DEAD). The one part of GRIND- HOUSE that got universal praise were the trailers. They were shot quick and dirty, and they were all the more effective for it! I’d love to see a GRINDHOUSE
2 (probably will never happen because of the poor reception). But this time, the budget is un- der $10,000,000, no A List ac- tors, no motor homes, no video playback monitors, no CGI—just pure imagination! And, hey, as a “bonus,” if this proposed GRIND- HOUSE 2 were to earn even half what the original made, it would still be a huge hit in comparison to its budget!!
Anthony Di Salvo Culver City CA
HE HAD ME AT “CUTE POPCORN GIRLS”
I have been a reader and a fan for many years, so I held my temper in check when I read your editorial in VW #136 about the “death” of the movie theater ex- perience. Sometimes, I forget how rare a creature my Avon Theatre, in Decatur, Illinois, truly is! The Avon’s main theater is a circa 1916 venue of the clas- sic type, complete with balcony
and well-documented ghosts. (See Troy Taylor’s book “Flick- ering Images” for the history and hauntings of the Avon The- ater...) We have been featured extensively on the Discovery Channel and the Travel Chan- nel, and were named “One of the 6 Most Haunted Theaters in America” by PREMIERE maga- zine back in their day. Three years ago, I built another two state-of-the-art, stadium-seat screens in an adjacent old JC Penneys. So we now have three screens without having had to tear up the old Avon. It seems that JC Penney’s had been built on the site of a notorious haunted mansion, so we have resident ghosts there too! But, enough about the visi- tors from the ether... Every single complaint you listed in your rant against theaters, does not apply to The Avon! We never allow on-screen advertising, whether it be slides or rolling stock. Cell phones or disruptive behavior have a zero-tolerance factor. The auditoriums are monitored constantly by me and my dedicated staff, and unruly cell phone talkers and disruptive people get their butts
thrown out, and maybe kicked for good measure. We make our own Caramel Corn, and several different Cheese corns, along with many exotic “gourmet” popcorns (like our “Ba- nana Split” Popcorn that has Chocolate, Cherry, Vanilla, Straw- berry and Banana) all right on the premises in our popcorn kitchens by our Avon popcorn elves. We have a library of over 150 classic 35mm cartoons, and a car- toon is run before every feature. Our previews are “hand- picked” by me, and I try to tailor the trailer to the film. Our concession sizes are larger, but our prices are lower. The quality is, of course, much higher than the competing multi- plexes. (Plus we have real butter for our corn!)
Now, that you have heard all of that, here are the closers: We are a First-Run venue! I am aware that old downtown theaters like ours are usually art and indy by mandate, but, at The Avon, we are just outside the “clearance” perimeters set by the studios to protect the big chains. With only three screens, we have to be very “choosy,” but we compete successfully on a screen-for-screen basis with 22
Robert Downey, Jr. finds a fellow true crime obsessive in Jake Gyllenhaal in David Fincher’s ZODIAC.
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