Vegas isn’t a mecca for art films

Max Jacobson

Friday, Feb. 18, 2000 | 8:47 a.m.

It's two o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon, and a bit of encouraging news has just flashed across the desk.

The news is from Alan Pesin, assistant manager of the Gold Coast Twin, one of two Las Vegas cinemas that screen so-called "art films." (The other is Regal Cinemas Village Square 18.) Pesin is sounding quite happy. "We're not such a bad market for art films at all," he announces. " 'Topsy-Turvy' is coming to Las Vegas." (The film opened at these two cinemas Feb. 11.)

The thing is, if you had lived in, say, Los Angeles, you might have been aware of the fact that 'Topsy-Turvy,' which received four Oscar nominations, has been wowing audiences for more than seven weeks there.

One of the first things apparent to a new Las Vegas resident is that seeing independent and foreign films here is more difficult than it is in a city such as Los Angeles. Our selection is far more limited, and the even harsher truth is that some smaller movies don't get here at all.

Now no one is presuming to compare Las Vegas with L.A. That city is, apart from being the center of the movie industry, also the second largest market in the country in terms of population.

Nevertheless, it is food for thought. How does Las Vegas stack up as a market for art films, and what is the prognosis for that aspect of the market? After talking to several experts, the answers become more apparent. And in doing research on these questions, one discovers several interesting facts.

The first source of credible information is Jim Kozak, communications director for the National Association of Theater Owners. "We don't release films," Kozak says, "we just exhibit them. The studios decide on where the movies are to be released." Kozak then explains that all comparatively smaller markets get art films after they are tested in New York and Los Angeles.

When these films do well in those cities, they generally get a much wider release. When they do not do well, the cost of the print itself, coupled with the advertising costs in local newspapers, make it apparent to a studio that the numbers won't add up to a profit in a given market, and they fold the tent.

That is the hard reality for movie buffs who live here, especially those folks who will see just about anything on celluloid. But there is hope, and the ability to understand the selection process for what films make it to which markets is an instructive one.

Las Vegas has, as previously noted, two art houses. One is the Gold Coast Twin -- two theaters with capacities of 211 and 205. The other is a huge multiplex, Village Square 18, which generally devotes a few of its many screens to art films.

Pesin helps secure art films for Gold Coast Twin, a process that he does by committee along with Harry Whitson of the Century Theater chain (who does the actual bookings), and Michael Gaughan, chairman of the board of Coast Resorts.

"It's a fallacy that Las Vegas is weak in the art market because of all the competition in the entertainment world," Pesin says. "We are like any other urban area of similar size, and we have about the same number of screens for art films as any comparable area does."

Pesin goes on to explain the complex process of bringing desired art films to town. "Distributors don't keep Las Vegas on the front burner. First you establish a good relationship with a studio. Then you are permanently on their radar screen, and you will be able to argue successfully as to why a given film will perform well here."

Mark Gill, president of Miramax L.A., has a slightly different take on this subject. Miramax is a commercially successful studio that takes chances on many independent films. It is also the studio that has given us huge hits such as "Shakespeare in Love" and "Life is Beautiful," both pictures originally thought of as art films that ended up making mega-bucks in wide commercial release. (In no small part because of the power of the Academy Awards.)

"I don't have the exact figures at hand," Gill says, "but Las Vegas ranks somewhere between 90 and 100 in the art market." That inauspicious rank, according to Gill, places Las Vegas near cities such as Lansing, Mich., and Madison, Wis., two college towns with much smaller populations.

"We market according to appeal," Gill says. "The movie 'Smoke Signals' has Western appeal, so we thought it might do well in Las Vegas. But as in the case of 'East Is East,' a new comedy about a family from Pakistan, we don't see it performing in your market."

This is the time of year when art films that do garner Oscar nominations make the transition to commercial release. Janet McTeer, the protean actress starring in the film "Tumbleweeds" (which opens March 3 at Gold Coast Twin) has just gotten a best actress nomination. Now the film will go into wider release. Ditto for "Topsy-Turvy."

That's what happened when "Shakespeare in Love" first opened. Miramax opened the film all over town, and no one did really well with it because it opened long before the Oscar nominations were announced. After it won for best picture, it became a huge hit.

"Art films have a tough road anywhere," Pesin says. "A cinema just can't survive purely as an art house."

Gold Coast Twin is a good example. It's the last twin in Vegas, and plans are already underway to replace it with a multiplex. The 3,000 screens just added to the 34,000 nationwide in 1999 are ever on the increase, and just about all of these new screens are in the multiplex format.

Las Vegans who love the art film can only hope that the bigger chains keep us on their radar screens.