Theatre Manager, Jason Asbell, after hearing about Disney’s restrictions preventing The Civic from opening Avengers: Age of Ultron on release.

Theatres that opened Fast and Furious 7 on April 3, and have service areas similar in population to the West Kootenays, grossed close to $10,000 over their opening weekend. The Civic screened the same film in Nelson on April 17, two weeks later, and saw only 10% of this gross at our box office. The film played at other cinemas in the region on opening weekend, so our guess is that many people in Nelson chose to see it elsewhere.

Hollywood is great at getting us excited about their release dates. There are lots of films that are set up to be multi-million dollar box office hits, and people mark the openings on their calendars, watch for midnight premieres, and wait in long lines to get tickets. There is something magical, addictive, exciting, and deeply enticing about seeing a film during the premiere weekend.

Right now, The Civic Theatre only has one screen. We are excited about our goal to renovate our facility into three screens, which will happen in the next few years. But for the moment, we have to make do with one, which means we are limited by the number of films we can show at any given moment, and we also have to comply with the directions of the studios, who dictate how long (minimum) we must show a film and if they let us show it at all.

An upcoming case in point is Avengers: Age of Ultron. Here is a film that we fully intended to bring to Nelson on its release date (May 1), but Disney is requiring a minimum 3-week run. With only one screen and in a city of our size, this is simply an impossible condition, as we wouldn’t be able to show anything else. It is our expectation that we’ll be able to screen Avengers May 22, but by then, we also expect everyone who is really eager to see the film will have done so, just like with Furious 7.

We try to open the really hot films (like The Hunger Games or The Hobbit) on their release dates (known in the industry as “on the break”) but as you can see, sometimes it just isn’t possible. So, how do we entice audiences to wait a few weeks until we can screen these eagerly awaited Hollywood gems?

Nelson is a unique place – the existence of Nelson Civic Theatre Society is a perfect example of how good we are at standing together to achieve things that are good for our community. It is a marvelous achievement that our cinema is here – up and running – but our ongoing success and growth depends directly on audiences choosing to see films in Nelson.

How can you help? There are two ways:

1. By being an avid audience member of NCTS. If you can hold off a few weeks longer for that film you’ve been waiting for, come see it at The Civic and enjoy our outstanding surround sound in a venue that truly, deeply appreciates your patronage. (And if you really need to see it on the break elsewhere, come back for a second viewing with us!)

2. By being an advocate for your local nonprofit, independent cinema. When you invite a bunch of friends to join you at a screening through your own social media event, or crowd-fund an event (like our recent screening of Awake), your endorsement for seeing films in our venue does more than any marketing that we could do. Be an advocate for NCTS, and we’ll pay you back in outstanding surround sound and more fantastic blockbuster and independent films. (Not to mention, some great popcorn!)

Do you have more ideas of how to keep local audiences local? We’d love to know. Send your ideas to info@civictheatre.ca. Let’s keep The Civic Theatre successful, local, flexible, weird and wonderful.

Thanks for your help,

Jason