Abilene Reporter News"“I kind of wish the title was different,” said Marcus Monroe, laughing gently at the situation. “That’s why we didn’t put XXX up there, we spelled it out so people would at least think about it before just saying, ‘Oh, they’re showing XXX movies over there?’
“Triple-X”, as Marcus has spelled-out on the M3 Palace Theater’s marquee, is the latest action movie starring Vin Diesel. Its full name is “XXX: Return of the Xander”, but that’s still no comfort to those unfamiliar with the franchise.
Marcus couldn’t say for sure whether anyone might have mistaken the film for a different kind of action movie. But it was more likely that the picture just didn’t have the same draw for the community like Diesel’s other blockbuster action franchises.
The Palace is located at 137 Walnut Street, they show movies Friday through Sunday each week. It’s located next door to the old Baker Hotel.
Back in August I met Marcus and his wife Bea as they were raising money for the new projector. Movie theaters around the country have had to face the difficult decision in recent years to either evolve or die as distributors started dropping physical film copies in lieu of digital files for release.
The effort paid off, the projector and sound system was installed two weeks ago over a three-day period. Bea said there still needs to be a little tweaking with the audio, but the difference between the old analog system and this new one is worlds apart.
When films were shipped as physical prints, the reels arrived heavy, hexagonal cases. A projectionist had to splice the trailers to the feature and then spool the entire thing onto a round steel platter the size of a small dining table. From there it would be fed into the projector and then spooled back onto a different platter.
Now everything comes loaded onto a cartridge the size of a standard hard drive.
“I remember my husband would be here for half a day putting the trailers together, and however many movies,” she said. “Yesterday when we got it in, he was done in an hour. We were like, ‘Whoa! Let’s go have lunch!’”
Instead of splicing them, Bea or Marcus can drag-and-drop the trailers from one menu to another on the projector’s computer screen. The movie is copied onto the projector’s hard drive from the cartridge and a computer key emailed from the distributor unlocks the feature.
“I thought I was going to miss the sound of the film, but no. This is nice,” Bea said. “It was ready, it was on its last screw.”
Ironically the projector’s dimensions are larger than the one it replaced and Marcus said getting the heavy unit up the stairs and into the booth wasn’t easy. The old projector sits beside it, as do the platters which now lean against the wall. Bea said they were thinking of donating it to the local museum.
The beauty of the digital system is not only in how easily films can be procured for it, but in how diverse the system is as well. Marcus described how they might be able to stream live broadcasts like the Superbowl or other events. All it requires is an Internet connection, which he said they would soon be installing.
Even 3D movies are a possibility. It’s an upgrade Marcus said they were aiming for once everything settles down.
The immediate future requires Marcus to not only figure out which films he wants to show, but how well they might do in this town. Just because a movie plays well in Abilene doesn’t mean it’ll do the same in Colorado City.
“You have to know your audience. Sometimes you’re wrong, sometimes you’re right,” he said. “Most of the time I pretty much know what they like, what they’ll come see around here.”
What’s a sure-fire film for Mitchell County?
“Twilight, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Transformers,” Marcus said. “The Marvel movies.”
And the duds?
“Believe it or not, I don’t think Star Wars would have done well,” he answered.
Harry Potter would be in the same boat.
“If it’s a kids movie but it’s kind of dark, people around here won’t bring their kids to see it,” he said. “It has to be a strictly kids movie for it to do well.”
On the other hand, horror movies go over real big, as do recent western remakes like True Grit or 3:10 to Yuma. And oddly, movies shown near midnight like Friday’s screening after the high school basketball game in nearby Coahoma made for a packed house.
If he’s not sure, though, Marcus consults his in-house experts.
“I ask my kids,” he said, and chuckled. “They’re pretty much right, and when I pick a movie that they say won’t do anything and it doesn’t, they’re like, ‘I told you.’”