San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Do movie theaters need to get a gimmick to survive?
When audiences showed up to theaters wearing pink to the opening of “Barbie” last summer, Peaches Christ knew that the movie was special. Sure, the beloved doll had 70 years of pop culture currency to trade on, but it was unusual for a new release, she noted, to inspire such a level of audience participation.
“Before even seeing the film, people had determined that it was an event,” said the San Francisco drag queen and “All About Evil” filmmaker. “Without a producer or a publicist telling them to wear pink, it was just the way people organically came. The only other examples I can think of celebrating a new movie with costumes are things like ‘Harry Potter’ and the new ‘Star Wars’ films, where people have a history with the characters.”
Between the participatory dressing, the life-size doll-box photo opportunities set up in theater lobbies and the movie’s role as half of the blockbuster phenomenon the internet coined “Barbenheimer” — due to its simultaneous release with Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” last July — Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” became a movie that “demanded that people show up for this bigger, communal experience,” said Peaches Christ, a longtime film presenter.
Audiences showed up. “Barbie” went on to make $1.4 billion at the box office and become the highest-grossing film of 2023, making the Sacramento native the first woman with sole director credit to have a film make more than $1 billion.
But this spring, it isn’t the promise of wearing pink or going from dolls to atomic bombs that’s getting people back into theaters: It’s a concession souvenir.
“One of the most prevalent gimmicks I can think of in the last several months was the ‘Dune 2’ sandworm popcorn bucket,” said Michael Varrati, a filmmaker, author and Peaches Christ’s “Midnight Mass” movie podcast co-host.
The promotional tie-in at AMC Theaters features a plastic head in the shape of the movie’s beige alien monsters over the container, forcing moviegoers to stick their hand into the “mouth” of the sandworn and its flexible plastic spikes for their snack. The bucket has spawned viral conversations on social media, not-safe-for-work videos commenting on the suggestive look and a “Saturday Night Live” sketch. There are even multiple listings on eBay pricing the bucket at more than $100.
Although AMC Theaters’ Chief Content Officer Elizabeth Frank expressed regret over the salacious attention the bucket has received, the film has already grossed $666,813,734 since its March 1 release.
“Whether people earnestly wanted that bucket or they were getting it because they thought it looked silly and wanted the garish popcorn bucket to bring home and post about it online, it caused people to go out to that specific chain of movie theaters because they wanted to be a part of something,” said Varrati.
As Hollywood continues to struggle to drive audiences back to movie theaters since the pandemic, are audience participation, viral trends, technological advances and good oldfashioned gimmicks the thing that can save the box office?
Fears of the decline of movie theaters are not new, and neither are strategies trying to lure audiences back through expanded experiences. In the 1920s, early experiments with sound and color, product tie-ins from face powder to toys and live vaudeville shows were part of enticing ticket buyers. Even the elaborate, exotically themed theaters themselves were a kind of gimmick, meant to make a night at the movies more atmospheric.
Lara Gabrielle, an Oakland film historian and author of “Captain of Her Soul: The Life of Marion Davies,” noted that as early as Davies’ 1918 film “Cecilia of the Pink Roses,” her partner and producer William Randolph Hearst filled the stage of the theater with roses and circulated the scent with fans. It was “an early form of Smell-O-Vision,” she said, referring to various theater stunts that have involved fragrance. (John Waters’ “Odorama” scratch-and-sniff cards for his 1981 film “Polyester” are among the most famous.)
“Theaters have given away dolls, they gave dishes in the Great Depression, film companies would come to town and set up promotions for new movies with local businesses. There’s a history of gimmicks as long as the movies,” said Gabrielle, who noted that popcorn was first utilized as a ploy
in the 1930s.
In the 1950s, as television changed people’s theatergoing habits, technology like 3D and expanded screen-width formats like CinemaScope were employed to give people an experience they couldn’t get at home. There were even filmmakers like B-level horror master William Castle who built gimmicks into their movies.
“Probably the most famous was for ‘The Tingler,’ ” Peaches Christ said of Castle’s 1959 movie about a parasite that makes its victims’ spines “tingle” when afraid. For movie patrons, “the idea was so nuts, it was mistakenly described as chairs being electrocuted, but they weren’t actually shocking people. Intense motorized devices were put under the seats that would vibrate the chair.”
In the 1970s and ’80s, as cable television and home video were on the rise, Varrati notes that horror movies used content like simulated gore and sex to attract audiences with the tagline that it could be seen “only in theaters.” From the ’80s through the 2000s, advances in sound and projection technology via companies like Dolby and IMAX became selling points, with pop stars taking full advantage of surround sound to create a concert-like atmosphere for films like “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” and filmmakers like Nolan embracing the expanded IMAX screen format. Filmmaker James Cameron also revived interest in 3D technology with his 2009 film “Avatar.” In-theater bars and expanded dining service at chains like the Alamo Drafthouse have become a lure as well.
These days, however, it’s not just audience participation and concession souvenirs that theater owners hope will bring people back into their auditoriums. Companies like the
Seoul-based CJ 4DPlex have created technology meant to immerse audiences even further into movies, like ScreenX, which wraps the screen around the audience on three sides. Don Savant, CJ 4DPlex’s chief business officer, points to films like the 2022 hit “Top Gun: Maverick” as among those to utilize the technology, with director Joseph Kosinski creating additional content to fill the screen for some flight scenes.
The company’s 4DX presentation system takes the immersion even further, with practical effects like motion seats, wind, strobe lights, simulated snow and scents employed during key moments in the film.
“It doesn’t have to be superdramatic like a roller coaster; sometimes it’s subtle movements,” said Savant. “I remember seeing ‘Avatar’ in 4DX and there was a scene where the helicopter was coming down. All of a sudden you (the camera) moved down and off to the left in the scene, then you feel it in the chair.”
Globally, there are 790 theaters equipped with 4DX and 180 with ScreenX, including San Francisco’s Regal Stonestown Galleria. Add-on fees to movies shown there can be about $8 for 4DX, and about $5 for ScreenX.
But while technology can be an incentive to go to the movies, Peaches Christ points out it’s usually futile for studios or theaters to try to generate the kind of cult enthusiasm a film like “Barbie” or even the “Dune 2” popcorn bucket inspired: “There’s really two kinds of gimmicks — ones that are built into the release and marketing, and ones that are fan-generated.”
Usually, it’s the fan-generated gimmicks that last.