Princess movie titan stands tall
In conversation,
In a sea of multiplex monstrosities, John Tutt is a defiant outlier, a lonely outpost against the encroaching tides of high tech overkill.
Low-key and modest, the owner of Waterloo’s tiny Princess Cinema and double screen Princess Twin is, in many ways, the Tom Hanks of Waterloo Indie Cinema: laid back, easygoing, happy to trade quips with the Rod Stewart impersonator hovering in front of his theatre.
But you don’t survive 33 years in a rapidly shifting movie climate by being a nice guy pushover.
It’s a battlefield out there. And with cable, Netflix, an aging film demo and frequent bouts of road construction launching frontal assaults, the Wilfrid Laurier business grad is less Hanks than Rambo, a stoic maverick who dodges bullets while making incremental gains in enemy territory.
In a business with a growth curve lower than internet dial-up providers and VCR repair stores, King Tutt has not only survived, he’s thrived, expanding his operations twice since the original Princess unveiled its iconic blend of festival hits and foreign flicks in the Age of Mulroney.
With all the wins on your resume, how is it you have no black licorice at your snack bar?
Black licorice is coming back! Our local supplier dropped it and we found an internet source. Hurrah! We are back in black.
I don’t see any foot-long strawberry Twizzlers either — what’s up with that?
Yeah, we are peeved that we can’t get those foot-long Twizzlers. But we still have the grab-as-many as-youwant-pile of cherry Super Nibs. People go crazy for it. It’s exotic.
With the rise of streaming, cable and other movie options, how is it you’re still in business?
Simple. The experience of seeing a movie on a large screen with the general public cannot be replicated on the internet or in a basement with a big TV. People still want a night out at a reasonable cost for that shared experience in a darkened room.
Not only are you still in business, you opened the Princess Twin in 2005, with a focus on Hollywood prestige films, and are busy renovating a Hamilton movie palace from the silent era.
We view Hamilton as underserved as far as “art/specialty” programming applies. A gorgeous intact 1913 cinema came available with lots of parking and a community experiencing a revival and growth. As a family business, our son Jacob is excited about taking on the Hamilton project.
I remember a lot of bellyaching in the ’90s about a rumoured multiplex in Waterloo’s Uptown core (never happened). Who or what is your competition today?
In the spring and summer it’s other arts/music festivals, backyard gardening activity, patios and barbecue season. We coexist with the local symphonies, museums and live theatre venues. Chain cinemas are not our competition.
You have no Imax, VIP, 3D and D-Box seating. Wake up, man, it’s 2018.
Good seats, projection and sound, yes. But the smaller review-driven films that the Princess offers does not attract audiences with these bells and whistles.
When I come to the Princess, I don’t see a lot of loud annoying teenagers with smartphones kicking the seats. Is there some kind of stealth campaign to keep them out?
(Laughs). That teenage demographic is, sadly, buried in their small screens. Will they be my older demographic of the future? Who knows.
So who is your audience?
Fifty per cent 40-65-year-olds, 20-30 per cent seniors and 20 per cent student types. They’re adventurous, active, with a post-secondary education, skewing female.
I’m picturing a tweedy intellectual with impeccable manners who doesn’t suffer fools lightly — like Dame Judi Dench.
Close. We’re an oasis of sorts and people seem to appreciate how we present films. You come here to see something a little different.
I mentioned Dench because she’s the rep house High Priestess.
She oozes class and style, and has a Midas touch at the box office.
She’s 83. If she dies, what happens to your audience?
Ah, we’ll be fine. Lots of leading British actresses will fill her void.
That seems unlikely.
Helen Mirren, Lily James, Gemma Arterton, Saoirse Ronan, Kate Winslet, Claire Foy, to name a few.
When you opened in 1985, your schedule was filled with Hollywood classics and cult films. What happened?
As VHS stores became DVD stores and streaming and specialty cable channels appeared, the classics and cult films were awash everywhere, so we installed 35 mm projectors and entered the world of new foreign indie and art films.
Now 99 per cent of our program is brand new international and indie films.
And yet people still wander in and say “Oh, you’re the place that shows old movies.”
(He laughs). We screen new movies, the good ones, that the chains avoid.
Biggest Princess films over 33 years?
“Brooklyn,” “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “March of the Penguins,” “The Shape of Water.”
Those are Oscar nominees. What happened to cult hits? Is “Rocky Horror” still a thing?
Cult is still very much alive and kicking. We have built our “Rocky Horror” screenings into a “Rocky Horror” weekend every October. Then there’s the zany “The Room,” and we’re featuring a four-week special run of the 1973 sci-fi “Westworld” every Wednesday in May at the Twin.
As the programmer of three local rep screens, you must be a big film buff.
Sort of. My first big screen memories were at the Capital Theatre in Brantford, watching “Tora Tora Tora” with Dad, and “Mary Poppins” with Mom. I discovered and really fell for foreign film while studying at Laurier. I recall a 1981 French film called “Diva” that really turned my head.
I was just kidding. Yesterday you told me you hate it when people call you a film buff.
I just kinda like running a movie theatre. I like all the components. My father was a tax collector. My mother sang in choirs and performed in plays. In this business, you have to have that balance.
I’ve heard you say films about bonnets are highly successful at the box office. What the hell were you talking about?
The chain cinemas do not have any inclination to screen period pieces or what I tongue-in-cheek call “bonnet films.” But something about them means there’s gonna be an audience. They’re bulletproof.
What exactly is a bonnet?
A head piece worn by woman of a past generation.
Do you ever see women wearing bonnets on the streets of UpTown Waterloo?
No, but I do at the St. Jacobs Farmers Market.
Name some of your favourite “bonnet” movies?
“Lady Macbeth” and “Far From the Madding Crowd” were my faves. I have my eye on a coming film called “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.” Set during the Second World War, the lead actress, Lily James, wears a hat. It has (the) Princess (theatre) written all over it.
Describe the perfect Princess film.
A period piece that’s a romance where women wear bonnets. That’s the trifecta.
Anything else?
No car crashes. No drugs. No rap music.
I want to stay home and watch “Westworld” on cable? Why should I get out of my pyjamas and come to the Princess?
Inactivity is bad for your health. Get out and see a movie in a theatre.
If you could play only one film for audiences until the end of time, what would it be?
“Casablanca” — the film we opened with on Sept 18th, 1985. You can watch that film over and over and still find something new and entertaining in the story or script.