Major and even minor Hollywood moguls hate to see a new movie in a public theater much less pay for it. Instead they have their studios build them fancy private screening rooms and then borrow prints from each other to see the latest releases. Well, not this past weekend. Because I'm told that Warner Bros' Alan Horn was so inundated with requests for The Dark Knight that the studio ran out of prints. "We had more prints in Bel Air on Saturday night than Cleveland," one WB exec told me. Every mogul who was turned down took no for an answer. But not Sumner Redstone. "Brad Grey emailed Alan and asked if he could intercede and get a print for Sumner, which Alan did," an insider told me. I suspect someone waylaid a print headed for Podunk and it wound up in Redstone's Beverly Park screening room...
No 'Dark Knight' For You! Warner Bros Ran Out Of Prints For Hollywood Moguls
By Nikki Finke | Category: Moguls | Tuesday July 22, 2008 @ 12:20am PST
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I need to be a mogule…
Wow! A billionare asking for freebies How very low is are they?
Worst that the pond scum. Well, lower actually. Like the fungus that feeds on pond scum. Wait, it;’s much worst..its like the pus that infects the mucus that cruds up the fungus that feeds on the pond scum
Christian Bale was arrested for allegedly beating up his sister and mother. Now, why don’t they make THAT into a movie? Always the same in Hollywood, making the make believe come true.
I wonder if fame and money is actually corruptive.
Not that the moguls need any more “fairness” thrown their way, but employees of all the studios have access to free screenings. Members of each guild have access to free screenings. Grabbing a print seems more like a perk of being a fuck-over-the-little-guy-my-entire-life-ionaire. If I could do that, I would. My home theater’s probably better than most movie theaters. Have you been to your local AMC lately?
First off ‘Truth is Never Told on Sreen’ lets give Christian Bale his day in court not that this nonsense will ever get that far.
If Bale was to beat anyone you think they’d be able to make it to the nearest Police station to make a complaint under their own power?
Also, aren’t we forgetting the age old lesson about people with money? The more money people have, the more they expect to get things for nothing.
I don’t blame these people one bit. The movie going experience is a mere shadow of what it used to be. People bringing their children, people talking on their cell phones, high ticket prices, high parking prices, the 6′4″ person who sits right in front of you (because he can), long lines, and people bringing their children (I can’t say that enough – stop bringing your children to the movies, people). I would want a print too.
Haha, you said Podunk. Greatest word ever.
Couldn’t Redstone send one of his minions to buy the Chinese boot that the Mexican kids are selling on every corner in the Valley?
When I first read this my first reaction was “how unfair! can’t Redstone just buy out a theatre in LA rather than prevent a bunch of people in ‘podunk’ from seeing it?” But then after reading the comments, I have to agree- I loved going to a movie theatre as a kid but nowadays living in New York, it’s a nightmare. Not only are the other theatregoers rude (who taught my parents and me how to behave in a movie theatre and how is it that people can’t be bothered to SHUT UP during the movie? During PS I LOVE YOU a woman in front of us who had been talking throughout the entire film said “Ireland” in a normal speaking voice when the locale of the movie shifted there..and now we use it as a code word to describe incredibly stupid people who point out incredibly obvious things in the loudest and most inappropriate voice possible) but the theatre going experience is expensive (we went to see MAMMA MIA this weekend here in New York City.. we each paid $12 and then got a bottle of water and a medium popcorn.. that totaled over $50 for two people.. to see a movie!!) so tell me Nikke, why WOULDN’T anyone with the financial means watch any movie they could in some semblence of privacy and comfort?
I should add here, that I, for one, don’t mind the ads, trailers are part of the movie going experience but I do feel that if the theatre is getting paid ads for tv shows and cars and whatever, shouldn’t the tradeoff be that the ticket price should be lower? I mean, I’m paying for advertising that the theatre owner is making money from.. WTF??
Warner Borg–
I don’t think Christian Bale’s elderly mum would have a problem making it to the police station to swear out a complaint (if, indeed, it actually happened). What’s the guy weigh, a buck-forty? Less?
I’m with you on your other point about the wealthy being deadbeats, however.
Redstone and the other moguls should go to the movies once in awhile. It’s a fact that by sitting in the audience at the AMC the moguls would get to firsthand experience the “moviegoer experience”– and Redstone and his elk would get to firsthand see who the audience is, how they react to movies, etc. It’s so sad that moguls don’t even want to have the firsthand experience of going to the theatres. It’s time to get the moguls back to the basics.
When I worked at Paramount there was a person whose sole job was to get prints of our films for those who requested it and to get prints of other studios films for our folks who wanted them….stressful job and the hours sucked. Always scrambling on weekends…
Ummm can Sumner even keep his eyes open to actually WATCH movies these days? Ran into him recently and was stunned at the deterioration.
Here In Flyover –
Bale is listed at a minimum of 6 feet tall. I’d say he weights in at about 180 – 200lbs. He’s no little guy. I also don’t think his mum is elderly. The guy was born in ‘74 so she’s probably somewhere in her mid to late 50’s.
Man, I need a life.
Growing up, my father worked for the Lew Wasserman-Universal and he’d bring home prints on the weekend … yes, indulgent I know, but what a great education I got on the movies. Hey, it’s a perk and with the way the economy and biz is these days, I guess you really can’t complain. But, the image of Sumner sitting at the local AMC is priceless. Regarding Bale and what may or may not have happened, as the blogger pointed out earlier … YOU CANNOT BELEIVE WHAT YOU READ ON-SCREEN … except for this posting!
He’s a great actor and can you imagine what pressure he’d been under … who better to snap at than Mom and Sis. I really do feel it’s much ado about nothing!
God bless him .. er, Batman! And, wasn’t EMPIRE OF THE SUN a great movie?
Nothing about TDK’s Monday numbers? Almost $25M? Biggest non-holiday Monday record (Spider-Man 2, Indy 4, and Pirates 3 were all holidays)? Under 50% drop Sunday to Monday?
The monday numbers are in, and this blew away all non-holiday mondays.
$24.4M.
That’s an insane number, for comparison, Spidey 3’s monday was only 10M. TDK widened it’s lead over spidey from 7 million to over 21, on a monday.
Also, not only does TDK have the 4 day record, it already passed the previous 5 day record in 4 days, and it’s only a million away from the 6 day record.
It looks to hit 200 million in 5 days, a new record and 3 days faster than the previous movies.
Simply astonishing numbers, and showing amazing legs – most movies would kill to have a weekend day like this, much less a monday. I can’t believe some idiots have said that the numbers have been disappointing.
You know if the Sumner Redstones etc in the business had to sit in a real movie theater with a real audience for JUST ONE MOVIE, they might see why so many people aren’t making the effort to go see movies in theaters anymore and waiting for DVD releases instead. And things might finally improve in the theatrical experience.
Just sayin’
and people are upset with Redstone getting a print because…? Warners owns Dark Knight, and they are perfectly within their rights to send prints wherever they damn well please, including to a mogul’s screening room or whatever. It’s a business decision for them – is it worth pulling a print that might generate 20k? Sometimes, yes. It’s a perk of the business, and one that certain people get to enjoy while others have to go slog it out with the regular folks.
I think a more important question is why congressmen/women fly on charter jets at taxpayer expense…
Isn’t this movie piracy? Is the MPAA going to go after these people for sharing movies?
SHARING IS STEALING
“Redstone and his elk would get to firsthand see who the audience is”. I’m sorry refusetosay, I know you meant ilk, but the image of Sumner Redstone taking an elk to the movies just made my day.
Downloaded it Friday night, groused about it Saturday.
Toby Emmerich apparently asked for a print of DARK KNIGHT, and Warner accidentally sent him DARK MAN.
He didn’t know the difference, and thought Heath Ledger was great.