Movie booking nightmares

The questions start coming every time we don't open a huge hit movie on the break.

"'Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium?'" they say. "Where's 'I Am Legend?'"

And to a lesser extent, "Where's 'Alvin and the Chipmunks?'"

(Just fill in appropriate newer movies if you're reading this after mid-December 2007.)

Well the answer is always the same. We can't play every huge hit movie on the break for several reasons. Whenever we don't play one, one or more of the following reasons apply:

1. The movie studio would only take bookings of four weeks or more, which is too long for us. We can only play a movie two weeks (or possibly three, if we're talking "Star Wars" hugeness).

2. The studio didn't make enough prints to satisfy all the demand, and since we're in a small town, we are the first to get dropped from the list.

3. There is another movie opening next week that we want to play, so we have to pass on this week's movie (which would have to play for two weeks) in order to get next week's movie on the break.

4. Our booker has determined (based on several factors) that we wouldn't do enough business on the movie to make it worth playing for two or three weeks.

5. We just didn't realize the movie would be such a huge success and didn't get our request in on time. Our bad.

In the case of I Am Legend and Alvin and the Chipmunks, reason #3 applies. "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" opens on the 21st, and it looks like the one to beat this season, so we have to make the schedule fit around it.

Never fear, though....you can look for "Legend" and "Alvin" to hit our screen in January, unless some other gigantic blockbuster materializes in the meantime.