Checkus Factibus

For the second time in two weeks I have to concede that the Catholic League's Bill Donohue has a point. At this rate I'm going to be at 4:30 confession tomorrow and condemning gay marriage by Monday. Replying to this Fox News story about selective distribution of Da Passion of Da Christ, he provides some helpful listings:

Roger Friedman says the movie will be shown in two Chicago theaters; in fact it will be shown in seven. He says it will not be shown in the L.A. neighborhood of Century City; in fact it will be shown at the AMC in Century City. He says it will not be shown in the 'wealthier and trendier parts' of Los Angeles; in fact it will be shown in Marina del Rey, Burbank and Santa Monica. He says it will not be shown in New York's Upper West Side; in fact it will be shown at 86th and Broadway. He says it will be shown only in the 'fringe areas' of the Upper East Side; in fact it will be shown at 86th and 3rd and 64th and 2nd. He says it will be shown at one theater below 34th Street; in fact it will be shown at three. He says it will be hard to find in Nassau County, Long Island; in fact it will be shown in seven theaters there. He says that theater-goers will be 'hard pressed' to find it in 'either the south or north shore' of Long Island; in fact it will be shown in towns like Glen Cove and Port Washington on the north shore and Merrick and Seaford on the south shore. He says those who live in Westchester will also find it difficult to see the movie; in fact it will be shown in Larchmont, New Rochelle and Yonkers. And so on.

I can't vouch for all those places, but when last I checked here in the city of St. Francis, there was a wall-sized coming attraction notice for the movie at the UA Galaxy, centrally located at the corner of Van Ness Ave. and Sutter St. It's also an independently distributed picture, so you shouldn't even expect it to be opening in any as many major houses as it apparently is. The real story here is not how selective the distribution is, but how wide. I just hope all these theaters will honor their agreement to provide every moviegoer with a pair of 3-d glasses and a copy of Fred Wheelock's Latin Grammar.

Comments

[Steve in CO]

It isn't in English!!!???!?!

What the hell was Mel thinking? Everyone knows that one, God spoke English, just look at the King James Bible, dammit, and two, if it is subtitled, those most likely to want to go out and bash people for "killin' Jesus," can't read no how!

🙂

[SPUR]

its also being shown here in swanky Del Mar and La Jolla

[Steve in CO]

Seriously though, isn't it done in Aramaic or some such language?

🙂

[Jonas Cord]

There is no theater at 86th and Broadway! Gotcha!

I think it's like 84th or something.

[shane]

Steve in CO,

I know some of it's in Aramaic.

[Shultz]

How I wish there was more Latin in the movie.

My hopes were way up; finally somebody was going to put something out in Latin that wasn't just the news from Finland.

But Alas! I have a source, my old Latin professor at UCLA, who was at a screening. I can only hope that he exaggerated, but he said that there are only a couple of lines in Latin.

...in the whole movie.

O miser Shultz.

P.S. Yeah right...Latin is a dead language...as dead as dead can be...firt it killed the Romans...and now...

[Tim Cavanaugh]

That's hard news, Shultz. My excitement about this movie just took a dive.

Mel, di te summoveant, o nostri infamia saecli!

[Jim Walsh]

Joke: What's the Pope's private number?

Answer: Etcum spirit 2-2-0

If you laughed at that, you're A) Currently or formerly Catholic, and B) Old enough to remember the pre-Vatican II Latin Rite days.

[Josh]

That's gotta be the first and only Wheelock reference in Hit & Run's short but distinguished history.

[Douglas Fletcher]

Are there any musical numbers in the film? Ever since I saw "Moulin Rouge" I can't get enough of those.

[joe]

It would appear that Fox and Donohue got their signals crossed. There's Fox, plugging away at the "elitist liberal Jews are keeping Christians down with their control of the media" shtick, and Donohue takes it as an attack on Gibson's company's distribution plan.

Milhouse in the treehouse to Bart: "Or have they gotten to you, too?"

[Phil]

This week's Entertainment Weekly, which was in my mailbox last night, has for its cover a caricature of Mel with a crown of thorns. A strong indication to me that ol' Mad Max has gotten exactly what he wanted already.

[Larry]

"The article strongly and repeatedly posits that Mad Mel is intentionally targeting the picture at sympathetic crowds and away from unsympathetic crowds."

Can we assume "unsympathetic crowds" are more likely to picket the movie to reduce ticket sales, and "sympathetic crowds" are more likely to spend money on tickets and popcorn and go inside to see it?

Can we still assume that at least one goal of a marketing plan is to make money?

Doh!

[Larry]

"The article strongly and repeatedly posits that Mad Mel is intentionally targeting the picture at sympathetic crowds and away from unsympathetic crowds."

Can we assume "unsympathetic crowds" will likely picket the movie to reduce ticket sales, and "sympathetic crowds" are more likely to spend money on tickets and popcorn and go inside to see it?

Can we still assume that at least one goal of a marketing plan is to make money?

Doh!

[Tim Cavanaugh]

Joe, I don't know that Fox has ever directly or indirectly made any claims about elitist liberal Jews targeting Christians in any context, and they're certainly not doing it in this one. The article strongly and repeatedly posits that Mad Mel is intentionally targetting the picture at sympathetic crowds and away from unsympathetic crowds. Follow the link, or dig some citations: "Even though the makers of 'The Passion of the Christ' are touting its 2,000 screen premiere, the movie's Web site and another Web site, moviefone.com, tell a very different story... The pattern, for the most part, highlights black neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods... Gibson obviously thinks there's a potential problem in Chicago, where 'Passion' will be on only two screens... All of this seems designed to keep 'The Passion of the Christ' out of neighborhoods that are considered Jewish, upscale or liberal... On the other hand, Tennessee is targeted for 'The Passion of the Christ' with eight locations in Memphis and four each in Nashville and Knoxville... Newmarket Films, which is distributing the movie, seems to have picked a pattern that concentrates heavily on the south and the Midwest, focusing on the Bible Belt and locations where 'The Passion of the Christ' will meet with the least resistance."

The thrust of the story may well be true, and the pre-release screenings certainly seemed designed to preach only to the converted. But as Donohue notes, many of the details are wrong, and they're assuming intent on The Road Warrior's part without any support.

By the way, Mike Walker was on Howard Stern this morning, and claimed a detractor threw blood on Gibson outside a tv taping in NYC.

[dj of raleigh]

> Mike Walker was on Howard Stern this morning, and claimed a detractor threw blood on Gibson outside a tv taping in NYC.

[joe]

I followd the link, Tim, and the subtext of the Fox report was "Good Christian film being buried the closet to avoid affending liberals, cosmopolitian people, and Jews."

[joe]

"Good Christian film being buried to avoid offending liberals, cosmopolitan types, and Jews."

Sheesh.

[kevrob]

How much do you want to bet that if Mel had booked POTC into houses in neighborhoods with many Jewish residents, he wouldn't have been accused of "insensitivity?" Damned if you do...
Has anyone noticed any comments from exhibitors who didn't want to show it?

I predict churches and religious schools will organize field trips to see this flick. I can remember being bused with my parochial school classmates to see The Shoes Of The Fisherman. Passion may do very well, even if not showing initially at prestige outlets.

None of this has a thing to do with whether Mel's
project is a good movie, of course.

[Russ D]

Outside of a few minor factual points, the Fox article is probably more accurate than the Catholic League's listings. I only checked Chicago since I know the city practically inside and out, but here's what I found.

I checked IMDB to see if they even listed showtimes at every theater, perhaps they don't have the listings for some of the dingier little independent theaters, but a 20 minute search there showed every theater I thought they could reasonably miss. So I think IMDB's showtimes are pretty accurate.

"Da Passion" (it's Chicago, it's OK to call it dat) is playing on ZERO screens in the city proper. It is on ELEVEN screens within a 50 miles radius. Except for the art megaplex in Evanston (city of no liquor stores), you've got to go at least 20 miles out of town to see it, the "non-cosmopolitan" areas if you really know the metro area. All of these theaters or towns, especially the ones in NW Indiana, have probably never screened a foreign language film in the last 20 years. Maybe Das Boot, but that's it. The fact that more theaters in the Calumet area where I grew up ("Da Region" as Jean Shepherd called it) are showing this than showed Lost In Translation pretty much makes the point Fox made.

I find it interesting that Bad Santa is currently playing on more screens now than Da Passion will be playing, and it's surprising how little overlap in theaters there is. Well, I guess it's not really surprising.

This all makes good business sense to me. I am surprised it is missing from one art miniplex in Chicago, but outside of that I can't find anything really eye-opening about the distribution. I still think it's run is going to be short in many areas when word gets out that it's subtitled.

[rabidfox]

I hope the film plays somewhere locally (probably since I'm in the south). There has been so much critism of this film that I want to see it and draw my own conclusions.