Carolyn Fath Ashby
Market Square’s booking agent says Madison audiences love documentaries and films with strong female leads.
Before the Feb. 9 broadcast of the Academy Awards, you might want to catch Best Picture nominees Parasite and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Or Best Actor nominee Antonio Banderas’ performance in Pain and Glory (also up for Best International Feature). Or Cynthia Erivo’s stunning turn as Harriet Tubman. They’re all showing at Madison’s hidden gem, Market Square. The theater celebrated its 30th anniversary last year, quietly plugging along as a second-run movie house that also has landed some art films and surprises in recent years.
In addition to providing discount access to the big screen experience — $3.50 tickets, every show, every day — Market Square has filled part of the independent and international cinema gap left by the departure of Sundance Cinemas. In 2016, Carmike Cinemas bought the Hilldale theater as part of a billion-dollar deal that made it part of a chain of 650 AMC theaters.
As AMC has moved that theater toward more mainstream fare and away from international and art films, Market Square stands out for its more adventurous booking choices. It has even premiered some independent and independent foreign language films.
(left to right) The Biggest Little Farm, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, RGB
The theater’s film booking agent, Ruth Hayler, says that she watches for excellent films that might not have a first run in Madison. After Step, a documentary about teenage girl dance groups, won the audience award for favorite documentary at the 2017 Wisconsin Film Festival, Market Square hosted the theatrical run.
Hayler has since kept her eyes open for films that have been passed over in Madison. But the second-run status of Market Square limits her ability to premiere films in Madison.
“The distributors want to do everything they can at full price first. But the smaller distributors have last choice on the booking,” Hayler says. She has to wait for distributors to decide that it is better to get screen time at a discount theater than no screen time at a full price theater.
“A24, the distributor for The Last Black Man in San Francisco, was not getting any firm commitments from the other Madison theaters, and I was ready to play it and keep it on a screen for a while. We ended up playing it for a month,” says Hayler.
Hayler also looks for films that still have potential after they open elsewhere. “The multiplexes do play the art films occasionally, but they don’t let them run very long, and people often miss them,” she says. “When we pick them up and give them more of a chance, people see them with us.” The Lighthouse and Parasite benefited from strong word of mouth when they returned to Market Square.
Hayler would have brought Jojo Rabbit and Pain and Glory to Market Square in early January, but she had to wait for the Oscar nominations to be released to see if the first-run theaters would bring them back. After Jojo Rabbit got a Best Picture nomination it ended up at AMC, but the only place to see Pain and Glory is at Market Square.
Hayler says Madison is a strong market for documentaries — RBG, Maiden, and Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins, ran for multiple weeks. The top hit at Market Square last year was The Biggest Little Farm, about a documentarian and his wife who created a farm outside Los Angeles; the film played for nine weeks.
“Films with strong female roles are also doing well, better than in my other markets,” Hayler adds, citing Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Judy, Harriet, and The Farewell.
Hayler says suggestions made to Market Square manager Deana Thorson and her staff make their way to her, and that she keeps them in mind when booking. “I’d love to play the best films out there that I can get a hold of.” Keep that in mind when deciding the best way to spend $3.50 of your entertainment budget.
