ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

This coming fall and winter movie season is looking to be one of the biggest in history, and area movie theaters are preparing for the influx of moviegoers.

Mitchell Theaters owner Brian Mitchell said this past summer season was very strong for the industry.

“The summer season started out pretty pretty decent when with ‘Toy Story 5,’ and then the end of the summer was just an absolute blockbuster smash with a combination of ‘The Odyssey’ and ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day,’ both of which were HUGE for us,” Mitchell said. “Things started off you know started off actually in the early spring with ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,’ and ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ also did really well. There was also ‘Minions & Monsters’ and the ‘Moana’ live-action remake, both of which also did pretty strong. We really had a good summer stacked with family movies, which is always good for our markets.”

The coming fall and winter, Mitchell said, will have no shortage of big films for moviegoers.

“For October, starting off, there's thrillers in ‘Digger’ and ‘Verity,’ and I think ‘Digger’ is going to be ver unique. There's a share of horror movies like ‘Other Mommy,’ another ‘Street Fighter’ movie and ‘Clayface.’ This fall will also have ‘The Social Reckoning,’ which is a sequel to ‘The Social Network,’ and then an interesting movie by Angel Studios called ‘Angel and the Bad Man’ which is a full-fledged western, which we think will play very well in our theaters,” Mitchell said. “I feel like it will be a good good mix of films for October, and then in November, then that's when the big holiday season hits, and that’ll be starting off with ‘Cat in the Hat’ and ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ to Johnny Depp's ‘Ebenezer’ movie. We’ll also see the release of ‘The Hunger Games: Sunrise on Reaping,’ and one movie I'm really looking forward to is ‘I Play Rocky,’ which focuses on Sylvester Stallone when he was filming ‘Rocky’ back in the 1970s. Then for the Thanksgiving holidays, Disney's got ‘Hexed’ coming out along with ‘Focker-in-Law.’ Then comes December, and there will be a battle between ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ and ‘Dune: Part Three,’ which some people are saying could rival the ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon from a few years ago. Around that time will also be ‘Angry Birds 3’ as well as the next ‘Jumanji’ movie, among others, so I think it's going to end up very strong for us. This summer was about as good or better than pre-COVID-19. It was a good summer, and we're looking to finish the year strong.”

Mitchell said he expects this fall and winter to be stronger than last fall and winter.

“I think, with the momentum we've got going into the end this year, it's definitely going to be better than last year, and having more having more movies released is good because that's just been the hole between both COVID-19 and the writers’ strike and everything else that’s happened in the industry,” Mitchell said. “There has just been so much, and then and then this uncertainty, with the Warner Brothers and Paramount deal – last year at this time, Netflix was trying to buy Warner Brothers, so there’s been this uncertainty in the film market because you've got people worried about losing their jobs. You had people thinking ‘Maybe we're not going to take on these movie projects because we don't know what's going to happen in six months.’ So it’s very very positive news for the theater industry this morning with that merger. Paramount's promising 30 movies a year, with 45-day release windows.”

With the Warner Bros and Paramount merger only recently announced, Mitchell said things are a little early to fully predict, but he expects a lot of positive aspects.

“One of the number one things was the window release being at least 45 days. When COVID hit and theaters were shut down, some some studios were releasing a big movie in theaters the same day it went on streaming, and they found out that's not a very good way to monetize a movie,” Mitchell said. “For the industry, this is a very positive thing having to settle on that 45-day window between when a movie is released in theaters and the first video on demand day. There's just just a lot of positive things going forward that taking a while, taking a while to recover. COVID was tough on theaters, but it's taken a while to recover, and so it's good, and things are kind of getting exciting again.”

With the wide variety of films coming out, Mitchell said he hopes to see a lot of people in the theaters.

“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. 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!”