Why does movie film come on 20 minute reels?
A. They aren’t really “20 minute” reels; they’re 2000-foot reels. It’s just a convenient size for shipping and handling. In earlier times, movies were broken up into camera-size reels. A film camera can handle about 10 minutes of film at a time. The shorter reels were spliced together onto 2000-foot shipping reels for theatrical use. In the 1990s, efforts were made to replace the 2000-foot shipping reel with a larger 6000-foot version, with the idea of reducing film handling at theatres and cutting down on the number of splices needed. The idea never caught on, however, so we’re still using the same size reels that have been used for over one hundred years. HOME February 26, 2004 Q. Why do you display posters for movies and then not show them? A. Here is something to keep in mind when you’re scanning our lobby posters: If a movie isn’t out yet, but the poster is on display, that means WE THINK we’ll be playing the movie. If the movie is already in release, and we’re displaying the post
