For avid moviegoers like University of Mississippi student Johnna Jordan, the movies showing in Oxford are important, especially during awards season.
“There are times I have had to drive to Memphis to see certain movies I am interested in seeing like ‘Lion’ because they were not showing here,” Jordan said.
Of the major Golden Globe award winners, only “La La Land” (which won the seven awards it was nominated for) is currently viewable in Oxford.
Awards season—that runs from the Cannes Film Festival in September to the Golden Globes in January and ends with the Academy Awards in February—is a sweet spot for movie theater success, but not as much as one might think.
Chip Davis has worked for the Oxford Commons Malco Theater since August 2015.
Davis said there is a slight spike in business during Oscars season, but the busiest time for the theater is usually during the holidays or when an especially popular movie makes it to Oxford.
“Last year when ‘The Force Awakens’ was showing, we were especially busy,” Davis said. “We had to supplement employees from one theater to the next in order to help with the burden.”
Individual theaters have no say in what movies do and don’t make it to Oxford’s theaters, but the buzz surrounding awards season does.
“Occasionally, if movies receive positive attention during awards season, we get them later in the season,” Davis said.
For example, last year the Malco in Oxford was allocated both the “Danish Girl” and “Room” a month later than their release dates due to Oscar buzz.
Ultimately, the corporate offices of the Malco operation make the decisions concerning movie distribution to individual theaters.
Jeff Kaufman, VP of film and marketing for Malco Cinemas, is in charge of deciding what movies are shown in what theaters at what time.
Kaufman said Oxford has quickly become one of the Malco corporation’s more important markets.
“That’s why we gave them two theaters,” Kaufman said.
According to Kaufman, Malco is looking to broaden the distribution of films in Oxford to make sure the two theaters become top-programmed theaters.
That is easier said than done.
Kaufman explained that the decisions made behind the programming of certain films has a variety of factors influencing it.
Malco specifically starts by looking at the release dates of films from major motion picture studios like Paramount or 20th Century Fox and then to the releases of smaller movie companies.
“Every week has different releases. The list goes on and on,” Kaufman said. “Every week I plug the movies from major studios into theaters. We look at what did and did not do well in the previous week and then adjust from there.”
Kaufman explained that as far as movie circulation goes, the playing field is leveled during awards season.
“More movies become readily available to smaller markets during the six week gap of Oscars season, especially during the time when nominations are released,” Kaufman said.
Films that were previously limited then become more available to smaller spheres like Oxford due to more money coming from a successful movie’s studio and advertisers.
During this particular award season, which comes to a peak with the Oscars Feb. 26, Malco is looking to bring possible contenders like “Manchester By the Sea” and “Jackie” to Oxford theaters in the next few weeks.
“We know that even though Oxford is a small market, they have a deep understanding and affection for good cinema,” Kaufman said. “With the town’s combination of students and traditional public, we want to give Oxford the best programming we can.”
This article was a special to The Daily Mississippian from an advanced reporting class.
