The Case for Trilogy Tuesday, or Why I Am Going to New Brunswick
Posted by erin at October 9, 2003 02:05 PMThe laymen among you may not have heard of Triology Tuesday, the Tuesday in Decemeber where some theaters are screening LOTR Fellowship & Two Towers in their extended editions, followed by Return of the King.
This is the single most important event for dorks in our time. It is as if all three original Star Wars were screening back-to-back on the eve of Return of the Jedi. I mean, let's face it, as soon as all three movies were out on DVD I was going to spend a Saturday watching them continuously - who among you was not going to do that?
So much the better to see them theatrically! I have not been watching LOTR on DVD for that very reason; I did not want to wear them out before the penultimate marathon.
Tickets were supposed to go on sale on Fandago at noon today. However, that did not happen for New York City - Fandango's system crashed, and it didn't matter, because all the tickets had sold out to people on line in person. Had I had my act together, I would have been at the theater (and only one theater in NYC is doing this) at around 5 or 6am.
But I didn't have my act together - I held out hope in the internet. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why N. and I will be going to New Brunswick, New Jersey for Trilogy Tuesday.
We're that dedicated.
Comments Individual Archive Index
October 9, 2003 02:57 PM, anthony said:
English geek strikes again! Penultimate means "next to last" which doesn't seem to be your intended usage here (I may be misreading, if so, forgive me).
Anyways, I'm not sure I could spend close to 12 hours straight at a theater (3.5 for each of the first two films, 3 for the third, and intermissions between each) and I'm generally in the same category as N. when it comes to prolific movie-watching. More power to you guys! (especially since the train trip to NB is 1.5 hours or so each way)
Besides, I have a plasma TV. As long as my neighbors aren't blasting meringue too loudly, it's pretty close to theater-quality.
October 9, 2003 05:46 PM, Erin said:
Sorry! You're just not hardcore enough.
NB is only, like, 45 minutes.
October 10, 2003 03:33 PM, John said:
You're not hardcore unless you live hardcore.
While I love the LOTR saga and cannot wait for Return of the King, I find the idea of watching two EXTENDED editions and then Return of the King a daunting task.
Kudos to you who can do it. I *gasp* found the Two Towers a bit long to be honest and can't imagine loving the extended edition that much. Maybe it was just all that damn ent talk.
I also have a feeling that this will not be a unique event. I mean, it'll be unique in that, yes, it'll be opening day, but this'll happen again.
Indeed, for sheer endurance sake, one could say that the screening of the entire EXTENDED LOTR saga would be geek paradise. But I can dig what you're saying.
In the meantime, I shall be 'geeking out' at KILL BILL tonight. The whole two films things sort of bums me out, altho it's obvious that Miramax is sweating about making their 80 million back, and broke it into two parts for that very reason.
I could have go along with it until I found out there were going to be two DVD release. WTF?
October 10, 2003 04:32 PM, anthony said:
John: "I could have go along with [Kill Bill becoming two films] until I found out there were going to be two DVD release. WTF?"
Practical reason: You can only get about 5 hours of good quality video and audio on a DVD (including extras, although those often use a lower encoding rate for audio/video). The total length of Kill Bill will be just shy of 4 hours. Add on any special features, and you'd already be looking at a 2nd disc.
Financial reason: They can release the Vol I DVD about a month before Vol II is released in theaters. It's a revenue source as well as a way to save on advertising ("Own Kill Bill Vol I today, and see Kill Bill Vol II in theaters next month!"). The commercial can be counted against the sales of the DVD, and not the film. It effectively doubles media coverage for the second film, too (since every review of the DVD will mention the new film).
And there's nothing stopping them from releasing the super-duper Kill Bill megaset soemtime next summer.
October 10, 2003 05:11 PM, N. said:
If this becomes the new way that movies are marketed I am going to kill myself and then everybody else.
Re: Ent talk - Ents are awesome. Don't talk smack about the Ents.
October 10, 2003 05:30 PM, Erin said:
John - count yourself lucky that the Ents aren't speaking in Entish. (I love Ent-speak, and am studying the Ent language, but this could take a while.)
Anthony - I'm sure John knows all the financial reasons well enough, since he interned at Miramax and took the same distribution class that I did.
I highly doubt Kill Bill Vol. 1 will be on DVD before part 2 comes out - that would be odd - because the movie ends on a cliff hanger. They are not two seperate films at all. Nobody who buys the DVD of Vol. 1 is just going to skip buying vol. 2.
October 11, 2003 03:43 PM, anthony said:
Erin: "I highly doubt Kill Bill Vol. 1 will be on DVD before part 2 comes out - that would be odd - because the movie ends on a cliff hanger."
It would be faster than some (Matrix Reloaded will be released next week, at just over 5 months from box office release), but not that unusual. And Tarantino has said in a few sources that he plans on releasing them that way (seperately, and then as a set). Here's one article for you:
http://www.empireonline.co.uk/news/news.asp?story=5063
October 14, 2003 12:36 PM, erin said:
Anthony - the way movies are released on DVD is not as random as it appears. In distribution, people refer to "opening the window" and "closing the window". The window is the time between a movie's initial release in theaters and it's subsequent release on home video. In the window, although you may not notice, a given movie plays in secondary markets - that is to say, movies are release internationally, played in 3rd-run theaters and in institutions (on military bases, at colleges for cheap, etc.) played on planes, and released on pay-per-view. The better a movie is recieved, the more money it will make in these secondary markets.
So if a movie is doing well, distributers will open the window in order to squeeze more money out of the film before it goes to video (DVD). If a movie bombs, they slam the window shut, and try to make their money back in home video sales, because there won't be any money in the secondary markets.
The textbook example of this is "Dirty Dancing," which failed miserably in the box office and was put on VHS almost while it was still in theaters. Then the film was a weird home-video success. (That might be the exception that proves the rule. -N.)
Matrix Reloaded must not have made as much money as the distributors expected, if it is being released so quickly onto DVD.
COULD IT BE BECAUSE THAT MOVIE SUCKED ASS? YES!! I THINK SO!
January 14, 2004 11:33 AM, anthony said:
Sorry to dig up an old post, but it looks like I'll have to eat my hat. Or someone's hat, as I don't believe I own one. The street date for the Kill Bill: Vol I is April 13th, according to Amazon.
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