ber of second run theaters nationwide is growing because multi screen second run complexes have been built at the same time that many of the older, single houses have switched to second run as well. The theaters are having trouble staying in business. Utilities are getting more costly, and the theaters are caught in a cost squeeze made all the worse because they cannot pass on costs to consumers. Another problem is that the window is shrinking between the time a film is first released and when it comes out on video, leaving second-run theaters to compete with the local video store (Rouvalis 1992).
Yet, it is not just second-run theaters that are complaining about this new marketing and distribution environment. First-run theaters also see this shorter window as damaging to their business--if a consumer is uncertain about a specific film, he or she may simply wait a month or two to see it on home video. Recently, a decision by the distributor of Danc
...