Cinemas showing older James Bond Films

Jamesbondjr · January 2007

Due to my age I wasn't able to see any Bond films pre 1983 at the cinema, I find it a great shame that I maybe never will see the older films as they were intended. I would absolutely love to see the old Bond films in all their glory.

I think it's a great pity that modern British multiplex cinemas don't re-run old films. I can only speak of the ones near where I live of course, but it is my understanding that the situation is the same nationwide.

My guess is that because they can't know if people would actually turn up, like they would for a new release they could potentially lose money. Sadly it seems cinemas are too interested in making money and don't really care about giving the public what they want!

There are smaller, independent cinemas that re-run classic films. However these are becoming a bit of a collectors item, I know of only one that I could call close to where I live and that is some 30 miles away. And I've never known them to show the Bond films.

Is it the same in other European countries? How about America, Canada and places further afield?

Of course there may be legal reasons that I'm not aware of.

Anybody any knowledge of this?

I am in the process of contacting my local multiplex asking the reasons why, I just wanted to see what everyone else's experience and thoughts of this were!

taity · January 2007

I have a mate who loves movie and told me a rough reason why older movies arent shown at cinemas. The film that the cinemas play are very expensive, several thousand of dollars for an entire movie. Film itself is not cheap. Therefore, for a cinema to run a one off movie means it has the potential to lose alot of money if few people turn up.

In the next few years, I think cinemas will make the move from running copies of movies from film to digital - drastically reducing the cost of showing a movie.

delliott101 · January 2007

There are cinemas here that run older films as one-offs. Sometimes I see ads for midnight showings of films from the '70's or '80's.

Also, with the proliferation of DVD projectors, seeing these at home should give a theater experience!

Gassy Man · January 2007

I live in the American midwest, and there is a summer film series in my city where classic films are shown on the big screen. I don't know if these are top-of-the-line prints or some form that was sold to schools and other smaller screen markets, but they look pretty good. In fact, I was stunned by "North by Northwest," as the images projected were not only lovely but also almost looked three dimensional because of the detail. It was certainly more impressive than anything I've seen from more recent films, "Casino Royale" included. The funny thing is that a Bond film is occasionally shown, but on dates I could not make.

My mother has long commented that what we see of the Bond films on TV, including DVD, does not compare to how crisp and impressive they were on the big screen; her point has been that while films in general were more artistic back then, a significant reason the Bond films did so well was because they just looked so terrific on the big screen. It is a shame that we don't often get to see them the way they were intended to be seen.

Cinemas showing older James Bond Films

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