As someone connected with the old Deville Cinema (which brought Jackson art, independent, small release, and gay & lesbian film for seven years), I’m really happy to see discussions like this one, over at the Jackson Free Press site.
Bringing Fahrenheit 911 to Jackson is a battle worth fighting. However, if we?re interested in bringing art and independent film to Jackson on a regular basis, our experience at Deville hints at the best possible long-term strategy: create competition between the chains.
When the Deville was open, our little one-screen theatre exercised enormous control over what would play at Northpark (operated, at the time, by United Artists). To bring an art film to Jackson, all we had to do was request it from the distributor. Within a week, it would be screened at Northpark. This happened so predictably and so often, it became a running joke.
When Cinemark?s Tinseltown came to Jackson ? with its comfortable stadium seating ? UA couldn?t scramble fast enough to retro-fit its theatres with the same. The Parkway multiplex, you may recall, had been built long after stadium seating became the standard for new theatres; it took the opening of Tinseltown to prompt UA to upgrade the auditoriums there.
You may also recall one of the reasons given for expanding the number of screens at Northpark: to allow one or two screens to be dedicated to showing art and independent film. Once the Deville closed, UA lost all interest in bringing art film to Jackson and, with the occasional exception, went back to dedicating eight screens at once to gems like Hot Pants 2: The Carwash Crew.
So: without competition, art films don?t play. The trick, then, is finding a way to create that competition.
Rumors abound that some poor local businessperson is on the verge of opening the old Capri Theatre as an art venue. The appearance of a dedicated art cinema in Jackson would change everything. This may, however, be a self-defeating strategy, as the chains will respond by showing the same films.
A small, one-screen theatre can?t win in this situation; it cannot afford to dedicate its single screen to a money-loser. The chains, however, will happily lose money on one screen in their multiplex ? at least until the single screen theatre goes out of business. (See this story about the Deville Cinema.)
Another strategy ? with less personal risk for some small businessperson ? would be to persuade Cinemark/Tinseltown to devote just one screen to art and independent film. Making this attractive would likely be a matter of getting enough people to band together and say, ?If you will dedicate just one screen to art and independent cinema, in addition to supporting those films, we, the undersigned, will also give you all our mainstream business, all the time, and we will actively campaign against people seeing movies at the Regal Cinema chains.?
Want more attention? Get several hundred people to ?buy advance tickets? to the first five art films Tinseltown will show ? whatever they are (essentially, donating $40.00 each to the cause). Call a press conference and hold up the big jar of cash ? it?s a great visual representation of just how much Jacksonites want independent film.
Within weeks, expect art films to crop up at Regal.
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