Flick pickin': On and off campus

By PRANITA RAGHAVAN
Collegian Arts Writer

On a typical Friday night in State College, many students make the critical decision of what movie to see. Students mill around movie theaters in town or outside buildings on campus waiting to watch movies ranging from science fiction to romance and everything in-between.

Movies are brought to State College theaters by executives at Carmike Cinema, the company that owns all of the theaters in State College.

"About 90 percent of the films that are made are played in State College," said Anthony Rhead, head of booking at Carmike Cinema.

Movies are released by the distributor with a release patent, Rhead said. Only when they open nationally do these movies come to State College.

"They open in the major cities like New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Atlanta. If they don't do well, the distributor doesn't wide release them and they won't play in State College," Rhead explained.

State College gets the majority of films except for the really artsy, sophisticated films that do not bring in that much commercial revenue, Rhead added.

Joshua Snow (freshman-film and video) does not agree with this assessment.

"There are a lot of movies out there that aren't available to see in State College. For example, independent, low budget movies," Snow said.

However, Snow said he does like the choice of movies on campus.

"They definitely show movies college kids will enjoy," Snow said.

Two other reasons students attend movies on campus instead of off campus is because of proximity and cost.

"The main reason is money," Andrea Brown agreed. Brown (freshman-division of undergraduate students) added that she does go to the free on-campus movies.

"I think that they are pretty good . . . good selections," Brown said.

The majority of these on-campus films are sponsored by the Graduate Student Association and the Association of Residence Hall Students.

Pete Warren, head of the GSA, said the only films that he will not show are any X-rated films or horror films.

"I try not to show films that are amply available in other places," Warren explained.

Warren tries to get movies that do not come to town or come for a limited run. He also tries to pick films that have a long lasting popularity, which draws people to see them again.

''We are also looking to expand so that we show at least two to three films a week," Warren said.

The choices will vary with maybe two popular and one international film or two alternative and two popular films a week. During the fall semester, one popular movie like Speed was shown with a smaller film such as Bittermoon.

Students who live off campus, however, go to off-campus movies more often because they are closer to theaters and because of the availabilty of the films.

"The choice of movies off campus is comparable to most places," said Laurel Tepke (senior-industrial engineering).