Man, I Got Flack For This!

The Westates Theatres








0 stars



Hey, it's how I felt before the phone call



A few years ago I, along with everyone I knew, were almost beside ourselves with joy when the Westates Theatres upgraded to stadium seating. The older theaters got revamped, and we were given a brand-new stadium that could contend with big city cinemas.



But as the years have gone by, I have found more and more reasons to dislike this theater company, specifically the monopoly it holds on movies in St. George and the surrounding area.



For the past few months I have been highly anticipating two movies that I think would have blown me out of the water with their entertainment values. The first was "The Warrior's Way," about a ninja who leaves his clan and joins a rag-tag settlement of cowboys in what looks to be an abandoned theme park in an alternative universe.



Now, this does sound hokey, but is hokey not the number one ingredient in many of our most favorite films?



The second movie I was looking forward to is a movie that has been getting some Oscar buzz on internet movie sites: "The Black Swan." This dark movie by the director of "Requiem for a Dream" and "The Wrestler" has one of the more intriguing trailers I've seen in a while.



This Friday felt to me like Christmas does to a little child. There wasn't just one film out there to see, but two. And rarely do two films come out at the same time that I'm dying to see.



Well, I forgot I lived in St. George, because neither of those films are available to see.



I don't know why. The only reason I can come up with is that the Westates folks are wanting to hang on to the Harry Potter cash cow for as long as possible and refuse to give up time and space to new releases. Even that might be a weak argument, though, because they released "Burlesque" over the Thanksgiving weekend.



If I want to see "Black Swan" or "Warrior's Way," I'm going to have to drive to Las Vegas, which according to MovieFone.com, is the closest city playing both films.



I can only hope someone from Westates Theatres will wise up and start playing movies when they are supposed to be played. I don't want to have to wait around for almost a year, just before these movies' release dates, and see it in that crappy theater behind the mall (something that happened with the movie musical "Nine").



Is it bad practice to show movie-goers a trailer in your theater and then refuse to show the movie itself? This critic says yes. Very bad practice indeed.



What can a phone call do?



It didn't take more than a couple of hours after I wrote my opinion about the theaters before my phone rang today. Who should it be but a higher-up for Westates Theatres. He was irate to say the least that I would post an opinion such as this without first consulting someone in the know.



Yes, that may be correct, so allow me to set the record straight for anyone who isn't as educated on film distribution as our friend in Salt Lake City.



He explained to me that film companies make a certain number of prints per film, and because sometimes those numbers can be low, smaller cities like St. George aren't privy to the new movies.



The manager also reiterated that films like "Harry Potter" are indeed top-grossing movies that bring in the customers, so it's no surprise that a business would take advantage of keeping those types of movies around a little longer.



But while my initial review was that of annoyance because of my inability to see the movies I wanted, the authoritative voice on the other end of the phone was nothing short of irate.



I will not apologize for my dismay at not being able to see the movies I want to see. For future reference, just in case anyone is in the same boat I was, Westates Theatres does what it can to get the movies that will be most profitable, and often show art house films as well. They were a huge contributor to the recent DOCUTAH film festival, too. They do try their hardest to get all the movies they can to St. George, and for that, they are practicing good business.



But the one thing that Westates Theatres is absolutely no good at, is customer service. I would never, and I mean never, call up someone who had an opinion as well as a first amendement right to print that opinion and yell at him or her for almost 20 minutes about how stupid he or she was and how stupid his or her opinion is.



That's what the Westates Theatres higher-up did to me. Keep that in mind the next time you purchase your tickets.