{"id":76332,"date":"2023-08-10T16:33:44","date_gmt":"2023-08-10T23:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=76332"},"modified":"2023-08-10T16:33:44","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T23:33:44","slug":"oppenheimer-barbie-art-theatre-movie-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/arts-culture\/oppenheimer-barbie-art-theatre-movie-sales","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Oppenheimer\u2019 sales bring windfall to Art Theatre as operators brace for strike-induced slump"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Art Theatre of Long Beach has seen a near 300% increase in ticket sales over the last few weeks as \u201cOppenheimer\u201d continues to pack the house, according to owner Kerstin Kansteiner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is like a pre-pandemic, you know, almost windfall for us,\u201d Kansteiner told the Post. \u201cIt\u2019s been crazy in a really positive way, really well received, you know\u2014lines of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The colossal success of the \u201cBarbenheimer\u201d craze has smashed records for both corporate movie theaters and local film houses alike. But the film frenzy promises to be short-lived, as the Writers Guild of America strike continues to touch every inch of the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all bracing ourselves,\u201d Kansteiner said. \u201cWe\u2019re going from incredible sales numbers to probably one of the biggest slumps we\u2019ve ever seen. \u2026 There\u2019s basically no films available.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next month, the city\u2019s last standing independent movie house will feature an indie film with a queer topic, and Kansteiner says the theater may also pivot to showing older films and re-releases, in a similar model to what the Frida Cinema in Santa Ana uses, but it will need to obtain the license to do so.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Two men walk past the Art Theatre as a 3 p.m. movie, “Oppenheimer,” is about to start in Long Beach, Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not only one of the oldest single-screens, but we\u2019re also a first-run movie theater, which means we still show films that are being released right now,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I think in this incident, we may have to resort to that and show older films.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if the strike were to resolve quickly, getting the film industry back on track will likely be a stymied and staggered effort.<\/p>\n

The success of “Oppenheimer” comes on the heels of another success for the small theatre, “Asteroid City,” which debuted in May. Over the past several weeks, “Oppenheimer” has been filling 100 seats in the theater on average.<\/p>\n

Since the theater reopened up until this spring, it hadn’t seen more than 70 people for a showing, Kansteiner said. Since the Christopher Nolan film debuted, though, the theater has sold around 1,000 tickets.<\/p>\n

It’s been about three or four years since the\u00a0Art Theatre has seen this kind of attendance.<\/p>\n

“Typically, anytime we’d show like a Brad Pitt film, you know, Tarantino, those are the numbers that we used to see,” she said.<\/p>\n

Together, “Barbenheimer” debuted in late July with a combined $235.5 million in a single weekend. Both AMC and Cinemark, which have theaters in Long Beach, reported the double-film debut brought some of the highest-ever box office weekends of all time. And Regal Cinemas, which also has a location in the city, emerged from bankruptcy<\/a> following the \u201cBarbenheimer\u201d boost.<\/p>\n

So, why hasn\u2019t the Art Theatre shown \u201cBarbie\u201d? Kansteiner says the theater was forced to choose between the two highly anticipated blockbusters. The big movie studios will not release two films to single-screen theaters like hers because of the strict requirements to have multiple showings everyday, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were some spirited discussions that went on,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2018Oppenheimer’ is a film that is in every single movie theater, and we debated this before we took the film. We had long discussions like, \u2018Is it even worth it? Should we do this, or are people just gonna go to the multiplexes? And should we show \u2018Barbie\u2019?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the nonprofit-run theater settled on \u201cOppenheimer\u201d simply because the team felt it would do better with the matinee, afternoon and nighttime crowds.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Barbie\u2019 is not an afternoon kind of film,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we just learned yesterday that we\u2019re probably holding \u2018Oppenheimer\u2019 until the 18th because it\u2019s still doing so well. So, there\u2019ll be no chance for us to show \u2018Barbie.\u2019”<\/p>\n

That \u201cOppenheimer\u201d crowd has also brought more business to Art du Vin next door and to the Retro Row corridor in general as movie-goers opt for a post-film drink or bite.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s worth a discussion afterward for sure,\u201d Kansteiner said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite the fact that Long Beach\u2019s only independent theater had to choose between the two blockbusters, it still benefited from the \u201cBarbenheimer\u201d boost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":302,"featured_media":76386,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5322],"tags":[1106,32221,32215,32222,432],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[9454],"class_list":["post-76332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","tag-art-theatre-long-beach","tag-barbenheimer","tag-barbie","tag-oppenheimer","tag-retro-row","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/302"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76332"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76398,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76332\/revisions\/76398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76332"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=76332"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=76332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}