Kendall Square Cinema Employee Union! - Landmark Business News

MyFaceMark?

Sat, 10 May 2008 13:54:28 -0400

Landmark has started its own very exclusive social networking site, so exclusive, that this dude doesn't even have any friends yet.

Landmark Theaters Name Kendall Manager World’s Best Boss

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 19:05:12 -0500

That’s right, Kendall Square Cinema’s very own house manager,
Howie Sandler, was named Landmark’s manager of the year.

Congratulations!

Victory! - IWW Helps Landmark Cinemas Corporation Discover Cash

Sun, 06 Aug 2006 11:31:43 -0400

Posted on:
http://www.iww.org/en/node/2760

Submitted by bruce on Sat, 08/05/2006 - 3:16pm.

Workers at Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley and all Landmark Cinema employees nation wide are about to receive a pay increse.
At Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley the starting wage goes up to $8 per
hour from $7.25. That's if the workers choose to accept it. Landmark
attorney Tom Pavone sent a letter announcing the pay raises to the IWW
along with spread sheet data showing the increase for each worker.

The
IWW-Shattuckunion considers this to be a clear demonstration of union
power and will continue to press the company for gains in benefits and
improvments in working conditions. The IWW in the Bay Area
along with union workers at Kendall Square cinema in Cambridge Mass.,
are the first two Landmark Cinemas to go union. There are
approximately 60 Landmark theaters in total.

IWW-Shattuckunion will hold a rally in front of the Shattuck Cinema on September 1st at 6:30 pm.

NBA hammers Cuban Mavs owner fined $250,000 for Game 5 'misconduct'

Wed, 21 Jun 2006 22:48:28 -0400

Jeez, maybe he can't afford to give us raises...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/basketball/nba/specials/playoffs/2006/06/20/cuban.fine.ap/index.html?cnn=yes

Filmmaker Caught in Battle Between IFC and Mark Cuban

Tue, 04 Apr 2006 12:15:40 -0400

From Indiewire:

Filmmaker Caveh Zahedi is caught in the middle of a growing battle between Landmark Theaters owner Mark Cuban and IFC Films. The theater owner apparently ordered his chain (the leading arthouse circuit in the country) to drop Zahedi's "I Am A Sex Addict" in retaliation over distributor IFC Films' day and date deal with Comcast. Cuban is upset that the cable system has refused to carry his HD Net cable networks. In an open letter to Cuban on his blog (hosted by indieWIRE), Zahedi detailed the situation. Cuban then responded saying that IFC knew better than to try to book the film at Landmark and he encouraged Zahedi to ask IFC to drop the day and date distribution via Comcast. The filmmaker then posted a follow-up blog plea for peace between Comcast and Cuban, hoping to restore Landmark's Berkeley venue for the opening of his film (as advertised):

I would urge you to reconsider your decision about pulling my film. It took me 14 years to make, I put everything I have into it, and I think the film has something important to say. In short, I think you might like it.

Wal-Mart documentary distribution model too radical for Landmark Theatres

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 17:42:24 -0500

An article on eastbayexpress.com from 11/23/05 explains why Landmark pulled the Wal-Mart film at the last minute. Sadly, it wasn’t due to the sudden and complete change of heart of Landmark execs, deciding that they shouldn’t profit off a film which denounces (among other things) Wal-Mart’s anti-union beliefs which Landmark shares. And no, Mark Cuban didn't wake up that morning, give his employees raises and buy them the biggest Christmas goose in town.

It turns out that Landmark simply didn’t know anything about how the film was being released. Once they found out (perhaps someone in the office finally looked at the sneakily named site walmartmovie.com) Landmark decided that they couldn’t make enough money off it with all those hippies having free screenings and selling cheap DVDs. This is totally weird since Outfoxed had a similar distribution model and actually did make money in its theatrical release.

So, what I take from this is…
1) Whomever decided to book the film did little to no research on it (and is unfamiliar with Robert Greenwald's work).
2) Landmark only believes in releasing DVDs the same day as the films if it owns both the DVDs and the theaters.

"If you show a movie over and over before it comes out in the theaters, no one is going to see it."
-Steve Indig, Senior Regional Publicist, Landmark Theatres

Truly, Truly, Truly Outrageous

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 15:07:31 -0400

Mark Cuban, co-owner of Landmark Theatres, who seems to believe that he invented vertical integration of the film industry (United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc., 334 U.S. 131 1948) now seems to believe himself the pioneer of the pay-to-play concept. Called "Truly Indie", the new program is simple. Give Landmark money and they'll play your movie. It's like a vanity press, or a hooker.

Will this give us great films that are too different/controversial/strange to be distributed the traditional route? Will bands of like-minded people raise money on a grassroots level to get films they feel strongly about distributed?

Or will that rich moron from you film class get daddy to write a check to Landmark to get his pretentious, derivative, crappy film distributed?

Either way, Landmark makes money. http://www.trulyindie.com/

Read discussions about Truly Indie here: http://edendale.typepad.com/weblog/2005/10/truly_indie.html