Bruce White can peg the demographic that typically frequents his business. As owner and programming director of the Bytowne Cinema on Rideau Street, which screens everything from art house to independent to foreign films, White knows the theatre attracts a different sort of crowd than Ottawa’s multiplexes.
“Overall our audience skews a little older, a little better educated,” he says. “Ottawa’s a good town for white-collar, government workers who have university educations. They’re more inclined to see movies from other countries with subtitles.”
These customers are more or less reliable throughout the year. But come February, things change.
Every year between the Golden Globe Awards and the Academy Awards, the media is inundated with coverage of movie stars, directors and film, says White. Suddenly all anyone can talk about is movies – the best movies.
It’s true some of the movies stirring up Oscar buzz this year were huge blockbusters – Avatar, District 9 and Inglourious Basterds come to mind – but the so-called “awards season” also sheds light on films which might otherwise go unnoticed, say White and Lee Demarbre, manager of the Mayfair Theatre on Bank Street, which advertises its line-up as “stuff you won’t see anywhere else.”
It’s a good time of year for these independent theatres. They benefit from the coverage of more obscure movies.
And with more attention paid to these movies – such as the German/Russian/British co-production The Last Station, which received best actress and best supporting actor nominations for Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer – the theatres benefit from more interest in the sort of movies they screen all year.
“When a movie doesn’t get any (coverage), like some of the obscure, small films we play from hitherto unknown, small film-producing countries, less people come than to a film written about in newspapers.,” White says. “The awards season is exploited by everyone involved. The media business sells more papers because there are pictures of the stars and the movie theatres sell more tickets.”
Demarbre, who also co-owns the Mayfair, says he sees a different sort of crowd filling theatre seats this time of year.
“Your 'average joes' who just like to go see a movie, they’re going to try on different movies,” he says. “We can really shine this month because we can show some of these things that might turn on your average viewer to alternative cinema.”
Demarbre says he capitalizes on the hype by trying to screen films that have received Oscar nominations leading up to the awards. Invictus, nominated for best actor (Morgan Freeman) and best supporting actor (Matt Damon) will bolster the Mayfair’s line-up for the last week of February.
White says the Bytowne’s program is finalized too early to include nominees, but he can gamble on which films will fare well. He is ecstatic when a movie in the program is nominated. An Education, a British movie which received a surprise Oscar nod for best film, enjoyed a popular run at the beginning of February. The Last Station will play throughout the last two weeks of the month.
Crysler Paton, a Centretown resident and regular movie-goer, says she is interested in indie and foreign films year-round, but she is more likely to watch them in February.
“I see more artsy movies around Oscar time, in part because they are in the spotlight,” she says.
Both the Mayfair and Bytowne try to capitalize on the hype for as long as they can. The Mayfair will show the Oscars on its big screen for its members on March 7.
White says if someone comes out for a nominee, chances are they’ll see an interesting preview and come back.
“More business for Oscar-nominated films means more business for films in general. If you go once you’re going to go more often than if you had stayed on your butt on your sofa.”