A roadshow theatrical release (known also as reserved seat engagement) was a term in the American motion picture industry for a practice in which a film opened in a limited number of theaters in large cities like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Dallas, and San Francisco for a specific period of time before the nationwide general release. Such releases were shown only once or twice a day, usually with an intermission. Although variants of roadshow releases occasionally still exist, the practice mostly ended in the early 1970s.
Many of the films given roadshow releases were subsequently distributed to regular movie theatres. This was called a general release, and was akin to the modern day wide release of a film. However, there are three important differences between a roadshow presentation of a film and today's limited releases:
- a) Films shown as roadshow releases were nearly always longer than the usual motion picture, sometimes lasting up to four hours counting the intermission. There were no short subjects accompanying the film, and rarely any movie trailers.
- b) Roadshow presentations were always shown on a one or two-performance a day, reserved seat basis, and admission prices were always higher than those of regular screenings. Unlike today's limited releases, seats had to be reserved, one could not simply buy a ticket at the box office and go in to watch the film. The two-performance-a-day screenings were usually limited to Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. During the rest of the week the films would be shown only once a day.
- c) Souvenir programs were often available at roadshow presentations of films, much as souvenir programs are made available when one goes to see a Broadway play or musical.
The roadshow format had been used since the days of silent films, but the rise of widescreen and stereophonic sound in the 1950s made it especially attractive to studio executives, who hoped to lure audiences away from television by presenting films in a way that an audience at that time could never hope to see at home. Possibly, the first film ever shown in a roadshow engagement was the French film Les Amours de la reine Elisabeth in America in 1912. Films shown in roadshow format before 1953 included silent epics such as The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916), The Covered Wagon (1923), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), The Ten Commandments (1923), Ben-Hur (1925), The Big Parade (1925), and other films such as The Phantom of the Opera (1925), the first Oscar winner Wings (1927), the very first feature length part-talkie The Jazz Singer (1927), the silent film Chicago (1927) (based on the play that later inspired the Kander and Ebb Broadway musical and Oscar-winning film), Show Boat (1929) (a part-talkie based not on the 1927 stage musical but on Edna Ferber's original novel from which the musical was adapted), The Desert Song (1929), Rio Rita (also 1929), Cecil B. DeMille's The Sign of the Cross (1932), the all-star Oscar winning Grand Hotel (1932), the Oscar-winning biopic The Great Ziegfeld (1936), the classic films Lost Horizon (1937), Gone with the Wind (1939), Fantasia (1940), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) and The Song of Bernadette (1943), the wartime tear-jerker Since You Went Away (1944), Samuel Goldwyn's Oscar-winning postwar epic The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), the flamboyant Western Duel in the Sun (also 1946), and the biopic Joan of Arc starring Ingrid Bergman (1948), as well as some other DeMille epics, such as Samson and Delilah (1949). British films that were shown as roadshow attractions included the Olivier Shakespeare adaptations Henry V (1944 in England and 1946 in the U.S.), Hamlet (1948), and the ballet film The Red Shoes (1948).[1] Warner Brothers' A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), the first Hollywood sound version of the Shakespeare play, was also given a roadshow release,[2] as was the 1951 religious epic Quo Vadis. The theatre exhibitors of Quo Vadis, however, took the unusual step of opening the film in two New York theatres simultaneously, where it was shown in roadshow format in one theatre, while the other one ran the nearly three-hour film in the more conventional, "continuous performances" manner.[3]
In a roadshow release, an often large-scale epic film would open in larger cities in an engagement much like a theatrical play or musical, often with components such as an overture, the first act, the intermission, the entr'acte, the second act, and the exit music. The overture should not be confused with the main title music. The overture, recorded without a picture on film (and years later on tape), was always played before the beginning of the film, while the lights were still up and the curtains were still closed. (Movie theatres until the 1980s had curtains which covered the screen, and which would open when the show actually began.) As the lights dimmed, the overture ended, the curtains opened, and the film began with its main title music and opening credits. Likewise, the exit music should not be confused with the end title music. The exit music, also recorded without a picture on film, was always played after the end of the film, while the lights were up and the curtains were closed. As the lights came on, the end title music ended, the curtains closed, and the exit music began.
An early example of this was Gone with the Wind (1939). Running almost four hours in length, the film was divided into the above components, so that the film patron can experience the film as if they were seeing an actual play in a theater.
The original theatrical release of Walt Disney's Fantasia, presented in Fantasound in selected large cities in the U.S., never had an overture, intermission music, or exit music (though it did contain an intermission). Fantasia was first released in the roadshow format, and was originally presented without on-screen credits to perpetuate a concert-going experience—the printed souvenir program, given out to patrons as they entered the theater, presented the film's credits.
The original New York run of Cyrano de Bergerac (1950), starring Jose Ferrer and based on Edmond Rostand's 1897 play, was likewise presented in a roadshow format (that is, one or two performances a day), although the film is only two hours long, was not produced on a large budget, and does not contain an intermission.[4]
With the rise of television, beginning in 1952 and continuing through the early 1970s, studios tried to bring movie audiences back to theatres by making widescreen epics, again using the "roadshow" formula. As a result, there was an avalanche of roadshow films during those decades, among them This Is Cinerama (1952), The Robe (1953), Oklahoma! (1955), the Olivier Richard III (1955), Cinerama Holiday (1955), Helen of Troy (1956), the Audrey Hepburn - Henry Fonda War and Peace (1956), the all-star Around the World in 80 Days (1956), The Ten Commandments (1956), Seven Wonders of the World (1956), Giant (1956), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Raintree County (1957), Search for Paradise (1957), Windjammer (1958), South Pacific (1958), South Seas Adventure (1958), the Sidney Poitier-Dorothy Dandridge Porgy and Bess (1959),[5] Ben-Hur (1959) with Charlton Heston, Disney's Sleeping Beauty (1959) (an animated feature only seventy-five minutes long with no intermission), John Wayne's The Alamo (1960), Spartacus (1960), Exodus (1960), Can-Can (1960), Scent of Mystery (1961), El Cid (1961), King of Kings (1961), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), the Technicolor Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962), How the West Was Won (1962), The Longest Day (1962), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), The Cardinal (1963), Cleopatra (1963), Richard Burton's Hamlet (1964), My Fair Lady (1964), The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), The Sound of Music (1965), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), the Olivier Othello (1965), Doctor Zhivago (1965), The Great Race (1965), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965), Battle of the Bulge (1965), Khartoum (1966), Cinerama's Russian Adventure (1966), Hawaii (1966), The Blue Max (1966), Grand Prix (1966), Half a Sixpence (1967), Camelot (1967), The Happiest Millionaire (1967), Ice Station Zebra (1968), The Lion in Winter (1968), Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Oliver! (1968), Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (1968), Where Eagles Dare (1968), Star! (1968), Funny Girl (1968), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968),Paint Your Wagon (1969), Sweet Charity (1969), the musical Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), Ryan's Daughter (1970), Patton (1970), Song of Norway (1970), Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Young Winston (1972), The Great Waltz (1972), The Cowboys (1972), Man of La Mancha (1972), which had no intermission, and others.
Many of these newer roadshow releases, including the Disney Sleeping Beauty, were shown in six-track stereophonic sound, a then non-standard feature of motion pictures. West Side Story (1961), although shown in 70mm and six track stereophonic sound, was originally intended to be shown with intermission, but was, in most areas, shown without one in order to increase the tension in the plot - an idea recommended by the filmmakers themselves. The DVD includes options for watching the two-and-a-half hour film both with and without a break.
In 1961, The King and I, which had originally been shown in 35mm and without an intermission, was re-released in a 70mm format with an intermission and six track stereophonic sound, and shown in a roadshow format. The film had originally been made in Cinemascope 55 and was now re-released in a process called Grandeur 70.[6]
Many films made in the various larger widescreen processes, such as Todd AO, MGM Camera 65, and Super Panavision 70, were given roadshow presentations. Films made in three-camera Cinerama always received roadshow releases. The special requirements needed to show films in Cinerama - a theatre with a huge, ultra-curved screen, three projectors running simultaneously, and seven-track stereophonic sound - made it impossible to show its films in wide release unless the picture was converted to standard one projector format (i.e. Panavision).
There were three notable exceptions to the standard roadshow release format, all Shakespeare productions. One was the 1965 Othello, which was essentially a filmed record of the already famous Laurence Olivier 1964 London stage production, shot in a movie studio, but on enlarged stage settings. The nearly three-hour color film, made in Panavision and shown in 35mm and mono sound in many areas, was shown in 70mm and six-track stereophonic sound in only one engagement in London in 1966,[7] and, being a film that lay somewhere between a photographed play and a true motion picture, did not make use of the spectacular vistas that 1960's widescreen epics usually boasted. While it had no overture, entr'acte music, or exit music, it was shown on a two-performance-a-day basis with an intermission, as nearly all roadshow releases were. However, it (quite deliberately) was shown in U.S. cinemas for only two days,[8] in contrast to the lengthy engagements which most roadshow films were granted.
The same was true of the Richard Burton Hamlet, which was presented onscreen in limited two-day engagements throughout the U.S.. Filmed over two days in a quickie black-and-white process called Electronovision, which resembled a 1960's videotaped broadcast, this three hours plus production featured none of the epic features that were a standard of roadshow theatrical release - no impressive scenery, beautiful costumes, or stereophonic sound, only an intermission halfway through the performance. It was not even, strictly speaking, a full-scale film version of the play, but merely a visual recording of a performance of it at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, with a live audience. It was the longest film version of Hamlet to that date.
Another exception was Franco Zeffirelli's hugely successful 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet, which, although photographed in beautiful settings and certainly having the look of an epic, was shown in most areas in monaural sound (although its three soundtrack albums were all made in stereo), and at a screen aspect ratio of 1.66: 1; that is, roughly the width of today's average movie screen or HDTV screen, not the very wide screens required for films made in Ultra Panavision, Cinemascope, Todd-AO or any of the other ultrawide processes invented in the 1950s. (The Mexican release of the film, however, did use six-track stereo and was shown in 70mm.)[9]
Similarly, the 1968 film version of James Goldman's The Lion in Winter, although a filmed-on-location roadshow release, was shown in Panavision and Technicolor, but with mono sound. It was only in Australia and in its 1973 London re-release that it was shown in 70mm and stereophonic sound.[10][11][12]
It was common practice for studios to cut some of these epics for general release in order for theaters to book more showings a day and present the film at reduced "popular prices", especially if the film ran longer than two hours. Sometimes this was done to a successful film, such as South Pacific, but more often to one that had been a notable flop, in an effort to make it a success on its second run. As a result, some of these films have not been seen in their entirety since their first release, as the original edited footage is either missing or no longer exists. With the work of film preservationists and restoration, such roadshow flops as the 1935 A Midsummer Night's Dream, Joan of Arc (1948), and Fantasia (1940), along with the hugely successful films For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), Spartacus, Lawrence of Arabia, and Around the World in 80 Days, all of which had significant footage missing, have been restored in recent years to match the filmmakers' original intent. However, several extremely popular long films, such as Gone With the Wind and The Ten Commandments, have never been released in edited form, and were nearly always shown on a two performances-a-day basis.
Frequently, unless the film was exceptionally long, the intermission would be eliminated when it went into general release, in order to save fifteen minutes and possibly squeeze in more showings.
The practice of roadshow presentation began dying out in the 1970s, partly due to the rise of the multiplex. As they began to increase in number, and as more and more "skyscraper" hotels and office buildings took the place of the oldtime movie palaces, theatre exhibitors began showing long films in a more informal format. Francis Ford Coppola's Oscar-winning epics The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974), for instance, were shown without intermissions and with more than two performances a day, despite their extreme length, as was Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1975). (Barry Lyndon was shown with an intermission however.) The last film musical to officially receive a reserved seat engagement was the 1973 Lost Horizon, a financial and critical disaster. The Towering Inferno, a highly successful disaster film about a trapped group of people in a burning skyscraper, was widely shown with an intermission, but seats were not reserved, and there was no overture, entr'acte or exit music. A similar case was the 1977 political thriller Twilight's Last Gleaming, which ran two-and-a-half hours, and was shown with an intermission, but not on a reserved seat, two performances-a-day basis.
In the late 1970s, only three films (two popular and one a legendary disaster) received a reserved seat engagement. Michael Cimino made the successful film The Deer Hunter, which was a commercial and critical success, winning the Oscar for Best Picture. In its initial run, it was blown up to 70mm film and given a roadshow release. Francis Ford Coppola, director of The Godfather, made Apocalypse Now, another three-hour epic which garnered some favorable reviews and is now considered one of his best. The film had a difficult production history, and after five years of production it premiered in a US reserved seat engagement in 70mm.[13] It became a great financial success, and made even more money years later when the director's cut was released. After Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter, another film by Michael Cimino premiered in 1980. This was Heaven's Gate, which is infamous for being one of the biggest box office bombs ever. It had a roadshow release, like Apocalypse and Hunter, and premiered in a 70mm blow up version with an intermission. The roadshow engagement was the shortest in history, for only three theatres held the screenings. Its New York run lasted three days, the Toronto run was shown once, and the Los Angeles engagement was cancelled.
By the 1980s the practice had largely been abandoned, as the rise of the multiplex and competition from cable TV and home video began forcing changes in the nature of film industry. The 1984 film Amadeus, for example, although nearly three hours long, was not shown in a road show format and did not have an intermission, while 1982's Gandhi was. Kenneth Branagh's four-hour Hamlet (1996), filmed in color and 70mm with six-track stereophonic sound, was not shown in a road-show format, and had no overture, entr'acte music, or exit music, but it did have an intermission two-and-a-half hours into the film. More recently, Robert Redford's 1998 The Horse Whisperer, although 170 minutes long, was not shown with an intermission nor in a road show format. Neither was Dances with Wolves (1990), another three-hour film. However, The Right Stuff (1983), although not given a roadshow release, did have an intermission because of its length of three-and-a-quarter hours. It is quite likely that, had Amadeus, Dances with Wolves, and The Horse Whisperer been made thirty years earlier, they would have received full-blown roadshow releases (although Mozart's somewhat salacious dialogue in Amadeus would have had to be severely expurgated).
The latest film to be shown with an intermission (aside from most Hindi musicals, which generally have one) was Gods and Generals, but it was not shown in a strict roadshow format, as performances were not limited to two per day, and seats were not reserved.
In 2006, the film Dreamgirls, based on the Broadway stage musical, was given a three-theater road show release, with reserved seats and program guides. Tickets were significantly higher priced than normal, at $25. The film itself was not shown with an intermission.[14]
In 2008 and 2009, the four-hour biopic Che, starring Benicio del Toro as Che Guevara, was shown in a roadshow format for a limited time in a number of large cities.
Today, a similar theatrical release practice of first premiering a film in larger cities is more common, mainly towards the end of the year, in order to qualify for film award consideration, including the Academy Awards. In many cases, such releases will have a better chance at being nominated for the Oscar. Such recent films that have gone the limited release route include 2004's Million Dollar Baby and The Aviator, 2005's March of the Penguins, and 2009's Disney film The Princess and the Frog- these and other such limited release films eventually opened wide. Sometimes this is done to allow a film to receive a wide release shortly after the first of the year, while qualifying for the previous year's Academy Awards. Often, smaller films (often art and independent) will receive an initial release in New York and Los Angeles, and later expand to other cities based on results; this is called "platforming" or a platform release. Some platform releases have fallen victim to this practice, such as Julie Taymor's The Tempest (2010), an adaptation of Shakespeare's play which still had not opened in most cities as of September 2011, by which time it had already been issued as a Blu-ray DVD. By late February 2012, it was turning up on cable TV.
However, it is important not to confuse releases such as March of the Penguins, Million Dollar Baby, and The Princess and the Frog with the old-fashioned roadshow release. None of those films were shown with an intermission, or on a two performance-a-day basis.
- ^ "Peachtree Art Theatre - Eagle Lion Films". Lane Brothers Commercial Photographers Photographic Collection, 1920-1976. Georgia State University Library. 1948-12-29. http://www.library.gsu.edu/spcoll/collections/av/lane/view.asp?action=info&ID=12043&db=lanecb. Retrieved 2011-09-23.
- ^ "The New Pictures". Time. 1935-10-21. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,755216-2,00.html. Retrieved 2011-09-23.
- ^ http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9900EFD8113EE73BBC4153DFB767838A649EDE
- ^ Crowther, Bosley (1950-11-17). "'Cyrano,' With Jose Ferrer in Title Role and Mala Powers as Roxane, Opens at the Bijou". The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=2&res=9506EFD61738E73ABC4F52DFB767838B649EDE. Retrieved 2011-09-23.
- ^ Crowther, Bosley (1959-06-25). "Samuel Goldwyn's 'Porgy and Bess' Has Premiere at Warner; Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge Portray Denizens of Catfish Row". The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A07E1DD173BEF3BBC4D51DFB0668382649EDE. Retrieved 2011-09-23.
- ^ http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/wingcs7.htm
- ^ "70mm Blow Up List 1966 - by". In70mm.com. http://www.in70mm.com/library/blow_up/year/1966.htm. Retrieved 2011-09-23.
- ^ Crowther, Bosley (1966-02-02). "Minstrel Show 'Othello':Radical Makeup Marks Olivier's Interpretation". The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D07E0D6163AEF34BC4A53DFB466838D679EDE. Retrieved 2011-09-23.
- ^ "70mm films in Mexico". In70mm.com. 2005-06-12. http://www.in70mm.com/news/2005/70mm_in/mexico/index.htm. Retrieved 2011-09-23.
- ^ http://www.in70mm.com/library/blow_up/year/1969.htm
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063227/
- ^ http://www.in70mm.com/library/blow_up/year/1973.htm
- ^ http://www.in70mm.com/library/blow_up/year/1979.htm
- ^ McClintock, Pamela (2006-11-06). "D'Works takes 'Girls' on road". Daily Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117953449.html. Retrieved 2006-11-06.
