Ahh Paris

Cinema City: Paris the best place in the world to watch film
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"Neither addicted to film nor blind to this city’s inexhaustible charms, I go to the movies in Paris in all weathers and all seasons because it is, by a wide margin, the best place in the world to watch film. Los Angeles, London, even New York pale when it comes to the sheer number and variety of choices — about 300 titles, three times the best top U.S. cities can manage, and many of them in English. Paris’ riches include a peerless selection of American films from Hollywood’s golden age, playing every week of the year. After all, this was the first city to show films publicly (a plaque at 14 Boulevard des Capucines celebrates that Dec. 28, 1895, event), and it is loath to give up its pre-eminence."

What makes this so astoundingly relevant is that Martha and I just got back from Paris and saw no fewer than two films there! And in our limited experience being parisians, I have to say I agree with Mr. Turan's assessment of the film culture. The theater I loved the most "Studio Galande" (which should be covered soon in movies and sweets) played a different movie for every timeslot over 3 or four days. I've never seen another venue be able to do this and wondered if it was some sort of french anomaly. We ran into several theaters like these and having the film culture explained makes everything make more sense. I liked their MO. One screen, one person on staff, no concessions and movies played back to back to back to back (the next one literally starting before the last one finished rolling credits) And each film still had about 10 - 20 people in it (on weekdays in the middle of the day).

I want to run my theater like that. Maximum film variety with minimum to work with. I have a feeling I can make it work, even in Hawaii. Although I think it'll take an assist from Digital Cinema going the way I expect it to.