ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The season is officially changing, and that includes upcoming movie releases.
As Mitchell Theaters owner Brian Mitchell tells it, this past spring and summer saw multiple very successful releases.
“The spring started off a little slow, but then everything really ramped up when we saw the release of 'A Minecraft Movie' and 'Sinners' and the 'Lilo & Stitch' remake. There was 'Jurassic World Rebirth,' that did really well, and 'The Last Rodeo' also played really well for us. The 'How To Train Your Dragon' remake also saw some really good numbers, as did 'F1 The Movie,' 'Superman,' 'Weapons' and 'The Bad Guys 2,' so we were happy with all of that,” Mitchell said. “Throughout the summer, we had some movies overperform and some movies underperform, but all in all, this season did end up slightly better than last year. A lot of people were expecting more, and August slowed down slightly quicker than expected, but we were happy with how the season ended up.”
And even though the fall season is only recently in swing, Mitchell said there is already quite a bit of buzz surrounding some upcoming releases.
“What's crazy is when you get to this time of the year, that's when all the horror/thriller movies start coming up the pipeline, and we've already seen some good numbers from 'The Conjuring: Last Rites,' and there are some others coming out soon we expect will perform pretty well,” Mitchell said. “One movie that's gaining some pretty good buzz is 'One Battle After Another' with Leo DiCaprio, and we're also hearing some good things about 'The Smashing Machine' and 'Tron: Ares.' I've also heard a lot of people saying they're excited about the Bruce Springsteen biopic 'Deliver Me From Nowhere.' I also expect to see big crowds for 'Wicked: For Good' and 'Zootopia 2' later this year and the next 'Avatar' film. There have been a few minor changes to the scheduling, but I think those changes will ultimately be a good thing since there are so many big titles scheduled so far.”
Mitchell added this year is seeing improvement over last year.
“Last year, we were still seeing some effects from the strikes, and at this point, we've got some locations that have fully recovered from that and some that still need a bit of time. There have definitely been more wide releases this year, which has greatly helped, and I feel like that will continue into next year, which is really exciting,” Mitchell said. “It always takes a long time for a movie production to really get going, and when a strike or some other situation hits, it messes with EVERYTHING in terms of scheduling and release dates and all of that. Another thing that's become kind of cool is streamers and studios collaborating on releases, like what happened with 'KPop Demon Hunters' – it was a Netflix movie and then spent a bit of time in theaters and ended up doing really well, and that ends up being great marketing. Also, Paramount was recently bought by the Ellison family, and I'm expecting some big things from that.”
Mitchell said he is also grateful for the wide variety of releases set to be offered.
“It's always great seeing a wide variety of movies in the theaters, and that's what we work to offer. I've said this before, people like a variety of movies at the theatre, and when we can provide that, we see more of them in the seats,” Mitchell said. “We've also kept our ticket prices the same since we bought the theatre in 2009, and we're working to keep those prices, along with the prices of our concessions, affordable for everyone so they keep coming in. There's stress in the world right now, and movies are a good way to help alleviate that because what's a better afternoon or evening out than with a movie and friends/family. There's some magic in being able to come into the movie theatre for a couple hours and escaping from the real world and relaxing.”
With the current release schedule, Mitchell said he expects a successful rest of 2025.
“We'll have a bunch of new titles coming out, though I do expect we'll see a bit of a slowdown in October and November, that's pretty typical for the industry. The holiday box office looks really good, and I expect we'll see some good numbers from that period as well. We're also working to bring more arthouse-type movies to the theaters for people to go along with the more mainstream releases, there's always quite the crowd there,” Mitchell said. “Mitchell Theaters just celebrated 20 years of running the theater in Guymon, Okla., so we're really pleased to have reached that milestone, and we can't wait to keep being a presence in Liberal. Like always, I want to thank all of our customers for choosing our theatres for their moviegoing experience, and I also want to thank our staff for being so amazing and working so hard to take care of our patrons. I also want to remind everyone again Mitchell Theaters is with Fandago now in regards to people being able to purchase tickets online, and we're really excited about that. If you've got a free afternoon or evening this season and you're looking for something to do, come out and see a movie!”
