Minute44 - Dan Schonhaar

I was planning on going to see No Country For Old Men tonight as I had nothing else to do but when I looked to see what time it was on, I found, to my surprise that it wasn’t showing at Mansfield, Derby or Chesterfield! I was gobsmacked. If i want to see this film I’m going to have to drive to Nottingham at the very least! I understand it’s not the biggest film out at the moment, nor has it had the hype of some of it’s rivals but it is a Coen Brothers film after all and it does star Tommy Lee Jones and Woody Harrelson, not small-time actors.

Alas, this isn’t the first time I’d seen this happen. Several films I’d wanted to see have been shown in a limited number of cinemas. I missed Eastern Promises, primarily, because of this. It just irritates me that films with great pedigree such as this have to be shoved aside for mindless blockbusters and 9pm (and later) screenings of children’s films. Cinemas should make it so that the last screenings of children’s movies are no later than 7:30pm (unless they have a large number of screens). They should also stop dedicating screens to particular movies and having show after show after show. Sure, this is fine for big movies on opening weekend but during the week when screenings are never full, they ought to have some variety and use the screen to show two or three different films throughout the day. People will deal with only having one or two screenings a day of something, providing it doesn’t sell out. Being more dynamic is the key to pleasing more people.

As far as I can see, all Mansfield Odeon would have to do to satisfy potential viewers of No Country for Old Men is perhaps shed one screening of Enchanted and one screening of The Golden Compass, both of which would be more or less empty anyway, to fit it in. They wouldn’t even have to do it every night! The fault lies in the intervals at which they change screening configurations. For big movies, weekly is absolutely fine but for smaller films it should be reviewed perhaps twice a week in order to make way for other movies and maximise arse to seat ratio.