Film Exhibition in Baltimore- July 2008

This month, a simple exercise... let's call it Baltimore Landmark vs. DC Landmark(s).

Here are the movies playing at the Baltimore Landmark Harbor East as of Tuesday, August 5th, 2008:

Swing Vote
The Wackness
Step Brothers
The X-Files: I Want to Believe
The Dark Knight
Mama Mia! The Movie
Wall-E

Listed as Coming Soon:
Pineapple Express (Wednesday)
American Teen (Friday)
Cirque De Soleil: Delierium (special digital event- 4 screenings)
Vicky Christina Barcelona (August 15th)
Bottle Shock (August 15th)


Now, here are the films playing as of Tuesday, August 5th at the Landmark E Street and Bethesda Row Cinemas:

(E Street)
Chris and Don: A Love Story
Water Lillies
Tell No One
American Teen
Brideshead Revisited
The Edge of Heaven
The Wackness
Encounters at the Edge of the World

(Bethesda Row)
American Teen
Tell No One
Brideshead Revisited
Brick Lane
Elsa & Fred
The Visitor
Mongol
The Wackness

Coming Soon:
Bottle Shock (Wednesday)
Man on Wire (Friday)
Boy A (Friday)
Hellride (Friday)
Red (Friday)
Henry Poole is Here (August 15th)
Vicky Christina Barcelona (August 15th)
XXY (August 15th)

Notes: The first thing that becomes very clear (as one commenter already pointed out) is that the Landmark Harbor East is about as far from an arthouse as you can get, especially in comparison to other theaters in the chain in the area.

I especially liked the inclusion of Swing Vote at the local Landmark, as there could not be a clearer indication of who they think goes to the movies in Baltimore city. It is somehow hard for me to imagine a Ravens fan wandering over to catch Kevin Coster being all American following an exhibition game, but apparently it was not hard for them.

The most surprising thing to me is how many films the Landmarks in DC were showing that were playing at the Charles (Brideshead Revisited, Encounters at the End of the World, Tell No One) and how many of those films that were there on Tuesday opened at the Charles on Friday. Since the Charles has recently abandoned the Films Coming Soon section of their website, all of those films opening in Baltimore at the Charles on Friday (Chris and Don: A Love Story, Man on Wire, The Edge of Heaven) were not logical progressions from Tuesday to Friday in my mind. I assumed Man on Wire was a lock at the Landmark, in fact, but that did not turn out to be the case.

Most telling is that American Teen, the one with the most chance of breaking through and selling the most popcorn, was the only one kept by Landmark between the transition from DC to Baltimore. I guess the rest don't deliver on the level the Landmark can generate right now with mainstream fare, and I seriously doubt that gay-friendly films like Chris and Don: A Love Story will ever play the Harbor East, which is an interesting thing considering who is probably living in those expensive condos. I guess the next Brokeback Mountain will test the limits of the Landmark Harbor East in terms of being family friendly.

It is still hard, though, to understand at this point why movies still open in DC before Baltimore. The cities are more connected than ever before, and the world is a smaller place, ultimately. Why are we still considered "third tier" and DC still considered "second tier"? It always makes me feel a little inferior when a DC friend talks of how a film already opened there when we are still waiting for it here. In some recent reading, I heard tell of a time when film exhibitors in Baltimore had to trek up to DC to go to the film distro depot to haggle out which prints they were going to be showing the following week. Sometimes I assume a print "waiting game" is still going on between the two cities. There are only so many prints available in the case of smaller films, but the lag on bigger films is still a bit puzzling.

Well, I found this look at things eye-opening in some ways. Up next, my take on a five story tall Batman in IMAX. Until then...