Art Films In Pattaya

[Jingthing]

Now that the Avenue Mall has a fancy new SF cinema (and I would assume the new mall coming in 2009 will have additional movies screens) what is to become of the ratty old two screener at Royal Garden Plaza?

What I think will happen: either they will show the same movies as everyone else and charge lower ticket prices to attract Thais and cheapo farangs OR they will go out of business.

What a shame.

These screens can and should become the ART HOUSE CINEMA of Pattaya! They could pick up the exact same films as are shown the Bangkok LIDO and HOUSE art house cinemas, and easily charge the same as SF cinemas for these rarer and BETTER films.

Come on Pattaya, Grow up. The market is here.

Edited November 21, 2007 by Jingthing

[MeaMaximaCulpa]

Where is Weho when we need him?

Jingthing, I think this is a mission for Weho; to go see the City Fathers, and in his most pleasant way, ask for this art movie theater to be put in place, to the benefit of us foreigners. With Weho's diplomatic ways, success is virtually guaranteed!

[monsieurhappy]

What I think will happen: either they will show the same movies as everyone else and charge lower ticket prices to attract Thais and cheapo farangs OR they will go out of business.

Well, I am one of those cheapo farangs if you like and I object to being forced to pay maybe double the price to watch the same movie at a different theatre! The Royal Garden cinema is OK in my opinion, in fact I find it a much nicer cinema than the one at Big C. I've not been to the new one at the Avenues yet and don't intend to if I can watch the same film for less money at Royal Garden.

If you want to watch less popular films then you should expect to pay more for the privilege as I don't think the average Pattaya cinema goer will appreciate them. If the cinema feels there is a need for such films then let them show them but it would be better if the cinemas with more screens did this as people would still have a wider choice.

As for the cinema at Royal Garden, leave it alone. If it gets by the way it is operating ,then fine. If not, I don't think by turning it into an Art cinema will make money. Bangkok is a much more cosmopolitan city than Pattaya and obviously bigger, so is bound to attract an audience for the kind of films you want.

[MeaMaximaCulpa]

Joke aside, I think it would be very good to have a much wider offering of films in Pattaya. It seems to me it is currently mainly action movies and "teenage ninja turtle" or whatever you call that stuff.

But of course this will cost a bit, but the punters who would like to see the non-mainstream movies would be ready to pay extra I am sure.

So methinks it is room for all of us, it just takes an eager beaver to organise it...

[Jingthing]

The audience is here already. I don't mean obscure art films. A great example of a great and commercial film that should have been released here is Little Miss Sunshine. The choice of films released in Thailand is very, very, limited and most of them are either international action/violent blockbusters or Grade B or C movies that are thrown to the third world and so bad that they are not even ever released in the US. Anybody who is a real flim fan from the US or Europe knows exactly what I am saying. The only way to know if there is an audience is to try it out on at least one screen. And I agree a higher ticket price for a rarer release is warranted, the model is fewer tickets sold at a higher price. I realize there would be objections to taking away the budget option for the same movies being shown as everywhere else, but I honestly think if they try that they will end up going out of business anyway.

On another note, the Thai movie makers are really slipping. How many gay ghost romps can we take?

Edited November 22, 2007 by Jingthing

[MeaMaximaCulpa]

Now I'm not so sure about this idea for a Pattaya arts cinema anymore...

Plot summary:

Little Miss Sunshine is the story of a few eventful days in the lives of the Hoovers, a family living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Sheryl Hoover (Toni Collette) is an overworked mother of two. Her brother Frank (Steve Carell) is a Proust scholar, temporarily living at home with the family after having attempted suicide in the wake of a failed relationship. Sheryl's husband Richard (Greg Kinnear) is a Type A personality striving to help support the family as a motivational speaker and life coach. Dwayne (Paul Dano), Sheryl's son from a previous marriage, is a Nietzsche-reading teenager who has taken a vow of silence until he can accomplish his dreams of becoming a test pilot. Richard's father, Edwin (Alan Arkin), recently evicted from a retirement home for snorting heroin, lives with the family; he is close to his seven-year-old granddaughter Olive (Abigail Breslin).

And more...

Edited November 22, 2007 by MeaMaximaCulpa

[Jingthing]

Its a comedy, that synopsis tells you nothing. It got stellar reviews and was a big office hit. This is the kind of quality movie Thai audiences are missing:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/little_miss_sunshine/

For a wider releases cinema (forget the term art films) I do think the choice of flims would be critical. There are quite a number of very commercially viable films in the Little Miss Sunshine space that are somewhere between ROLLER BALL DEATH HIGHWAY and a festival type movie with Albanian midgets playing chess while drinking absinthe. And it wouldn't take a genius to program them either. Just read Variety and the box office numbers.

Edited November 22, 2007 by Jingthing

[MeaMaximaCulpa]

OK, if I come across it on DVD I shall give it a fair viewing. It might even be funny.

But I did not think it was this kind of movie you meant by "art" movie.

But then again, I am not much of an art or cultural person anyway.

So there we are, back at square one.

[Jingthing]

Its not only funny its laugh out loud HILARIOUS! Thats my review.

[blaze]

Its not only funny its laugh out loud HILARIOUS! Thats my review.

And here's mine: slapstick disney for children whose parents don't mind them hearing the 'F word'.

[MeaMaximaCulpa]

Hmmm...

Where is the art in all of this hilarious fun?

Any French films by any chance?

Anything anyone?

I was not the one to start this thread...

[PhilHarries]

Personally I wouldn't expect them to do anything but stick with the lowest common denominator and carry on with more of the same. The management of these places are not noted for their forward thinking innovative style. They'd rather plod on in the same old ways whilst the facility gets gradually run down by lack of investment and dies a death of a thousand cuts. The powers that be are often bleating about trying to attract quality tourists to Thailand and trying to move Pattaya upmarket, well how about offering some enlightening entertainment for the QT's, and the discerning long timers, to enjoy. They could start, as suggested, with one screen dedicated to non main stream films and see how it goes. They could even go for a Pattaya film festival although they might struggle getting people to get over the preconceptions of the sort of "films" such an event may show.

[MeaMaximaCulpa]

Phil,

Sounds like good stuff to me. Even though I am not a film buff, I like to view good films, and to have a choice of what to view. Without having to go to the market and buy a pirate copy. I will gladly pay to see a good movie, in the cinema or at home. If nobody pays, who will bother to make new movies?

On that note, I have not been able to get hold of The Simpsons movies/episodes legally recently. So I have to revert to the pirate option, even if I would like to be legit. Go figure...

[Jingthing]

I agree they are too stupid/risk averse to try this kind of idea and I also predict the Royal Garden Cinema will be closed within three years. The model of taking older cinemas and converting into wider release cinemas has worked well in Bangkok Siam Square. I don't see why a newly emerging big city like Pattaya can't provide the same market model.

I am backing off from the idea of art films being commercial in Thailand. The House Cinema isn't making money and may never make money. I am assuming the Lido at Siam Square is making money because they have been operating for several years in a high profile district. My revised idea is a venue for a wider range of releases for quality films that also have a commercial potential. Even in English only and not subtitled in Thai if there is a major expense to add the subtitles although Thai subtitles would be a big plus. A place like Pattaya with so many English speakers can support these kinds of fims.

I, or anyone else. could produce a list of many such recent films that are currently running in the west, that are good movies, that are making money, that will never be on screens in Thailand.

Edited November 22, 2007 by Jingthing