Boxoffice-August.11.1975

— •
Tercar Is Twinning
Drive-In in Baytown
BAYTOWN, THX.—Tercar Theatre Co.
ol Houston plans to twin the Decker Drive-
In
here.
President Robert H. Park said a new
steel-towered 50 x 100 screen with the linest
reflective surface available will be added.
Cemtury projectors with Ashcraft high
intensity lamps will give the best projection
and light for the screen. Bausch and Lomb
lens
will be used as well as a 200-watt Altec
power amplifier with RCA sound heads.
Park said a white Formica and stainless
steel concessions department is planned. A
Ihanksgiving opening has been set for the
second screen.
Psychic Thriller 'Pyramid'
Lensing at Dallas Sites
DALLAS — "Pyramid." a movie scheduled
for release in December. ha.s been
filming quietly at a number of Dallas sites
for four weeks.
Two of the film's most spectacular sequences—a
bus crash and a party scene—
were shot last weekend. The bus crash was
filmed at Park Lane and Webb Chapel Road
and the party sequence was shot at the
North Dallas home of Sam and Jane Ventura
on Jourdan Way.
The film, which deals with psychic phenomena
and mind-consciousness, stars Ira
Hawkins. C. W. Brown and Toni Barrett.
Captain Edgar Mitchell, a former astronaut,
assisted with the scientific facts.
The film is produced and directed by
Gary Kent and co-produced by Lou Bludworth.
Aside from the Ventura estate. Dallas
locations include the City Hall basement.
Faces Nightclub. Riverchon and White
Rock Parks, a pig farm in Irving and Selectman
Hall at SMU.
Two weeks remain on the Dallas schedule
before the final scenes of 'Pyramid"' are
shot in Hollywood.
Hugo House Operators
Happy Hunt Is Over
Hugo, Okla.—What could be worse
for an exhibitor in a small town than
a traveling circu-s?
Well, ask theatre operators Jack and
Linda Boucher, and they'll tell you it's
a pair of wandering circus elephants
who gamer the lion's share of attention
in
the media. The Bouchers know, bccaase
a pair of elephants were finally
captured here last week after a massive
hunt.
Now, say the Bouchers, they hope
the townspeople will forget about the
pachyderms and start concentrating
again on the other "circus" in town
the Circus l)rive-ln—which they own.
The Bouchers also run the Erie Theatre.
BOXOFFICE :: August ,975
Puppet Film Show Set
For USA Festival Event
DALLAS—The Children's Film Circus,
s|-Kinsored by the USA Film Festival, has
aimounced that the Burger King Royal
Puppet Theatre will be featured opening
night Friday (29).
The Burger King Royal Puppet Theatre.
a traveling puppet show from Mark Wilson
Productions in Los Angeles, will present
The Three Wishes." The story revolves
around the king's birthday and three wishes
he makes on a magic lantern to make all
pollution disappear. Merlin Che Magician,
who is a caricature of Groucho Mar.\, the
Court Jester with his Joke Machine, and
the queen round out the puppet cast.
.After the film show is comipleted, the
audience will be included in a demonstration,
question-answer period for the purpose
of explaining how the show operates. The
entire one-man operation will run approximately
45 minutes in length.
The performance of the puppet show is
scheduled for 6 p.m. in the lobby of the
Bob Hope Theater at SMU Friday (29). It
is free to the public.
In order to be sm-e of getting tickets for
the 800-seat event, interested persons may
now purchase advance sale tickets. A book
of evening tickets for Friday (29)-Sunday
(31) is $5. and matinee ticket books for
Saturday (30) and Sunday (31) are $3. All
single admission tickets are $2 and will not
be sold in advance, only at the door.
Champions Cinema Adds
Extra Shows for 'Jaws'
more than
HOU.STON— -Jaws" attracted
3.500 fans here in its first weekend at the
Champions Cinema here and to avoid turning
away numbers of patrons, the theatre
slated an unannounced midnight screening.
The midnight screening has enabled
several hundred more people to see the
movie." explained John Coles, president of
Entertainment Projects Inc., owners of the
house. "We were surprised by the public
reaction in the area to 'Jaws.' "
Coles said as crowds gather during the
weekends, more midnight screenings will be
added to the regular schedule. Champions
Cinema is the sister theatre to the recently
opened Theatre Deauville where "White
Line Fever" is setting attendance records.
Universal's "Jaws" has topped all previous
records at Champions Cinema .set by
"The Sting" and "The E,xorcist" last year.
During the first weekend there were nine
straight
sell-outs.
Rogers Film Under Way
DICKENS, TEX.—Shooting has begun
here on •Mackintosh and T.J.." featuring
Roy Rogers, king of the cowboys. This is
his first film in 23 years. Rogers explained
that he is tired of seeing excessive sex and
violence on the screen. He will be driving
a battered old pickup truck in the movie
in which he portrays a cowboy widower
who gets a job breaking horses on a ranch
and nicvls a young runawa\ boy.
$3.50-$4 Admission
Predicted in Dallas
DALLAS— I
he S4 niovie ticket may be
just around the corner, according to one
Filmrow observer.
"And in another five years, it will probably
be S5 per person," predicted the exhi'biior.
who works for one of the country's
leading theatre circuits.
"That may sound exorbitant.
But look at
it this way: In 1965. the very lop price for
Dallas movie tickets was S2." he added.
Another Filmrow veteran is more optimistic.
"I think it will level off at S3. 50 for
a while. The customers might revolt if it
went any higher." he said. But after a moment
he pondered, "Of course no one
thought it would go up to $2.50 either."
Both customers and exhibitors have reason
to long for the "gotxi old days." A
dozen years ago not only were the prices
lower—but exhibition was much simpler on
the Dallas scene. Most first-run theatres
were then owned by the Interstate circuit
and were centered downtown. With the suburban
construction boom, additional circuits
—^among them General Cinema Corp..
American Multi Cinema. Rowley-United
Artists and McLendon—have joined ABC-
Interstate in the fierce bidding for first runs.
.\s Dallas develops into one of the Top
Ten moviegoing markets in the nation, distributors
appear more eager for early Dallas
playdates.
No longer do local moviegoers have to
wait several weeks for prominent films to
play Dallas after national releases; movies
open concurrent or even before their New
York-Los Angeles engagements.
The result, say exhibitors, is that they
must often give large guaraintees and assure
lengthy runs to films with unproven boxoffice
power.
For some films (usually surefire hits like
"The Towering Inferno" and "Jaws") exhibitors
here promise distributors up to 90
per cent of the first week's gross and depend
on the concession stands to turn a
large profit. .Some guarantees for entire rims
amount to several thousand dollars. However,
theatre owners point out the terms
guaranteed the distributor almost never influence
the structure of ticket admission.
The whole exhibition problem remains
part of an endless economic circle. Even
with higher prices, movies remain the cheapest
form of mass entertainment available.
Prices of maintaining a theatre and stocking
a concession stand have risen drastically
in the last 10 years, exhibitors point out.
So have the prices of coffee, drycleaning,
newspaper advertising—and, yes, of course,
going to the movies.
Harold King Takes Reins
CRESTON, IOWA — Managing the
Strand Theatre here is Harold King, former
manager of the Fine .\rts Theatre in Fairway,
Kas., a suburb of Kansas City, Mo.
King succeeds Joe Matthews, who has become
manager of Commonwealth circuit
in properties Sedalia, Mo.
SW-1