Every now and then one of the big exhibition chains decides it wants to get into the art film business.
The truth is that they really don’t want to — it’s way too much work for too little money — but they insist on doing so, anyway.
And usually botch the job.
In Kansas City it’s typical for an artsy title to debut at one of our long-established indy theaters — the Tivoli or one of the Fine Arts or Screenland outlets — and if it draws a huge crowd on opening weekend, then the big chains will take notice and demand a run on one of their screens for the second or third week.
Otherwise the exhibition gorillas really don’t have much use for cinema esoterica. They’re selling Big Macs, not handcrafted chocolates.
Still, they continue to make halfhearted stabs. Maybe they’re afraid of being thought of as mercenary cinema philistines and want to be able to say, “Look, we’re showing a classy movie here.”
Naaaaaaah.
Recently KC-based AMC, the exhibition giant, announced the launch of its AMC Independent series of offbeat titles.
The releases being featured this summer — “A Better Life,” “Another Earth,” “Beats Rhymes & Life,” “The Devil’s Double,” “One Day” and “Kevin Hart: Laugh at My Pain” — are art films in only the broadest sense. They’re light on subtitles and hard-hitting docs.
But they do fall into the audience-friendly mainstream/art niche that in recent years has been a godsend for the independent art theaters.
(Thirty years ago “The King’s Speech” would never have been considered an “art film,” but today anything even remotely articulate is viewed with suspicion by mainstream audiences and becomes an art film by default.)
Anyway, last weekend AMC opened the critically acclaimed “A Better Life,” Chris Weitz’s film about an illegal immigrant in Los Angeles and his thoroughly Americanized teenage son.
I use the term “opened” advisedly. Basically the chain dumped the film without fanfare on a screen in its Studio 30 complex in Olathe.
To show just how out of touch AMC is with the art film crowd, they didn’t even show the movie for local critics or make DVD screeners available. The Kansas City Star, my former employer, found out about the booking at the last minute and had to make do with a wire review.
Why does this matter? Ask any of the people running an art house here. The local fine arts audience takes its cue not from TV ads but from reviews. And not wire reviews…reviews written by local critics they know and more or less trust.
No review, no business. It’s not rocket science.
Apparently AMC doesn’t care if these films do business or not. But why book such titles if you’re going to doom them to failure through indifference?
And not just indifference, but contempt. Not contempt for the critics (hey, everybody’s in contempt of critics) but of its own customers.
The chain doesn’t think enough of the potential audience for “A Better Life” to take the minimum steps necessary to attract the moviegoers most likely to respond to it.
Then, when the numbers stink, the bean counters can say that there’s no market for artsy-schmartzy movies in a megaplex and the whole AMC Independent idea will be forgotten.
Just wait and see.
| Robert W. Butler
Butler's Cinema Scene 
Amen.
Bob, great insight. I’m loving your pieces on the industry. Keep up the good work.
I couldn’t agree more, Bob. The only ‘excuse’ they could possibly have is that they’re sitting there with 20 to 28 screens in a complex which are often hard to fill with popular ‘commercial product’—especially during off-periods like during the post Christmas holiday season and after Labor Day just to mention two.
So if they can fill a screen or two with a possible art title that may pull in some ‘non-traditional’ customers they’ve actually improved their cash flow. And if those speciality moviegoers spend a few bucks at the concession stand, that’s an even hardier contribution to the theatre’s bottom line.
Finally should they get lucky enough to book an art title that ‘breaks out’—then WOW, they’ve got a couple of screens covered for weeks!
It’s not a pretty picture but a fact of megaplex economics
Once again Bob Butler is right on the mark here.
Without multi million dollar ad campaigns from the major studios, these films are generally ignored.
They are only rescued from obscurity by credible reviewers or enthusiasm from the small numbers of patrons who take a chance on these films and spread the word.
I did happen to see that “A Better Life” was showing first at an AMC theater, which did surprise me. Good films are so seldom shown at the megaplex movie houses; they seem to focus on “blockbuster” films and anything else that is trite. I had decided I would just wait until the movie came to the Fine Arts group or Tivoli and give those establishments my ticket money.
I realize that in this new world of technology, each of us have more choices, but I do have a concern about the content of movies that are “the pablum for the masses.” I base almost all my decisions about which attending movies to attend on reviews I read. Art films are powerful. I feel I usually come away from viewing a movie having learned or appreciated something new.. It’s a shame most adults don’t realize the value of a good movie story or documentary. The only thing that will get most “normal” movie-goers to an art film is a lot of Academy Award nominations (and even then, it’s no guarantee!)
Amen brother! Independence 20, AMC’s bastion red neck theatre, would not even dream of showing Brokeback Mountain for fear of toothless pickup truck drive-by shootings. AMC really disgusts me with their “We make movies happen” when they are just promoting the same drivel out of Hollywood!
Those Turkeys tried this nonsense several years ago at the Ward Parkway Theatre on the lower level. The served foo foo coffee drinks, smoothies, bran muffins, and a variety of other foods designed for the granola bar mentality. It was a total failure and an shot in financial foot for stockholders when they shut it down. This too will pass…..again. And why? Because those fat cats could care less about independent film. Call it anything you want, but this yet another futile attempt of a large corporation to act like they care about anything but making a buck.
Art film. . . in Olathe. . . huh?
It’s not hard to expect failure, especially when it’s so heavily courted… “Proof positive that our audience doesn’t like or support ‘art films’.”
Its a shame this film “A Better Life” didn’t get a chance in this market. Happened to catch a screening for it in Dallas while I was visiting a friend and its quite good.
You are right on, Bob. I belong to a Movie Group of over 100 members. We support The Tivoli or the Fine Arts Group every Friday afternoon. Movie selections are detirmined by the reviewers. We love documentaries, foreign and Independent movies. Donna