There are four movie theaters walking distance from my house and one another. UA Midway on Queens Boulevard with eight screens. It’s usually the one that plays the most popular films. UA Brandon Cinemas has just two screens, usually with the films that weren’t popular enough for Midway. A few months back, I caught The Raid: Redemption there. Kew Gardens Cinema on Lefferts Boulevard is the a poor man’s arthouse cinema with six smaller screens playing critically acclaimed stuff that isn’t expected to top the box office. Cinemart Cinemas is the cheapest, often playing films that have been out for some time, and have finished their tenures at Midway.
Lincoln‘s currently playing at UA Brandon, sharing the theater with Silver Linings Playbook. I was supposed to see it on Saturday Afternoon with family and friends. Except the screening was sold out, so we bought tickets for Sunday.
We got there half an hour before the film was supposed to start, and there was a rather lengthy line. It seemed a little odd that one of the most popular films in the country was only playing in one fairly small screen in this group of theaters. Later, I noticed that it’s only playing in two theaters in Queens, which seems to have been a massive miscalculation.
And the Box Office results show how badly the theater owners screwed up with their allocations. On Thanksgiving Weekend, Lincoln was a respectable third to Skyfall and the Twilight finale. However, the last Twilight film made $61,000,000. Lincoln made more than half that, with $34,000,000. But it wasn’t playing in half as many screens. So it’s interesting how the enduring popularity of the film, then in its second weekend in wide release, was underestimated.
