Summer Movie Hype Coming In Like a 'Lion'
snopes
Summer Movie Hype Coming In Like a 'Lion'
Disney Opens Season With April Ticket Sales for a June Release
In a move unprecedented in modern movie history, Disney will begin selling
tickets to its animated feature "The Lion King" this Sunday -- more than two
months before the film's exclusive June 15 openings at Hollywood's El Capitan
Theater and New York's Radio City Music Hall.
In addition, in a further effort to get a jump on the fiercely competitive
summer moviegoing season, Disney has already begun screening the movie for
film buyers in major markets around the country to try to ensure bookings in
the best theaters. In hyping "The Lion King" this early, Disney is looking to
ride the wave of enthusiasm that 30 minutes of clips from the movie generated
at last month's ShoWest exhibitors' convention in Las Vegas.
Industry watchers are predicting that Disney's 32nd full-length animated
feature could be the biggest movie of the summer and that it could easily
gross $200 million or more eventually in domestic markets alone.
"The Lion King" features cutting-edge animation from Disney, five new songs
by Elton John and Oscar-winning lyricist Tim Rice ("Aladdin") and the voices
of Jeremy Irons, Matthew Broderick, James Earl Jones, Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech
Marin and Robert Guillaume. It's an allegorical tales of a young lion cub on
a heroic journey to claim his destined role as king of the jungle.
"It will be gigantic," predicts Barry Reardon, president of distribution at
Warner Bros., one of Disney's biggest competitors. Warner's will open one of
its own most anticipated summer movies, "Wyatt Earp," starring Kevin Costner,
on June 24 -- the day "Lion King" will expand its run to about 2,000 theaters
nationwide.
Reardon, who next week will begin showing exhibitors Warner's other big
summer Western -- "Maverick," starring Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster, which
opens May 20 -- says the long lead time for pre-selling tickets and screening
"Lion King" is "unusual" but that he can understand it "because they obviously
believe they have a great movie."
Disney's distribution chief, Richard Cook, says that getting an early jump
on ticket sales "enables us to set the movie up as a real special, unique
summer event." He added that "Lion King" is "a movie that doesn't come along
very often."
Ticket prices for the El Capitan and Radio City debut runs -- $10 for
adults, $6 for children and senior citizens -- include a 20-minute live stage
show before each screening that will feature music performed by Disney
"characters" from movies such as "Snow White," "Cinderella," "Pinocchio,"
"Beauty and the Beast," "The Little Mermaid" and "Aladdin." The El Capitan
show will run through July 14. The live show at Radio City, which will be
performed by the Rockettes, will run through June 23.
In another break from convention, tickets for the El Capitan shows will be
mailed to people who call and 800 phone number set up for the advance sales.
Normally, tickets ordered through such services must be picked up at the
theater on the day of the show.
Although it has become more common now for tickets for "event-like" movies
to be available weeks in advance, it is unheard of for sales to begin more
than two months early.
"It is rare but entirely appropriate for a picture of this scope that is
getting such wide acceptance," says John Krier, president of Exhibitor
Relations Co., which tracks box-office performance.
"It's definitely unusual," says Warner's Reardon, who notes, "it reminds me
of the old roadshows."
In the mid- to late 1920s, advance ticket sales became very popular for
what were called roadshow pictures -- big-event movies that were exhibited at
select prestigious theaters usually on a reserved-seat basis and at premium
admission prices. Roadshow productions in the '20s included King Vidor's 1925
"The Big Parade" and Fred Niblo's 1926 "Ben Hur."
Roadshow movies averaged 10 performances a week, usually two shows a day,
and tickets for them were often sold weeks, even months in advance.
Advance tickets were sold for "Gone With the Wind" in 1939, but these were
for designated performances, much as with "The Lion King," rather than for
designated seats.
Then in 1956, recalled Krier, who once worked as an exhibitor in the
Midwest, the assigned-seat tickets came back into vogue with Cecil B.
DeMille's sound version of "The Ten Commandments" and continued through the
late '50s and '60s with such pictures as "Around the World in 80 Days," "South
Pacific," "Spartacus," "Can-Can," "El Cid," "The Guns of Navarone," "Lawrence
of Arabia," "Oliver!" "The Longest Day" and "The Sound of Music."
_Los Angeles Times_
April 7, 1994
Michael Clayton Alpert
I'd love to check out the NYC shows....
Thanks!
Michael Alpert
alp...@rpi.edu
Larry Dersh
I outgrew Disney animation after the age of 7 when I was impressed by "Dumbo". Am
I alone out there? Frankly everything I saw that was animated Disney stuff was
extremely boring. His animation artistery is vastly overblown hype. All his
characters are the same in look feel and taste.When my kids
were old enough to drive alone was my happiest time , since I didn't have to go to
disneyland anymore. Most of the stuff coming out in the summer is pure garbage.
Best to hit the trails or beaches.
Amy Lynne Plack
Pretty bold of you to post an opinion like that to rec.arts.DISNEYm
don't you think, Mr. Dersh?
As an adult myself (college student though I may be...) I didn't
really get into Disney when I was a kid because I had parents like
you. No, not like you, because mine never took me to Disneyland.
When _The Little Mermaid_ came out in 1988, I was about the same age
as Ariel, TLM's main character. I really identified with her! She
was the first *strong* female role model I had. Suddenly, I knew that
I didn't belong in a small town, that I had to go to college, get out
of my parents' house, and make something of myself. A few years
later, _Beauty and the Beast_ was released and I found that I was more
like Belle than anyone I knew- from a small town where all the women
stayed home and cared for the children and.
At any rate, here I am, in my junior year of college, inspired by... a
cartoon.
I have recently started to view the older movies, like Dumbo, Bambi,
and The Rescuers, the movies my parents watched when they were kids.
Watching them with my parents makes them seem young again. I have
three younger brothers, ranging in age from 16 to 5 and we _all_ enjoy
Disney. It brings us together. No one argues about who gets the car,
what's for dinner, whose turn it is to wash the dishes... not during a
Disney movie.
So, now the tables have turned in my family. My parents didn't bring
me up on Disney, but I have re-brought them up in it.
Again, I think you will be flamed for your posting. In the future,
please do not post to newsgroups saying how lame they are. The
newsgroups are subscribed to by people who share something in common,
in this case, a love for Disney.
And, since you rained on our parade, I am going to rain on yours.
As the Official FDC Scamperaround Tod the Fox (and if you want to know
what the FDC is, just wait and see), a representative of Disney lovers
everywhere,
{Tod/Amy pulls out his/her Super Soaker 10,000, freshly loaded from
the war with Amberle/Belle over the Beast...}
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!\
Congrats. You've just been flamed... The FDC way...
Have a Disney Day, and I hope you've learned your lesson. I would
hate for the people on, say, alt.fan.billy-joel to get a similar
--
Amy Lynne Plack ()_() FDC Scamperaround Tod the Fox
tr...@wpi.WPI.EDU (_) Movie Projectionist Extraordinaire
Technical Writing/Biology Major Lady-in-Waiting to Queen Anne of France
Worcester Polytechnic Institute Star Trek (TOS, TNG, DS9) Fan
Reid S. Woolery
>From: der...@norand.com (Larry Dersh)
>Subject: Re: Summer Movie Hype Coming In Like a 'Lion'
>Date: 26 May 1994 14:18:18 -0500
Well, I grew up on Disney too and I'll have to admit that Disney has produced
a few animated stinkers in their time. However, overall I'd say that the
"overblown hype" regarding Disney artistery is NOT hype. I won't waste
bandwidth defending an art form that needs no defense. I'm just sorry that
you're unable to enjoy all the fun. :) By the way, so you don't think I'm
just some kid who doesn't know what he's talking about, I'm turning 44 in a
couple of months. Whenever I'm in Florida I make sure to visit WDW and I plan
to keep visiting for many more years to come. My fondest hope is to "slip
away" while riding Splash Mountain or the Runaway Railroad.
-REId-
Reid Woolery W...@PSU.EDU
Computer Systems/Applications Analyst
The Pennsylvania State University (814)865-2114
Thomas Skogestad
|>
|> I outgrew Disney animation after the age of 7 when I was impressed by "Dumbo". Am
|> I alone out there? Frankly everything I saw that was animated Disney stuff was
|> extremely boring. His animation artistery is vastly overblown hype. All his
|> characters are the same in look feel and taste.
Well, I loved Aladdin because it didn't have much songs in it. The songs always
drive me to boredom.
--
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The ace whale killer promulgates once again:
Snail Mail Sucks! Try me at tho...@kjemi.unit.no
Keith Meng-Wei Loh
>In article <2s2slq$e...@rattler.norand.com>, der...@norand.com (Larry Dersh) writes:
>|> I outgrew Disney animation after the age of 7 when I was impressed by "Dumbo". Am
>|> I alone out there?
>Well, probably here. Just curious, but why are you reading this
>news group?
While I don't quite agree with the fellow who 'outgrew' Disney animation,
your question doesn't quite make sense. R.A.M. isn't a Disney fan group.
It's for discussion of films and, not uncommonly, for opinions. You
might want to express one.
WinnieThePooh
|> I alone out there?
Well, probably here. Just curious, but why are you reading this
news group?
Sandy (s...@atl.hp.com)
FDC Walkaround Pooh
and Fill-In Pixie Dust Sprinkler
Su...@fwva.saic.com
>In article <2s5bbp$s...@vertigo.helix.net>, l...@vertigo.helix.net (Keith Meng-Wei Loh) writes:
>|> WinnieThePooh writes:
>|>
[SNIP]
>|> >Well, probably here. Just curious, but why are you reading this
>|> >news group?
>|>
>|> While I don't quite agree with the fellow who 'outgrew' Disney animation,
>|> your question doesn't quite make sense. R.A.M. isn't a Disney fan group.
>|> It's for discussion of films and, not uncommonly, for opinions. You
>|> might want to express one.
>
>(I'm only on r.a.disney). Nevermind. (But why did he cross post here?)
>
I bet he wasn't the one that cross-posted it over here. Someone on R.A.M.
probably saw his comments and decided to forward it over here for our
comments. *shrug* ???????
Everyone has their own tastes in movies. I guess I fall in the Disney fan
group. I am going to check the R.A.M. group out though, looks to be a *lively*
one... :> See ya there!
Rhonda
WinnieThePooh
Okay, my fault. I didn't realise that this was cross-posted to r.a.m.
(I'm only on r.a.disney). Nevermind. (But why did he cross post here?)
Sandy
FDC WinnieThePooh
Amberle S Ferrian
Because rec.arts.disney is for the discussion of ALL things Disney, good
AND bad, perhaps? I don't agree with the fellow who 'outgrew' Disney
animation either, but folks, it's a little disturbing to see people suggesting
that negative opinions on Disney are not welcome on r.a.d, particularly when
they happen to be cross-posted to other newsgroups. There is nothing wrong
with the pro-Disney attitude prevalent on r.a.d, but how can you expect to
have meaningful and intelligent discussions about something, ANYTHING, if
you don't take the bad along with the good? And there's plenty about Disney
and the Disney Company to criticize, like there is in any aspect of life.
There are no newsgroups by the name of rec.arts.disney.apologist or
rec.arts.disney.yes-men, and we should not turn r.a.d into such a forum.
Followups to rec.arts.disney. I kept the crosspost to r.a.m for this message
to let followers of this thread there know that yes, it is safe to come to
r.a.d if you don't love the Mouse. :-)
---
Amberle Ferrian <amb...@epx.cis.umn.edu> | They are one person
Writer/Not Ready For ToonTown Player | They are two alone
in future "Disney Improv Nite" show | They are three together
theme-park walkaround Belle | They are for each other...
and general Sherri Stoner fan/wannabe | --"Helplessly Hoping"
in The Future Disney Cabinet | Crosby, Stills, and Nash
Cynthia Coffman
anything but follow-ups, and no other post referred to the Lion King this
time): has anyone else noticed the advance movie merchandising for the
Lion King? I'm not talking about T-shirts, etc, but I mean actual plot
things...they've got the comic book version of the movie out already, the
CD is going to be released soon, and there's even a read-along
cassette/book thing out! It's getting pretty ridiculous...to the point
where (if I wanted to spoil the movie for myself) I could pick up any of
these things and know pretty well exactly what's going to happen!! Bleah.
--Turnkey.
--
________________________________________________________________
Here, in the middle of Imagination, | tur...@mcl.mcl.ucsb.edu
Right in the middle of my head.... |(all rights reserved) ;)
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