tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21554899.post4194304462528693455..comments2024-03-26T04:26:04.911-07:00Comments on Lost City: The Alpine Cinema of Bay RidgeBrooks of Sheffieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18297071358029060908noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21554899.post-59031985596328077742012-09-17T21:00:27.130-07:002012-09-17T21:00:27.130-07:00I remember reading a magazine article years ago th...I remember reading a magazine article years ago that explained what happened to all the single screen movie houses. Once upon a time, the system of payments by the movie house to the distributor was on a sliding scale where the movie house got almost all the box office for the first night, and a steadily decreasing percentage of the following nights, until by the end of the run the distributor was getting almost all of the ticket receipts. Distributors didn't like this because with big theaters in small towns, or, I imagine, in some NYC nabes, everyone would go to see the hot new movie during the first few nights, with fewer and fewer patrons attending during the days when the box office was to go to the distributor. Eventually the distributors got smart and got the system flipped so as to be in their favor. Not to be outdone, the theater companies retaliated by converting big single screen theaters to multiplexes and building new multiplex theaters, so that even if they had to give the distributor almost the whole take from the first few days, it wouldn't be very much. Clever, but it was the death knell for most of the first-run single screen movie houses.upstate Johnny Gnoreply@blogger.com