already 3D capable. 

HARKNESS SCREENS was chosen for the Royal World Premiere 

of Tim Burton’s 3D fantasy adventure movie, Alice in Wonderland, 

at London’s Odeon Leicester Square cinema. The Royal World 

Premiere, which took place on Thursday, February 25, featured a 

Harkness Spectral 240 screen, RealD XL and NEC projectors. Their 

Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall 

attended the event. 

MASTERIMAGE 3D’s MI-2100 3D digital theater system was used 

to unveil a highly-anticipated Disney-Pixar 3D short film preceding 

the pre-release debut of Toy Story 3 at ShoWest. Said Peter Koplik, 

Executive Vice President at MasterImage 3D, “We are honored to 

provide our technology for this event.” 

DOREMI shipped over 850 DCP digital cinema servers in February, 

bringing its worldwide install base to over 11,300 units since 

Doremi first demonstrated its digital cinema server prototype at IBC 

in 2004. “Our line of DCP-2000 & DCP-2K4 servers are the lynchpin 

products behind Doremi Cinema’s expanding client base,” said 

Michael Archer, VP of Doremi Cinema. 

CBS SPORTS teamed up with the NCAA, LG Electronics USA and 

Cinedigm Digital Cinema Corp. to present for the first-time ever 

the 2010 NCAA Men’s Final Four semifinal and national championship 

games in 3D. The broadcasts will be available live in up to 

100 Cinedigm Certified Digital Cinemas nationwide. “The theater 

experience is changing dramatically,” said Bud Mayo, chairman and 

CEO of Cinedigm. “The Men’s Final Four is a signature event, with 

millions of fans clamoring to be among the few who get to see it 

in person. Cinedigm’s experience, having brought the 2009 BCS 

Championship and the 2009 NBA All-Star Saturday Night events to 

theaters in live 3D, has shown us that fans who attend will feel as 

though they have courtside seats.” 

SONIC EQUIPMENT COMPANY has ordered 100 Christie Solaria 

Series 4K-ready Series 2 digital cinema projectors. As part of the 

Cinedigm Phase 2 digital cinema deployment plan, the Christie projectors 

will be installed in theaters across the United States to upgrade 

existing multiplexes and as part of new theater constructions. 

Sonic Equipment will also now offer Christie Managed Services to 

all its customers, making available a comprehensive suite of technical 

support and maintenance services to match their customers’ 

needs, from basic to the most robust, 24-hour, year-round support. 

SCREENVISION has signed long-term extensions with regional 

exhibitors Classic Cinemas, Uptown Entertainment and Studio 

Movie Grill. Said Darryl Schaffer, Executive Vice President, Exhibitor 

Relations, Screenvision. “These chains are strong in markets such as 

Chicago, Detroit, Dallas and Houston all of which are important for 

our network and I am delighted they have renewed with us.” 

THE PALM BEACH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (PBIFF) is 

inviting theater owners and film bookers to attend this year’s Festival, 

happening April 22-26, as the festival’s guest. The PBIFF has 

extended this invitation in order to facilitate networking between 

theater owners/film bookers and independent filmmakers. “I am frequently 

asked by theater owners and bookers for recommendations 

on new independent films,” said Randi Emerman, Festival Executive 

Director. “We will extend the invitation so the owners and bookers 

can see these films first hand and have the opportunity to meet the 

filmmakers.” The complimentary invitation pertains to screenings 

and events, not travel expenses. Theater owners and bookers who 

are interested in attending the Festival are encouraged to call 561- 

362-0003 or to visit the website at www.pbifilmfest.org for credential 

forms and accommodation information. 

BARCO announced that its ‘Series 2’ digital cinema projector successfully 

passed the procedural test for DCI compliance administered 

by CineCert, the leading 3rd party authorizing test facility. 

With these tests completed, Barco has reached another important 

milestone in the rollout of its brand-new DP2K projector series. The 

DCI standard was created by the Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLC 

(DCI) to ensure a consistent and extremely high image quality for 

the cinema audience. Additional benefits include content security 

and optical performance, including color, uniformity and contrast. 

By establishing a common set of requirements, DCI standards guarantee 

worry-free compatibility and interoperability for distributors, 

studios, exhibitors, manufacturers and vendors. 

Barco also signed a major contract for the deployment of 200 digital 

cinema systems for Jinyi Zhujiang Movie Circuit, China’s sixth 

largest cinema chain. Based in China’s southern city of Guangzhou, 

Zhejiang Jinyi Zhujiang Movie Circuit Co., Ltd (Jinyi) is a joint venture 

between Jiayu Group and Guangzhou Cinema Chain. Jinyi 

specializes in cinema development and features some 200 screens 

across 10 cities. It is one of the mainland’s leading cinema exhibitors. 

GDC TECHNOLOGY signed another digital cinema deployment 

deal in the US market with Maryland-based R/C Theatres. Installation 

is scheduled to commence in May 2010 and the full deployment 

of 42 units of GDC servers is expected to complete by Q4 

2010. The servers will be installed at multiplexes in Wilkes-Barre PA, 

Hanover PA, and Kill Devil Hills, NC. GDC will work in conjunction 

with Barco Series 2 projectors using DLP Cinema technology. 

GDC Technology also sealed a server deployment deal with Great 

Escape Theatres, an Indiana-based cinema chain in the US. Deployment 

is scheduled to take place in the early part of 2010 and is 

expected to involve a total of 174 GDC SA-2100A servers. “This 

contract is one of our largest in the US and we are heartened by our 

progress in the North America market,” said Dr. Man-Nang Chong, 

founder and CEO of GDC Technology. 

STUDIO MOVIE GRILL selected Christie’s 4K-ready Solaria Series 

digital cinema projectors for 60 screens in multiplexes across Texas, 

Missouri and Georgia. The chain will install the Christie CP2220 and 

Christie CP2230 projectors, which are based on Texas Instruments’ 

Series 2 DLP Cinema technology and are fully upgradeable to 4K. 

In addition to retrofitting all existing theaters across Texas, SMG will 

also install Christie projectors in two new theater complexes—Zona 

Rosa in Kansas City, Missouri and Holcomb Bridge in Atlanta, Georgia—which 

will be completed this spring. 

6 Boxoffi ce · The Business of Movies May 2010

TECHNICOLOR announced that its next-generation 3D-on-film solution 

has commitments for more than 150 screens to be installed in 

North America for the release of Clash of the Titans. Technicolor’s 

pricing model features a “pay-as-you-go” business structure for 

theater owners in mid and small markets where the cost to convert 

to digital projection may be difficult to justify. Due to overwhelming 

global demand for more 3D screens, Technicolor is expanding its 

3D offering internationally to UK, Spain, Italy and France starting 

immediately, and has partnered with German-based TC3D to act as 

its sales and marketing agent for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. 

In addition, Technicolor has formed a strategic alliance with FujiFilm 

to market the 3D solution in Japan. 

CINEDIGM DIGITAL CINEMA CORP. announced Movie Tavern 

will add its 110 screens to Cinedigm’s Phase 2 digital cinema deployment 

program. Movie Tavern’s Cinedigm Certified digital cinema 

systems will include Cinedigm’s proven technology solutions. 

To date, Cinedigm has contracted for and completed the rollout of 

nearly 4,000 systems in 41 states. 

DOLBY LABORATORIES, INC. announced it is working with 

Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios to deliver a new 

audio format, Dolby Surround 7.1. Disney and Pixar have stated 

that Dolby Surround 7.1 will be launched in select theaters with 

the release of Toy Story 3 in 3D this June. Said Page Haun, Senior 

Director, Marketing, Cinema Market Segment, Dolby Laboratories, 

“The release of Toy Story 3 in a discrete 7.1 mix will raise the bar 

for movie theater owners and their patrons.” Dolby Surround 7.1 

brings a more exciting sensory experience to audiences for 2D and 

gives content creators control over audio placement in a theater 

when mixing 3D movies. The ability to compose audio with visual 

elements of 3D allows content creators to immerse the audience 

deeper into the movie with dramatic realism. Dolby Surround 7.1 

provides content creators four surround zones to better orchestrate 

audio channels in a movie theater environment. The four surround 

zones incorporate the traditional Left Surround and Right Surround 

with new Back Surround Left and Back Surround Right zones. 

Dolby also took a bow when they announced that every Oscar 

nomination for Sound Mixing and Sound Design was created with 

Dolby technology. 

NCM FATHOM reached a new agreement with Golden Boy Promotions 

to continue presenting live world championship boxing on the 

big screen in high definition throughout 2010. The first bout in the 

2010 series will be The Rivals: Hopkins vs. Jones II featuring Bernard 

“The Executioner” Hopkins vs. Roy “The Terminator” Jones, Jr., 

presented in more than 150 select movie theaters in high definition 

live from Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Events Center on Saturday, April 

3. The new agreement follows the highly successful cinema presentation 

of the Floyd “Money” Mayweather vs. Juan Manuel “Dinamita” 

Marquez fight on the big screen in September 2009—the first 

fight to be shown in movie theaters in over 20 years. 

The rollout of digital cinema to exhibitors across Europe received a 

significant boost with the announcement that ARTS ALLIANCE ME- 

DIA LTD, Europe’s leading digital cinema company, has reached 

an agreement to secure Ð50m in funding for its initiative. Funds 

advised by Sankaty Advisors, LLC, the credit affiliate of Bain Capital 

LLC, have agreed to provide funding to support the rollout over the 

next two years, subject to final documentation. There are currently 

about 4,500 digital cinema screens in Europe, approximately 75 

percent of which are 3D. That figure is expected to rise rapidly to 

almost 13,000 by the end of 2012. 

JBL introduced the ScreenArray 5742 4-way and 5732 3-way ultrahigh-power 

loudspeaker systems, designed to compliment the 

large-format 3D visual experience. Both new ScreenArray speakers 

features a 150-Watt, 4-inch titanium diaphragm high-frequency 

compression driver on JBL’s patented Optimized Aperture waveguide, 

featuring Screen Spreading Compensation. The larger 5742 

system with a quad mid-range array of four 8-inch Differential 

Drive cone midrange drivers. This provides 1,400 Watts of smooth 

coverage, coupled with a dual 18-inch SVG Super Vented Gap, 

low-frequency section providing 1,600 Watts of high power output 

with minimum distortion. The 5732 ScreenArray model features a 

700-Watt, dual cone midrange, and a dual 15-inch, 1,200-Watt lowfrequency 

section. This system provides significant power in a compact 

system for the headroom required in post-production venues 

as well as cinemas worldwide. 

CINEDIGM DIGITAL CINEMA CORP announced Starplex Cinemas 

will participate in its Phase 2 digital cinema deployment program by 

transitioning 102 screens from analog to digital cinema projectors. 

“We are pleased to welcome the Starplex group of theaters to the 

Cinedigm family,” said Cinedigm Chairman and CEO Bud Mayo. 

PEPSICO INC. plans to cut the sodium found in each serving of 

its key brands by one-fourth in five years, the company announced 

Monday, as the industry deals with pressure from the government 

and health-conscious shoppers who want more options. The maker 

of Frito-Lay chips and Pepsi drinks announced several nutrition 

goals Monday at the start of a two-day investor conference. The 

company also set two goals for the next 10 years: to cut the average 

added sugar per serving by 25 percent and saturated fat per 

serving by 15 percent, in addition to adding more whole grains, 

fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy into its array of products. 

VIVIAN’s candy self serve test locations released a report on their 

customer findings. Similar to the impulse candy concept in grocery 

stores, self-serve customers are grabbing and purchasing more 

candy. The increase in sales generated is greater than the slight 

increase in theft. 

On the Friday before the Academy Awards, GOLD CLASS CIN- 

EMAS and Ellen DeGeneres threw a party on her talk show. One 

Ellen guest won a movie party for herself and 30 friends with free 

tickets and concessions, while Gold Class awarded everyone in 

the audience a $100 gift certificate. At-home viewers could log 

into GoldClassCinemas.com to print off a voucher for a free Ellen’s 

Sugar-Free Vegan Dessert, redeemable at any Gold Class Cinema 

until April 30. 

May 2010 

Boxoffi ce · The Business of Movies 

7

EXECUTIVESUITE 

JOHN FITHIAN > NATO president and chief executive officer 

ShoWest 2010—a great success 

A week of celebration and clarification 

The motion picture theater industry experienced a 

busy and productive week during ShoWest 2010 at 

Paris and Bally’s hotels in Las Vegas. Registrations were 

up over last year and delegates displayed great enthusiasm 

for the business after a record-breaking 2009 and a 

strong start to 2010. And NATO member Bill Stembler, 

the worthy subject of my April Boxoffice column, received 

the ShoWester of the Year award to unanimous 

acclaim. 

reflected in his labor of love each spring at ShoWest. 

Next year, NATO will transition to our own convention, 

CinemaCon, to be held just down the strip at Caesars 

Palace. As the consummate showman, Bob has set the 

bar high for us, and we are grateful to him. Of course, 

Bob will continue to serve the industry at CinemaExpo, 

CineAsia and ShowEast, and will also remain the Executive 

Director of NATO of New York State and the 

International Cinema Technology Association. 

Distribution 

and exhibition 

company leaders 

continue to discuss 

windows on an 

ongoing basis. 

Box office and admissions are strong 

During the week prior to ShoWest, the MPAA and 

NATO released the official data for 2009, and the 

numbers were excellent. Global box office reached an 

all-time high of nearly $30 billion—and here in the 

U.S. and Canada, our domestic market climbed more 

than 10 percent to reach $10.6 billion. That’s the fourth 

straight annual increase. Equally important, admissions 

also grew more than 5 percent as we closed out 

the fourth consecutive decade of growth in ticket sales. 

Even per capita ticket purchases grew by 4.6 percent. 

We’re one-third of the way through 2010 and the trends 

have continued so far. As of March 21, year-to-date box 

office was up another 9 percent over the same period in 

2009, and admissions were up more than 5 percent. 

Thanks to Bob Sunshine for a great ShoWest ride 

ShoWest ended with a bang in the last of ten annual 

conventions managed by Bob Sunshine and his team. 

Several significant movies were shown, including two 

summer releases from Disney (Prince of Persia and Toy 

Story 3) and one from Sony, The Karate Kid, which the 

studio celebrated with 12 Chinese dragon dancers, a 

phalanx of satin-clad showgirls, a squad of martial artists 

and Karate Kid star Jaden Smith, who strutted out 

with parents Jada and Will Smith. Newly launched CBS 

Films debuted their inaugural slate over lunch with 

talent including Jennifer Lopez and Dwayne “The Rock” 

Johnson. Warner Bros. dazzled attendees with the directors, 

stars and clips of future movies including Inception, 

the latest from The Dark Night director Christopher 

Nolan, and Due Date, the next comedy from The Hangover 

director Todd Phillips, who can partially credit the 

ShoWest ‘09 enthusiasm for his clips from The Hangover 

for making the film a smash. Panel discussions, university 

programs and presentations by industry leaders 

examined all the significant issues of the day. And Billy 

Bush led a star-studded final night of awards to the delight 

of everyone in attendance. 

Throughout the week, various speakers appropriately 

recognized Bob Sunshine and his colleagues for 

the tremendous service they have provided to this 

industry. Bob’s dedication to our industry has been 

Windows discussions achieve some stability 

Prior to ShoWest, recent industry conversations 

regarding the theatrical-to-DVD window had been 

seriously misinterpreted by some in the industry and 

many in the press. Individual distribution and exhibition 

executives have discussed some flexibility on a 

very limited number of movies where theatrical sales 

and home video sales can both benefit through particular 

seasonal scheduling. Cinema operators seek big 

movie releases throughout the year. To accommodate 

a strong 12-month release cycle distributors may need 

slightly different release windows on a limited number 

of individual films. For example, exhibitors want more 

commercial product released theatrically in September. 

Distributors may want a home video release of those 

theatrical movies in time for the winter holiday season. 

As long as the overall windows model remains robust, 

such limited discussions can provide benefits to the 

entire industry. 

These conversations should also be assessed in the 

context of recent windows history. Over the past five 

years, the average theatrical window has not deviated 

more than eight days. In 2009, it remained at four 

months and 11 days. Of course, that is an average. Some 

individual movies have been released with a shorter 

window, and some with a longer window. Distribution 

and exhibition company leaders continue to discuss 

these windows on an ongoing basis. 

During ShoWest, I had many conversations with 

various studio executives regarding windows and my 

assessment of the current situation. I was pleased to 

note similar understandings in virtually all of those 

discussions. 

Even though current discussions on the theatrical- 

DVD window suggest a common understanding, I remain 

concerned about a longer-term possibility. A few 

studio executives have indicated their desire to experiment 

in the future with home video on demand, or 

movie-streaming or download, in a much shorter window. 

The MPAA’s pending petition before the Federal 

Communications Commission on Selectable Output 

Control suggests such intentions, albeit in an undefined 

manner. During ShoWest, I discussed with many, many 


domestic and international exhibitors the possibility of 

such studio experimentation and was pleased to learn 

of each company’s strong individual resolve to protect 

the theatrical window. 

Exhibitors have no concern with the specific choice 

of home release platform (e.g., DVD, VOD, streaming 

or download), but do care deeply about the timing involved. 

In other words, it does not matter how studios 

distribute movies to the home—it matters when. Our 

studio partners should not misinterpret exhibitors’ limited 

and occasional flexibility on a few, slightly shorter 

DVD windows as any possible sign of support for radically 

reduced windows on other platforms. 

Digital cinema and 3D finally break out of the box 

As anticipated, the transition to digital cinema and 

digital 3D exhibition was an important theme at ShoWest. 

The week before the convention, Digital Cinema 

Implementation Partners announced a financing agreement 

that signals the beginning of a broad rollout of 

digital and 3D screens. As many as 2,500 3D screens will 

be installed this calendar year by the three companies 

involved. Right behind DCIP will be integrator Cinedigm 

and NATO’s Cinema Buying Group. Some CBG 

exhibitors capable of securing financing have already 

begun their rollout and broader integration funding is 

just around the corner. By the end of the year, we could 

more than double our current 3D screen count. Overseas, 

expect similar—and perhaps greater—3D screen 

growth. At ShoWest, I was particularly pleased to see 

the strength and determination of CBG members: more 

than 260 individuals joined a four-hour private discussion 

of the rollout with CBG Managing Director Bill 

Campbell and our integration partners at Cinedigm. 

The increased digital infrastructure—combined with 

more than 20 3D movies in 2010—is causing box office 

receipts to soar. Any remaining doubt about the power 

of 3D exhibition evaporated with the runaway success 

of Jim Cameron’s Avatar, a name applauded so often in 

Vegas it would have made Elvis jealous. With over $700 

million in domestic box office and more than $1.9 billion 

overseas, Avatar confirmed the economic potential 

of this new technology. 

The war against movie theft advances 

Also at the convention, studio and exhibition leaders 

came together to further our collective efforts 

to combat movie theft. During a private meeting of 

NATO’s Movie Theft Task Force, the MPAA, NATO and 

our respective members discussed the data, shared 

best practices and strategized for the future. We have 

already made great strides fighting camcording, the 

biggest source of stolen movie content. In the U.S. and 

Canada last year, video camcords shrunk by 30 percent 

while interdictions grew by 50 percent. Together, tough 

laws, vigilant theater employees and expert studio investigators 

nailed thieves. Since 2004, the joint MPAA- 

NATO Take Action reward program has awarded over 

$100,000 to theater employees who have thwarted acts 

of movie recording in their cinemas. Now we have to 

replicate these trends in other parts of the world. With 

our European allies, NATO has been working to attack 

movie theft on that continent. And as I write this 

column, I’m traveling to Mexico City with some of my 

NATO colleagues to meet with exhibitors, distributors 

and government officials to discuss possible initiatives 

there. 

NATO members discuss ratings enforcement practices 

Twice a year, the exhibition executives most responsible 

for ratings education and enforcement come 

together in meetings of NATO’s Ratings Compliance 

Officers Task Force. Joined by leaders of the ratings system 

(“CARA”) and the MPAA, the task force met again in 

Vegas. Tim Johnson, Kerasotes Theatres’ director of operations, 

gave a particularly useful presentation that summarized 

his company’s recent efforts to improve ratings 

enforcement, which resulted in a much higher success 

rate in the most recent results of the Federal Trade Commission’s 

“mystery shopper survey.” NATO appreciates 

our members’ vigilance on this very important issue. 

The industry offers best wishes for a departing 

leader—Dan Glickman 

ShoWest 2010 toasted Dan Glickman’s last appearance 

as MPAA’s Chairman. What an incredible honor 

and benefit it has been for the movie industry to have 

had Dan Glickman as its leader. To our industry’s benefit, 

Dan was able to marshal all the experience and acumen 

he gained serving as a member of Congress and as 

a Cabinet Secretary. Over the past six years, Dan has led 

the MPAA to very significant accomplishments. Among 

them, he has fought successfully to protect intellectual 

property rights, served as our able partner in the movie 

rating system and acted as the industry’s chief advocate 

on free trade. 

On April 1, Dan left the movie industry to dedicate 

his talents to Refugees International. Public service has 

been Dan’s life, and this next chapter will be an important 

one. The nonprofit world will benefit from his advocacy 

and skilled leadership—but Dan will be missed 

by all of us in the movie biz. 

The delegates closed out ShoWest 2010 with great 

confidence for our future. We look forward to seeing 

everyone at NATO’s CinemaCon on March 28 – 31, 

2011. ■ 

At ShoWest, 

I was particularly 

pleased to see the 

strength and 

determination of 

CBG members: 

more than 260 

individuals joined 

a four-hour private 

discussion of the 

rollout with CBG 

Managing Director 

Bill Campbell 

and our integration 

partners at 

Cinedigm. 



9

INDUSTRY REPORT By Amy Nicholson 

Making deals 

The finance team behind the VPF structure announces they’ll 

help small and mid-size exhibitors convert to digitral 

he industry changed with DCIP’s announcement this year,” 

“Tsays Entertainment Financial Advisor’s Brandt Gully. “We 

knew that was going to be the event that got the digital transition 

moving because these three big exhibitors happen to be in the backyard 

of the smaller exhibitors. As soon as they get converted it puts 

the smaller ones who aren’t converted at a disadvantage.” 

Gully and EFA partners Ralph Willis and Kenny Farve have a history 

of smart prediction. For years, they headed the entertainment 

finance team for GE Capital and have spent years hammering out 

the details of the digital transition. Their greatest coup was closing 

the $217 million financing deal for Cinedigm. 

“We were, from the finance side, really the ones who engineered 

the whole VPF structure,” says Gully. And now the trio and their 

new venture, EFA Partners, is ready to give the rollout a new push 

with their financing plan for small to mid-sized exhibitors. “It’s an 

industry we really enjoy and we’ve been told that our expertise there 

is quite unique,” adds Gully. “While at GE, we did a lot of financing 

for film production, pre and post production companies, integrators, 

vendors and exhibitors.” 

EFA’s brainstorm was to connect exhibition to the U.S. Small 

Business Administration, or SBA. The program guarantees good 

repayment and interest rates for qualified companies. Exhibitors 

have 10 years to pay back their loans, and it’s reasonable to predict 

that many can put their VPF checks toward the investment. Gully 

explains, “The exhibitor will be able to finance 100 percent of their 

conversion costs, and that’s unique to any deal we’ve seen so far. 

Even the portion that they have to put toward the conversion is 

something they can finance, and the interest rates are very reasonable 

compared to what they would get from their local lender.” 

Adds Willis, “These are the criteria from the SBA, which is meant 

for smaller businesses. That’s why they’re in place. While The SBA is 

guaranteeing the loan, they’re not really involved—the lenders are 

the regular banks and financial institutions.” 

To qualify, exhibitors must have a net income less than $3 million 

and a company net worth under $8.5 million. “Based on our analysis, 

most small and midsize exhibitors fall under that line,” says Gully. 

They must have been in business for three years, they must be U.S. 

citizens and, with their application, they must provide three years of 

operating history and their personal credit history. Once approved, a 

theater can start installing digital equipment within 30 days. 

“We’ve really spent a lot of time over the last six to nine months 

educating financial institutions,” says Gully. The EFA partners 

knew they had a workable business model, but the credit industry 

was still frozen. Instead of scrapping the idea, they invested time in 

smoothing the path ahead, patient that there would come a time 

when the cash would flow more freely. “We figured we’d go out and 

find people who might be willing to invest, and devote our time and 

energy to getting them better equipped to understand the industry,” 

says Gully. And their argument to banks was this: 

“When we discuss digital financing, we start at the very beginning,” 

says Gully. “We talk about the strength of the film industry, 

we talk about the record box office we’ve seen in the last three years, 

how well the industry does during recessionary times. That’s the 

key driver. Financial institutions look at the industry as a whole and 

from there they focus on a niche.” And to EFA, the best growth area 

was clearly digital. 

EFA will use their familiarity with the SBA to get exhibitors approved 

by their local bank. Going forward, the process will be fast 

and easy. But that’s due to months of hard preparatory work. 

“To say it’s difficult is an understatement—to try to explain to these 

lenders what a VPF is and how they are going to get repaid,” explains 

Gully. “And the exhibition business itself can be a little unique for 

banks because it’s dependent on product someone else is putting 

together that’s obviously seasonal. We’ve vetted that and they’ve 

bought into the industry and the collateral behind this program.” 

Adds Willis, “While we were at GE, we were totally immersed in 

the industry meeting software providers, hardware providers, studios, 

integrators. We had to go through that in order to get the initial 

Cinedigm deal done in 2006. We know the questions the financial 

institutions are going to ask.” 

“One of the biggest concerns for smaller operators is that if they 

wait, then they’ll miss out on the whole VPF concept. The studios 

are only going to pay these for so long—and then they’re going to 

have to pay 100 percent of it themselves,” sighs Gully. But EFA believes 

that right now they can help provide a sweet spot to small and 

mid-size exhibitors gauging their options. 

“I’ve been going to ShoWest for the past eight years, and for the 

last four it’s been the exact same stories, the exact same panel discussions,” 

says Gully. “The whole process for years has been a headache 

to a lot of these exhibitors because it’s never been something 

that they’ve been excited about doing—excited about spending 

$70,000 plus dollars per screen.” But after EFA’s big debut in Vegas 

this March, the tone has changed. 

“It’s become a bit of a frenzied state,” says Gully. “Our phones have 

been ringing off the hook from any size exhibitor wanting us to go 

over what their options are and deciding what’s the best fit for them. 

I think the urgency level has finally spiked up after several years of 

just sitting and waiting. It’s time to get this done.” 

■ 

Get slim? Get real 

At ShoWest, five exhibitors respond to the 

studio call for narrower windows and healthier 

concessions 

Sony Chairman and CEO Michael Lynton made headlines during 

ShoWest 2010’s first lunch when, after a sincere toast to the 

great money music studios and theaters make when they’re in harmony, 

he boldly hit two discordant notes. First, he tackled theatrical 

windows—an issue both timely and touchy with the tension over 


Disney’s abbreviated release of Alice in Wonderland. (John Fithian 

explores the issue in his column in this month’s issue). Then, he 

pushed for healthier concessions, trotting out a video from TV personality 

Dr. Oz. “Adding healthier options to your existing menu 

is the right thing to do for our industry, for audiences and for our 

country,” advised Lynton. Immediately after Lynton’s speech, five 

exhibitors offered their reaction in a panel titled “Exhibition Speaks 

Out: New Challenges and Best Practices.” 

Holding court were five exhibitors representing Latin America, the 

UK, Russia and the US: Cinemark International’s Valmir Fernandes, 

Rising Star Media’s Paul Heth, Cineworld’s Steve Weiner, Rave Motion 

Pictures’ Tom Stephenson and Kerasotes Theatres’ Tony Kerasotes. 

And their response to Lynton’s requests was mixed. 

On the issue of windows, Lynton had made the case that a dip in 

home entertainment revenue could mean a slash in studio output. 

Stephenson called for a reality check. “I don’t think you’re going to 

save DVDs,” said Lynton. But the panel agreed that the smart prediction 

for the future of home entertainment is on-demand downloads. 

And the clash over DVD windows is really just the tremors—or 

hopefully, the prevention—of the next big battle over VOD. 

Still, added Weiner, “Lets not kill the thing making this all possible.” 

As he and many on the panel concurred, studios need theatrical 

releases to give their films publicity and prestige. Which means that 

not only do studios and exhibitors need to play fair on windows, 

they also need to play fair on advertising—specifically, holding off 

on promoting a DVD street date while a film is still in theaters. 

The panel was equally outspoken in their take on healthier snacks. 

Sighed Stephenson, “Every few years, the Center of the Study for 

No Fun comes out with a report.” Op-ed writers panic over popcorn 

calorie counts, but that panic quickly subsides. While Lynton 

seemed to feel that lighter fare was a no-brainer win-win, these theater 

operators on the trenches saw shades of gray. 

Many had already tinkered with their own menus, offering airpopped 

popcorn and fruit cups that sat uneaten (and unsold) at 

the concession stand. Crunching the numbers, they had reason to 

believe that while patrons claim to want healthier options, in practice, 

they indulge. And until their voices and their wallets cast the 

same vote, why should exhibition throw good money after “bad” 

behavior? 

Noted Weiner, in UK groceries, full calorie soda and diet soda sell 

in equal measures. However, in UK cinemas, full calorie soda outpaces 

its slimmer cousin 2:1. To him, clearly consumers see movie 

theaters as a safe zone for snacking. Added Heth, retooling the 

concession stand for lighter fare like fruit cups and carrot sticks 

adds an extra complication studios might not have considered: Refrigeration. 

Which means no matter how much exhibitors might 

want to sell healthier treats—and indeed, many have made good 

business rolling out full kitchens that can offer salads, hummus 

and seared salmon—for the average exhibitor already cramped 

behind the concession counter, the worthy goal is met with an 

understandable chill. 

■ 



11

SHOWBUSINESS 

PHIL CONTRINO > editor, BOXOFFICE.com 

The future of ticketing? 

Forget stubs, bring your cell phone 

Every month or so, my wallet expands 

to George Costanza-esque proportions 

thanks to receipts, gift cards, business cards, 

notes, important papers and, yes, plenty of 

movie ticket stubs. I force myself to clean 

it out only when it becomes painful to sit. 

Now, thanks to the mobile ticketing progress 

made by Fandango and MovieTickets, 

at least the ticket stubs could be eliminated 

altogether. 

Of course, mobile ticketing provides a 

bonus beyond fewer bruises to my backside. 

Sure, it’s convenient for moviegoers to buy 

tickets on their phones. And now they can 

scan that ticket and then have the ticket 

scanned directly from their phone. As this 

allows movie theaters to reduce long lines, 

it’s a win-win situation. 

Like any new technology that enters the 

exhibition space, it takes time and money to 

expand and become commonplace. But the 

early results are promising. 

Fandango recently reached an agreement 

with Reading Cinemas to roll out the technology 

on 100 screens, including busy locations 

in California, New York, New Jersey 

and Texas. 

“It frees you up,” says Tim Taylor, vice 

president of domestic operations for Reading 

Cinemas. “You can be riding in a cab and 

buy your tickets on the way to the movies— 

and you can avoid the long lines.” 

Taylor notes that initial feedback has been 

uniformly positive. On average, Taylor estimates 

that around 30-40 patrons use the 

system at each location during crowded 

weekend nights. And no technical snags 

have been reported. 

“We’re rolling it out slowly, and we’re 

working to increase awareness,” says Taylor. 

Chris Johnson, vice president of Classic 

SCAN AND DELIVER 

A barcode sent to mobile phones 

can shorten lines 

Cinemas, uses mobile ticketing from Movie- 

Tickets at the York Theater in Elmhurst, 

Illinois. Just like Taylor, he has only compliments. 

“People like any process that takes the 

line and hassle away from getting into a 

movie—or for that matter, avoiding any 

line period. I think it really is the wave of the 

future and will speed up lines, and give you 

a better sense of your ticket sales ahead of 

time,” says Johnson. 

“The feedback has been very positive and 

our company expects to greatly expand its 

mobile ticketing initiative in 2010,” says Joel 

Cohen, Chief Executive Officer of MovieTickets.com. 

Classic has been using mobile ticketing 

since December 2009, and Johnson estimates 

that around 25 to 30 percent of patrons 

are taking advantage. That’s a strong 

number considering that moviegoers are 

still willing to hook up the computer and 

print their tickets at home. 

Johnson notes that Classic’s only issue 

with mobile ticketing has been the debate 

over whether to use handheld or mobile 

ticket scanners. 

There’s another major advantage to the 

use of mobile ticketing: it’s green. While 

it’s hard to attach a concrete figure to how 

much paper the process saves, there’s no 

doubt it’s less wasteful. 

Mobile ticketing could be a major marketing 

ploy for early-adopting theaters. Staying 

one step ahead of the competition in an area 

as crucial as ticketing can entice patrons 

away from locations that are slow to adapt. 

Today’s moviegoers are concerned with 

convenience more than ever. Presenting 

them with an option that makes it easier to 

get into a movie theater is a crucial battle 

victory when the industry is in a greater war 

against entertainment accessed at home 

with the click of a button. 

Plus, let’s face it: we’ve all lost our ticket 

stubs at one point. Mobile ticketing will 

help prevent the feeling of panic that occurs 

at the doors when you can’t find your ticket 

among the assorted change and receipts in 

your pocket or purse. And, if you’re like me, 

putting it in your wallet isn’t a great option 

either. It’s kind of embarrassing to hand a 

theater employee a ticket for Transfomers 

when you’re in line to see the sequel. (True 

story.) 

■ 

The news 

cycle attacks 

3D 

Riding high just last month, 

the film industry needs to 

fight its critics with quality 

product 

Negative reactions to Clash of the Titans 

in 3D and a recent jump in ticket prices 

created a perfect storm of bad publicity for 

the exhibition industry just as this magazine 

was about to go to press. 

Critics of 3D used the opportunity to 

pounce on what they are still calling a “gimmick.” 

Even worse, the mainstream media 

outlets unleashed another round of articles 

on the “death of exhibition.” Some of you 

reading this have been dealing with that type 

of article for years. It’s an easy story to write: 

people are going to stop going to the movies 

because of rising ticket prices, better homeviewing 

platforms and/or the next trendiest 

catastrophe. But we all know that’s not true. 

Still, there are lessons to be learned. The 

truth is this: a decent percentage of audi- 


ences will walk out upset after seeing Clash 

of the Titans. The patrons that will most 

notice inferior 3D are the ones that go to the 

movies much more often than your average 

moviegoer. It’s very important to keep them 

happy. James Cameron, Jeffrey Katzenberg 

and Michael Bay have warned against the 

dangers of converting films from 2D to 

3D—and now their warnings are becoming 

a reality. 

This presents a challenge for distributors 

and exhibitors. With the rush of 2D/3D conversions 

happening over the next several 

months, there needs to be a higher standard 

placed on delivering a quality product. The 

in these animated flicks will be just as dazzling. 

I’m rooting for those films—and other 

3D releases—because unlike a lot of cynics 

working in my space, I still enjoy going 

to the movies. To root against 3D is to be 

unnecessarily bitter. Wouldn’t you want to 

watch the industry you love evolve? And 

experience a financial boost during tough 

economic times? I understand the need 

to criticize a faulty 3D conversion, but it’s 

counterproductive to use one misstep to 

damn an entire technology. Hollywood will 

shape up. Too much has been invested for 

it not to. 

BEWARE THE KRAKEN 

Even 3D’s biggest champions 

have argued against 2D-to-3D 

conversions 

3D revolution cannot be exploited, or our 

critics will win. 

A lot of time, money and creative resources 

have been invested into making 3D a 

reality and it hurts to watch the movement 

take a blow like this just as it was picking 

up serious steam. Yet I’m confident that 3D 

will rebound in a big way. Next up are three 

major animated films: Shrek Forever After, 

Toy Story 3 and Despicable Me. Until Avatar, I 

felt that Up was the best use of modern 3D I 

had seen. Here’s hoping that the 3D images 

News stories have much shorter shelf lives 

these days, and that’s part of the problem. 

A lot of fuss around a disappointment like 

Clash of the Titans is all it took for many 

people to forget how incredible it was to see 

Avatar. Following that logic, when Toy Story 

3 blows everyone away (because, honestly, 

has the Disney/Pixar duo ever missed?) the 

story will become “3D Rebounds!” Meanwhile, 

everyone in the exhibition industry 

will let a knowing smile spread across their 

faces. We’ve been through this before. ■ 

Consistency. Quality. Performance. 

May 2010

TIMECODE 

KENNETH JAMES BACON > 

creative director, BOXOFFICE Media 

Rocket Man and 

the Method Man 

One you can’t get away from and 

one you can’t quite recall 

One of the world’s greatest bartenders—a hall-of-famer, really— 

is Billy, who plies the tender’s trade at Kafé Neo near our luxurious 

Seattle office. Actually, now that I think about it, Kafé Neo is 

our Seattle office. Which, I guess, explains Billy’s insistence on being 

listed in our masthead as special assistant to the creative director. 

Both gregarious and garrulous, Billy reminds me of that great 

character actor Albert Salmi. Brooklyn-born Salmi was one of those 

faces you see in an old Twilight Zone that causes you to say, “Oh, 

there’s that guy again.” Although often cast as a villain in episodes 

of westerns like Have Gun–Will Travel, Salmi was a noted Broadway 

veteran and serious student of Lee Strasberg of The Actors Studio. 

Salmi’s big-screen break, after a string of high-profile live television 

performances, was in 1958’s epic The Brothers Karamazov. Salmi portrays 

Pavel Smerdjakov, rumored to be the illegitimate son of Lee J. 

Cobb’s Fyodor Karamazov. The legitimate sons are, of course, Alvin, 

Simon and Theodore. 

Salmi won raves and an NBR award for his role and it’s been written 

that he actually turned down an Oscar nomination, though that 

seems a little far-fetched if you know how Oscar voting works. 

Playing the brothers Karamazov opposite Salmi were Yul Brynner, 

Richard Basehart and a young Canadian actor in his big-screen 

debut: William Shatner. Classically-trained, Shakespearean actor 

William Shatner. Roll that around in your brain for a bit. 

If you have any doubts about the sheer awesomeness that is Shatner—or 

“The Shat” in urban dictionary parlance—consider this score: 

Noted member of the Commonwealth Emmy Awards 

Shakespearean actor and starship captain 

Sir Patrick Hewes Stewart, OBE 0 

Shakespearean actor and starship captain 

William Shatner 2 

HOLLYWOOD REPORT 

BOXOFFICE / July 17, 1978 

ATLANTA—Actor William Shatner regaled about 

1,000 fans packed in the Grand Salon of the Atlanta 

Hilton during a weekend’s Star Trek convention. The 

fans listened with glee as Shatner gave them the news 

about the upcoming Star Trek—The Motion Picture. 

Shatner, who played Star Trek’s Capt. Kirk, came 

down hard on network brass. 

“Paramount Studios had no idea of the popularity 

of their property. Seventy-nine hours of it are being 

run and rerun across the country (on 150 stations) 

and they saw that the revenue was good, but they 

never had any insight into the interest of people like 

yourself—and me … We know how interesting science 

fiction is. They had no idea. It took (the successes of) 

Star Wars and Close Encounters to show them.” 

Shatner drew squeals of joy at every mention of 

CLASSIC AD 

BOXOFFICE / March 3, 1958 

Salmi and Shatner’s careers traveled differing trajectories over 

the course of the next thirty years. Though both remained primarily 

television actors, Shatner found steady work in Roger Corman 

features including The Intruder, Big Bad Mama and The Devil’s Rain, 

the latter featuring Vinnie Barbarino. Hundreds of ads, articles and 

reviews for Corman’s films appeared in Boxoffice during this period, 

with Shatner’s name popping up regularly. Salmi—not so much. 

By 1990, Shatner had starred in four Star Trek films, appeared in and 

directed a fifth (Star Trek V: The Undiscovered Country), starred in two 

popular TV series, hosted a third (Rescue 911) and authored a popular 

sci-fi novel, TekWar. By 1990, Salmi had left Hollywood with his wife 

Star Trek—the Motion Picture. The $15,000,000 film 

by Paramount, set to begin production next month, 

is based on the TV show and will star the original 

crew of the S.S. Enterprise. “Two hundred reporters 

showed up for the announcement that it was going to 

be made,” said Shatner, who is confident the film will 

be more successful than Star Wars. 

One young woman asked about Shatner’s career 

before Star Trek. He quipped “Before Star Trek there 

was darkness.“ By the time the series ended he had 

been around for a long lime. In 1969 he traveled the 

college lecture circuit and recently branched out into 

a multimedia Star Encounter Show, which includes his 

readings with full symphony backup. He has been in 

a few forgettable films since 1969 and he played Paul 

Revere in The Bastard, the recent TV miniseries. 

CLASSIC COVER 

BOXOFFICE / November 1986 

14 

Boxoffi ce · The Business of Movies May 2010

CLASSIC COVER 

BOXOFFICE / July 18, 1977 

for the quiet of Spokane, Washington. What had once been a promising 

career on screen after a stunning debut ended on Earth Day, April 

22, 1990, with the firing of two shots. Roberta Salmi was found dead 

from single round fired from a .25 calibre revolver. Albert Salmi was 

killed by a bullet from a .45 Colt. The official reports list the end of 

the Salmis as a murder/suicide, but the truth remains murky. 

As for the world’s greatest living actor ? The 79 year old former 

starfleet captain just Twittered this: “You know you’re old when you 

fart dust.” 

■ 

CLASSIC AD 

Salmi and Shatner, together again 

BOXOFFICE BAROMETER / April 27, 1964 



15

WINNER 

FRONT LINE AWARD 

DINO CARDONA > GREETER 

KERASOTES SHOWPLACE THEATRES’ WEBSTER PLACE 11 > CHICAGO, IL 

Nominated by Nizar Handzic, operations manager 

High Praise 

The customer’s smile is his reward 

Dino Cardona arrives early enough 

in advance of his clock-in time to 

glance at the bulletin board for announcements, 

review his schedule for the week 

and greet each of his fellow Webster Place 

11 employees. With that done, he applies 

spit and polish to his workstation, clocks 

in and launches into his workday. When 

Cardona reaches out to tear that first ticket, 

the patron’s eyes flicker over his wheelchair, 

but they seldom linger. In the next instant 

they are taken in by their greeter’s warmth, 

charm and a smile. 

“My initial encounter with Dino was in 

2000 when he first joined the Webster Place 

Theatre,” says Kerasotes Showplace Theatres 

Webster Place 11 Operations Manager Nizar 

Handzic. “What particularly stands out 

about Dino is the warmth with which he 

interacts with our patrons—he has never let 

his handicap interfere with the exceptional 

level of customer service he displays to each 

and every one of our patrons.” 

”I have interviewed, trained and managed 

hundreds of employees,” says Handzic, “and 

I would rank Dino as one of the best five 

employees that I have had pleasure of working 

with. Our theater finds him to be an 

invaluable asset.” 

In light of such praise, Cardona is humble. 

“I’m a people person. I love working with 

people; I love making the customers feel 

welcome when they’re coming in. When 

I’m not around, people are always asking for 

me because I make them happy when they 

come in.” 

Cardona’s radiant charm and deft customer 

service skills have put a unique face on 

Kerasotes Webster Place 11, granting him acclaim 

beyond that of just any member of the 

floor staff, something patrons frequently try 

to reward. “Patrons on a regular basis give 

him gifts that he refuses to accept, stating 

that he is just doing his job,” says Handzic. 

For Cardona, work is its own reward. “People 

greet me with open arms. They’re glad 

to see me there. They give me handshakes 

all the time and tell me they’re glad to see 

me working and doing what I want. I like to 

hear stuff like that, it raises up my spirits.” 

Several Kerasotes Showplace Theatres 

Webster Place 11 patrons rank beyond the 

work-a-day crowd, and Cardona regularly 

finds himself tearing tickets for Oprah Winfrey, 

U.S. Congressman Louis Gutierrez and 

Illinois Secretary of State Jessie White. 

Does Cardona feel patrons interact with 

him differently because he’s in a wheelchair? 

The point is moot. “I don’t let it 

change how I do things. I still do what I 

have to do every day. It doesn’t bother what I 

do because I keep on what I gotta do.” 

Outside of work, Cardona is social, but has 

found his most satisfying interactions are 

those he shares with his coworkers and patrons, 

“I’m a working fanatic. I’ll go to movies, 

I’ll go to the mall or I’ll go downtown 

but I love working with people and I love 

going to the theater.” 

When asked of his career goals beyond 

Webster Place 11, Cardona has little desire 

to give up a good thing. “I’ve thought about 

doing other things, but I get so much out of 

going to the theater that I find myself working 

at the theater as much as possible. When 

I was growing up, I always wanted to work 

at a movie theater—my dream came true.” 

—Cole Hornaday 

BOXOFFICE is looking for winners—theater employees you consider to be genuine role models making a significant, positive impact on your theater operations. Monthly 

winners of the BOXOFFICE Front Line Award receive a $50 Gap Gift Card! To nominate a theater employee send a brief 100– to 200-word nominating essay to cole@ 

boxoffice.com. Be sure to put ‘Front Line Nomination’ in the subject line. 

16 


cinema experience

WINNER 

FRONT OFFICE AWARD 

DALE SWEET > MANAGER 

TIVOLI THEATRE > ST. LOUIS, MO 

Nominated by Debbie Tzortzos, GM Landmark Cinemas. 

Sweet science 

Manager gives his all to a beloved old theater 

Tivoli Theatre company members will 

tell you Dale Sweet is a Zen Master at 

multi-tasking. Having spent over three-quarters 

of his life in exhibition, Sweet can diagnose 

any technical problem, wrangle any 

staff and juggle any oddball requests. “He is 

one of those guys you strive to be like,” says 

Landmark General Manager, Debbie Tzortzos. 

“His staff absolutely adores him.” 

Sweet won’t say just how long he’s worked 

in the movies, but one gathers he started 

learning the ropes prior to high school. 

Sweet spent his wonder years at the Capitol 

Theatre in uptown Waterloo, Illinois in an 

auditorium situated on the second floor of 

the old Odd Fellows Hall. He says it was just 

something to do a couple of nights a week— 

idle hands are tempted to evil in big cities 

and small towns. Early on, Sweet learned 

the fine art of organization and its cousin: 

improvisation. “The theater was just a block 

from my house,” Sweet recalls. “It was there 

I had all the experiences: changing exciter 

lamps, condensers freezing up, sound problems 

and prints 

not showing up on 

time.” 

Sweet’s relationship 

with the Tivoli 

dates back to his 

teens, a frantic romance 

that found 

him folding his 

day job into his 

night life. “When I 

worked at the theater 

in Illinois, we 

would put on the 

9 pm show and as 

soon it was out we 

would hurry over 

the river for the 

midnight show at 

the Tivoli.” Sweet 

and friends would 

catch screenings of 

The Rocky Horror Picture Show and subtitled 

foreign language films after which they’d 

break for the border to clean the other theater 

and punch out for the night. 

Though the Tivoli was run down and 

on the verge of collapse, it was still one 

of Sweet’s favorite places. “There was an 

absentee landlord who did no repairs whatsoever,” 

he recalls. “Rain leaked into the 

auditorium and there was pigeon poop all 

over the stage and I remember thinking, 

‘This place is just so wonderful.’” 

But then in 1994, headlines ran that the 

Tivoli would close its doors forever. It 

looked to be the end of an era until local entrepreneurs 

Joe and Linda Edwards bought 

the theater and set out on a year-long, $2.5 

million renovation plan to restore the cinema 

to its 1924 glory. When the new Tivoli 

management placed ads in the local paper 

seeking fresh staff, Sweet couldn’t resist 

throwing his hat into the ring with his own 

particular panache. “I sent a humorous 

resume saying that I had experience with 

‘40s projectors that hemorrhaged oil and 

that I was adept at writing marquee slogans 

for movies using missing, broken, or mismatched 

letters.” 

According to rumor, then-manager Travis 

Cape pulled Sweet’s resume out of the stack 

and said, “I think we should probably call 

this guy.” 

Sweet was working at the Tivoli as he 

finished high school and stayed on through 

his education at the St. Louis University 

School of Journalism. Upon graduation, 

he saw little point in leaving exhibition. “I 

always wanted to be a copy editor at a major 

metropolitan daily newspaper,” says Sweet. 

“I wanted to write the photo captions and 

headlines and fact-check the stories, but 

when I graduated from college in 1997, I 

was already a full-time salaried manager 

here—it just wasn’t feasible.“ 

Beyond his basic day-to-day management 

duties, Sweet is also the frequent ringleader 

for a regular rotation of film festivals held at 

the Tivoli: The Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, 

The 48-Hour Film Project, The St Louis 

Filmmakers Showcase and The St Louis International 

Film Festival to name a few. 

Beyond his work at the Tivoli, Sweet and 

his partner Eric are deeply involved with 

civil awareness and beautification programs. 

For several years they’ve spearheaded their 

Neighborhood Watch Association and helped 

to rid their streets of crime by coordinating a 

program in which neighbors attend and testify 

at court hearings for those locals arrested 

for gun, drug and gang-related offenses. 

“I’ve never worked with anyone who accomplishes 

in a day as much as Dale does,” 

says Laura Resnick, Senior Regional Publicist 

for Landmark Theatres. “During film 

festivals, filmmakers will bring equipment 

in just assuming Dale’s going to be able to 

run everything when he’s never seen some 

of this equipment before—but he does it. I’m 

just in awe of him.” 

—Cole Hornaday 

BOXOFFICE is looking for winners—managers, operators and executives you believe to be the real stars—exhibition professionals making a significant, positive impact 

on operations, employees and the bottom line. To nominate a front office star for the monthly BOXOFFICE Front Office Award, send a brief 100– to 200-word nominating 

essay to cole@boxoffice.com. Be sure to put ‘Front Office Nomination’ in the subject line. 


WINNER 

MARQUEE AWARD > MADISON ART CINEMAS, MADISON, CT 

The 

Independent 

Variable 

Colorful owner calculates the need 

for a bold arthouse cinema 

By Cole Hornaday 

photos by Robert Lisak 


POINT OF ENTRY 

“In 1998 I went into negotiation with the landlord, Jack Davis of Davis 

Realty,” says Gorlick, “nine months later we had the theater. That’s when 

Jack looked at me and said, ‘We could have had a baby in this time …’” 

Arnold Gorlick just screened Music 

Box Films’ latest release The Girl 

with the Dragon Tattoo, and he can’t 

stop raving about it. Attempts to 

discuss the Madison Art Cinema’s 98 year 

history periodically derail as Gorlick launches 

into vehement praise of the film’s music, 

directing and cinematography, demanding 

audiences vow to only see the film with good 

sound and high quality projection. 

Eventually, discussion of the cinema’s former 

life as the old Hoyt Hollywood Theatre 

resumes, but talk of how the Australia-based 

company twinned the auditorium in 1977 

is interrupted when long-time film booker 

Rob Lawinski of Lesser Theatre Service 

calls. Again, the interview halts. Gorlick 

adores Lawinski, crediting him as part 

of a small circle responsible for giving 

the Madison Art its heart and soul. Momentarily 

distracted, Gorlick attempts 

to hide his disappointment upon 

learning the Madison cannot book 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo until 

well into the month of April. 

At this point, all talk of the old 

movie house’s history screeches 

to a halt. “You ask me about the 

theater’s history and, frankly, 

that’s just history, it’s over,” says 

Gorlick. “You ask me, do I think I’ve 

accomplished something? Yes, especially 

looking at the last two years of the movie 

business—going through the most unforeseen 

and revolutionary changes.” 

It’s not as though Gorlick lacks respect 

or appreciation for the past. He’s simply 

learned that survival as an independent 

exhibitor means keeping your head in 

the present and your eyes on the horizon. 

“I’ve never been a passive person, which 

is also what distinguishes me from other 

theaters,” Gorlick says. “Some people just 

get the picture and they get the trailers and 

they get the one-sheets, the ads are placed 

by the agency—they just put the picture 

on the screen. That’s 

really not what I do. 

I don’t just open 

up a picture 

and hope for 

the best.” For 

Gorlick, it’s 

about finding 

your audience, 

giving them 

that unique, 

one-of-a-kind 

experience and 

REBEL WITH A CAUSE 

Madison Art Cinema owner and operator Arnold 

Gorlick started a life in movies while studying 

philosophy and music in college. 



21

MARQUEE AWARD > MADISON ART CINEMAS, MADISON, CT 

COUNTER INTUITIVE 

The Madison Art’s long and colorful entry 

corridor leads up the concession stand 

keeping them coming back for more. 

Gorlick spent nearly 25 years of his career 

at New Haven’s York Square Cinema and 

learned a great deal about finding one’s audience. 

“It’s one thing to open up a picture 

that’s challenging in New York City, but once 

it crosses the Hudson River or the Whitestone 

Bridge it doesn’t quite do the same 

thing.” 

When Gorlick got wind that Hoyt’s old 

Hollywood theater had closed down, he 

immediately made a visit to the Madison 

Chamber of Commerce. “I looked on the 

map. I understood the population density 

within a 15-20 mile radius and looked at 

incomes and so on—I realized that these 

people were upper-income earners who were 

well-read and were heavily involved in the 

arts.” Gorlick determined that Madison was 

the epicenter of a radius in need of a cinema 

devoted to independent film. “Had we gone 

one town to the east or one town to the west, 

it wouldn’t have worked the same way. There 

was a demographic on the shoreline of Connecticut 

that wasn’t being served—it needed 

a dedicated art cinema.” 

Upon signing the lease for his new movie 

house in 1999, Gorlick expanded and refurbished 

the space with the assistance of Tony 

Cimino and Largo Construction Company 

of Greater Philadelphia, but his main project 

was conjuring up a new ambiance for the 

cinema. Gorlick called up his friend Vladimir 

Shpitalnik, a graduate of the Moscow Art 

Theatre School who immigrated to the states 

to study design at the Yale School of Drama. 

“Vladimir’s first question for me was, ‘Do 

you want to go normal, or do you want to go 

risky?’” says Gorlick. “I said to him, ‘Vladimir, 

I want to go risky.’” Shpitalnik dreamed 

up bold, foreign color relationships: walls 

with great swaths of deep Shanghai reds, 

a ceiling of aquamarine married with trim 

of antique gold, varying shades of mustard, 

pumpkin and terra cotta. 

“When the construction people were 

painting the ceiling, they painted a square 

and then looked at me like I was nuts and 

said, ‘Are you’re sure this is what you want?’ 

I said, ‘You’ll see, when you’ve painted it all 

on. You’ll see how it will all come together,’” 

recalls Gorlick. 

The auditoriums—complete with large 

screens with 12 channels of Dolby Digital 

sound powered by QSC amplifiers through 

state-of-the-art JBL speakers—feature highbacked 

seats swathed in a satin-like red and 

gold upholstery. Pleated draperies on the 

walls repeat the antique gold motif. The 

Madison Art’s color palette is a bright and 

vivid reflection of Gorlick’s independent 

spirit, and he couldn’t be happier with the 

results. 

As an independent arthouse cinema that 

straddles the markets of several big cities, the 

Madison Art Cinemas has found a devoted 

audience. “For the last three years running 

we were voted by Connecticut Shoreline 

newspapers—despite those other big venues—the 

best place to watch a movie along 

the shoreline,” says Gorlick. 

Gorlick sums up his vision of Madison Art 

Cinemas thusly: “This is not a remote-controlled 

theater. I believe that people lament 

the depersonalization of their daily lives. 

And that’s happening increasingly and at 

an accelerated rate. When people can have a 

personalized or a humanized experience on 

a scale that keeps it human, I believe they’ll 

travel further and will even be willing to 

pay more for the experience. I’ve seen it happen—even 

if we’re playing something simultaneously 

with other venues, people will 

bypass them to see a picture in Madison.” ■ 


In 1893, 

America 

was in 

love with 

industry. 

The country’s 

heartbeat 

was the throb 

of steam-driven 

machinery. In every 

Charles Cretors 

1852–1934 

town, every tenement, at least one rugged 

spirited individual sat dreaming up a new 

mechanical marvel and their chance to 

snatch the brass ring. 

As the century rolled to a close, the 

World’s Columbian Exposition—more 

commonly known as the Chicago World’s 

Fair—promised wonders of the world to 

come: arts and architecture, commerce and 

technology. It also promised to pull the city 

up by the bootstraps. Two decades after the 

blaze, Chicago was still struggling to recover 

from the Great Fire’s devastation. 

Into this flurry of American 

Exceptionalism and industrial optimism 

came young Charles Cretors, an established 

snack peddler for eight years, pushing before 

him his contribution to the world to come: 

the first steam-powered, oil-popped popcorn 

popper. It was a simple affair, an automated 

machine that would not only bypass the 

burnt flavor and smell of flame-cooked corn, 

but also season the kernels as they popped. 

Street vendors were a common sight 

in old Chicago and competition for an 

easily made product with low overhead 

was at a premium. At the time, hawkers of 

peanuts and hot dogs didn’t see popcorn 

as a particular threat. “It was a snack that 

wasn’t really widely known because it was 

difficult and inconvenient to prepare in a 

consistent manner.” says Andrew Cretors, 

company president and great-great grandson 

of founder Charles. 

Part tinker, part chemist, the theory goes 

that Charles started his concept with a 

modern peanut roaster. Unsatisfied with 

CLASSIC AD 

Cretors has been a friend of BOXOFFICE for 

decades—this ad appeared in the February 3, 

1951 issue. 

24 

May 2010

Concession 

empire celebrates 

its 125th year 

the results, he toyed with 

a new oil mixture. “Butter 

alone wouldn’t take the 

temperature—not even 

clarified butter,” says Charlie 

Cretors, company CEO and 

Chief Designer (and Andrew’s 

father). “So he made a mixture 

H. D. Cretors 

1878–1963 

that was butter, oil and lard into 

something that would tolerate a 

popping temperature that was almost 

400 degrees Fahrenheit.” 

Charles’ product drew crowds, and if 

his culinary peers were any indication, a 

debut at Chicago World’s Fair proved an 

auspicious beginning. Gawkers marveled 

over the Cretors’ cart, got their first taste 

of Aunt Jemima pancake mix, Wrigley’s 

Juicy Fruit gum, Cracker Jack and Pabst Blue 

Ribbon Beer—in a can! 

Following the close of the World’s Fair, 

Charles Cretors was granted a patent for his 

device, making C. Cretors and Company 

holders of the 

very first—and 

still active— 

Underwriter’s 

Laboratory 

patent number. 

Charles evolved 

his design concept, 

introducing the first 

horse-drawn popcorn 

wagon in 1890. Vendors peddling 

popcorn, roasted nuts and cold drinks from 

a Cretors cart popped up in Midwest town 

squares, theaters, ballparks and fairgrounds. 

Cretors products were becoming 

synonymous with public entertainment. 

But due to old world stigma, popcorn as a 

concessionary institution was still many 

years down the road. 

“What they called ‘popcorn’ wasn’t 

what we have today,” says Charlie. “It was 

more like parched corn, which is basically 

cooked field corn.” And field corn, by most 

C. J. Cretors 

1911–2006 

standards, was a product unfit 

for human consumption. Our 

modern popcorn delicacy 

is flint corn: a hybrid of 

other corn strains that pops 

lighter and fluffier with a 

more satisfying crunch. “It’s 

Europe where you run into the 

mentality that corn is cattle-feed, 

and not a human product. Pick 

any grain we now feed to cows and that’s 

how they regarded corn then—and even 

today there’s still a lot of that sentiment in 

Europe.” 

Throughout the early part of the new 

century, Charles Cretors continued to refine 

his design and expanded his mechanical 

marvel into a successful franchise. With the 

First World War and the Great Depression a 

decade later, I treats were a rare prize. With 

popcorn selling as cheaply as 5 to 10 cents a 

bag, the product’s popularity soared. 

“If you go back and look, every town in 

LONG TERM ENGAGEMENT 

Cretors popcorn poppers have been a part of 

the American moviegoing experience since before 

silent films, dating back to the hand-cranked 

nickelodeons 

May 2010 Boxoffi ce · The Business of Movies 25

Cretors celebrates125 years 

GENERATIONS 

Charles D. Cretors, Charles (Bud) 

D. Cretors, Andrew G. Cretors 

and Beth Cretors Youdell 

the United States had a popcorn wagon 

on the town square,” says Charlie. “People 

didn’t have any money, but there was always 

a band concert or whatever and people 

would go down there to congregate—and 

here’s this guy selling popcorn at a nickel 

a bag. He made all his payments to Cretors 

and Company. He was a business that was 

still going strong, because people were 

going out.” Flint corn for popping became 

one of the few Depression Era agricultural 

industries to remain solvent while many 

others sunk into bankruptcy. 

By the 1930s, Cretors and Company had 

evolved into a full-on manufacturer, with 

multiple production facilities sprouting 

up throughout the Midwest. “The vending 

wagon evolved from hand-pulled wagons 

to horse-drawn, all the way up to trucks,” 

recalls Charlie. “Then it started to shrink 

down and go into stores for in-store 

applications, and because you were in a 

store you didn’t want gas flames so it became 

electric.” 

On December 11, 1941, Franklin D. 

Roosevelt signed a declaration of war against 

Nazi Germany. Government Order L65 gave 

select manufacturers across the country 90 

days to convert their facilities to military 

applications for the duration of the war 

effort. “This wasn’t voluntary,” says Charlie. 

“If you didn’t comply, you were out of 

business. The company effectively became 

a job shop and we ended up making feet for 

anti-aircraft guns, hydraulic fittings for 

airplanes and metal cabinetry for radios— 

that’s how the company kept itself going for 

the ‘duration’ so to speak.” 

Countrywide rationing went into 

effect, forcing the population to abandon 

creature comforts, like sugar. For their 

snack alternative, Americans turned to 

popcorn. Consumption went into overdrive. 

With the close of World War II came an 

unprecedented rise in movie attendance. 

Popcorn was synonymous with the 

exhibition industry—one couldn’t enter a 

SPEED ENVY 

With the 5th generation of the Cretors’ family 

business comes the Mach 5 Popper—also signifying 

the 5th generation of this design originally 

produced over 75 years ago 

movie theater lobby without 

the welcoming aroma of 

fresh, oil-popped popcorn. 

Today, the fifth generation 

of the Cretors bloodline 

stands at the company 

helm. Still, according to 

Andrew, being born with 

the family name bodes no 

obligation to the family 

business. “Dad [Charlie] 

went out of his way to 

say, ‘Yeah, we’ve got this 

family business, but that 

doesn’t mean you have 

to work here. Don’t 

feel any pressure—do 

something else, find 

other things. If you 

want to, it’s here, and if 

not that’s fine, too.’” Andrew and his siblings 

never felt the proverbial gun to their heads. 

Coming to work in the family business 

always felt like a potential opportunity 

rather than a burden. “In retrospect, and all 

things being said, I think I knew at an early 

age that I always wanted to come back to the 

company.” 

Each Cretors generation has invested 

the unique talents and insights that 

have ensured Cretors and Company’s 

staying power. According to Charlie, their 

contribution to the industry is one of both 

innovation and refinement. “Many of our 

products existed in the market before 

we started with them, but as an old sales 

guy used to say: ‘We have to Cretor-ize the 

project.’ A lot of my approaches were a 

little different than what’s on the market. 

People came to me saying, ‘I don’t like these 

hot dog machines because of this. I need a 

better one and these are my problems.’ I’ll 

design around the problem and come up 

with a new machine.” Case in point, in 1960 

Charlie designed the Flow Thru system that 

pops corn on a fluidized bed of hot air. Last 

year, the fifth generation of the company 

introduced the Mach 5 Popper, signifying 

also the fifth generation of Charles Cretors’ 

design concept,. 

And Charlie noted he was just granted a 

patent on his new, streamlined hot dog grill 

application. 

On May 20, 2010, Cretors and Company 

will come full circle by holding their 125 th 

Anniversary Celebration at the Museum of 

Science and Industry—the last structure 

standing from the 1893 Chicago World’s 

Fair. The red carpet event promises to be 

a black-tie affair featuring local Chicago 

glitterati, a sumptuous banquet and silent 

26 


auction. Sponsors of the event include brand 

name luminaries like Coca-Cola, ConAgra/ 

Orville Redenbacher, Fed Ex and Great 

Western Products. 

Concessions has become a $10 billion 

a year industry in the US. “I think there 

continues to be a lot of opportunity for us,” 

says Andrew. “The big market we serve best 

right now is the theater market, but there 

are a lot of venues in which people enjoy 

popcorn and therefore need a popcorn 

machine, some of which we’re not as strong 

in—making opportunities for us to expand 

our products into the markets that we don’t 

already serve.” 

Father and son hold little fear of the 

changing exhibition market and the rise 

of high-tech home cinemas. “People go out 

to go out and I think that will always be the 

case,” says Charlie. “When TV was coming, 

theater owners were aggressively closing 

theaters because they were convinced that 

movie theaters were going out of business 

because everybody was going to watch 

television at home. So what did people 

do instead? They went bowling and they 

went to drive-ins. Those places changed the 

experience, but the driving force is: people go 

out to go out.” 

And when they do, Cretors will have a 

fresh bag of hot 

and 

buttery tery 

popcorn within 

arm’s reach. 

■ 

A PROCESS OF REFINEMENT 

Established in 1885, Cretors’ invention was a 

multifaceted apparatus that could roast any 

number of products from peanuts to coffee, 

popcorn to chestnuts 

HIGH POPABILITY 

Kevin Gorman, Group Leader/Technical 

Support & Warehouse Manager, shows off 

a commemorative bag of popcorn 

May 

2010 Boxoffi offi 

fi 

ce · 

The 

Business s 

s of 

Movies 

27

RELEASE CALENDAR 

2010 

2011 

2012 

Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 3 opens June 18, 2010 

DATE DISTRIBUTOR TITLE 

04.21.10 Sony Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3D 

04.30.10 Cinedigm Phish 3D 

05.21.10 Paramount Shrek Forever After 

06.18.10 Disney Toy Story 3 

07.09.10 Universal Despicable Me 

07.30.10 Warner Bros. Cats & Dogs: Revenge of Kitty Galore 

08.06.10 Disney Step Up 3-D 

08.13.10 Warner Bros. Friday the 13th Part 2 

08.27.10 The Weinstein Company Piranha 3D 

09.10.10 Sony Resident Evil: Afterlife 

09.24.10 Warner Bros. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole 

10.01.10 Lionsgate Alpha and Omega 

10.15.10 Paramount Jackass 3D 

10.22.10 Lionsgate Saw VII 

11.05.10 Paramount Megamind 

11.19.10 Warner Bros. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows (Part 1) 

11.24.10 Disney Tangled 

12.10.10 Fox The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader 

12.17.10 Disney Tron Legacy 

12.17.10 Warner Bros. Yogi Bear 

12.22.10 Fox Gulliver’s Travels 

01.14.11 MGM The Cabin in the Woods 

01.14.11 Sony Priest 

02.11.11 Summit Drive Angry 

02.11.11 Miramax Gnomeo and Juliet 

03.11.11 Disney Mars Needs Moms 

03.25.11 Warnr Bros. Sucker Punch 

04.08.11 Fox Rio 

06.03.11 DreamWorks Animation Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom 

06.17.11 Warner Bros. Green Lantern 

06.24.11 Disney Cars 2 

07.15.11 Warner Bros. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows (Part 2) 

08.03.11 Sony The Smurfs 

11.04.11 DreamWorks Puss In Boots (working title) 

11.11.11 Sony Arthur Christmas 

11.11.11 Universal Immortals 

11.18.11 Warner Bros. Happy Feet 2 

12.16.11 Fox Alvin and the Chipmunks 3D 

12.23.11 Paramount The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn 

Christmas Disney The Bear and the Bow 

TBD Disney Beauty and the Beast 

02.17.12 Sony Hotel Transylvania 

03.02.12 Universal Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax 

03.30.12 Paramount The Croods (working title) 

March Universal Stretch Armstrong 

Spring Disney King of the Elves 

05.18.12 Paramount Madagascar 3 (working title) 

07.03.12 Sony Untitled Spider-Man Project 

Summer Disney newt 

11.02.12 DreamWorks The Guardians

sensations 

WE PICK THE BEST BETS FOR THE SEASON FROM THE MAJORS AND 

THE MINORS PLUS LAFF’S DAVID ANSEN ON PROMOTING SPECIALTY 

TITLES PLUS BOXOFFICE’S RICHARD MOWE ON LIFE ON THE FESTIVAL 

CIRCUIT PLUS UNMINED GEMS: SEVEN HOT UNDER-THE-RADAR INDIES 

May 2010 Boxoffi ce · The Business of Movies 29

BOXOFFICE PREDICTS THE SUMMER HITS 

MAY 7 

IRON MAN 2 

Iron Man 2 boasts one of the best release dates of the year. Moviegoers 

have been trained to think of the first full weekend in May 

as the beginning of the summer movie season, so they’ll be ready 

for more of the action-packed adventures of Tony Stark. Iron Man 

launched on May 2, 2008, to a staggering $102.1 million and it 

showed strong staying power—by the end of its domestic theatrical 

run, it’d skyrocketed to $318.4 million. The buzz going into the second 

installment is a near guarantee the franchise will grow. 

PREDICTION 

$140 million opening weekend / $390 million cume 

MAY 14 

ROBIN HOOD 

Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott team up for the fifth time. The 

relationship has had more hits than misses thanks to Gladiator and 

American Gangster. A Good Year, however, grossed a paltry $7.5 

million domestically. Crowe’s star power has dropped, but with a 

prime release date and the power of an established property, Robin 

Hood should give him a boost. 

PREDICTION 


MAY 21 


Even though Shrek the Third was met with mixed word of mouth, it 

became a solid $322.7 million domestic hit. The franchise has plenty 

of strength, and the fact that the latest—and last—installment is in 3D 

will only bolster its grosses. Expect Shrek Forever After to outperform 

its predecessor, though fall short of Shrek 2’s worldwide $919 million. 

PREDICTION 


MAY 21 

MACGRUBER 

MacGruber was originally set for an April 23 release, but it now has 

a much better summer bow. The Saturday Night Live spinoff should 

serve as a nice little bit of counter-programming to Shrek Forever 

After. Historically, SNL movies are hit-and-miss at the box office; 

for every Wayne’s World, there’s an It’s Pat! But MacGruber looks 

promising thanks to a genuinely funny trailer and a solid early SXSW 

screening. To be successful, the film needs to lure moviegoers who 

aren’t familiar with the late night skits. 

PREDICTION 


MAY 27 

PREDICTION 


SEX AND THE CITY 2 

Not moved by the explosions, fight scenes and grandstanding of a 

typical summer blockbuster? Think pink. SATC has a loyal fan base 

that has grown—or at least, solidified—since the first film opened 

to a staggering $56.8 million in May of 2008 and triggered a rash 

of enthusiasm for the female dollar. The sequel will open to equal 

numbers. Crucially, the film has the potential for multiple viewings. 

Fans of the series watch episodes repeatedly and some diehards 

did the same during the 2008 film’s theatrical release. Like its lovely 

leads, this sequel has legs. 


BY PHIL CONTRINO WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY DANIEL GARRIS & ALEX EDGHILL 

PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME 

Prince of Persia is Jerry Bruckheimer’s stab at a splashy video game 

adaptation. The genre is more 8-bit than X-BOX—more than half 

have floundered—and star Jake Gyllenhaal is a box office maybe. Yet 

with similarities to The Mummy and Pirates of the Caribbean, Prince 

of Persia is bound to find an audience outside of the core gamer fan 

base. It’s uncertain whether or not it will get to the next level: a viable 

franchise. 

MAY 28 

PREDICTION 


GET HIM TO THE GREEK 

Director Nicholas Stoller took Jason Segel, an unlikely leading man, 

and garnished him with box office glory in 2008’s Forgetting Sarah 

Marshall. With Get Him to the Greek, Stoller will have to do it again, 

this time with hipster comedians Jonah Hill and Russell Brand. Neither 

qualifies as “typical,” and they’re not the safest actors for studios 

to build summer blockbusters around. But with former kings Adam 

Sandler and Will Ferrell regularly belly-flopping, Universal’s ready for 

the risk. This rock ’n’roll version of My Favorite Year has a hilarious 

trailer that should propel it to a rocking debut. 

PREDICTION 


JUNE 4 

MARMADUKE 

Owen Wilson starred opposite a dog in the $142 million grosser 

Marley & Me. Now he provides the voice of one in a film that should 

be just as successful. Even though young children won’t be familiar 

with the comic strip source material, this 20th Century Fox release 

will be a no-brainer for family audiences. Of course, you could say the 

same about Alvin and the Chipmunks, who last hit their peak in 1987. 

But don’t expect the big dog to post numbers anywhere near what 

Alvin and the gang squirrel away for the studio. 

JUNE 4 

PREDICTION 


THE A-TEAM 

Director Joe Carnahan (Smokin’ Aces) will find his biggest audience 

yet with this adaptation of the popular ‘80s television show. The 

trailer isn’t revolutionary, but it promises the kind of action scenes 

and general mayhem that audiences look for in summer films. The 

biggest question: Will Bradley Cooper be a major draw for an action 

film? He’s certainly got the comedic chops and cool kid buzz needed 

to bring in audiences—and if he can help blow up The A-Team, his 

career will hit the roof. 

JUNE 11 

PREDICTION 


THE KARATE KID 

Multiplex Time Machine? The weekend of June 11 gives audiences 

a choice between two ‘80s-inspired blockbusters. While The A-Team 

will likely win the battle, it will be a narrow victory. The Karate Kid will 

serve as a perfect alternative for families with kids who are too young 

for the pyrotechnics of The A-Team. Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith 

(son of Will & Jada Pinkett-Snith) make this people-pleaser feel like a 

tribute, not a cash-in, and decent word of mouth will win over a share 

of the coveted teenage boy crowd. 

JUNE 11 

PREDICTION 




31

WILL 2009 SUMMER DOMESTIC GROSSES PASS THE 

JUNE 18 

TOY STORY 3 

Disney/Pixar returns to the property that helped launch their incredibly 

fruitful relationship, and this third installment will be welcomed 

with open arms by everyone. Fans of the original films are now 15 

years older, but that doesn’t mean they won’t show up for the new installment. 

In fact, some of them will have the unique pleasure of taking 

their own children to meet Buzz, Woody and the gang. The Disney/Pixar 

name is one of the most bankable in the business, and Toy 

Story 3 is in serious contention to be the summer’s biggest movie. 

PREDICTION 


JUNE 18 

JONAH HEX 

Even though Jonah Hex isn’t aiming for the same crowd as Toy Story 

3, this dark western will be seriously overshadowed by the toy box. 

Add that stars Josh Brolin and Megan Fox have yet to prove they 

can carry a movie on their own and Hex is in peril of being one of the 

summer’s biggest duds. Warner Bros. will need to put a lot of marketing 

muscle behind the comics-inspired film to round up the fan boys 

and the curious. Do not expect a franchise to be born. 

PREDICTION 


JUNE 25 

GROWN UPS 

Adam Sandler makes his version of The Big Chill and audience reception 

will be warm. Coming off the critical and commercial disappointment 

that was 2009’s Funny People, here Sandler teams with other 

waning draws including Chris Rock and Rob Schneider. As an ensemble, 

they should be able to punch their way to respectable numbers, 

even if those numbers are shy of Sandler’s last big adult comedy, the 

$100 million You Don’t Mess With the Zohan. 

PREDICTION 


JUNE 25 

PREDICTION 


KNIGHT AND DAY 

This 20th Century Fox release is one of summer’s toughest films to 

predict. Stars Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, reuniting after Vanilla 

Sky, are no longer ticket-selling titans. Cruise has a lot of ground to 

gain if he ever wants to return to even half of his former glory. Reputation 

aside, he’s not box office poison: other than the war drama Lions 

for Lambs, in this decade he still hasn’t made a film that bottomed out 

below $83 million. Mind you, he also hasn’t made many films. Audiences 

may buy this comedy’s pairing and want to see Cruise play a 

secret agent who cracks wise, or they could avoid it at all costs. 

JUNE 30 

PREDICTION 


THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE 

The smart money is on Summit’s latest Twilight installment to emerge 

as the summer’s biggest success. Do the math: Twilight opened to 

$69.6 million in 2008. New Moon jumped to $142.8 million in 2009. 

The shock surprise franchise doubled, and though it won’t double 

again, it may hold audience interest through its fourth and (probably) 

final chapter, which will be released as two films. Summit is wise to 

release it in the summer as its rabid teenage fan base won’t have to 

worry about school, and they’re speeding through to close out the 

series by the same time next year. Expect this one to break records. 


$4 BILLION MARK FOR THE 4TH CONSECUTIVE YEAR? 

THE LAST AIRBENDER 

M. Night Shyamalan takes a break from his moody, underperforming 

thrillers to deliver what Paramount hopes will be the beginning of a 

popular franchise. Teenage boys who wouldn’t be caught dead in a 

theater showing Eclipse will be the base for this, even if they have to 

walk their girlfriends to the theater door and then bolt across the multiplex. 

Domestic numbers will be healthy thanks to a built-in fan base 

that comes from the Nickelodeon show, still, Airbender’s international 

cast (which includes Slumdog Millionaire’s Dev Patel) will help it perform 

better abroad. 

PREDICTION 


JULY 2 

DESPICABLE ME 

Universal bursts into 3D animation with the help of an all-star voice 

cast anchored by Steve Carell. Carell will be hot after Date Night, 

which means that parents won’t moan and groan as much when their 

kids bug them to go see him play an evil super villain in Despicable 

Me. Unfortunately for Universal, this jokey freshman effort has absolutely 

no chance of beating such established franchises as Toy Story 3 

and Shrek Forever After in terms of worldwide, or even domestic, box 

office grosses. 

JULY 9 

PREDICTION 


PREDATORS 

Action enthusiasts and fans of the property will provide a modest 

opening for director Nimród Antal’s (Armored) new film. The factor 

that will keep Predators from making serious bank is its lack of real 

blockbuster stars. Adrien Brody, Topher Grace and Alice Braga are 

fine character actors, but it’s the franchise name, the attachment of 

Robert Rodriguez as producer and the post-SXSW buzz that will gobble 

up what audience interest exists. 20th Century Fox is betting that 

fans will show up based on the film’s premise, and that’s not enough 

in a competitive summer. 

PREDICTION 


JULY 9 

INCEPTION 

After the huge success of The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan has 

taken on a passion project that appears to be a literal mind-bender. 

Warner Bros. has given the director carte blanche, and he hasn’t put 

it to waste. The only question is if audiences who are used to being 

spoon-fed plot details in trailers will be enticed by an enigmatic marketing 

campaign that reveals next to nothing. Leonardo DiCaprio will 

bring a solid following with him (his latest, Shutter Island, scared up 

$121 million stateside) and Warner Bros. is understandably flogging 

their “from the director of The Dark Knight” tagline. 

PREDICTION 


JULY 16 

THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE 

Star Jay Baruchel is everywhere this year. He’s starred in raunchy 

comedies (She’s Out of My League) and animated family flicks (How 

to Train Your Dragon) and now he’ll try to help open a film during 

the summer. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that he’ll be aided by Nicolas 

Cage and Jerry Bruckheimer. Disney is obviously hoping that Sorcerer’s 

Apprentice will post National Treasure-style numbers, but the 

film is dark and brooding, hedged by broad comedy. Lacking tonal 

stability and a fun, adventurous air (not to mention bucket-carrying 

broomsticks) won’t help it cast a spell over summer. 

PREDICTION 


JULY 16 



33

SLEEPER > SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD 

AUGUST 13 

JULY 23 

SALT 

Angelina Jolie doesn’t suffer from a shortage of publicity and Sony will 

look to capitalize on her fame to help give this spy thriller a healthy 

opening. The biggest risk is that Jolie is hit-or-miss at the box office. 

Her fame is both blessing and a curse; many patrons may feel as 

though they’ve seen enough of her in the tabloids. Salt, an amped-up 

spy thriller, wants to grab the same audience that showed up to watch 

Jolie kick ass in Wanted, in which case it could turn out to be a solid, 

mid-level hit. 

PREDICTION 


AUGUST 13 AUGUST 6 JULY 30 JULY 23 

PREDICTION 

PREDICTION 

PREDICTION 




DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS 

As long as audiences aren’t sick of seeing and hearing Steve Carell 

by the time this Paramount release rolls around, this comedy about 

a competition to bring the dumbest date to dinner should end up 

becoming a box office feast. Zach Galifianakis and Paul Rudd round 

out the cast and it doesn’t hurt that Jay Roach of the Austin Powers 

films is at the helm, as he’s one of the most reliable comedic directors 

at work today. 

CATS & DOGS: 

THE REVENGE OF KITTY GALORE 

Thanks to this sequel, Warner Bros. will literally have a dog in the 3D 

animation fight. Yet the project as a whole seems a bit delayed—the 

original came out in 2001. With brand loyalty trading low, this will be a 

middling theatrical hit that will do better on DVD. 

THE OTHER GUYS 

Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell star in a cop comedy from Adam McKay, 

the director of Step Brothers. Cop Out certainly doesn’t bode well 

for another police procedural and Ferrell’s stock has dropped after 

the poor performance of Land of the Lost. But McKay makes decent 

yukfests—he just needs audiences to give him a chance. 

THE EXPENDABLES 

The rush of ’80s nostalgia continues with this Lionsgate release. Sylvester 

Stallone has assembled the cast of every action fan’s fantasy: Jason 

Statham, Jet Li, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dolph Lundgren. 

Stallone has used his Rocky and Rambo properties to invigorate 

his career, and now he may help give birth to a new franchise—assuming 

he can reassemble this dream team. Expect this one to be a big, 

fun, brainless action extravaganza. 

PREDICTION 



BOXOFFICE DISSECTS THIS YEAR’S BIG INDIE BUYS 

Festival hits have a risky reputation. 

Often, they star nobodies and try to 

take audiences to places no popcornmuncher 

will boldly go. Like that Sundance 

2009 melodrama about an overweight, 

illiterate, emotionally and physically 

abused teen. Sure, Precious won 

both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience 

award, but Lionsgate must have 

been nuts to shell out $5.5 million for a 

flick that on paper had negligible box 

office appeal. Or were they? With smart 

marketing, shrewd alliances with Oprah, 

a savvy platform rollout and trust in its 

worth, the studio made multiple millions 

on its bet, racking up $47.5 million in 

domestic tickets and invaluable buzz 

when Precious steamrolled on to win 

six Academy Award nominations. With 

another Sundance comes another wave 

of Vegas-style gambling: which festival 

purchase will make bank? Here are 

some of Park City’s major buys. 

BURIED This claustrophobic Ryan 

Reynolds thriller was Sundance’s first 

purchase—and one of its biggest. Lionsgate 

laid out $3.2 million for this oneman 

show starring Reynolds as a US civilian 

contractor ambushed in Iraq who 

wakes up buried alive in a coffin. It’s a 

stunt: can a flick really be a man, a cellphone 

and 80 minutes in a box? But hey, 

here’s another stunt: Lifeboat. 

SPLICE (above) Adrian Brody and Sarah 

Polley anchor this sci-fi horror about a 

pair of sexy geneticists who crossbreed 

a kangaroo-dolphin-human and create a 

daughter with a supermodel face, rabbit 

legs and a nasty moral code. It’s B-movie 

nonsense, but Warner Bros. vowed to invest 

$25 million marketing the flick for 

a 3,000 screen summer release—one of 

the biggest, and most perilous acquisitions 

in the festival’s history. 

JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK 

Ms. Rivers herself would joke that she 

never had more suitors than the days 

after her doc premiered. Anchor Bay, 

Roadside Attractions and Phase 4 all 

competed to win her hand with IFC 

Films sealing the deal with a mid-six figure 

deal. Shameless and hysterical, this 

year-in-the-life of the red carpet queen 

won over all audiences. It’s closest parallel, 

The Eyes of Tammy Faye, was a low 

performer, but IFC can take comfort that 

the tireless 76 year old ingenue will give 

them plenty of free marketing. 

WELCOME TO THE RILEYS (above) 

Post-Twilight, sullen teen actress Kristen 

Stewart has become the hottest ticket 

in town. How could Apparition resist 

scooping up her latest for a rumored seven 

figures? Co-starring James Gandolfini 

and Melissa Leo (the little-known talent 

who scored an Oscar nod with the 

Sundance darling Frozen River), Welcome 

to the Rileys casts Stewart as a New 

Orleans teen hooker with a foul mouth 

and worse attitude. Still, fans love Bella, 

not necessarily Stewart. New Moon made 

more cash with its first midnight screening 

than her last three indies combined. 

HESHER Critics were underwhelmed 

by Spencer Susser’s black metal dramedy, 

which entered the fest with Quiet 

Riot levels of buzz. But Joseph Gordon- 

Levitt’s turn as an anarchist with a stick 

figure tattoo on his pecs was cranked 

up to 11—and in 2009, his Sundance 

charmer (500) Days of Summer netted 

$35 million for Fox Searchlight. Newmarket 

staked $1 million that auds will 

want to see this generation’s breakout 

actor cannonball off a flaming diving 

board to the sound of crunching guitars. 

WAITING FOR SUPERMAN (above) 

An Inconvenient Truth was a conversation-changer, 

an instant meme. Davis 

Guggenheim’s scorching follow-up 

about the American education system 

knew its dance card would be packed 

with pursuers. On the first day of the 

fest, it announced a deal with Paramount 

Vantage, the sharp studio who 

made a $49 million media blitz out of Al 

Gore’s global warming slide show. 

WINTER’S BONE Roadside Attractions 

froze out a crowded field to purchase 

Sundance 2010’s Grand Jury winner 

about a 17-year-old girl in search 

of her meth-addicted, bail-skipping 

dad. Everyone loved the taut drama— 

Roadside’s Head of Acquisitions Dustin 

Smith called it “Everything Sundance is 

about”—but the prize is glory, not greed. 

Of Sundance’s last ten Grand Jury winners, 

only Precious and Frozen River have 

cracked the $2 million ceiling. 

BLUE VALENTINE One of Harvey 

Weinstein’s many purchases in Park 

City was this immediate Oscar contender 

romance. Michelle Williams and 

Ryan Gosling play a divorcing couple on 

the first and last days of their relationship, 

a cross-cutting tearjerker that nearly 

every critic in town championed as a 

can’t-miss event. Word is the Weinstein 

Co. will release it just under the awards 

season wire on New Years Eve 2010. 

THE KILLER INSIDE ME Think you 

know what to expect from a Jessica 

Alba/Kate Hudson flick? Think again. 

Michael Winterbottom’s period noir 

stars Casey Affleck as a small town dep- 

36 


uty who likes beating women. To death. Blow 

by blow. Blood drop by blood drop. After an 

indignant post-film Q&A (sample question: 

“How could you?”), IFC did the unthinkable: 

they bought it. But if the unnamed price was 

right, the free publicity could make it a smart 

(if controversial) investment. 

THE TILLMAN STORY What price heroism? 

Amir Bar-Lev (of the A+ doc My Kid 

Could Paint That) tackles the Pat Tillman 

tragedy from two ends: the football star who 

packed up his Noam Chomsky and enlisted 

in the War on Terror, and the US military 

covering up his death by friendly fire. Michael 

Moore loved the flick, but so might the 

Midwest, and the Weinstein Co. must market 

to both when the doc is released in late 

August. 

THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT Longterm 

lesbian couple Annette Bening and Julianne 

Moore live a tidy, loving life with kids Josh 

Hutcherson and Alice’s Mia Wasikowska... 

until the teens track down their artificial inseminator, 

Mark Ruffalo. Acquired by Focus 

Features for $4.8 million, this dramedy with 

crossover appeal won the Golden Checkbook 

award for Sundance’s biggest purchase. ■ 

NICHE? NO PROBLEM 

David Ansen, Artistic Director of the 

Los Angeles Film Festival, on how 

to sell seats for independent and foreign 

flicks—and what he sees ahead for the 

arthouse circuit 

LA Film Festival always has a packed house 

for their indie films—and at Sundance, 

people are in the snowbanks murdering 

each other for tickets. But when these 

films get released in theaters, seats are 

empty. How can exhibitors get your great 

turn out? 

There’s a cognitive dissonance! Why do 

they come when they’re in a festival, but 

when these films open, nobody comes? 

One of the things that we try to do is value-added 

screenings. You get to see a film, 

you get to meet the filmmaker. Sometimes 

there’s talent involved or music involved, 

we’ll have a performance—just that little, 

extra something that gets people out of 

their houses. I think audiences really like 

to talk about the movies after the movies, 

so we try as often as possible to have a 

Q&A. And also the sense that they’re at an 

event draws people who don’t ordinarily 

By Amy Nicholson 

go out to support foreign and independent 

film. 

When I used to work with the AFI Film 

Festival, if we had an Irish film, I had to call 

Irish bars, Irish clubs. There was a lot of 

active community outreach. Is that also a 

priority for the LAFF? 

Definitely. Film Independent, which is behind 

the LAFF, is very involved in that. For 

example, in LA, we have such a huge Latin 

community. We’re really trying to reach 

out and get people to the movies who don’t 

ordinarily go to film festivals. We have a 

relationship with Ambulante, who focuses 

on Mexican documentaries, and last year 

they brought Diego Luna and Gael Garcia 

Bernal. Just having them there brought out 

an enormous crowd of people who might 

not ordinarily go to see a Mexican documentary. 

That star power. And it could also work 

in smaller communities. For one, no matter 

where you are in America, there’s that 

hit Latin radio station. Reach out to that 

audience, maybe even have a DJ make 



37

NICHE? NO PROBLEM (continued) 

an appearance. Festivals start working on 

outreach sometimes months before their 

films screen. 

A lot of artfilm distributors don’t really understand 

local communities. For example, 

a New York-based distributor doesn’t think 

to reach out to, say, the Iranian community 

in LA, which is huge. It makes a huge difference. 

Once a film festival is underway, the news 

seems to focus on who’s buying what. Is 

there pressure to pick the next festival hit? 

Does that affect your programming? 

That’s certainly not the uppermost thing 

on my mind, but obviously I’m aware of 

that. The whole game has changed so 

much. There aren’t nearly as many acquisitions 

these days as there used to be, and 

there’s new forms of distribution. It’s great 

if you find a movie that you know is going 

to get picked up, and it happens—there 

may well be some this year. But that’s not 

something we can really control. Sometimes 

it happens at the second festival 

they’re shown. 

You haven’t yet made your line-up announcement, 

but are you programming 

Sundance films that didn’t get picked up? 

Or ones that did? 

Yes, both. We have a section that’s usually 

called Summer Showcase that often has a 

lot of the good stuff that’s going to open 

this summer. And some of those titles will 

be Sundance titles—we pick the best of 

Sundance. The problem for us is, there’s a 

limit to how many Sundance movies we 

want to show, lest we turn into Sundance 

South. 

Increasingly, big studios are turning to film 

festivals to host their premiere. Last year, 

for example, Universal debuted Public Enemies 

at LAFF. 

The centerpiece is often a big Hollywood 

movie. One of the things I like about the 

LA Film Fest is that it’s very eclectic. It’s 

a real mix of the high and low, unlike the 

New York Film Festival. I used to be on 

their selection committee and they choose 

23 critics’ movies, the high-high. But LA is 

much bigger and it’s more populous. I like 

the mix of the high and the low. We’ll show 

good genre movies and if there’s a really 

good and interesting horror movie out 

there, we’ll find a category for that. 

What do the studios get out of premiering 

their films at a festival? 

It can be a very good launching pad if it’s 

the right mix. The studios are very paranoid 

these days about Twitter and the internet. 

They’re reluctant to give you anything that’s 

opening too far away from the festival. So 

the movies that we tend to get are ones that 

will be opening in the summer. But I think 

they see it as a very movie-friendly audience, 

and they can turn it into an event. They see 

that it can work to their advantage. 

What do you feel like the tone is with 

American indies today? Is there a theme 

that seems really resonant for today’s arthouse 

filmmakers? 

American filmmakers are very focused on 

the micro, it seems to me. I’m seeing a lot 

of films that are really focused on interpersonal 

relationships. The really low budget 

stuff is all shot digitally and they’re sticking 

to what they know: exploring their 

lives, the lives of those around them. We’re 

seeing a lot of very relationship-oriented 

stuff, which you don’t see as much in the 

foreign movies. But I could see a batch of 

movies tomorrow and change my mind 

about the trend! There was that period 

when everything was a knock-off of Mean 

Streets. But I think that’s subsided—I’m 

not seeing that so much these days. Iraq 

veterans, still the aftermath of 9/11 is seeping 

into movies. There’s a lot of political 

consciousness in the background. 

Are you seeing the independent film audience 

more actively seek out international 

films? 

That’s a hard question to answer—how do 

you gauge that? Certainly, out there in the 

commercial world, obviously it’s a very 

tough time for international films. But 

festival audiences are realizing that there’s 

a lot of great stuff happening in Korea and 

Romania—we’re seeing a lot of very good 

Eastern European films from Georgia, Estonia. 

It’s funny how these hot spots move. 

Over my life as a critic, I’ve seen it. Back in 

the ‘70s, Germany was hot, then Australia 

was hot, then China was hot. It’s so important 

that audiences see these movies because 

they give you such a different insight 

into these countries than you get from the 

media. Most of what I know about Iran I 

know from seeing Iranian movies. You can 

get a whole education. It’s incredibly important 

to turn people onto these movies. ■ 

MOVIE MADNESS 

Where there’s a will, there’s a 

film festival 

By Richard Mowe 

The festival calendar 

starts in 

January with Sundance 

and Rotterdam. 

Then Berlin, 

Bombay, Dublin, 

Hong Kong, Madrid 

and San Francisco 

are training exercises. True devotees of 

the great pursuit are gearing up for the big 

event: Cannes. In May, they amass in the 

Cote d’Azur joined by a legion of journalists, 

media crews, tycoons, execs, wannabes, 

stars and starlets, hangers-on way 

and a whole army of heavies and security 

to keep everyone in pecking order 

There are now so many film festivals—at 

least one for every day of the year somewhere—that 

even the most voracious film 

freak can sup and be satiated before recovering 

and moving on to the next. If you’re 

really keen you can even start your own. (I 

did, with the team responsible for the UK’s 

unique Italian and French film festivals.) 

GRAB YOUR BUMBERSHOOT 

The Seattle International Film Festival is the largest 

film festival in the United States. In 2009, SIFF 

screened 268 films and 124 shorts from 62 countries 

and featured 31 world premieres. The 2010 event 

runs from May 20–June 14: www.siff.net 

38 


MOVIE MADNESS (continued) 

All film festivals conform to the same 

emotional patterns: heady days of optimism 

at the start when there’s the chance 

of discovering a masterpiece, growing 

disenchantment in the middle when the 

odds have shrunk, followed by depression, 

physical and mental breakdown and total 

fatigue at the finale. And there is always 

the sense that just around the corner, in 

another screening room, there is probably 

something better...and you’re missing it. 

Such trauma has a rapid recovery. The 

cure-all for PFFWS (post-film-festival 

withdrawal syndrome) is another film festival. 

The roll call ranges from sedate Palm 

Springs to indie mecca LA Film Festival, 

from buzzy Tribeca to Boston, Chicago, 

Miami, Seattle, New York, Cairo, Vancouver, 

Toronto and Hawaii. Name the city and 

they’ll have a film festival. Who’s got tickets 

for the Pan African Film and TV Festival 

of Ouagadougo? In Italy, keep mum with 

the deadly serious buffs of the silent film 

festival at Pordenone. There’s even the Midnight 

Sun Film Festival in Helsinki in July. 

It must be a relief to seek out the dark, if 

only for a quick snooze. 

France, a nation that has always regarded 

movies as the Seventh Art, has more festivals 

per square hectare than anywhere. 

They include such curiosities as Beauvais, 

devoted to films about animals (Tippi 

Hedren was a star guest); Beaunes, a wine 

country setting for thrillers; and Deauville, 

close to the scene of the Normandy landings, 

who brings out the Stars and Stripes 

every autumn for an American film festival. 

Venice is credited with starting the first 

film festival in 1932 on the personal endorsement 

of Il Duce. (Oddly, given his predilections, 

the winning film that year was 

Reni Clair’s Nous La Liberté.) Cannes did not 

appear on the scene until 1939. Both events 

were disrupted by the Second World War 

and subsequent inconveniences, which 

leaves Edinburgh—founded in the aftermath 

of conflict in 1946—to hang on to its 

proud claim of being the longest continuously-running 

film fest in the world. As 

well as longevity, Edinburgh’s festival can 

justifiably claim to be a thinking person’s 

event, though most years local native Sir 

Sean Connery drops in from his home in 

the Bahamas to sprinkles some stardust on 

its red carpet. 

Festivals and their retinue cocoon themselves 

in their own little universe. Wars, 

pestilence, revolutions and political coups 

happen in the outside world, but the theater’s 

darkness is ruled by oblivion. It’s 

small wonder that the movie junkies turn 

out in droves—who’s got time for reality 

when there’s another festival on the horizon? 

BOXOFFICE’s Richard Mowe is an arts, film 

and features journalist who attends festivals 

around the world, including Berlin, Cannes, 

Karlovy Vary, Deauville, Locarno, London, 

Venice and Taormina. His passion for cinema 

ran away with him when he created two of 

his own film festivals, both now 18 years old 

and devoted exclusively to French and Italian 

cinema at different locations around the UK. 

UNMINED GEMS 

Seven festival hits that need— 

and deserve—distribution 

Every film festival has its big stories, 

the films that get snatched up for wild 

prices. But when the dust (or snow, in the 

case of Sundance) settles, there are always 

a few great films that deserve to be picked 

up—they’re marketable and cheap. BOXOF- 

FICE’s tireless film festival crew singles out 

their smartest bets. 

TUCKER & DALE VS. EVIL 

PREMIERE Sundance Film Festival 2010 

PITCH Instant horror-comedy classic 

> When college kids on spring break 

mistake two hillbillies for serial killers, 

extravagant mayhem ensues in this Canadian 

horror comedy. (Would you trust a 

yokel with a chainsaw?) The funniest backwoods 

spatterfest since Sam Raimi made 

Bruce Campbell chop off his own hand in 

Evil Dead 2, Tucker & Dale stars the dryly 

hilarious Alan Tudyk (Dodgeball’s Steve 

the Pirate) and the more broadly comic 

Tyler Labine (Zack & Miri Make a Porno, 

TV’s Reaper) as the titular rednecks whose 

weekend at their new vacation fixer-upper 

is rudely interrupted by panicked students 

who keep accidentally offing themselves in 

the woods. 

The laughs rarely flag in a movie that is 

genial, goofy and violent—and that mysteriously 

has yet to find an American distributor. 

A sold-out midnight screening in Park 

City proved that there is a market for director 

Eli Craig’s blend of gruesome deeds and 

zany antics. (For further evidence, see the 

zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead.) 

--Pam Grady 

THE EXTRA MAN 


PITCH The newest comedy from literary 

darling turned screenwriter Jonathan 

Ames 

> Few Sundance comedies claim the 

marquee cast of the NY romance The Extra 

Man: stars Katie Holmes, Paul Dano and 

Kevin Kline—along with co-directors Shari 

Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (The 

Nannie Diaries, American Splendor)—provide 

plenty of commercial ammunition 

for a distributor interested in a quirky 

alternative to the slapstick “bro” comedies 

favored by Hollywood. Extra Man is also 

an opportunity for a film company to get 

in the Jonathan Ames business as the novelist’s 

career conquers the marquee: the 

Brooklyn-based author just created the acclaimed 

HBO comedy series Bored to Death, 

which stars Jason Schwartzman and Zack 

Galifianakis. 

This adaptation of Ames’ book tracks a 

shy writer (Paul Dano) who moves to New 

York and befriends Kevin Kline’s playwright 

and gigolo to elderly, wealthy women. 

Meanwhile, he lusts after coworker 

Katie Holmes. While the film earned mixed 

reviews at Sundance, that can be offset by 

an audience-friendly performance from 

40 


Kline in the key of A Fish Called Wanda 

and up-and-coming actor Paul Dano (Little 

Miss Sunshine, There Will Be Blood). More 

an audience-pleaser than a critics’ favorite, 

smart marketing could emphasize Extra 

Man as a must-see arthouse comedy that 

may mark Ames’ debut as a specialty comedy 

superstar. 

--Steve Ramos 

CANE TOAD: THE CONQUEST 


PITCH First—and best—3D doc on 

toads 

> “Welcome to Avatoad,” joked filmmaker 

Mark Lewis when his geek-chic doc 

premiered to a packed house. Twenty-two 

years ago, he shot the hit short Cane Toads: 

An Unnatural History. But species—and 

technology—evolve and so two decades 

later, Lewis picked up a 3D camera and set 

out to catch up with Australia’s Public Enemy 

#1. The cane toad was imported onto 

the continent 100 years ago to protect the 

sugar cane crop from beetles. Instead of 

flicking their tongues at the pests, the cane 

toads focused their energy on each other 

and multiplied at an astonishing rate—just 

one female can lay 50,000 eggs a year. Parts 

of the Outback landscape now undulate 

with herds of hopping, poisonous toads. 

And in 3D, that’s a sight. 

Lewis’ doc straddles brains and bizarre 

humor. It’s quite literally a crowd-pleaser 

for all ages. (Even Roger Ebert, no fan of 

3D, gave it a thumbs-up.) The film’s star 

is no beauty: cane toads are bumpy, mudcolored 

and mean-faced, but oh how they 

soar when they plop towards the camera. A 

towns-worth of Australian oddballs round 

out the cast, merrily thwacking the toads 

with bats, stuffing them for taxidermy 

wunderkabinetts and explaining how their 

pets like to lick the toads’ backs to get high. 

And yes, there’s 3D LSD dog POV. With a 

90-minute running length, this cheeky 

flick deserves to prove that there’s a market 

beyond science museums exists for smart, 

eye-popping docs. 

--Amy Nicholson 

SOMEONE I LOVED 

JE L’AIMAIS 

PREMIERE European Film Market 2009 

PITCH Très Français story of lust and 

adultery 

> A newly abandoned wife (Florence 

Loiret-Caille) is whisked away to a cabin 

with her two daughters by her sympathetic 

father-in-law (French superstar Daniel Auteuil). 

He loves his son (Antonin Chalon), 

his son loves another woman, and so 

grandfather tries to console her with the 

story of his own youthful affair while still a 

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UNMINED GEMS (continued) 

global businessman. This lushly romantic 

drama by French actress-turned-director 

Zabou Breitman spends most of its running 

time reenacting his illicit passion for 

Mathilde (Marie-Josée Croze), a translator 

many years his junior, who embraces him 

in hotel beds on every continent. 

Sure, we’re sick of tabloid affairs. But it’s 

the way Auteuil tells it that makes it all so 

involving, filtered through with moments 

of stunning filmmaking energy. Though 

over-idealized, it emerges as a ravishingly 

photographed study of the pleasures and 

consequences of adulterous passion— 

which make it quintessentially Gallic and 

therefore very appealing to American arthouse 

audiences. Its upended perspective 

on true love will stir up mild controversy 

that should drive the curious to seek their 

own answers on what makes a Great Romance. 

--Richard Mowe 

GROWN UP MOVIE STAR 

PREMIERE Atlantic Film Festival 2009 

PITCH A bracing Thirteen from north of 

the border 

> A 14-year-old grows up wild in rural 

Newfoundland in this atmospheric 

coming-of-age drama. For her pitch-perfect 

portrayal of the confusion of adolescence, 

teen actress Tatiana Maslany won a Special 

Jury prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival 

in her breakout performance as Ruby, a 

young, motherless girl becoming increasingly 

aware of the power of her sexuality 

just as she realizes that her ex-hockey star 

father Ray (Shawn Doyle of Big Love) is gay. 

Writer/director Adriana Maggs’ feature 

debut has an impressive attention to the 

nuance of character and place. With its 

offbeat humor and skill for capturing the 

hormone-fueled heedlessness of youth, this 

Canadian import can indeed grow up to a 

“star” for the smart distributor that recognizes 

that they can pitch to four key markets: 

teenage girls who will identify with 

Ruby, women who remember 14 with a mix 

of fondness and horror, lovers of characterdriven 

stories and champions of comingout 

tales. Promotion aimed at these core 

audiences could pay worthwhile dividends 

at the box office. 

--Pam Grady 

THE IMPERIALISTS ARE STILL ALIVE! 


PITCH Hip, ethnic Sex and the City 

> Imagine Carrie Bradshaw with a cool 

Arab friend and that woman would be Asya 

(French actress Elodie Bouchez), a pretty, 

Middle Eastern transplant and artist in Manhattan. 

Filmmaker Zeina Durra is herself a 

Middle Eastern ex-pat who splits her time 

between New York and London, and her first 

feature reflects her culturally diverse background—even 

the title is borrowed from 

a Jean-Luc Godard film and ‘60s influences 

crop up throughout her hipster comedy. 

Asya’s adventures with her Mexican PhD 

student boyfriend and other friends revolve 

around the same Manhattan nightlife 

shared by Carrie Bradshaw’s posse, although 

Asya and her pals are more adamant about 

never doing Uptown. What makes The Imperialists 

Are Still Alive! more complex and 

sexy than the Sex girls is the impact the war 

on terrorism makes on their daily routines. 

Politics plays a role, but Durra’s movie is 

a comedy at heart. A youthful marketing 

campaign pitching the attractive cast and 

cool Manhattan nightspots as a multicultural 

version of the alabaster-white Sex and 

the City will help draw a diverse audience to 

art houses, and beyond the actors, they’ve 

got a telegenic promotional star in Durra, 

who like her leading character is an exciting 

artist-to-watch. 

--Steve Ramos 

VILLA AMALIA 

PREMIERE European Film Market 

PITCH France’s queen in another stunning 

drama 

> Isabelle Huppert is a prolific French icon 

who seems to be in every other French film. 

Familiarity breeds indifference, but any 

movie she does is worth attention. In Villa 

Amalia, she teams up with director Benoît 

Jacquot (as she did so successfully in the 

Golden Lion-nominated Pas de scandale) for 

a succinctly realized adaptation of Pascal 

Quignard’s 2006 Goncourt Prize-winning 

novel. Huppert plays Ann, a musician and 

composer who sees her long-time partner, 

Thomas (Xavier Beauvois), in the arms of 

another woman. Suddenly everything that 

seemed fixed and certain in her life disappears. 

Leaving Paris, she trades one gorgeous 

cinemascape for another when she 

makes her way to the coast of Naples and 

an old house known as the Villa Amalia 

where she is quite literally rescued by Giulia 

(Maya Sansa). 

Jacquot perfectly captures the sparse, 

hard-edged feel of the Quignard’s novel. 

Locations change abruptly and characters 

often embark on unexpected courses of 

action—this is a world in which nothing is 

certain and every moment is ripe with possibility. 

La Huppert (her fans have crowned 

her with an article) is, of course, sublime. 

And as she’s one of the only name brand 

French actresses to make a stateside splash, 

the combination of sun-kissed locales, a 

prize-wining source novel and sensuality 

should make this an arthouse no-brainer. 

--Richard Mowe 

42 


BIGPICTURE 

REUNITED AND IT FEELS SO GOOD 

An alternate reality makes Shrek and 

Donkey strangers 

DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek has paved the swampy streets with gold. But rather than flogging the franchise to 

death, they’ve smartly decided to go out on top with the sequel of sequels, a grand finale that sees a now-domesticated 

Shrek antsy to break out of his cage—here, the tourist-stop home he shares with wife Fiona and their triplets. 

He wins his freedom, but it comes at a cost: a pact with the vengeful Rumpelstiltskin who blames the ogre for ruining 

his life. BOXOFFICE talks to three of the talents behind this ambitious and bold installment: director Mike Mitchell, 

Head of Story and voice of Rumplestiltskin Walt Dohrn and Antonio Banderas, who as the voice of fan favorite Puss 

in Boots will claw on to star in his own spin off, pouncing into theaters in 2011. 


Green giant 

Shrek director Mike Mitchell 

on unleashing the ogre’s inner 

beast in the series’ surprising 

climax 

You were a story artist in Shrek the Third 

and now you’re taking over the reins. 

In the past, I’ve done live directing. I did a 

movie years ago for Adam Sandler called 

Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigalo and a film for 

Disney called Sky High. It takes a long time 

to get a live action film made, so I also 

work in animation for DreamWorks doing 

storyboards and writing and story stuff all 

the way back to Antz, their first CGI movie. 

I did the storyboards for Shrek 2 when the 

giant Gingerbread Man scales the castle 

walls and they have to pour hot milk down 

on him. I’ve worked on Kung Fu Panda and 

a lot of other films here, so I’ve been in the 

DreamWorks family. That’s what I was 

doing here—I was working on the story 

for Shrek Forever After with our writer Josh 

Klausner. We were challenging each other 

to come up with the most ultimate Shrek 

story of all time—at the time, we didn’t 

realize it would be the final chapter when 

we came up with the story—but Josh had 

come up with a story that encompassed everything 

and really brought the Shrek story 

full circle. So then they offered it to me to 

direct and I was really won over by what a 

strong story Josh had come up with. 

Shrek explores very adult questions—especially 

in Shrek the Third and here. 

There’s two things that we did. One, we really 

wanted to honor the first Shrek. I think 

people forget what a well-told story that 

is—it’s really an emotional story. We just 

wanted to get back to really good storytelling, 

but at the same time, we wanted it to 

be really funny. It was great to start off with 

a Shrek who’s not that same ogre anymore. 

He’s a father and he’s got responsibilities. 

People rely on him and he’s got children’s 

birthday parties to host and chores to do. 

Fathers really relate to this movie, including 

myself—I’ve got two boys, a three year 

old and a five year old. In fact, the five 

year old plays the voice of one of the ogre 

babies. Life really changes once you have 

kids, and so it was an interesting place and 

an interesting problem to give to Shrek. 

It’s also got this question of, “What if?” 

People often think, “What if my life was 

different? What if I didn’t have kids? What 

if I didn’t get married? What if I could go 

back in time and I didn’t have to work 

during the weekends?” We realized it was 

super-relatable, and that’s where our writers 

Josh and Darren Lemke took the story 

and it really evolved from there. It was like 

a snowball effect where the story and the 

issues became more and more exciting and 

relatable. 

How do you balance that for all ages so 

the kids watching Shrek 4 don’t start thinking, 

“Oh my god—what if my parents wish 

they didn’t have to have me for a day?” 

I always thought that Shrek was the Tony 

Soprano for kids. He’s a curmudgeon, a 

very rare character to see in any entertainment. 

He has this James Gandolfini quality, 

Archie Bunker quality, where he’s grumpy 

and angry, but you’re on his side. You can 

see why he’d be annoyed by stuff and that’s 

what makes his dynamic with Donkey 

so fun, because Donkey is so oblivious to 

anyone ever being annoyed that he won’t 

shut up. To place him next to an ogre like 

46 


Shrek—Shrek is the everyman. And it’s not 

just adults that relate to him; kids relate to 

him, as well. So when we approached the 

storytelling—and it is a complex story, it’s 

Shrek meets It’s a Wonderful Life—we were 

really conscious about whether or not kids 

could follow the story we were telling. 

When we finished sequences, we would 

show them to kids to make sure that they 

knew what was going on. We were actually 

really surprised. Really young kids could 

relate to a lot of stuff, and pick up on and 

understand complex storytelling. It was 

inspiring to get their reaction and adjust 

the movie to that. I’m hopeful that we hit 

the movie on all levels for kids and adults. 

It’s also a very female-empowered movie. I 

think it’s very good for little girls because 

of Fiona’s story. Here, Fiona was never 

rescued from the tower. It’s interesting that 

in the first movie, she’s a princess who is 

ashamed that she turns ogre at night, so 

she hides away. Now, it’s the flip of that. 

Her true love never came to rescue her; 

she rescued herself from that tower and she 

hides away her princess side. She’s ashamed 

that a human princess just sits in a tower 

all day waiting for her true love—a man— 

to come and save her. Forget that! She’s 

empowered herself, she’s embraced her 

ogre-warrior side. She’s an Ogre Warrior 

Woman, and I just think it’s really positive 

for little girls. And she’s got her own “What 

if?” story for parents, for mothers. 

How is it different directing actors in 

animation as opposed to getting to move 

them around in live action? 

Actually, Cameron Diaz and Antonio 

Banderas are so active, jumping around and 

breaking a sweat, because they really do 

act out everything. If Puss is swashbuckling, 

Antonio is swashbuckling around the 

room. It’s really fun to watch and it’s really 

fun to be a part of. I love to be in the room 

with this. Walt Dohrn, our head of story, 

reads against them, which is really handy 

because he plays Rumplestiltskin in the 

movie, as well. It’s just like play-acting. It’s 

very similar to live-action directing except 

there’s no cameras—we really do act out 

every scene in the room as we record it. 

We were really lucky. 

The new voices, our new 

witches are Kathy Griffin 

and Kristen Schaal, who plays the super 

fan on Flight of the Conchords. They’re so 

funny. Jane Lynch from Glee plays an ogre, 

and so does Jon Hamm—he’s a very funny 

guy. People who know him as Don Draper 

on Mad Men will be surprised. The funniest 

guy in the world, Craig Robinson, plays a 

female ogre. It’s his first time playing an 

ogre and his first time playing a female. 

Her name is Cookie, she’s the chef for the 

underground ogre resistance. Craig’s in all 

the Judd Apatow movies and The Office— 

Walk Hard and Hot Tub Time Machine— 

He is brilliant. We’ve got some of the funniest 

people in the world, and then on top of 

that, some of the greatest actors like Mike 

Myers and Eddie Murphy and Cameron 

Diaz and Antonio Banderas. Not only is it 

really fun to work with these people, but 

we’ve also got a great casting agent, Leslee 

Feldman. She can always tell us who’s going 

to be the next big star. It’s a shame that 

these films take three years to make because 

by the time the come out, these guys 

are stars, and it looks like we’re just using 

the biggest stars we can. But the fact is, 

DreamWorks actually knows who’s going 

to be a star three years ahead of time. Leslee 

Feldman is great—great!—to work with. 

When the first Shrek came out, its textual 

animation was 

astounding. 

Having been 

with the 

Shrek series 

so long, how 

are you staying 

on the 

edge of the 

technology, 

especially now 

that you’re 

moving into 

3D? 

It’s amazing 

because we 

are honoring 

the original 

character 

designs that were done years and years 

ago. What’s cool about that is we’ve stuck 

with the designs while the technology has 

changed so much—even just in the controls 

that it takes to make these characters move. 

In the first Shrek, he had just a handful of 

facial expressions; now, his options are 

endless. The animators have so much more 

control. Not to mention the leaps and 

bounds in the animation we have—it’s unmistakable 

the new skills these guys have 

just from working on so many computeranimated 

movies leading up to this. Beyond 

that, lighting, effects, everything has just 

exploded. Since the first Shrek, there’s been 

an animation renaissance—the technology 

of what we can do is without bounds. 

Add to that the 3D technology—this is the 

first Shrek movie in 3D—and I’m just really 

fortunate that Jeffrey Katzenberg hooked 

us up with James Cameron. We saw bits of 

Avatar before it came out, and at the same 

time, another film being made here, How 

to Train Your Dragon, is where the studio 

started to really figure out the 3D technology. 

3D is obviously something that’s here 

to stay and DreamWorks and Shrek were 

really invested in researching the possibilities. 

We talked to Steven Spielberg who’s 

making a 3D movie, The Adventures of Tintin, 

with Peter Jackson right now. It’s a big, fun 

roller coaster ride. In ours, there’s a scene 

where Shrek is on a 

broomstick being 

chased by 

a thousand 

witches 

and he 

dips and 

When you look at Shrek’s credits list, it’s 

like everyone in Hollywood lined up and 

asked if you could find a role for them. 

PICTURE THIS 

“It’s just like play-acting,” 

says Mitchell of directing his 

animated cast 



47

BIGPICTURE 


dives and your heart is in your throat— 

you’re watching the audience sway like 

they’re on a roller coaster. Then, we found 

that we could use this 3D technology as a 

storytelling device. Much like using color 

or surround sound, we used distance to 

translate a feeling. When Donkey doesn’t 

recognize Shrek, he gallops away leaving 

Shrek all alone. We put Shrek deep in 

space—we put him really far away from us 

and you feel that space as the trees slowly 

move. We’ve found with Shrek that you can 

create really emotional moments with this 

3D technology. Not only that but we were 

really conscious that we wanted to tell this 

story through Shrek’s point of view. This is 

Shrek’s story, and we wanted the audience 

to be right in his head: to feel things when 

he feels them, to experience things when 

he’s experiencing them. When you watch 

the film, the audience learns things at the 

same time Shrek is learning them. It’s a 

mystery that unfolds, and 3D really helps 

put you in his head, in his space. Another 

time that looks really beautiful—almost 

like a live-action movie—is when Shrek 

bursts into his house and it’s just an empty 

tree stump. He crashes through the walls 

to try to find his wife and kids. He’s in the 

dark and when he stands up, the sunbeams 

come through cracks in the walls—you can 

even see that dust you see when the sun 

shines through a window—and it’s almost 

as if you could reach through that 3D and 

touch him, stir up that dust. It’s really cool 

to really live in Shrek’s world. And it’s great 

because we know this world. It’s nice to 

experience it in a different way. Another 

amazing thing is with the new technology, 

after three movies, we finally decided to let 

Fiona’s hair down. The artists who do her 

hair are amazing; it’s a really difficult thing 

to do. It has to move in every scene—even 

when a gust of wind goes by, you have to 

animate this hair. It’s so great to inherit 

these characters and then be able to push 

them into a new look. 

Is there any way Shrek might come back 

for a fifth film? 

I’ll tell you: the reason why this is the final 

chapter is because it really encompasses 

the three previous films. Much like The 

Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, it brings 

the whole story to a satisfying conclusion. 

That being said, I think these characters 

will live on forever—not to mention 

DreamWorks has Puss in Boots coming out, 

so I think you’ll find characters visiting 

that world and maybe even having their 

own film. 

■ 

Curse o’ the Irish 

As the villian Rumpelstiltskin, 

long-time Shrek multi-hyphenate 

Walt Dohrn finds his voice 

Here’s some of what you’ve done with the 

Shrek team for the last three films: you’re 

the Head of Story, a writer, the voices of bit 

parts like the Evil Knight and Nanny Dwarf, 

and even a song writer for tunes like “Fairy 

Godmother Song.” 

The Shrek movies have been such a great 

opportunity. I’ve gotten to help write songs, 

do voices, write jokes, work with actors, and 

now I’ve finally got a big role. 

As Head of Story, you even helped come up 

with your character, who takes the series in 

a really interesting direction. 

Not only do I work closely with Mike, I manage 

a team of story artists. The other three 

Shrek films had such great villains: Farquaad, 

the Fairy Godmother, Prince Charming. But 

they were all very theatrical. They were British 

and very proper. How do you compete with 

those villains? We thought we’d go the opposite 

way: a little ratty, nervous, almost trashy 

character who still had the appeal and humor. 

Do you see Rumpelstiltskin as a pure villain 

or does he get any of your sympathy? 

NOW YOU SEE ME 

Dohrn thought he was 

just Rumpelstiltskin’s 

temporary voice, but 

DreamWorks realized 

they couldn’t imagine 

anyone else in the role 

He’s definitely a little redeemable. First of 

all, we tried to make him cute. He has an 

infantile, juvenile way to him and that’s 

how he lures people into his deals. He has 

an innocence to him—that’s his appeal. And 

he’s redemptive in that he really loves his 

goose Fi-Fi. 

It’s true. In the early scene where he convinces 

Shrek to sign away everything, even I 

was a little swayed. 

It’s a really hard thing to get a character like 

Shrek to even want to do a deal at all. He’s 

always suspicious of everyone, being a loner 

most of his life. We had to really carefully 

walk that line. Of course, Rumpel has been 

following Shrek and he always finds people 

when they’re at their weakest point. 

Did you brainstorm other villains or did you 

seize upon Rumpelstiltskin right away? 

Right away, we knew we wanted to do a 

Rumpelstiltskin story. It made sense given 

where Shrek was in his life. In the classic 

story, Rumpel extracts a promise for a firstborn 

child. Here’s Shrek with his family, and 

what would be his greatest loss? Losing his 

children. Rumpel doesn’t take them specifically, 

but he does take his whole life away. It 

was organic. 

You were originally recording the voice of 

48 


WHAT’S A CONTRACT 

BETWEEN FRIENDS? 

Rumpelstiltskin sets out 

to destroy Shrek with a 

rotten deal 

Rumpelstiltskin just as a scratch track, but you did it so well that 

when the time came to cast, they couldn’t think of anyone else. 

We work so quickly and loosely before we bring the actors in that 

Mike and I would play a lot of characters in the film. We would just 

imitate Antonio Banderas or Eddie Murphy or Mike Myers as best 

we could. And we would use that to cut to. When Rumpelstiltskin 

was developed, we were thinking that later we’d find a voice for 

him; I never thought I would do it. But as the voice grew, it became 

essential to this story. The film is so dark that we needed its 

humor—it’s so specific to the story that it just stuck. As more crew 

members came on, they fell in love with it. We couldn’t place who 

would play him, and since we had a stew of traits from other characters 

in the voice, we just stuck with it. 

Who were you channeling to invent his voice? 

Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? was a big one. She’s 

scary, but she’s also got that playful, young juvenescence to her. She 

can go from sweet to scary in a turn. She can be really evil—she’s such 

a great character. And then The Bad Seed, the old ’50s B horror movie 

with that chilly little girl. Again, she’ll turn from innocence to evil in 

a second. That, “Oh, I have the best mother in the whole world!” and 

you know something bad is going to happen. Sean Penn in The Falcon 

and the Snowman was another. He plays a real life person with this 

energy and nervousness—he could explode any minute. And then the 

Hitchcock film Strangers on a Train. There’s a character in there who’s 

swaying this guy, convincing him to trade killing someone, and he 

has that smooth dealmaker thing. “Come on, guy...” We swirled those 

elements and things started to come out almost against our will— 

these weird sounds, and we just mixed them all together. 

Are you a voice guy, always doing impressions at home? 

My daughter and I do voices at home all the time. My old joke 

used to be when I would give presentations for Shrek the Third, 

“I’m Walt Dohrn, I work on the Shrek movies. You may remember 

me as Guard #2.” I’d play the Principal, or the Van Student. 

I’ve been pitching in and doing the voices that we use when we 

do storyboards, but this one’s been the most fun. 

From the Head of Story viewpoint, what was it like concocting such 

a bold plot for the last Shrek film? 

It was a challenge. I started on Shrek 2, did Shrek 3 and then Shrek 

the Halls. It was a great challenge to approach this film and bring 

fresh, new ideas to it., and an honor to close out the series in such an 

organic, natural way. 

What’s been the key to the appeal of the Shrek series? 

Shrek is a great anti-hero. We can relate to all his flaws. And what’s 

nice about being able to do four films is that his life has evolved as 

ours have evolved. Whether you saw him as a kid, or as I did in my 

twenties, just growing up with it is the appeal. Plus, hitting some 

real emotion. These characters are real to us. When Shrek and Fiona 

were having marital problems, we actually brought in marriage 

counselors and said, “How would you deal with these problems that 

Shrek and Fiona are having?” I remember sitting in that meeting 

and thinking this is how real these characters have become: we’ve 

gotten them marriage counselors. 

Does your own life come through in the characters? As you’ve had 

children, Shrek has had children... 

Definitely. We wanted the emotions to be as real as possible, and 

whether it was issues with our own parents, or how we’d feel if we 

lost our own children, we’ve infused those real feelings into the 

characters. I still cry at some of the moments. 

Mike Mitchell called you “irreplaceable.” 

Aw, that’s so nice. I wish he’d say nice things to me in person. We’ve 

had the best time. Mike and I have known each other since school 

and we’ve always wanted a chance to work together. It’s been a huge 

joy. And even though I play the voice of Rumpelstiltskin, he’s really 

as much a part of the role—him and all the animators. It’s a community 

that built this character. 

■ 

READ OUR EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH ANTONIO BANDERAS > 



49

BIGPICTURE 


DOES THIS BOW MAKE 

ME LOOK FAT? 

The dashing cat gets 

domesticated 

them that is beautiful. It’s about friendship, 

it’s about betrayal. There’s a number of 

elements in the movie that veer away from 

what Shrek was about. 

Puss in Boots was the standout character 

the second he showed up in Shrek 2—what 

do people love about him? 

Nine lives 

Antonio Banderas on his 

swashbuckling cat who is 

springing forward from the 

Shrek finale to star in his own 

spinoff 

It’s been 6 years since we met Puss in Boots 

in Shrek 2—do you remember how you 

came up with the voice? 

In the beginning, the first time I jumped 

into the character was 2003. We were trying 

to decide what we wanted to do with him. 

They came to New York—I was doing Nine 

on Broadway—and they showed me the 

aspects of the character. We decided that it 

was important to provide him with a voice 

that doesn’t match his body. That was the 

beginning of trying to create humor with 

him. The normal thing would have been 

just to put a voice of a little cat that matched 

the body, in comparison with Burrito—I 

mean, Donkey—or Shrek. But we decided 

to put a voice that goes totally against his 

image. That contrast created a lot of comedy 

because it made him very arrogant and selfassured; 

the way that he goes through life 

is very sarcastic, witty and sharp. That was 

the initial thing, and then we started trying 

to explore his territory. This is the number 

three movie for the cat because he wasn’t in 

the first one. Here, we take him in a totally 

different direction. He’s let himself go—he’s 

fat now, and lazy, totally the opposite of the 

hero. 

Does that affect the voice? 

I was going in the same direction, but at 

the same time allowing myself to be a little 

looser and trying to match the story that we 

have now where everything is totally new. 

Something has happened that’s changed 

the story of all the characters—it’s like 

something has gone wrong at a point in his 

life and then he couldn’t match his dreams. 

He just became a lazy cat. So he’s quite different; 

his personality has changed totally. 

I love him! You may notice that I love him 

very much. I just like the cat—I talk about 

him like he’s a totally third person who has 

nothing to do with me. 

And he’s been picked as the character to 

lead the first Shrek spin-off movie. 

Yes! Now we are just confronting the story 

of Puss in Boots, the story of another killer. 

And we are going to see him from the 

beginning, since he was a little kitty cat, an 

orphan in an institution. There’s a number 

of things that happen in there that create 

his personality and you’re going to see the 

whole entire story of the cat. We’re trying to 

have that be a surprise, but what I can tell 

you is that the style of the movie is quite 

different from Shrek. Shrek is supported 

more by criticism of the pop culture and the 

world of fairy tale. We had the opportunity 

to be laughing at ourselves, laughing at a 

certain way in which these fairy tales play 

in our mind. Decomposing them, trying to 

just break them down. In the case of Puss in 

Boots, it is quite literally an epic. The style 

is completely different. Not the style of the 

drawings, that is what you have seen from 

him, but the narrative process is separate. 

A heroic epic? 

It’s heroic, there is a certain romance. He’s 

going to find a female character that is going 

to match him. She’s a very strong lady, and 

there’s going to be confrontation between 

them that creates a love story between 

I think it is that contrast—this little body and 

this big ego, this big hero. He was very well 

designed by all the creative team. All that I 

had to do was just match my voice to what 

they were doing. I have my own production 

company for animation movies in Spain— 

this year we were nominated for an Academy 

Award for best short animated movie 

[The Lady and Death] —and we’re trying to 

take everything that I have learned from 

DreamWorks and apply it to the company. 

The system of work is fantastic because they 

confront you with creative people. They ask 

you questions about the character—questions 

that they would ask to an actor about 

what this character should do in this scene. 

You take the script and you talk to them, and 

then they just start applying to the character 

the ideas that you may have. And we are 

recording everything with cameras in front 

of us. Sometimes, we copy the elements that 

the character has, a little sword, something 

like that, so that actually the animators and 

cartoonists have the possibility of using some 

of the nuances and the little things that you 

may do when you are actually making the 

voice of the character. I think those things 

make the movie very fresh. Sometimes, they 

even allow you to improvise—nothing is 

totally closed for the interpretation that you 

make. And that makes you feel very not in a 

box. It makes you feel free to create. We have 

times where you are actually looking at the 

control center of the recording room as you 

are doing your lines and you see people inside 

laughing. And when that happens, then 

you think, “We got it.” So we take the work 

and then send it to the cartoonist to do that 

type of voice. The process is very well put 

together, and I think that’s the secret of why 

Shrek has been always so fresh and so special. 

The drawing doesn’t go first. The drawing is 

something that is going to match the voice. 

It makes sense. Mike was telling me that 

as you record you get sweaty from fake 

swordfighting. 

I become nuts when I’m recording this 

character. I have a lot of fun always. Always. 

There’s no one session that stands out. I 

always go with a high spirit knowing that 

50 


BIGPICTURE 


we’re going to have a great time. If we don’t 

have fun doing it, the audience will not have 

fun watching it. 

And now that Puss in Boots is lazier and 

fatter—in one scene, he can hardly drag 

himself to his milk bowl—are you lounging 

around the studio? 

It’s more difficult because I am not fat, you 

see! And I’m not lazy. But the scene inspires 

you. There’s a couple of drawings here and 

there that they show you at the beginning. 

We sit down in the control room and they 

show you on the computer the storyboards 

so you understand where they are heading, 

and what is the environment in which the 

cat is moving. Is it a room? Is a guy playing 

a piano in the corner? Do you have to lower 

your voice? There’s a number of data that 

they give you. You have all these reference 

points to start working—just the appearance 

of the cat will take you in one direction, 

so I just try to match to that. But now 

he’s lazy, which is fantastic because when 

you’re doing a fourth movie of characters 

that everybody knows, the only thing that 

you can do to surprise them is change 

them completely. That’s going to produce 

straight comedy. He’s so fat, sometimes he 

can’t even stand. He doesn’t go after mice 

anymore—he’s such a mess: “Forget it, I’ll 

catch you later.” 

You could have made history by being the 

first actor to gain weight for an animated 

role. 

[Laughs] Not necessary, though! If I had 

to do that someday because of my acting 

career as a normal actor, I may think about 

it. For the cat, I don’t think so! 

Later this year, you’re in new films from 

Woody Allen [You Will Meet a Tall, Dark 

Stranger] and Steven Soderbergh [Knockout]. 

How would you compare their directing 

styles? 

In the case of Woody Allen, it’s an ensemble 

movie. I have my part and practically 

everything that I have is with Naomi Watts. 

We shot ten sequences and I don’t know 

how much or many of them will be in the 

final movie, but it was an incredible pleasure 

working with Woody Allen. You have 

to think, in the mid-’80s, I had a t-shirt with 

the face of Woody Allen. Seeing him on the 

set walking around with his hat and his 

glasses was unbelievable to me, unbelievable. 

He’s a legend for me; he’s a guy that I 

admire as a director, as a writer of books. I 

love him. For me, his professional work is 

beautiful. Especially in the last 15-20 years, 

Woody Allen has been more appreciated in 

Europe than in his own country—in Spain, 

he has been always huge. With Steven 

Soderbergh, my role is almost a cameo; I 

have three or four sequences. I just wanted 

to work with him to be close to him, just to 

see how he shoots. It’s just a cameo; it’s not 

a big deal. But it is a big deal for me because 

I wanted the opportunity to be very close. 

Then I did a movie with Tony Krantz in 

Spokane called The Big Bang in which I am 

the lead. It’s just getting together—I think 

I’m going to have the opportunity to see 

it within days. We’re going to try to take 

it to some festivals in Europe. And I can 

tell you, it was a fantastic experience. We 

got a fantastic scriptwriter, Erik Jendresen, 

he’s the guy who wrote Band of Brothers. It 

was very well-dialogued. There’s a number 

of beautiful, beautiful films coming and I 

don’t want to jinx them because the papers 

aren’t signed, but they’re going to surprise 

you. 

The Salvador Dalí film? 

It’s a complex film—we have almost 35 

million Euros or $50 million dollars and 

there’s no action in it. It’s the life of a 

painter. That scares many people with that 

amount of budget. But it seems that we 

are finding finally the possibility. For me, I 

have a very strong admiration for Salvador 

Dalí. He’s probably one of the best Spanish 

painters ever. And at the same time, quite 

an interesting character. He was very shy 

in a way. Very cultured. And he created, 

out his shyness, this incredibly out there 

character—totally over the edge, almost 

histrionic. This is a possibility because the 

script they gave me, Simon West [Laura 

Craft: Tomb Raider] was supposed to direct 

it. It’s very interesting because it actually 

plays with the surreal world that Salvador 

Dalí created. We see him and certain characters 

of his life in a surreal world—in his 

paintings. It’s going to be a fantastic work, 

very eye-popping and colorful. This is a 

proposal that I would love to get together. 

And it could reunite you with Catherine 

Zeta-Jones, who has shown interest in 

playing his wife, Gala. 

Their relationship was extraordinary. Gala 

was a very, very strong woman. Salvador 

Dalí said himself that without his wife, 

he would have been nothing. His wife 

taught him that he was not a mediocre 

painter. Their relationship was incredible. 

In 1960-something, Salvador Dalí gave 

his wife a castle. But Dalí couldn’t go. He 

Dali had to ask written permission from 

her, signed by her, to go and visit her in 

the castle. Their relationship is really out 

there. He died in the mid-’80s, but still now 

he’s a very modern character, totally out of 

the normal pattern. Like going back to the 

Renaissance painters, he was looking at life 

in a totally different way. 

And he was comfortable aligning himself 

with a very unpopular government. 

Absolutely. But doing the research that 

I did, it isn’t so much that he supported 

Franco, it’s that he wanted to live in 

Figueres! He wanted to live in Spain. And 

absolutely, absolutely, if he had to embrace 

a dictatorship? Whatever. He didn’t care. 

He was the most apolitical animal that you 

can find. But there was a moment when he 

wanted to return to Spain—he was living 

in America—and he knew that Franco was 

there, but it was impossible to contain his 

feelings for living in Spain. There was a 

number of people, writers and painters, 

that at the time were in exile because in 

Spain they opposed the regime. But he said, 

“Fuck that. I’m not going to do that. I want 

to live in Spain—and if I’ve got to support 

Franco, I don’t care.” He was like that. He 

was a very egotistical character in a way, 

but he never hid it! 

Spain’s chances look good for the World 

Cup this summer. 

Well, we have to see. The expectations are 

big. But the greatness and the mystery of 

soccer is actually that: you never know 

what is going to happen. We hope so! But 

I prefer to be very cautious. Spain in the 

last 40 games lost only one—and it was 

against the United States last year. They 

were not supposed to defeat us, but it happened. 

And that is a possibility too: that 

we can lose to a team that is not supposed 

to defeat us. Yes, we have a good team. We 

have a good team. And it’s solid. They are 

mature now. They are ready. But in a championship 

like this, after the first round it’s 

one match and if you don’t win it, you’re 

out. The possibilities are always that they 

could get eliminated. The U.S. team is my 

second team, as you may imagine. I’ve 

been living here for almost 21 years now, 

and I push for them. If Spain falls, I’m going 

to go with the USA! 

■ 

52 


ONTHEHORIZON 


PREDATORS 

THE MOST 

DANGEROUS PREY 

DISTRIBUTOR 20th Century Fox CAST Adrien Brody, Alice 

Braga, Danny Trejo, Walton Goggins, Oleg Taktarov, Mahershalalhashbaz 

Ali, Louiz Ozawa DIRECTOR Nimrod Antal 

SCREENWRITERS Alex Litvak, Michael Finch PRODUCERS 

Elizabeth Avellan, Robert Rodriguez GENRE Action/Sci-Fi 

RATING TBD RUNNING TIME TBD RELEASE DATE July 9, 2010 

> Robert Rodriguez loved the ‘80s classic so 

much he wrote his own sequel in 1997 and 

pitched it to Arnold Schwarzenegger—who 

turned it down. Flash-forward 12 years and 

20th Century Fox remembered his script 

and asked the Grindhouse director to give 

it another stab. Attached as a producer, 

Rodriguez shepherded the reboot, enlisting 

new writers and director Nimród Antal 

(Vacancy) to bring it to glorious, bloody life. 

Here’s the twist: instead of drawing 

inspiration from the earlier installments, 

Predators pays homage to Richard Connell’s 

man-hunting short story “The Most 

Dangerous Game.” Adrien Brody plays a 

mercenary trying to lead a makeshift team 

of Earth’s baddest brawlers: death row 

murderers, assassins, yakuza and secretops 

killers. They’ve woken up on a foreign 

planet revealed to be a hunting reserve for 

alien predators practicing to slay humans. 

Along with a doctor who claims he can’t 

understand why he’s there, too, the gang 

of eight fights—and fails—to survive. “I put 

on 25 pounds for this role, but that wasn’t 

the point,” said Brody when clips of the film 

previewed at SXSW. “They didn’t hire me 

to be a bodybuilder. It’s not the physical 

strength that outsmarts an alien with energybased 

weapons and high tracking skills and a 

culture of hunting and trophy hunting—you 

have to outsmart them.” 

And here’s the second twist: the predator 

taxonomy has expanded. The classic bi-ped 

is joined by what early character drafts hint 

are giant predator mosquitoes, wolves and 

a beast dubbed “Mr. Black.” The villains 

are still draped heavy with dreadlocks and 

infrared vision, but Rodriguez promises that 

they’ve been given a fearsome update for 

a whole new terror. Said Rodriguez, “If the 

original was the 8-track version, then these 

are the iPod versions.” 


INCEPTION 

Daring dreamscape 

DISTRIBUTOR Warner Bros. CAST Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, Ellen 

Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy DIRECTOR Christopher Nolan 

SCREENWRITER Christopher Nolan PRODUCERS Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas GENRE Action/Sci-Fi 

RATING TBD RUNNING TIME TBD RELEASE DATE July 16, 2010 

> “I want to keep some things a mystery,” said Dark Knight director 

Christopher Nolan when he debuted footage from his latest to 

the ShoWest crowd. Inception—his highly anticipated summer 

blockbuster is shrouded in mystery. The Las Vegas audience watched 

a five-minute montage of the film and left still uncertain what the 

flick’s about. 

Here’s what we know: Leonardo DiCaprio stars as a security guard 

of dreams. His team, which includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt and new 

recruit Ellen Page of Juno pitch their subliminal protection agency 

to the globe’s wealthy, like high-roller Ken Watanabe. Explains 

DiCaprio, “It’s Chris delving into dream psychoanalysis and, at 

the same time, making a high-octane, surreal film that came from 

his mind,” explains DiCaprio. “He wrote the entire thing, and it all 

made sense to him. It didn’t make sense to many of us when we were 

doing it. We had to do a lot of detective work to figure out what the 

movie was about.” Another certainty is that the set up that allows 

for scene after scene of stunning visuals including the money shot 

of a skyscraper city folding in on itself like a tortilla. (The budget 

is a rumored $200 million and scenes were shot in six different 

countries: Japan, Canada, Britain, France, the U.S. and Morocco. 

“I grew up watching James Bond films and loving those and 

watching spy movies with their globetrotting sensibility,” 

Nolan said in a recent interview. “We get to do that here, not just 

geographically but also in time and dimensions of reality as well. 

We get to make a movie that’s expansive, I suppose you’d say, in four 

dimensions.” And he’s in the right studio to get his vision on the 

screen—after the billion dollar success of The Dark Knight, Warner 

Bros. has given their new favorite director their full support. And 

odds are, audiences will too. 

SALT 

That special spice 

DISTRIBUTOR Columbia CAST Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor DIRECTOR Phillip 

Noyce SCREENWRITER Kurt Wimmer, Brian Helgeland PRODUCERS Lorenzo di Bonaventura, 

Sunil Perkash GENRE Thriller/Action RATING TBD RUNNING TIME TBD RELEASE DATE 

July 23, 2010 

> A CIA whiz is accused of being a double agent and must evade 

capture long enough to find the real mole. Sound like Mission: Impossible? 

Imagine this: the role was originally intended for Ethan Hunt himself, 

but scheduling conflicts and the near-impossibility of differentiating 

the two super spies forced Tom Cruise to bow out of the role. Said Aussie 

director Philip Noyce of the challenge, “It was kind of returning to an 

offshoot of a character that he’d already played. It’s like playing the 

brother, or the cousin, of somebody that you played in another movie.” 

Then, Columbia head Amy Pascal had a brainstorm: turn Edwin 

Salt into Evelyn Salt and cast Angelina Jolie. After the success of 

Tomb Raider and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Jolie was open to another 

high-octane action flick with franchise potential. She signed on 

and screenwriters Kurt Wimmer (Law Abiding Citizen, The Thomas 

Crowne Affair) and Brian Helgeland (The Bourne Supremacy) retooled 

the script for their new star. 

“The locomotive of ideas that drive the movie are the same. An 

undercover CIA operative is accused of being a Russian mole, and 

has to go on the run to defend themselves. That’s been the same 

since day one,” says Helgeland, adding, “The tone of the film has 

changed in this evolution.” Rounding out this new incarnation are 

Liev Schreiber as Salt’s sole CIA supporter and Chiwetel Ejiofor 

(Redbelt, 2012) as the young spook unleashed to track down the 

rogue agent. Tabloid fascination with Jolie has gotten on-the-set 

stills from the flick in every supermarket rag and given the film’s 

name recognition a boost. The question is: will the housewives 

who eagerly pony up for the latest gossip on Miss Jolie be as ready 

to shell out for tickets to the film itself? At least, the men in their 

lives might. That Wanted, Tomb Raider and Mr. and Mrs. Smith each 

opened to $50 million bodes well for the sexy spy. 



55

THESLATE 

COMING ATTRACTIONS 

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR REBEL 

Cate Blanchett and Russell Crowe take notes 

from Robin Hood director Ridley Scott 

These Merry Men ain’t in tights 

DISTRIBUTOR Universal Pictures CAST Russell Crowe, Cate 

Blanchett, Mark Strong, William Hurt, Scott Grimes, Kevin 

Durand, Alan Doyle, Danny Huston DIRECTOR Ridley Scott 

SCREENWRITERS Ethan Reiff, Cyrus Voris, Brian Helgeland 

PRODUCERS Russell Crowe, Brian Grazer, Ridley Scott GENRE 

Action/Drama/Historical RATING TBD RUNNING TIME TBD 

RELEASE DATE May 14, 2010 

> Hey Sheriff, there’s a new law in town. 

Ridley Scott’s origin epic tracks a Crusader 

(Russell Crowe) who gets political when he 

fights a new enemy of the people: Taxation. 

True to myth, the archer is inspired by his 

love for the legendary Maid (Cate Blanchett), 

here a widow beset by tyrannical Sheriff 

Nottingham (Brit Matthew Macfadyen). 

Scott originally envisioned a revisionist 

take that gave both Sir Robin and his rivals 

a grayer morality, but Crowe pushed for a 

straightforward tale of heroism—and committed 

to the role by training to shoot a 

bullseye at 45 meters. 

SLEEPLESS NIGHTS 

Annette Bening hunts 

for the daughter she 

gave away 

MOTHER AND CHILD 

The ties that bind 

DISTRIBUTOR Sony Pictures Classics CAST Annette Bening, 

Naomi Watts, Kerry Washington, Shareeka Epps DIRECTOR 

Rodrigo Garcia SCREENWRITER Rodrigo Garcia PRODUCERS 

Lisa Maria Falcone, Julie Lynn GENRE Drama RATING R for 

sexuality, brief nudity and language. RUNNING TIME 125 

min. RELEASE DATE May 7, 2010 

> Columbian director Rodrigo Garcia has 

helmed big TV shows like Big Love, Six Feet 

Under and The Sopranos, but his best known 

film is the estrogen ensemble piece Things 

You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her starring 

Glenn Close, Cameron Diaz and Holly Hunter. 

Never theatrically released in America 

despite winning an award at Cannes, the 

critics who showered it with praise also held 

it up as a symbol of Hollywood’s distrust in 

the power of the female dollar. Hopefully 

his latest will fare better, the interwoven 

stories of three women: one considering 

adoption (Kerry Washington), and a mother 

(Annette Bening) in search of the daughter 

she gave up (Naomi Watts). That it’s at least 

getting released is a start. 

SOLITARY MAN 

Alone in a crowd 

DISTRIBUTOR Anchor Bay Entertainment CAST Michael 

Douglas, Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito, Jenna Fischer, 

Mary-Louise Parker, Jesse Eisenberg DIRECTORS Brian Koppelman, 

David Levien SCREENWRITER Brian Koppelman 

PRODUCERS Heidi Jo Markel, Paul Schiff, Steven Soderbergh 

GENRE Drama RATING R for language and some sexual content. 

RUNNING TIME 90 min. RELEASE DATE May 7, 2010 

> Michael Douglas stars in a role he could 

play in his sleep: a wealthy salesman with 

an eye for young ladies. In Brian Koppleman’s 

(Oceans 13, The Girlfriend Experience) 

drama, Douglas punches anyone who calls 

him grandpa, excepting his actual grandkid, 

who he just shushes with a glare if there’s 

any fine-looking coeds nearby. With The 

Office’s Jenna Fischer as his daughter and 

Susan Sarandon and Mary Louise Parker as 

women who know better than to put up 

with his ego. 

JUST WRIGHT 

Locker room romance 

DISTRIBUTOR Fox Searchlight CAST Queen Latifah, Common, 

Paula Patton, Mechad Brooks, Pam Grier DIRECTOR Sanaa 

Hamri SCREENWRITER Michael Elliot PRODUCERS Debra 

Martin Chase, Shakim Compere, Queen Latifah GENRE 

Comedy/Romance RATING PG for some suggestive material 

and brief language. RUNNING TIME TBD RELEASE DATE 

May 14, 2010 

> Box office heavy hitter Queen Latifah 

stars in this sportsy romance about a physical 

therapist who falls in love with an NBA 

star (True Blood’s Mechad Brooks) suffering 

what could be a career-ending injury. Director 

Sanaa Hamri’s last two turns at bat were 

the slight, but critically admired interracial 

56 


BOLD FOOT FORWARD 

French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet has his 

fourth cult classic with Micmacs 

rom com Something New and a tour of duty 

on The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2— 

and Fox Searchlight is betting that she’ll 

turn out a flick with enough sneaker sweat 

to be a decent date night ticket for dudes 

and their missuses. 

MICMACS 

Watch your back, Halliburton 

DISTRIBUTOR Sony Classics CAST Dany Boon, Dominique 

Pinon, Andre Dussollier, Yolande Moreau DIRECTOR Jean- 

Pierre Jeunet SCREENWRITERS Guillaume Laurant, Jean- 

Pierre Jeunet PRODUCERS Frédéric Brillion, Jean-Pierre 

Jeunet, Gilles Legrand GENRE Fantasy/Comedy y RATING R 

for some sexuality and brief violence. RUNNING TIME 105 


> French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet made 

his name with the surrealist comedies Delicatessen 

and The City of Lost Children, and his 

money with the international smash Amelie. 

His latest skews towards the former. In it, an 

orphaned video clerk (Dany Boon) on) survives 

a bullet to the head—his next move is to 

form a gang and avenge himself on the gun 

and ammunition makers who made the 

weapons that killed his father and nearly 

killed him. This loopy satire boasts a 

steampunk visual style that crowns 

Jeunet as France’s Terry Gilliam. 

GEORGE A. ROMERO’SO’S 

SURVIVAL OF THE 

DEAD 

Resurrection of the Zombie King 

DISTRIBUTOR Magnet Releasing CAST Alan Van 

Sprang, Kenneth Welsh, Kathleen Munroe, Devon 

Bostick, Richard Fitzpatrick, Stefano Colacitti, 

Athena Karkanis DIRECTOR George A. Romero 

SCREENWRITER George A. Romero PRODUCER Paula 

Devonshire GENRE Horror RATING R for strong bie violence/gore, language and brief sexuality. 

zom- 

RUNNING TIME 90 min. RELEASE DATE May 28, 2010 

> The zombie conquest of the multiplex 

is winding to a close, but before 

it does, the man who started it all— 

George A. Romero—is squeezing 

in a sixth update. Survival of the Dead is set 

on a Delaware island well into the war between 

the living and the undead. The twist 

is these last weary stragglers are sick of 

shooting their loved ones in the head—now, 

they’re out for a cure. Romero’s ‘05 flick 

Land of the Dead starred John Leguizamo 

and Dennis Hopper and earned $20 million 

domestically; his star-less followup Diary of 

the Dead made just a twentieth of that. Like 

Diary, Survival has a cast of unknowns, but 

Magnet Releasing hopes the Romero brand 

will lure fright fans into the theater. 

ABS OF STEEL 

Robert 

Downey Jr. as 

powerhouse 

Tony Stark 

LETTERS TO JULIET 

Take a letter, Sophia 

DISTRIBUTOR Summit Entertainment CAST Amanda Seyfried, 

Vanessa Redgrave, Gael Garcia Bernal, Franco Nero 

DIRECTOR Gary Winick SCREENWRITERS Jose Rivera, Tim 

Sullivan PRODUCERS Ellen Barkin, Mark Canton, Eric Feig, 

Caroline Kaplan, Patrick Wachsberger GENRE Romance/ 

Drama RATING PG for brief rude behavior, some language 

and incidental smoking. RUNNING TIME TBD RELEASE DATE 

May 14, 2010 

> Is Shakespeare’s magic eternal? Ingénue 

of the hour Amanda Seyfried sets out for an 

answer. As Sophia, Seyfried plays an American 

college girl who unearths a century-old 

letter in Verona and resolves to reunite its 

star-crossed lovers, Vanessa Redgrave and 

Daniel Baldock. En route, she’s 

got to stick 

a dagger in one of two suitors: fiancé Gael 

Garcia Bernal or Brit Chris Egan. Gary 

Winick (13 Going On 30, the unjustly ma- 

ligned Bride Wars) directs. 

IRON MAN 2 

Now the time is here 

DISTRIBUTOR Paramount CAST Robert Downey Jr., 

Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Sam 

Rockwell, Jon Favreau, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Jo- 

hansson DIRECTOR Jon Favreau SCREENWRITER Justin 

Theroux PRODUCER Kevin Feige GENRE Action RATING 

TBD RUNNING TIME TBD RELEASE DATE May 7, 2010 

> In May ‘08, Iron Man was the sneak 

smash of the summer. This year, 

exhibitors can’t wait to welcome 

him into the multiplex. Director Jon 

Favreau returns, as do Gwyneth Paltrow, 

Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Downey 

Jr. (Charlie Chaplin is now 

an action 

hero king). And with Terence Howard 

out and Don Cheadle, Sam Rock- 

well, Scarlett Johansson and—most 

intriguingly—Mickey Rourke in, 

there’s no tempering 

Iron Man 

2’s box office 

bonanza. 


Boxoffi offi 

fice 

· 

The Business s of Movies 

57

THESLATE 

QUICKTAKES for complete interviews and reviews, go to 

BOXOFFICE.com 

m 

KILLER POSE 

Christopher Mintz-Plasse is ready 

to throw down 

KICK-ASS 

A surprisingly good take on the superhero 

genre 

DISTRIBUTOR Lionsgate CAST Aaron Johnson, Nicolas 

Cage, Mark Strong, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, 

Chloe Moretz, Xander Berkeley, Michael Rispoli 

DIRECTOR Matthew Vaughn SCREENWRITERS Matthew 

Vaughn, Jane Goldman PRODUCERS Matthew 

Vaughn, Brad Pitt, Kris Thykier, Adam Bohling, Tarquin 

Pack, David Reid GENRE Action/Comedy RAT- 

ING R for strong brutal violence throughout, pervasive 

language, sexual content, nudity, some drug 

use—some involving children. RUNNING TIME 117 

min. RELEASE DATE April 16, 2010 

★★★★ Pete Hammond says: A clever 

movie premise based on an cult comic book 

has been turned into, okay we’ll say it, a fanboy’s 

kick-ass wet dream of a movie that could 

be a spring smash. Toplining Aaron Johnson 

as a geeky teen who dons a yellow and green 

spandex wetsuit and turns himself into a 

self-styled superhero—and featuring Nicolas 

Cage in a smaller but key role—this actionfilled 

and very funny flick should clean up 

at the box office with its target young male 

audience, and maybe beyond. Financed for a 

relatively measly $30 million (considering 

the impressive effects work on screen), look 

for Kick-Ass to do just that, possibly leading to 

a franchise. 

THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES 

EL SECRETO DE SUS OJOS 

Foreign language Oscar winner for 2009 is great 

entertainment for the grown-up movie seeker 

DISTRIBUTOR Sony Pictures Classics CAST Ricardo Darín, 

Soledad Villamil, Pablo Rago, Javier Godino, Guillermo 

Francella, DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER Juan José Campanella 

PRODUCERS Gerardo Herrero, Mariela Besuievsky, Juan José 

Campanella GENRE Drama RATING R for a rape scene, some 

violent images, graphic nudity and language RUNNING TIME 

129 min. RELEASE DATE April 16 NY/LA 

★★★★★■Pete Hammond says: After defeating 

their own favorites A Prophet (Une Prophete) and 

The White Ribbon for the 2009 Best Foreign Language 

film Oscar, Sony Pictures Classics should be sitting 

pretty with its April domestic release date for Argentina’s 

triumphant The Secret In Their Eyes (El Secreto De 

Sus Ojos). Based on a novel by Eduardo Sacheri, this 

complex drama interweaves the private lives and passions 

of a state prosecution investigator and a judge 

with a 25 year old, unsolved murder case. With Oscar 

in hand, business for this engrossing thriller—which 

became Argentina’s biggest home-grown box office 

hit in 35 years—should be steady and turn a nice 

profit for its distributor, who picked it up after hearing 

about ecstatic responses from its initial Academy 

screenings in October. Stateside business should 

also be good for this brilliantly crisp and intelligent 

grown-up entertainment. 

THE CITY OF YOUR FINAL 

DESTINATION 

James Ivory’s first feature film without Ismail 

Merchant is still worthy of the Merchant/Ivory banner 

PLEASE LEAVE 

Sarah Steele plays a peevish teen in Nicole 

Holofcener’s latest smart dramedy 

DISTRIBUTOR Screen Media CAST Anthony Hopkins, Laura 

Linney, Omar Metwally, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Hiroyuki 

Sanada DIRECTOR James Ivory SCREENWRITER Ruth Prawer 

Jhabvala PRODUCERS Paul Bradley, Pierre Proner GENRE 

Comedy/Drama RATING PG 13 for a brief sexual situation 

with partial nudity. RUNNING TIME 118 min. RELEASE DATE 

April 16 NY, April 23 LA 

★★★★■Pete Hammond says: Marking his 

24th collaboration with screenwriter Ruth Prawer 

Jhabvala, director James Ivory embarks on his first 

solo film since the death of his producing partner, 

Ismail Merchant. The City of Your Final Destination is 

a piercing and intelligent dramedy about a young 

graduate student whose quest to write the biography 

of a deceased Latin American author sends him to 

Uruguay and into a web of secrets, complicated relationships 

and unexpected romance. It’s also a fitting 

reminder of the unique films Merchant/Ivory 

once produced and, even in the absence of one of its 

founders, continues to support in a market not kind 

to this kind of literate, high style adult entertainment. 

With star names Anthony Hopkins and Laura 

Linney involved, expect decent art house business, 

hopefully enough to keep the Merchant/Ivory brand 

alive for another round. 

PLEASE GIVE 

Struggling with struggle in the most charming of 

ways 

DISTRIBUTOR Sony Pictures Classics CAST Catherine Keener, 

Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Rebecca Hall, Sarah Steele DIREC- 

TOR/SCREENWRITER Nicole Holofcener PRODUCER Anthony 

Bregman GENRE Comedy/Drama RATING R language, some 

sexual content and nudity. RUNNING TIME 90 min. RELEASE 

DATE April 30 NY/LA 


★★★★ Richard Mowe says: Nicole Holofcener 

is reunited with her regular collaborator Catherine 

Keener, who plays a New York antique dealer 

and would-be philanthropist in her new comedydrama 

Please Give. The film’s humor is gentle and 

understated, which makes a refreshing change from 

the multiplex broad-comedy, but this smart examination 

of age and vanity needs to remind viewers 

how much they applauded Holofcener’s earlier films 

like the Jennifer Aniston flick Friends With Money to 

break out of the indie caste. Still, the film provides 

many pleasures regardless of its mid-range box office 

potential. 

LOOKING FOR ERIC 

Something light and feel-good from the British hero 

of social realism 

DISTRIBUTOR IFC CAST Steve Evets, Eric Cantona, John 

Henshaw, Stephanie Bishop and Gerard Kearns DIRECTOR 

Ken Loach SCREENWRITER Paul Laverty PRODUCER Rebecca 

O’Brien GENRE Comedy; English- and French-languages, 

partially subtitled RATING Unrated RUNNING TIME 116 

min. RELEASE DATE May 14 NY, May 21 ltd. 

★★★★ Richard Mowe says: Veteran British 

director Ken Loach fields one of his most accessible 

and lightly-toned offerings to date with this comedy 

about a football fanatic trying to sort out his life. He 

does so by enlisting the fantasy help of real soccer 

superstar Eric Cantona (now retired from the game) 

as well as his workmates. Warm-hearted and humorous 

with a crowd-pleasing ending, Looking for Eric 

should conjure strong word of mouth and positive 

critical response following the film’s Cannes Film 

Festival bow. 

THE GOOD HEART 

Well intended redemption drama 

DISTRIBUTOR Magnolia Pictures CAST Brian Cox, Paul Dano, 

Isild Le Besco DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER Dagur Kari PRODUC- 

ERS Skuli Fr. Malmquist, Thor Sigurjonsson GENRE Drama 

RATING R for language and a disturbing image. RUNNING 

TIME 95 min. RELEASE DATE April 30 NY/LA 

★★★ Pete Hammond says: Odd but endearing, 

The Good Heart has just exactly that—a good heart— 

mixed with a simplistic story that comes recommended 

as a showcase for two fine actors at the top of their 

game. Brian Cox is the eccentric, heart attack-prone 

owner of a rundown neighborhood bar who takes in 

the homeless and suicidal Paul Dano and offers him 

a new lease on life. A Magnolia pickup from Toronto 

International Film Festival, this title should play well 

at various fests before finding a small but receptive 

audience in select arthouse engagements. 

HERE AND THERE 

TAMO I OVDE 

Filled with cheese and sugar, with surprisingly lovely 

results 

DISTRIBUTOR Cinema Purgatorio DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER 

Darko Lungulov CAST David Thornton, Mirjana Karanovic, 

Cyndi Lauper, Branislav Trifunovic and Jelena Mrdja PRO- 

DUCERS George Lekovic, Darko Lungolov, David Nemer, 

Vladan Nikolic GENRE Dramedy; Serbo-Croatian- and English-language, 

subtitled RATING Unrated RUNNING TIME 85 

min. RELEASE DATE May 14 

★★★ Matthew Nestel says: Here and There favors 

weepy (not wincing) sunsets and sugars down 

New York City’s tang. Hard knock jazzman Robert 

lacks the wind to blow his saxophone, so he makes 

a harebrained deal to play cupid and earns desperate 

ends. The picture draws you into believing in 

the somewhat make-believe goods. Outsiders and 

PARTY OF TWO 

Misfits Paul Dano and Brian Cox are alone, 

together, in The Good Heart 

Gothamists will appreciate this film’s heart and keep 

theater seats warm. 

HAPPINESS RUNS 

The dying of the age of Aquarius 

DISTRIBUTOR Strand Releasing CAST Hanna Hall, Mark L. 

Young, Rutget Hauer, Andie MacDowell, Mark Boone Junior 

DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER Adam Sherman PRODUCER Stephen 

Israel GENRE Drama RATING TBD RUNNING TIME 88 


★★★■Amy Nicholson says: How do you rebel 

when you’ve been raised in a hippy commune? Especially 

when mom’s still having loud threesomes and 

dad is one of two leaders (Rutger Hauer and Mark 

Boone Junior), that have spent two decades hypnotizing, 

seducing and robbing the womenfolk. According 

to this ’80s period piece, these teens take up selling 

drugs and punk rock, but the odds of escaping sane 

and unscarred are still slimmer than a hit of acid. 

There’s more boobs than brains in Adam Sherman’s 

semi-true tale of heedless, bored debauchery—it’s 

the Kids of the campfire—but Strand Releasing hopes 

this salacious but dull drama will draw in the curious 

wondering how paradise turned into hell on earth. 

PERRIER’S BOUNTY 

Standout trio of leads sparks Irish caper comedy 

DISTRIBUTOR IFC Films DIRECTOR Ian Fitzgibbon SCREEN- 

WRITER Mark O’Rowe PRODUCERS Stephen Woolley, Alan 

Moloney Elizabeth Karlsen GENRE British Crime Comedy 

RATING Unrated RUNNING TIME 88 min. RELEASE DATE May 

21 NY 

★★★ Steve Ramos says: A working actor before 

making the switch to directing, Ian Fitzgibbon 

understands the potential of his standout trio of leads 

Cillian Murphy, Jim Broadbent and Brendan Gleeson. 

Their colorful personalities, dead-on comic timing 

and lively interplay make Fitzgibbon’s third feature 

a funny and fast-paced crime comedy equal to any of 

Guy Ritchie’s popular caper movies. Murphy, Broadbent 

and Gleeson, who can claim significant profiles 

thanks to their work in respective Hollywood blockbusters, 

will also help draw moderate crowds when 

IFC Films opens Perrier’s Bounty in select arthouse theaters 

and VOD in May. For Fitzgibbon, whose previous 

comedy. A Film with Me in It, played select arthouses 

earlier this year, this will boost his profile among 

specialty film buffs and confirm his status as a comic 

director with a rebellious streak. 

A D V E R T I S E M E N T 

Academy Award 

winners Anthony 

Hopkins and 

Benicio Del Toro 

star in the stunning 

re-imagining of 

the classic thriller, 

THE WOLFMAN, on 

Blu-ray Hi-Def and 

DVD June 1, 2010 



59

Action = Act 

Adventure = Adv 

Animated = Ani 

Arthouse = Art 

Biography = Bio 

Comedy = Com 

Crime = Cri 

Documentary = Doc 

Drama = Dra 

Epic = Epic 

Family = Fam 

Fantasy = Fan 

Foreign 

Language = FL 

Horror = Hor 

Kids = Kids 

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, 

transgender = LGBT 

Live Action = LA 

Martial Arts = MA 

Mystery = Mys 

Musical = Mus 

Performance = Per 

Political = Poli 

Romance = Rom 

Science Fiction = SF 

Stop-Motion 

Animation = SMAni 

Sports = Spr 

Suspense = Sus 

3D = 3D 

Thriller = Thr 

Urban = Urban 

War = War 

Western = Wes 

TITLE DATE RELEASE STARS DIRECTOR RATING GENRE RUNNING TIME FORMAT 

CBS FILMS 310-575-7052 

THE BACK-UP PLAN Fri, 4/23/10 WIDE Jennifer Lopez, Alex O’Loughlin Alan Poul PG-13 Rom/Com Scope/Quad 

BEASTLY Fri, 7/30/10 WIDE Neil Patrick Harris, Vanessa Hudgens Daniel Barnz PG-13 Fan/Hor/Rom 

FASTER Fri, 11/19/10 WIDE Dwayne Johnson, Salma Hayek George Tillman Jr. NR Act/Dra 

DISNEY 818-560-1000 / 212-593-8900 

OCEANS Thu, 4/22/10 WIDE Jacques Cluzaud/Jacques Perrin G Doc Quad 

PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS 

OF TIME 

Fri, 5/28/10 WIDE Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Kingsley Mike Newell NR Act/Adv Quad 

TOY STORY 3 Fri, 6/18/10 WIDE Tom Hanks, Tim Allen Lee Unkrich NR Fam/Com Digital 3D/Quad/IMAX 

THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE Fri, 7/16/10 WIDE Nicolas Cage, Alfred Molina Jon Turteltaub NR Dra/Fan 

STEP UP 3-D Fri, 8/6/10 WIDE Sharni Vinson, Rick Malambri John Chu NR Mus/Dra/Rom Digital 3D 

YOU AGAIN Fri, 9/24/10 WIDE Kristen Bell, Sigourney Weaver Andy Fickman NR Com Quad 

SECRETARIAT Fri, 10/8/10 WIDE Diane Lane, John Malkovich Randy Wallace NR Dra/Spt Quad 

TANGLED Wed, 11/24/10 WIDE Kristen Chenoweth, Mandy Moore Glen Keane/Dean Wellins NR Ani/Com/Fam/Mus Digital 3D 

TRON: LEGACY Fri, 12/17/10 WIDE Michael Sheen, Jeff Bridges Joseph Kosinski NR 3D/Act/SF Digital 3D/IMAX/Quad 

MARS NEEDS MOMS Fri, 3/11/11 WIDE Seth Green, Joan Cusack Simon Wells NR Ani/CGI/Com/SF Digital 3D 

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: 

ON STRANGER TIDES 

Fri, 5/20/11 WIDE Johnny Depp Rob Marshall NR Act/Adv Quad 

FOCUS 818-777-7373 

BABIES Fri, 5/7/10 LTD. Thomas Balmes PG Doc 79 DTS/Dolby SRD/Flat 

THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT Wed, 7/7/10 LTD. Julianne Moore, Annette Bening Lisa Cholodenki NR Com Flat 

THE AMERICAN Wed, 9/1/10 WIDE George Clooney, Violante Placido Anton Corbjin NR Dra/Sus DTS/Dolby SRD/Scope 

THE EAGLE OF THE NINTH Fri, 9/24/10 WIDE Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell Kevin Macdonald NR Dra DTS/Dolby SRD/Scope 

FOX 310-369-1000 / 212-556-2400 

MARMADUKE Fri, 6/4/10 WIDE Ron Perlman, Christopher Mintz-Plasse Tom Dey PG Com/Fam 

THE A-TEAM Fri, 6/11/2010 WIDE Bradley Cooper, Liam Neeson Joe Carnahan NR Act/Adv Scope 

KNIGHT & DAY Fri, 6/25/10 WIDE Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz James Mangold NR Dra 

PREDATORS Fri, 7/9/10 WIDE Alice Braga, Adrien Brody Nimród Antal NR Act/Sus 

RAMONA AND BEEZUS Fri, 7/23/10 WIDE Selena Gomez, Ginnifer Goodwin Laurie Craig G Com Scope 

WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER 

SLEEPS 

Fri, 9/24/10 WIDE Shia LaBeouf, Javier Bardem Oliver Stone NR Dra Scope 

UNSTOPPABLE Fri, 11/12/10 WIDE Denzel Washington, Chris Pine Tony Scott NR Act/Dra/Thr Scope 

LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS Wed, 11/24/10 WIDE Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway Edward Zwick NR Dra 

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: 

THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN Fri, 12/10/2010 WIDE Ben Barnes, Skandar Keynes Michael Apted NR Adv/Fam/Fant Quad 

TREADER 

GULLIVER’S TRAVELS Wed, 12/22/10 WIDE Emily Blunt, Jason Segel Rob Letterman NR Com Scope 

RIO Fri, 4/8/11 WIDE Anne Hathaway, Neil Patrick Harris Carlos Saldanha NR Ani/CGI 3D 

FOX SEARCHLIGHT 310-369-1000 

JUST WRIGHT Fri, 5/14/10 WIDE Queen Latifah, Paula Patton Sanaa Hamri PG Rom/Com 

CYRUS Fri, 7/9/10 LTD. Catherine Keener, Jonah Hill Jay Duplass/Mark Duplass R Com Flat/Quad 

LIONSGATE 310-449-9200 

KICK ASS Fri, 4/16/10 WIDE Nicolas Cage, Christopher Mintz-Plasse Matthew Vaughn R Act/Com Scope 

KILLERS Fri, 6/4/10 WIDE Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher Robert Luketic NR Act/Com 

THE EXPENDABLES Fri, 8/13/10 WIDE Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham Sylvester Stallone NR Act 

THE LAST EXORCISM Fri, 8/27/10 WIDE Ashley Bell, Patrick Fabian Daniel Stamm NR Hor/Sus 

WARRIOR Fri, 9/17/10 WIDE Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte Gavin O’Connor NR Act/Dra 

BURIED Fri, 9/24/10 TBD Ryan Reynolds, Samantha Mathis Rodrigo Cortés NR Mys/Thr 89 

ALPHA AND OMEGA Fri, 10/1/10 WIDE Christina Ricci, Justin Long Ben Gluck NR Ani/Adv/Com 3D 

SAW VII 3-D Fri, 10/22/10 WIDE Tanedra Howard, Tobin Bell David Hackl NR Hor 3D 

THE NEXT THREE DAYS Fri, 11/19/10 WIDE Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks Paul Haggis NR Cri/Rom/Dra 

FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO 

HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE Fri, 1/14/11 WIDE Halle Berry, Oprah Winfrey Tyler Perry NR Dra 

WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF 

MGM/UA 310-449-9200 / 212-708-0300 

THE ZOOKEEPER Fri, 10/8/10 WIDE Kevin James, Rosario Dawson Frank Coracci NR Com 

RED DAWN Wed, 11/24/10 WIDE Josh Peck, Chris Hemsworth Dan Bradley NR Act 

THE CABIN IN THE WOODS Fri, 1/14/11 WIDE Richard Jenkins, Anna Hutchison Drew Goddard NR Com/Fan/Hor 3D 

MIRAMAX 323-822-4100 / 917-606-5500 

SWITCH Fri, 8/20/10 WIDE Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman Josh Gordon/Will Speck NR Rom/Com 

GNOMEO AND JULIET Fri, 2/11/11 WIDE Emily Blunt, James McAvoy Kelly Asbury NR Ani/Fam/Com 

OVERTURE 424-204-4000 / 212-905-4200 

LET ME IN Fri, 10/1/10 WIDE Chloe Moretz, Richard Jenkins Matt Reeves NR Hor 

PARAMOUNT 323-956-5000 / 212-373-7000 

IRON MAN 2 Fri, 5/7/10 WIDE Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow John Favreau NR Act/Adv IMAX 

SHREK FOREVER AFTER Fri, 5/21/10 WIDE Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz Mike Mitchell NR Ani/Fam/Com 3D/IMAX 

THE LAST AIRBENDER Fri, 7/2/10 WIDE Jackson Rathbone, Cliff Curtis M. Night Shayamalan NR Dra/Adv/Fam 

DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS Fri, 7/23/10 WIDE Steve Carell, Paul Rudd Jay Roach NR Com 

MORNING GLORY Fri, 7/30/10 WIDE Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford Roger Michell NR Com 

JACKASS 3-D Fri, 10/15/10 WIDE Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O Jeff Tremaine NR Doc/Act/Com 3D 

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 

SEQUEL 

Fri, 10/22/10 WIDE NR Hor 

MEGAMIND Fri, 11/5/10 WIDE Tina Fey, Robert Downey Jr. Tom McGrath NR Ani/Fam 3D 

TRUE GRIT Sat, 12/25/10 WIDE Matt Damon, Jeff Bridges Joel & Ethan Coen NR Dra/West 

UNTITLED ASHTON KUTCHER/ 

NATALIE PORTMAN 

Fri, 1/7/11 WIDE Ashton Kutcher, Natalie Portman Ivan Reitman NR Rom/Com 

RANGO Fri, 3/18/11 WIDE Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher Gore Verbinski NR Ani/Act/Adv 

THOR Fri, 5/6/11 WIDE Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman Kenneth Branagh NR Act/Adv 

KUNG FU PANDA: THE KABOOM 

Fri, 6/3/11 

OF DOOM 

WIDE Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman Jennifer Yuh Helson NR Ani/Com/Fam/Act Digital 3D 

SONY 310-244-4000 / 212-833-8500 

DEATH AT A FUNERAL Fri, 4/16/10 WIDE Chris Rock, Regina Hall Neil LaBute NR Com 93 Scope/Quad 

60 


TITLE DATE RELEASE STARS DIRECTOR RATING GENRE RUNNING TIME FORMAT 

KARATE KID Fri, 6/11/10 WIDE Jackie Chan, Jaden Smith Harald Zwart NR Act/Dra 

GROWN UPS Fri, 6/25/10 WIDE Adam Sandler, Kevin James Dennis Dugan NR Com 

SALT Fri, 7/23/10 WIDE Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber Phillip Noyce NR Thr 

OTHER GUYS Fri, 8/6/10 WIDE Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg Adam McCay NR Act/Com 

EAT, PRAY, LOVE Fri, 8/13/10 WIDE Julia Roberts, Billy Crudup Ryan Murphy NR Dra 

TAKERS Fri, 8/20/10 WIDE Paul Walker, Hayden Christensen John Luessenhop PG-13 Act/Cri 108 

BORN TO BE A STAR Fri, 9/3/10 WIDE Christina Ricci, Stephen Dorff Tom Brady NR Com 

RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE Fri, 9/10/10 WIDE Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter Paul W.S. Anderson NR Act/Thr 3D 

EASY A Fri, 9/17/10 WIDE Stanley Tucci, Emma Stone Will Gluck NR Rom/Com 

THE SOCIAL NETWORK Fri, 10/1/10 EXCL. NY/LA Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake David Fincher NR Dra/Com 

BURLESQUE Wed, 11/24/10 WIDE Cher, Christina Aguilera Steve Antin NR Dra 

HOW DO YOU KNOW Fri, 12/17/10 WIDE Jack Nicholson, Paul Rudd James L. Brooks NR Dra/Com 

THE GREEN HORNET Wed, 12/22/10 WIDE Seth Rogen, Enzo Cilenti Michel Gondry NR Act/Adv 

PRIEST Fri, 1/14/11 WIDE Paul Bettany, Maggie Q Scott Charles Stewart NR Adv/Hor 

THE ROOMMATE Fri, 2/4/11 WIDE Cam Gigandet, Leighton Meester Christian E. Christiansen NR Cri/Mys Scope 

PRETEND WIFE Fri, 2/11/11 WIDE Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston Dennis Dugan NR Rom/Com 

BATTLE: LOS ANGELES Fri, 2/18/11 WIDE Michelle Rodriguez, Aaron Eckhart Jonathan Liebesman NR Act/SF 

SONY PICTURES CLASSICS 212-833-8851 

THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES Fri, 4/16/10 EXCL. NY/LA Ricardo Darin, Soledad Vilamil Juan Jose Camanella R Cri/Dra 127 

PLEASE GIVE Fri, 4/30/2010 EXCL. NY/LA Catherine Keener, Rebecca Hall Nicole Holofcener R Com Scope 

MOTHER & CHILD Fri, 5/7/10 EXCL. NY/LA Naomi Watts, Annette Bening Rodrigo Garcia R Dra 125 

MICMACS Fri, 5/28/10 EXCL. NY/LA Dany Boon, Andre Dussollier Jean-Pierre Jeunet R FL/Com/Cri 105 

COCO CHANEL & IGOR 

STRAVINSKY 

Fri, 6/11/10 EXCL. NY/LA Anna Mougalis, Mads Mikkelsen Jan Kounen R Dra/Rom 120 

WILD GRASS Fri, 6/25/10 EXCL. NY/LA Andre Dussollier, Anne Consigny Alain Resnais PG FL/Dra 104 DTS/Dolby SRD/Scope 

ORLANDO - REISSUE Fri, 7/23/10 EXCL. NY/LA Jimmy Somerville, Tilda Swinton Sally Potter Dra 93 Dolby SRD/Flat 

GET LOW Fri, 7/30/10 EXCL. NY/LA Lucas Black, Bill Murray Aaron Schneider PG-13 Cri/Dra 100 

LEBANON Fri, 8/13/10 EXCL. NY/LA Samantha Mathis, Josh Hopkins Ben Hickernell R Dra 90 Dolby SRD/Flat 

SUMMIT 310-309-8400 

FURRY VENGEANCE Fri, 4/30/10 WIDE Brendan Fraser, Ken Jeong Roger Kumble PG Com/Fam 90 DTS/Dolby SRD/Flat 

LETTERS TO JULIET Fri, 5/14/10 WIDE Amanda Seyfried, Vanessa Redgrave Gary Winick PG Dra/Rom 93 DTS/Dolby SRD/Scope 

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: THE 

ECLIPSE 

Wed, 6/30/10 WIDE Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson David Slade NR Dra/Sus/Rom 

IMAX/Scope/DTS/ 

Dolby SRD 

RED Fri, 10/22/10 WIDE Mary-Louise Parker, Morgan Freeman Robert Schwentke NR Act/Com 

DRIVE ANGRY Fri, 2/11/11 WIDE Nicolas Cage, Amber Heard Patrick Lussier NR Thr 3D 

UNIVERSAL 818-777-1000 / 212-445-3800 

ROBIN HOOD Fri, 5/14/10 WIDE Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett Ridley Scott NR Act/Adv Quad 

MACGRUBER Fri, 5/21/10 WIDE Val Kilmer, Kristen Wiig Jorma Taccone NR Com 

GET HIM TO THE GREEK Fri, 6/4/10 WIDE Jonah Hill, Jason Segel Nicholas Stoller R Com Quad 

DESPICABLE ME Fri, 7/9/10 WIDE Steve Carell, Jason Segel Chris Renaud/Pierre Coffin NR CGI/Ani 3D 

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU Fri, 7/30/10 WIDE Matt Damon, Emily Blunt Geogre Nolfi NR Rom/SF 

SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD Fri, 8/13/10 WIDE Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead Edgar Wright PG-13 Act/Adv/Com Quad 

NANNY MCPHEE AND THE BIG 

BANG 

Fri, 8/20/10 WIDE Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal Susanna White NR Com/Fam Quad 

YOUR HIGHNESS Fri, 10/1/10 WIDE James Franco, Natalie Portman David Gordon Green NR Com/Fan 

CHARLIE ST. CLOUD Fri, 10/15/10 WIDE Zac Efron, Kim Basinger Burr Steers NR Dra/Rom Quad 

MY SOUL TO TAKE Fri, 10/29/10 WIDE Denzel Whitaker, Max Thieriot Wes Craven NR Hor/Sus Quad 

LITTLE FOCKERS Wed, 12/22/10 WIDE Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller Paul Weitz NR Com 

I HOP Fri, 4/1/11 WIDE Russell Brand Tim Hill NR CG/Act/Rom/Com 

FAST FIVE Fri, 6/10/11 WIDE Vin Diesel, Paul Walker Justin Lin NR Act/Cri/Dra 

WARNER BROS. 818-954-6000 / 212-484-8000 

THE LOSERS Fri, 4/23/10 WIDE Zoe Saldana, Jeffrey Dean Morgan Sylvain White NR Act/Dra/Adv Quad 

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET Fri, 4/30/10 WIDE Jackie Earle Haley, Thomas Dekker Samuel Bayer NR Fan/Hor/Thr 

SEX AND THE CITY 2 Thu, 5/27/10 WIDE Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall Michael Patrick King NR Com/Dra/Rom 

SPLICE Fri, 6/4/10 WIDE Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley Vincenzo Natali NR Hor/SF Quad 

JONAH HEX Fri, 6/18/10 WIDE Josh Brolin, John Malkovich Jimmy Hayward NR Act/Dra/Thr 

INCEPTION Fri, 7/16/10 WIDE Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page Christopher Nolan NR Act/Mys IMAX 

CATS & DOGS: THE REVENGE 

OF KITTY GALORE 

Fri, 7/30/10 WIDE Chris O’Donnell, Jack McBrayer Brad Peyton NR Com 3D 

GOING THE DISTANCE Fri, 8/13/2010 WIDE Drew Barrymore, Justin Long Nanette Burstein NR Rom/Com 

LOTTERY TICKET Fri, 8/20/10 WIDE Ice Cube, Bow Wow Erik White NR Com Quad 

THE TOWN Fri, 9/10/10 WIDE Ben Affleck, Jon Hamm Ben Affleck NR Dra/Cri/Rom Quad 

FLIPPED Fri, 9/17/10 LTD. Penelope Ann Miller, Rebecca De Mornay Rob Reiner PG Rom/Com/Dra 90 Quad/Flat 

LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS Fri, 9/24/10 WIDE Hugh Jackman, Hugo Weaving Zack Snyder NR Ani/Adv/Fant 3D/IMAX/Scope/Quad 

THE PRISONERS Fri, 10/22/10 WIDE NR Dra Quad 

DUE DATE Fri, 11/5/10 WIDE Robert Downey, Jr., Zach Galifianakis Todd Phillips NR Com Quad 

HARRY POTTER 7 Fri, 11/19/10 WIDE Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson David Yates NR Adv/Dra/Fan 3D/IMAX/Scope 

YOGI BEAR Fri, 12/17/10 WIDE Dan Aykroyd, Justin Timberlake Eric Brevig NR Ani 3D/Quad 

LIFE AS WE KNOW IT Wed, 12/22/10 WIDE Katherine Heigl, Josh Lucas Gary Berlanti NR Rom/Com Quad 

THE FACTORY Fri, 1/28/11 WIDE John Cusack, Dallas Roberts Morgan O’Neill NR Hor/Thr 

BOBBIE SUE Fri, 2/11/11 WIDE Cameron Diaz NR Com Quad 

SUCKER PUNCH Fri, 3/25/11 WIDE Vanessa Hudgens, Amanda Seyfried Zack Snyder NR Act/Fan/Thr 3D 

THE HANGOVER 2 Thu, 5/26/11 WIDE Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms Todd Phillips NR Com Quad 

GREEN LANTERN Fri, 6/17/11 WIDE Ryan Reynolds, Jackie Earle Haley Martin Campbel NR Act 3D 

WEINSTEIN CO./DIMENSION 646-862-3400 

THE CONCERT aka Le concert Fri, 7/16/10 LTD. Aleksei Guskov, Mélanie Laurent Radu Mihaileanu NR FL/Com/Mus 119 

THE TILLMAN STORY Fri, 8/20/2010 LTD. Josh Brolin Amir Bar-Lev NR Doc 94 

PIRANHA 3-D Fri, 8/27/10 WIDE Elisabeth Shue, Jerry O’Connell Alexandre Aja NR Hor/Thr 3D 

NOWHERE BOY Fri, 10/8/10 WIDE Ann-Marie Duff, Aaron Johnson Sam Taylor Wood NR Bio/Dra 98 

THE KING’S SPEECH Fri, 11/26/10 LTD. Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush Tom Hooper NR Hist/Dra 

BLUE VALENTINE Fri, 12/31/2010 LTD. Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams Derek Cianfrance NR Rom/Dra 

SCREAM 4 Fri, 4/15/11 WIDE Neve Campbell, David Arquette Wes Craven NR Hor/Sus 



61

MARKETPLACE 

CHRISTIE DIGITAL 

SYSTEMS 

10550 Camden Dr. 

Cypress, CA 90630 

Craig Sholder 

714-236-8610 

craig.sholder@christiedigital.com 

www.christiedigital.com 

Inside front cover 

CINEDIGM 

55 Madison Ave., Ste. 300 

Morristown, NJ 07960 

Suzanne Tregenza Moore 

973-290-0080 

info@accessitx.com 

www.cinedigm.com 

Back cover 

CINEMA CONCEPTS 

2030 Powers Ferry Rd., 

Ste. 214 

Atlanta, GA 30339 

Stewart Harnell 

770-956-7460 

stewart@cinemaconcepts.com 

www.cinemaconcepts.com 

PG 1 

DATASAT DIGITAL 

9631 Topanga Canyon Place 

Chatsworth, CA 91311 

818-531-0003 

www.datasatdigital.com 

Inside back cover 

D-BOX TECHNOLOGIES 

2172 de la Province 

Longueuil, QC 

J4G 1R7 

CANADA 

888-442-3269 ext. 225 

www.d-box.com 

PG 44-45 

DOLBY LABORATORIES 

100 Potrero Ave. 

San Francisco, CA 94103 

Christie Ventura / 415-558-2200 

cah@dolby.com 

www.dolby.com 

PG 28, 35 

DOLPHIN SEATING 

313 Remuda St. 

Clovis, NM 88101 

575-762-6468 

www.dolphinseating.com 

PG 37 

FRANKLIN DESIGNS 

208 Industrial Dr. 

Ridgeland, MS 39157 

601-853-9005 

franklindesigns@aol.com 

www.franklindesigns.com 

PG 51 

HARKNESS SCREENS 

Unit A, Norton Road 

Stevenage, Herts 

SG1 2BB 

United Kingdom 

+44 1438 725200 

sales@harkness-screens.com 

www.harkness-screens.com 

PG 11, 13 

HURLEY SCREEN 

110 Industry Ln. 

P.O. Box 296 

Forest Hill, MD 21050 

Gorman W. White 

410-879-3022 

info@hurleyscreen.com 

www.hurleyscreen.com 

PG 62 

IRWIN SEATING 

3251 Fruit Ridge N.W. 

Grand Rapids, MI 49544 

Bruce Cohen / 866-574-7400 

sales@irwinseating.com 

www.irwinseating.com 

PG 23 

MASTERIMAGE 3D 

4111 W. Alameda Ave. 

Suite 312 

Burbank, CA 91505, USA 

818-558-7900 

www. masterimage3d.com 

PG 19 

METROPOLITAN 

THEATRES 

8727 West 3rd St, 3rd Floor 

Los Angeles, CA 90048 

310-858-2800 

www. metrotheatres.com 

PG 64 

MEYER SOUND 

2832 San Pablo Ave. 

Berkeley, CA 94702 

510-486-1166 

sales@meyersound.com 

www.meyersound.com 

PG 17 

MOBILIARIO S.A. DE C.V. 

Calle Del Sol #3 Col./ 

San Rafael Champa 

Naucalpan de Juarez 

53660 Mexico 

5255-5300-0620 

Claudia Gonzalez 

877-847-2127 

mobisa@netra.net 

www.mobiliarioseating.com 

PG 43 

AD INDEX 

MAROEVICH, O’SHEA & 

COUGHLAN 

44 Montgomery St., 17th Fl. 

San Francisco, CA 94104 

Steve Elkins 

800-951-0600 

selkins@maroevich.com 

www.mocins.com 

PG 3 

NATIONAL TICKET 

COMPANY 

P.O. Box 547 

Shamokin, PA 17872 

Ginger Seidel 

ticket@nationalticket.com 

www.nationalticket.com 

PG 13 

PACKAGING 

CONCEPTS, INC. 

9832 Evergreen Industrial Dr. 

St. Louis, MO 63123 

John Irace / 314-329-9700 

jji@packagingconceptsinc.com 

www.packagingconceptsinc.com 

PG 41 

PARAMOUNT 

5555 Melrose Ave. 

Los Angeles, CA 90038 

Jody Timmerman 

323-956-5000 

www.paramount.com 

PG 39 

READY THEATRE 

SYSTEMS 

4 Hartford Blvd. 

Hartford, MI 49057 

Mary Snyder 

865-212-9703x114 

sales@rts-solutions.com 

www.rts-solutions.com.com 

PG 62 

SENSIBLE CINEMA 

SOFTWARE 

7216 Sutton Pl. 

Fairview, TN 37062 

Rusty Gordon / 615-799-6366 

rusty@sensiblecinema.com 

www.sensiblecinema.com 

PG 64 

SONY ELECTRONICS 

One Sony Dr. 

Park Ridge, NJ 07656 

201-476-8603 

www.sony.com/professional 

PG 5 

STRONG CINEMA 

PRODUCTS 

(Division of Ballantyne Inc.) 

4350 McKinley St. 

Omaha, NE 68112 

Ray Boegner 

402-453-4444 

ray.boegner@btn-inc.com 

www.ballantyne-omaha.com 

PG 53 

TRI-STATE THEATRE 

SUPPLY CO. 

3157 Norbrook Drive 

Memphis, Tennessee 38116 

800-733-8249 

www.tristatetheatre.com 

PG 64 

WHITE CASTLE 

555 West Goodale St. 

Columbus, OH 43215 

Timothy Carroll 

614-559-2453 

carrollt@whitecastle.com 

www.whitecastle.com 

PG 15 

62 


BOXOFFICE > CELEBRATING 90 YEARS 

CLASSIC AD 8.3.64

CLASSIFIEDS 

DIRECTOR OF CONCESSIONS METROPOLITAN THEATRES CORPORATION, a fourth-generation family-owned 

company based in Los Angeles, is seeking a self-motivated professional to ensure premiere guest service and optimize 

food and beverage profit at its 20 locations in California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah and British Columbia, Canada. 

Goal-oriented and budget-minded candidates must have prior senior concessions experience, 

be available for limited travel and possess excellent analytical, leadership and communication 

skills. Please send resume and salary requirements to: jobs@metrotheatres.com 

DRIVE-IN CONSTRUCTION 

DRIVE-IN SCREEN TOWERS since 1945. Selby Products 

Inc., P.O. Box 267, Richfield, OH 44286. Phone: 

330-659-6631. 

EQUIPMENT FOR SALE 

ASTER AUDITORIUM SEATING & AUDIO. We offer 

the best pricing on good used projection and sound 

equipment. Large quantities available. Please visit 

our website, www.asterseating.com, or call 1-888- 

409-1414. 

BOX OFFICE TICKETING AND CONCESSIONS 

EQUIPMENT. Stand-alone ticketing or fully integrated 

theater ticketing and/or concessions systems are 

available. These fully tested, remanufactured Pacer 

Theatre Systems have extended full-service contracts 

available. Complete ticketing and concessions systems 

starting at $2,975. Call Jason: 800-434-3098; 

www.sosticketing.com. 

WWW.CINEMACONSULTANTSINTERNATIONAL. 

COM. New and used projection and sound equipment, 

theater seating, drapes, wall panels, FM transmitters, 

popcorn poppers, concessions counters, xenon 

lamps, booth supplies, cleaning supplies, more. 

Call Cinema Consultants and Services International. 

Phone: 412-343-3900; fax: 412-343-2992; sales@cinemaconsultantsinternational.com. 

CY YOUNG IND. INC. still has the best prices for 

replacement seat covers, out-of-order chair covers, 

cupholder armrests, patron trays and on-site chair 

renovations! Please call for prices and more information. 

800-729-2610. cyyounginc@aol.com. 

DOLPHIN SEATING At www.dolphinseating.com 

Find today’s best available new seating deals 575- 

762-6468 Sales Office. 

TWO CENTURY PROJECTORS, complete with base, 

soundheads, lenses. Pott’s 3-deck platter,like new. 

Rebuilt Christie lamp,goes to 150 amps. Model H-30. 

603-747-2608. 

EQUIPMENT WANTED 

OLD MARQUEE LETTERS WANTED Do you have 

the old style slotted letters? We buy the whole pile. 

Any condition. Plastic, metal, large, small, dirty, 

cracked, painted, good or bad. Please call 800-545- 

8956 or write mike@pilut.com. 

MOVIE POSTERS WANTED: Collector paying TOP $$$ 

for movie posters, lobby cards, film stills, press books 

and memorabilia. All sizes, any condition. Free appraisals! 

CASH paid immediately! Ralph DeLuca, 157 Park 

Ave., Madison, NJ 07940; phone: 800-392-4050; email: 

ralph@ralphdeluca.com; www.ralphdeluca.com. 

POSTERS & FILMS WANTED: Cash available for 

movie posters and films (trailers, features, cartoons, 

etc.). Call Tony 903-790-1930 or email postersandfilms@aol.com. 

OLDER STEREO EQUIPMENT AND SPEAKERS, 

old microphones, old theater sound systems and old 

vacuum tubes. Phone Tim: 616-791-0867. 

COLLECTOR WANTS TO BUY: We pay top money 

for any 1920-1980 theater equipment. We’ll buy all 

theater-related equipment, working or dead. We remove 

and pick up anywhere in the U.S. or Canada. 

Amplifiers, speakers, horns, drivers, woofers, tubes, 

transformers; Western Electric, RCA, Altec, JBL, Jensen, 

Simplex & more. We’ll remove installed equipment 

if it’s in a closing location. We buy projection 

and equipment, too. Call today: 773-339-9035. cinema-tech.com 

email ILG821@aol.com. 

AMERICAN ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCTS LLC is 

buying projectors, processors, amplifiers, speakers, 

seating, platters. If you are closing, remodeling or 

have excess equipment in your warehouse and want 

to turn equipment into cash, please call 866-653- 

2834 or email aep30@comcast.net. Need to move 

quickly to close a location and dismantle equipment? 

We come to you with trucks, crew and equipment, no 

job too small or too large. Call today for a quotation: 

866-653-2834. Vintage equipment wanted also! Old 

speakers like Western Electric and Altec, horns, cabinets, 

woofers, etc. and any tube audio equipment, 

call or email: aep30@comcast.net. 

AASA IS ASTER AUDITORIUM SEATING & AUDIO. 

We buy and sell good used theater equipment. We 

provide dismantling services using our trucks and 

well-equipped, professional crew anywhere in the 

United States. Please visit our website, www.asterseating.com, 

or call 1-888-409-1414. 

FOR SALE 

First run movie theater. Vibrant Vermont college 

town. Vaudeville stage, 3 screens, 298 seats, renovated. 

$850,000. 802-999-9077. 

FOR SALE Independent owned & operated, eightscreen, 

all stadium-seating theater complex located 

in suburban Chicago. Completely renovated 

in 2004. Seating capacity for 1,774 people within a 

48,000-square-foot sqft building on 5.32 acres. Preliminary 

site plan approval for expansion of additional 

screens. Proximate to national/regional retail and dining. 

Strong ticket and concession revenues. Excellent 

business or investment opportunity. Contact Kevin 

Jonas at 305-631-6303 for details. 

FIVE-PLEX, FULLY EQUIPPED AND OPERATION- 

AL: $735,000, land, bldg., equip., NW Wisconsin. 

Priced $50,000 below appraised value. 715-550- 

9601. 

FIVE-PLEX THEATER FOR SALE in the beautiful 

Florida Keys. Business established in 1974 with no 

competition within 40 miles. Completely renovated 

five years ago. Call Sam: 305-394-0315. 

THEATER FOR RENT 1,500 seating capacity. No 

hanging balconies. Largest single screen in Chicagoland. 

Over 500,000 potential patrons, serving NW 

side of Chicago and suburbs. Contact dkms72@hotmail.com. 

THEATERS FOR SALE Three screens (370 seats), 

North Florida. First-run, no competition 60 miles. 

Additional large multipurpose room (75 seats), with 

HD projector on 13.5-by-7-foot screen for birthday 

parties, conferences, receptions and café. Contact 

850-371-0028. 

HELP WANTED 

PARTNER AND/OR EXPERIENCED GM NEEDED 

7’6” Value Series Retracta-Belt ® 

$69 

+ UPS 

Knocked-Down 

Shipping saves over 50% 

Patent Pending Brake 

creates the safest post 

Built-in Sign Frame 

Adapter 

All Parts Easily 

Replaceable 

Universal Belt Clip 

works with most 

existing posts 

TRI-STATE THEATRE SUPPLY CO. 

800.733.8249 

www.tristatetheatre.com 

for ground floor opportunity in Arizona. New and 

popular “Brew and View” concept in outstanding 

area. Contact Stadiumtheatres@aol.com 

GREAT ESCAPE THEATRES is a regional motion picture 

exhibition company with 24 individual locations 

that include 275 screens throughout the Midwestern 

United States. Founded in 1997, Great Escape is one 

of the fastest-growing movie theater operators in the 

country. We are currently seeking a motivated individual 

to fill our position as the chief financial officer 

or vice president of finance and accounting. Please 

send resumes to amccart@alianceent.com. 

STORYTELLER THEATRES (TRANS-LUX THEATRES) 

have management positions open in Los Lunas, Taos 

and Espanola, NM. Prior management experience required. 

Salary commensurate with experience. Send 

resumes to 2209 Miguel Chavez Rd. BLDG A Santa 

Fe, NM 87505 or email to info@storytellertheatres. 

com. 

SERVICES 

DULL FLAT PICTURE? RESTORE YOUR XENON 

REFLECTORS! Ultraflat repolishes and recoats xenon 

reflectors. Many reflectors available for immediate 

exchange. (ORC, Strong, Christie, Xetron, others!) 

Ultraflat, 20306 Sherman Way, Winnetka, CA 91306; 

818-884-0184. 

FROM DIRT TO OPENING DAY. 20-plus years of 

theater experience with the know-how to get you going. 

630-417-9792. 

SEATING 

AGGRANDIZE YOUR THEATer, auditorium, church 

or school with quality used seating. We carry all 

makes of used seats as well as some new seats. Seat 

parts are also available. Please visit our website, 

www.asterseating.com, or call 888-409-1414. 

ALLSTATE SEATING specializes in refurbishing, 

complete painting, molded foam, tailor-made seat 

covers, installations and removals. Please call for pricing 

and spare parts for all types of theater seating. 

Boston, Mass.; 617-770-1112; fax: 617-770-1140. 

DOLPHIN SEATING At www.dolphinseating.com, 

find today’s best available new seating deals: 575- 

762-6468 Sales Office. 

THEATERS WANTED 

WE’LL MANAGE YOUR THEATER OR SMALL 

CHAIN FOR YOU. Industry veterans and current exhibitors 

with 40-plus years’ experience. Will manage 

every aspect of operations and maximize all profits for 

you. Call John LaCaze at 801-532-3300. 


SOUND DEFINED. 

sound refined. 

Like a full bodied and well-balanced 

wine, the new AP20 Audio Processor 

offers 512 filters with 20,480 coefficients 

per channel for elegant playback, 4 

HDMI inputs for extending maturity and 

improved impulse response via Dirac 

Live® room optimization technology for 

complete sonic transparency. 

Harvested from the vineyards of 

audio innovation and aged in the barrels 

of engineering and critical listening 

for over 16 years, the AP20 Audio 

Processor has refined the delicate art 

of audio reproduction and has defined 

versatility by way of its mature architecture. 

AP20 Audio Processor Features: 

 

 

(per channel) 

(per channel) 

 

 

DATASAT DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT | 818.531.0003 | WWW.DATASATDIGITAL.COM 

9631 TOPANGA CANYON PLACE | CHATSWORTH, CA 91311

BoxOffice® Pro - May 2010

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