Sunday, March 9, 2008

Film Exhibtion in Baltimore in General- February 2008

As a moviegoer, I can read the movie page of the newspaper like the racing form. It often reveals interesting information to someone who knows how to read it. Which films are going strong, which are about to close, which are hanging on at the dollar movie, which are gone in the blink of an eye after a six day shot... it is all there to see.

On Friday, February 22nd, I picked up the "Sunpapers," as is my strange habit, and perused the Movies Today section. I could see clearly that the changes I have been awaiting have fully taken hold in terms of film exhibtion in Baltimore city.

Several films were opening that I wanted to see or had a degree of interest in: Be Kind Rewind, Charlie Bartlett, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, and Taxi to the Dark Side. In the past, almost all of the films could have found a home at the Charles. This time, only one did.

On this Friday, the Landmark had Vantage Point, Charlie Bartlett, Be Kind Rewind, Michael Clayton, Juno, No Country for Old Men, Atonement, The 2007 Academy Shorts Animated, and The 2007 Academy Shorts Live Action. All this fits into their business plan of courting the Harbor's tourists and residents, the yokels at the conventions and the impossibly rich in the penthouse suites. Many of the films being screened were nominated for Oscars (which were doled out that Sunday night to the lowest ratings for the show ever on record), and it was the first time in my memory that a progam of Oscar nominated shorts played Baltimore before the awards were given out and/or ever. Total domination, all the marbles, first pick.

On the same weekend, the Charles opened 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, another critically acclaimed film from Romania about abortion in a country where it is forbidden. Not exactly a date movie. They also re-opened I'm Not There and continued to play In Bruges, Persepolis, There Will Be Blood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and were trumpeting another entry in the La Scala Opera series. On a recent weekend pulling a shift there, the crowds seemed healthy enough, but it seems like more and more brass rings are passing the theater by. Sure, they had their share of Oscar-nominated films, but the luster faded after Sunday unless the films won in some way. Some did, some did not.

Atonement played on the big screen at the Senator theater, while Juno and Taxi to the Dark Side (doomed to be a one week wonder, like more than a few listed above) played at the Rotunda. The ad trumpeted the critical raves and the Oscar nominations in typical "Senator showman" style. I appreciate that the ads indicate the tenative run of each film, and wonder every time I see that a film has been "held over by popular demand" as to the story there. You will notice, however, that two of the three films are also playing at the Landmark.

Essentially, the clearance dynamic that was anticipated has come to pass. The Landmark and the Senator get to show what they wish to show, and the Charles does not. Suddenly, all of the Senator's complaints about clearance have stopped, and the Charles, which has never established a public presence on par with that of the Senator, loses out weekend after weekend, especially at times in the cycle when there are not that many quality or anticipated films in release.

Granted, the Charles is certainly not a ghost town on any given Saturday night, so maybe all of this gnashing of teeth is unwarranted. But still, the cold, mechanical business side of all of this is a bit depressing. Sure, I will go see the new Romanian art movie, but will Roland Park go, too?

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