Boxoffice-November.2001

nal American theatre circuits found themselves
in when they decided to build
megaplexes across the street from one
another: a face-off nobody thought
would ever go the distance, but in which
neither company blinked. The result is
that in Ontario, Calif., there are now 54
screens within approximately 700 feet of
one another, which easily qualifies it as
the single most well (or is that over?)
screened township anywhere in the world.
The jury is still out on whether both
theatre complexes will be able to survive
over the long term; it will probably take
some sort of major slump in production
or attendance before one or the other of
the Ontario complexes truly feels the
squeeze. But as a symbol of just how
brutal competition at the highest levels
of exhibition has become, Ontario
sprung up, ready made, with even some
of the participants in this "clash of the
titans" shaking their heads over the
potential for colossal waste.
As the escalating screening of America
approaches its next phase, it is perhaps
inevitable that consolidation has
become the latest trend. Though no-one
is ready to say just how much longer the
building boom of the '90s can extend
itself, common sense indicates that the
U.S. market, which remains relatively
stable in terms of overall population,
can absorb only so many more screens,
however well-designed and carefully
market researched they may be. "Grow
or die" still seems to be the philosophy
of the mega-exhibitors; with new construction
slated to become an increasingly
less viable option in the years
ahead, the acquisition of existing circuits
selected to increase the reach and
national presence of the already farflung
circuits which buy them up has
emerged as exhibition's next big thing.
The starting pistol for this trend was
actually fired prematurely a few years
back when Cinemark USA came within
a hair's breadth of selling out to
Cineplex Odeon to form what would
have then become the largest North
American circuit. That deal never came
to fruition, but in retrospect it has a
familiar ring. The combined company
would have had 2,839 screens; it would
have spread the market share of its amalgamated
parent company from two
major but regionally specific players into
a continent-spanning North American
behemoth: it would have leapfrogged the
combined company up the ranks of the
biggest American circuits to claim the
top spot with the stroke of a contract's
attorney's pen. In retrospect, it was an
idea that was ahead of its time.
For 1997 has been exhibition's year
of the merger, with major companies
joining forces at an almost dizzying
On the smaller side were the likes
rate.
of Carmike's purchase of the 105-
screen first International circuit and
Regal 's buyout of New Jersey-based
WHERE THERE'S SMOKE
Former BOXOFFICE Editor Ray Greene
Discusses America's Relationship With War and Sci-Fi,
the History of Exploitation Films
and Hollywood-Size Headaches by Jon Alon Walz
one of those people who always
I'm has to be doing something." Ray
Greene remarks while glancing
around impatiently
for a lighter or a
match—or something
with which to
douse the unlit cigarette
burning a hole
in his right hand.
Help comes swiftly
in the patio of a very
across Los Angeles since the early 1970s.
Greene, an accomplished writer,
filmmaker and former editor-in-chief
of BOXOFFICE, has quite a lot to say
on a number of issues very close to
him—not the least of which is his residence
in Silver Lake, having recently
produced a documentary comprised
of nine original shorts about the community.
Entitled "Veritas" (Vol. 1),
the feature premiered at the 2001
Silver Lake Film Festival.
Bad movies, too, are a favorite
topic of discourse for Greene: The
subject spurred another documentary
last year entitled, "Schlock!: The
Secret History of American Movie"
( www.schlockthemovie.com ). which
gives a serious look into the minds
and the madness behind the explosion
of exploitation and sexploitation
films during the 1960s.
Readers'" of BOXOFFICE might
already be familiar with Greene's
passion for good movies and intelligent,
lively discussions about the
state of the world, American film
culture and film business— subjects
he takes up in his new book,
"Hollywood Migraine: The Inside
Story of a Decade in Film." The
tome recently spent some time at the
number two spot on the Los Angeles
Times non-fiction bestseller list.
BOXOFFICE's talk with Greene
takes place the day after the terrorist
strikes against New York City and
Washington. D.C.
and four days before
the death of
one of the key
interviewees in
"Schlock": the reviled
yet legendary
master of the exploitation
and teenexploitation
genres.
hip coffee shop in
Samuel Z. Arkoff.
the suddenly ultrahip
L.A. neighborhood
Although it would
of Silver
take more than a
Lake—the present
decade for the tenets
home stop of wayward
of the exploitation
artists who
film to finally reach
have been forced by
mainstream Hollywood,
the powers of gentrification
Writer and filmmaker Ray Greene
producers
Arkoff and the
into an east
like
by-northeasterly migration pattern esteemed Roger Corman, as well as
the genre itself, began with inexpensive
science-fiction films that gave
B
unde
voice to an American paranoia that,
ironically, was never fully actualized
until September 11. 2001.
"The really fascinating thing about
American sci-fi of the post-war period
was that it was really obsessed
with invasion, with the physical
destruction of the United States."
Greene frankly and eerily notes. "In
World War II, almost every other
country in the world suffered invasion
and obliteration, and the average
American experienced all the horror
of it for the first time in the form of
newsreels in their moviehouse. I really
believe that a large part of our
paranoia during the Cold War not
only had to do with our fear of the
Russians, but with the fact that psychologically
we had already boon
invaded during World War II."
From these humble beginnings in
sci-fi, a select group of ambitious
filmmakers with grand notions and
highly active libidos but limited
funding- began to emerge, each one
pushing the limits o\' onscreen
acceptability. People like Russ Meyer.
Doris W
the productio
Friedman al ith only a couple
thousand doll apiece and a cadre
o\' young
willing to take their
ips off—created a genre of films and
n empire of, well, schlock: exploitaon,
roughies. sexploitation and
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