This is wonderful and cool and really speaks to the longevity and relevance of the film.
I wonder how the licensing on this works. My first thought was that they were paying through the nose for one screening with no audience (at least $250/wk), but then I thought that maybe they own the reels, but I’m not really sure how that works. I’m sure they’re expected to pay even if they own a print as you still have to pay when using a dvd, which is how a lot of “digital cinema” actually happens (though a distributor will usually send a plug-n-play hard drive or direct download link). I really hope the distributor doesn’t come after them, though. They’re not terribly nice people and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least for them to get sued, especially since they admitted to having an audience member present for some showings. Of course, since they were closed to the public, it should legally negate standing, but as always the one with the most lawyers usually wins and it looks like Fox is still the distributor.
presumably the theater is acutely aware of the protocols in place and wouldn’t have done it otherwise.
when I was in my college film committee, new releases were usually a big fee but back-catalog stuff’s fee was expressed as “X-dollars (a big-ish number) versus Y-percent.” the Y was a standard number (maybe 15 percent?) that I don’t remember. point being, they took the lower number. so if you showed “A Great Day In Harlem” at the Univ. of Tn Knoxville and all of ten jazz fans showed up that afternoon (which was about the number I recall), you didn’t owe the asking price, you owed Y-percent of the total admission take. maybe it was 50 percent. but anyway, the idea is they wanted whatever the market would bear, and if you somehow broke the box office, you could keep whatever you made over X-dollars. So, since the theater was owned by the uni, the film committee could run whatever niche thing we voted in and never have to worry about profit. There were different deals depending on the particular film or distro but that was the ordinary standard.
All this is to say, if nobody shows up, Y-percent of nothin’ is nothin’.
as for the buddy of the projectionist being an audience, some places projectionists are union, so a buddy pass might be contractual? or maybe the projectionist ponied up ten bucks or whatever to make the percentage?
I’ve been waiting to go see this with my daughter for some time. She’s been dying to see the show live. She’ll just have to wait a little longer to travel though.
In the velvet darkness
Of the blackest night
Burning bright
There’s a guiding star
No matter what
Or who you are
There’s a light
Over at the Clinton Street Theatre
There’s a light
Burning in the projection boo-ooth
There’s a light, light
In the darkness of everybody’s life
I can relate - I spent my Rocky Horror years in a smaller city and a very small theater, and the callbacks were all very tight and everyone had the same ones, so low chaos. When I moved to the Denver area, everyone here brought everything from where they came from, and, yeah, total chaos and unfollowable, even for a seasoned veteran. So, sadly, I stopped going. When everyone yells something different at a just slightly different time, it all just becomes a sea of white noise.
But I’ve been really missing it, and now I have a kid that needs to be introduced to the chaos. So I may have to give the theater experience another try.
Maybe have a backyard Rocky Horror party with a projector and invite a bunch of friends that love it as well over but yeah i think if people have similar callbacks that would make things a lot less chaotic.
Oh, yeah that is definitely not the deal for regular theaters. I am on the board of a local non-profit theater and we basically either pay $250 plus a percentage of box office or a 50/50 “split” of box office with a minimum booking fee. The splits usually come from specialty distributors who offer under-the-radar docs and indies, which allows us to take a chance with a crappy box office, but I’d say 75% or more require a straight payment and box office cut. We also only show “art house” films or second-run features (ie shows that have been available in most cinemas for 2+ weeks). I’d love it if we could run anything we wanted regardless of box-office, but the fact is we’re running at a loss many, many nights. However, we have a fantastic audience that loves art house cinema, so we tend to do better with indies, docs and weird stuff. Our best showing of all time was Eagle Huntress!
ETA: $250 may not seem like much, but we clear less than $4/ticket and only have one showing 6 nights a week. It’s not uncommon for us to have fewer than 10 people in the seats.
A bunch of us skipped our senior prom to see Little Shop of Horrors (in the original Off-Broadway release) in the evening, followed a few hours later by Rocky Horror. I think that was the night that Janet came and sat in my lap, asked “How old are you?” “16” at which point she fled.
It’s been many years now, but as I recall there is a huge difference in pricing to the theater if the movie has a paying audience versus being free.
Plus, there may be a special understanding during this weird time. It behooves the royalty owners to have the cachet and positive media coverage of 43 years continuing uninterrupted.
It might also be an old contract, which remains valid only as long as they continue to show it on a regular basis. If they have a lapse in showings, they may lose their rights and need to negotiate a brand new contract.
Similar to movie/tv rights, which expire if not exercised within a certain time period. (resulting in the occasional dumb-as-hell low budget movie or tv special created just to retain the rights)
Since I started high school in the late '70s in Detroit we always found a way to get beer, liquor and a bag of weed and then off we went to a midnight showing. Good times and amazing we’re still alive. We usually find a midnight showing in the area around Halloween but no more booze or weed and it’s tough to stay awake. We were thinking about an all vaccinated bonfire with a Rocky Horror showing in the backyard this summer. There’s still a few of us high school friends that hang out.
I had a boyfriend in college who had never seen the movie. The college booked a midnight showing and I went with him to see it (I always enjoyed watching the crowd participation). I can’t remember why I was so tired that night, but I fell asleep and slept through all the mayhem. He was impressed.
but yeah i think if people have similar callbacks that would make things a lot less chaotic.
