A missed opportunity across the country is the failure to establish a regular, ongoing market for old movies being shown on modern theater screens. Only recently (OK, the late 1990s so not that recently) mass audiences were able to go back and see the original Star Wars trilogy in the theater and in the past year we were able to see more recent, but still years old, films in the theater well after their initial release, including The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Avengers films, and the Batman franchise. But for decades now “art house” theaters from time to time get old releases and screen these old films for a few weeks at a time. Usually the quality is poor, yet it gives new audiences as well as the older crowd that saw the films in their initial release an opportunity to discover or enjoy the films again.
