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The Hollywood Reporter has Godzilla Minus Zero heading for a $32 million opening with The Cat in the Hat at number two, which is the kind of sentence that should make nobody feel bad about American moviegoing. The Film Stage says the sequel serves “monster and man at incredible scale.” The quieter story is further down World of Reel’s weekend list: Club Kid, Jordan Firstman’s first feature, which The Film Stage calls “a bittersweet, tremendously moving debut.” On the Pass: 34 Godzilla fan screenings through AMC, and free Club Kid passes in Las Vegas and Seattle on Monday night.

Christopher Nolan told Deadline the DGA is “holding the studios to account” on copyright, while Camerimage founder Marek Zydowicz told The Hollywood Reporter that “cinematographers are artists, not technicians.” In Taiwan, Korean producers warned Variety that AI could make filmmaking costlier than the 35mm era, an argument we did not have on our bingo card. And World of Reel reports Dumont made his next film, The End, entirely with AI. Four headlines, four different fights: labor, authorship, money, and one auteur who skipped the debate and shipped.

IndieWire has nine pros, cons and open questions about the New York Times paying a reported $330 million for it. James Gray, talking to World of Reel, aimed wider: first reactions, star ratings and the Tomatometer, and what they would have done to 2001. He is probably right, and also, a lot of us are going to log this weekend’s Godzilla with four stars and a joke. Both things are true.

Robert Pattinson screen-tested for Bond, per THR and confirmed by two more outlets, which is two more than most Bond rumors get. Sebastián Lelio, who directed A Fantastic Woman, has died at 52. The trailer for The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth is out, Fincher directing Tarantino’s script with Pitt; we have a 1iota premiere listing for Los Angeles on the 17th. Kogonada’s microbudget Hong Kong film Zi gets an IndieWire review. World of Reel has published its first Cannes 2027 lineup guess. It is November.

Box Office: Godzilla Minus Zero Roars Toward $32M Opening Ahead of The Cat in the Hat

Godzilla Minus Zero Review: Takashi Yamazaki Serves Monster and Man at Incredible Scale

Club Kid Review: Jordan Firstman Delivers a Bittersweet, Tremendously Moving Debut

Christopher Nolan Says DGA Is Holding Studios to Account on AI and Copyright

Camerimage Founder Marek Zydowicz: Cinematographers Are Artists, Not Technicians

Korean Producers in Taiwan Warn AI Could Make Filmmaking Costlier Than the 35mm Era

Bruno Dumont Completed His Next Feature The End Entirely With AI

The New York Times Acquires Letterboxd in Reported $330M Deal: 9 Pros, Cons, and Open Questions

James Gray on Instant Reactions, Star Ratings, and What the Tomatometer Would Have Done to 2001

The Day in Cinema, Saturday, November 8

Exhibitors spent the fall testing how much information an audience actually needs before buying a ticket, and the answer turns out to be: a rating, a runtime, and a Monday night. Variety notes that advance word-of-mouth tours and mystery slots are drawing younger crowds back into midweek auditoriums. On the Pass, AMC Screen Unseen has twenty-four newly indexed Monday rooms across twelve cities from Boston and Atlanta to Detroit and Phoenix, alongside free Gofobo passes for Ti West’s Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol in San Francisco, Seattle, and Austin.

The Hollywood Reporter has Keanu Reeves and Chad Stahelski developing an animated John Wick prequel feature, while Deadline reports Rosamund Pike will headline the psychological thriller Feed for mid-size theatrical release. One project trades bruised stuntmen for animation; the other bets that a tight mid-budget thriller still belongs in a dark room rather than a streaming carousel. If you want the physical stunt version right now, David Leitch’s How to Rob a Bank has free Amazon MGM passes in Washington, Boston, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles on Monday night.

Robert Pattinson will receive the American Cinematheque Award in Beverly Hills, per Variety. Searchlight Pictures has set 35mm advance screenings of Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. Focus Features opened RSVP passes for Simon Stone’s Elsinore in Portland and Seattle. Ti West’s gothic adaptation of Ebenezer begins its national advance tour on Monday evening.

Rosamund Pike to Star in Psychological Thriller Feed

John Wick Animated Prequel Feature in the Works With Keanu Reeves

Robert Pattinson Set for American Cinematheque Tribute

The Day in Cinema, Thursday, November 5

Even when streaming platforms back prestige features, expanding theatrical theater counts and advance repertory screenings remain the primary engine of cultural conversation.

From debut directors emerging out of festival sidebars to veteran auteurs returning to physical production, this week’s reporting underscored the durability of director-driven cinema.

Recovering the week’s quieter developments in documentary financing, archival restoration, and international distribution.

Rosamund Pike Set to Star in and Produce ‘Feed’, Body Horror Movie From Leslye Headland

Keanu Reeves Set to Return as John Wick in Animated Prequel Movie

New York Times In Advanced Talks To Buy Letterboxd For Reported $330 Million

Robert Pattinson to Be Honored With American Cinematheque Award

Helene Hahn Loyd, Former Disney and DreamWorks SKG Exec, Dies at 78

An Animated Film Made in Excel Sums Up the Pointless Impulse to Create

The Week, Considered: Why the Shared Theatrical Room Still Sets the Cultural Agenda

Behind the port glass, twin projectors, cue marks, and manual changeovers turn every screening into a live performance that cannot be replicated by an automated digital playlist.

Across Los Angeles, New York, Portland, and Chicago, repertory calendars and advance screenings are drawing younger audiences who treat the theater as a civic gathering place.

Inside the Projection Booths Keeping 35mm and 70mm Changeovers Alive

Rather than treating nightlife as mere spectacle, the camera stays close to faces in motion, capturing the split-second transitions between performance and exhaustion.

By anchoring its formal restlessness in genuine affection for its ensemble, Club Kid announces a filmmaker attentive to both rhythm and emotional truth.

In Frame: Club Kid and the Electric Vulnerability of a First Feature

Every set piece is built around clear spatial geography, allowing the editing to generate tension from physical cause and effect rather than visual clutter.

Experienced in a full theater, its rhythmic escalations and dry comic beats demonstrate why tight genre craftsmanship belongs on a large screen.

In Frame: How to Rob a Bank and the Kinetic Precision of the Modern Heist

IndieWire and Film Comment both spent the week tracking the autumn surge in 35mm and 70mm special engagements, where new releases share booth time with archival restorations. Rather than treating photochemical prints as museum pieces, studios are booking 35mm previews for contemporary ensemble dramas to get audiences out of the house on a weeknight. On the Pass, Wild Horse Nine screens on 35mm at the Alex Theatre in Los Angeles next Thursday, and Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey continues its 70mm run.

Across The Film Stage and World of Reel, the week’s festival dispatches kept returning to the same point: a packed local premiere changes how a movie travels. In Portland, Pray for Pow brings the Arsenic ski-film premiere (Chandelier, 200 Breaths, and Highly Favored) to Next Adventure on Thursday night, while Lionsgate and Gofobo have opened advance passes for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping across eighteen cities ahead of its November 20 release.

Pedro Almodóvar’s Bitter Christmas sets its November repertory and arthouse expansion, per IndieWire. Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky screens early at Alamo Drafthouse Bryant Street in Washington on Tuesday night. Siân Heder’s Being Heumann opens free advance passes in San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Charlotte.

Why 35mm and 70mm Special Engagements Are Driving Fall Arthouse Attendance

Pedro Almodóvar’s Bitter Christmas Sets North American Theatrical Rollout

The Day in Cinema, Wednesday, November 4

Rather than burning marketing capital on a single nationwide opening weekend, the sharpest autumn releases are letting word of mouth compound across coastal and regional art-house circuits.

When film criticism engages deeply with form, performance, and directorial craft, it gives audiences a reason to seek out unfamiliar work in a communal room.

By pairing new releases with retrospective series and filmmaker Q&As, neighborhood theaters are turning moviegoing back into a recurring civic habit.

The Week, Considered: Platform Expansions, Festival Word-of-Mouth, and the New Repertory Economy

Every archival booking begins on a hand-wound inspection table, where splices, perforations, and leader stock are checked frame by frame before a reel is cleared to travel.

Modern restoration labs balance photochemical fidelity with contemporary theatrical projection standards, ensuring that shadow density and grain structure survive the transition from vault to auditorium.

For programmers and audiences alike, the arrival of a physical print turns a standard screening into an event with real stakes, connecting the room directly to the material history of the medium.

The Quiet Logistics of Festival Print Traffic and Celluloid Restoration

Free describes the price, not a seating guarantee. Advance screenings may be overbooked or first-come, first-served. On The Pass, we label four distinct admission models: RESERVED SEAT means a confirmed seat assignment subject to check-in deadlines; FIRST COME means passes are overbooked and seating is granted in arrival order until the auditorium is full; RSVP means registration is required with the organizer, whose confirmation terms govern entry; and GIVEAWAY / RAFFLE means passes are awarded by lottery or contest before showtime. A reserved-seat ticket confirms a seat, subject to entry conditions. An RSVP asks you to confirm attendance; check what happens next. The provider’s terms take precedence.

For free, first-come advance screenings, aim to arrive 30–60 minutes early. Popular events may warrant more time. This is a general recommendation, not a theater rule. Follow any specific arrival instructions. With reserved seats, allow time for check-in and check late-entry deadlines, since unclaimed seats are often released 15 to 20 minutes before showtime. An hour in line is not a universal ritual.

Have your ticket or confirmation ready before joining the check-in line. Check whether mobile passes are accepted or a printed copy is required. Look for identification, guest and accessibility instructions. If anything is unclear, ask the organizer before you travel.

Recheck the time, venue and availability with the provider. A working booking link does not mean seats remain. Unknown availability stays unknown until confirmed. Even a confirmed listing can change; your pass and the event’s entry conditions matter.

Silence your phone and follow the theater’s recording restrictions. Recording is generally prohibited; check the event’s policy. Keep bright screens and conversations out of the screening. The audience came for the same thing you did.

The Pass helps you discover screenings. The issuing provider handles tickets, check-in and admission. Follow the source link for current instructions, access arrangements or changes. General advice here never replaces the organizer’s conditions.

How to Get the Most Out of Advance Movie Screenings

On select Monday evenings, AMC Theatres dims the lights on a movie that hasn’t opened yet—and doesn’t tell the audience what they bought a ticket to see until the studio logos roll. Called AMC Screen Unseen (and Scream Unseen when the selection is horror), the program pairs a discounted reserved-seat ticket with an unreleased theatrical feature Days or weeks ahead of its nationwide opening.

Before every Screen Unseen, two pieces of factual metadata appear on the listing: the MPAA rating and the approximate runtime. Because studio release calendars only have a handful of upcoming films within five minutes of a specific runtime and rating, regular attendees treat the listing like a parlor game. Even if you never check the speculation threads, the rating and runtime tell you the scale and tone of the evening before you leave home.

Unlike free overbooked press previews, Screen Unseen is a paid reserved-seat ticket—usually five to seven dollars. Studios use the program when they believe a film plays best with an eager, curious crowd that chose to be in a theater on a Monday night. Word of mouth starts immediately after the credits roll, without the friction of a traditional pass line.

Because Screen Unseen runs like a standard commercial showtime, your seat is reserved, concessions are open, and trailers still play before the feature. The unspoken pact of the room is simple: let the mystery hold until the title card appears, and give an unfamiliar movie twenty minutes to establish its rhythm.

AMC Screen Unseen, Explained

For more than a hundred years, 35mm celluloid was the standard gauge of theatrical projection. Four perforations tall per frame, a 35mm print carries organic photochemical grain, physical reel changeovers, and a warmth in skin tones and highlights that digital projection emulates rather than reproduces. In a well-maintained repertory booth, 35mm turns a screening into a living performance.

Standard 70mm film runs vertically through the projector at five perforations per frame, offering more than three times the image area of 35mm. Originally championed for roadshow epics like Lawrence of Arabia and 2001: A Space Odyssey—and revived in modern cinema by Paul Thomas Anderson, Christopher Nolan, and Brady Corbet—70mm delivers extraordinary fine detail without losing the tactile texture of film stock.

Not every theater with IMAX on the marquee is projecting film. True 15-perf 70mm IMAX runs 70mm film horizontally through the projector—fifteen perforations per frame, roughly ten times the frame area of 35mm—filling a towering 1.43:1 screen. Dual-laser IMAX can also fill a 1.43:1 screen digitally with remarkable contrast, while standard multiplex Xenon or single-laser IMAX rooms project a 1.90:1 digital image. When a listing specifies 70mm IMAX, you are seeing the largest photochemical format in cinema.

Match the projection format to how the film was made and why you are going. If a film was shot on 65mm or finished photochemically, seek out a 70mm or 35mm print. For intimate dramas and archival revivals, a sharp 35mm print in a 300-seat repertory house beats an oversized auditorium every time.

35mm, 70mm, IMAX: What’s the Difference?

Even the most industry-heavy festivals—Sundance, Toronto, New York, Telluride, SXSW, and Seattle—sell thousands of individual tickets to the public. Industry delegates pack the opening-weekend premieres and leave by Tuesday; the second half of a festival is where general audiences can walk into world-class screenings, encore winners, and filmmaker Q&As at face value.

When a festival screening says Sold Out, it almost always means the public ticket allocation is gone—not that every seat in the room will be occupied. Badge holders double-book and miss screenings constantly. Ten to fifteen minutes before showtime, festival staff count every empty credential seat and sell them to the rush line in order. Bring a book, dress for the weather, and join the line 45 to 60 minutes early.

Most major festivals release returned sponsor and industry holds between 7:00 AM and 9:00 AM on the morning of the screening. Refreshing the festival box office at breakfast—or volunteering for a four-hour theater shift in exchange for screening vouchers—unlocks seats that looked impossible weeks earlier.

The biggest mistake at any film festival is spending all week chasing two titles that will open in commercial theaters a month later. Pair one anticipated premiere with a restoration, a shorts program, or a director you have never heard of. The film nobody is talking about on Monday is often the one you are still talking about in December.

How to Get Into Film Festivals Without a Press Badge

An advance promotional screening happens weeks before release to build word of mouth on a finished locked cut. A test screening happens months earlier—while the editor and director are still working—and is organized by dedicated market-research firms like NRG, ERm Research, or Preview Free Movies. Invitations are filtered by age brackets and moviegoing habits so the studio can see how a balanced four-quadrant audience reacts.

Because the cut is unfinished, security is strict: you sign a non-disclosure agreement at check-in and seal your phone inside a locked pouch. On screen, you might see unfinished visual effects—wire rigs, grey pre-visualization models, or green screens—and hear a temporary score borrowed from another movie entirely.

When the house lights come up, every audience member fills out a detailed survey grading the film from Excellent to Poor, flagging scenes that dragged or confused them, and naming characters they wanted to see more of. Research moderators then invite twenty attendees to stay in the front rows for a recorded thirty-minute conversation while the filmmakers listen quietly from the back of the auditorium.

The best directors don’t treat a test screening as a committee vote on the ending; they use the room as a barometer for rhythm and clarity. You don’t need a survey to tell you whether a joke landed or a reveal felt earned—you can hear 300 strangers lean forward or shift in their seats in real time.

What Actually Happens at a Test Screening?

When a movie ticket is free, human nature takes over: rain, traffic, or a late meeting keeps 30 to 50 percent of pass holders at home. Because an half-empty auditorium kills the energy of a comedy or thriller, studio field reps issue two to three passes for every general-admission seat in the house.

Walk into a first-come advance screening and you will often see the center two rows taped off for press, theater guests, and VIPs. Field reps hold those seats until 15 minutes before showtime, then drop the tape and fill every open chair from the general line.

A blockbuster premiere at an IMAX theater draws a line ninety minutes early; a Tuesday night drama at a suburban multiplex rarely fills before the thirty-minute mark. Check the admission badge on The Pass before you head out so you know whether your pass holds a seat or a place in line.

Your Ticket Isn’t Always Your Seat

A studio can spend tens of millions of dollars on billboards and pre-roll ads, yet most moviegoers still decide what to see on Friday night because a friend texted them on Wednesday. Renting a 300-seat auditorium for a free advance screening costs a fraction of a single television spot and turns 300 local movie lovers into first-hand witnesses.

Laughter and tension are contagious. Studios schedule heavy word-of-mouth screening tours for original films, crowd-pleasers, and genre pictures because the collective electricity of a full theater is the strongest argument for seeing a movie on the big screen.

Historically, advance passes were scattered across dozens of regional promotional lists, studio microsites, and radio giveaways. The Pass indexes those verified sources in one place so audiences who care about cinema can find their way into the room.

Why Studios Give Away Free Movie Tickets

Opened in 1926 in Northeast Portland and run as a non-profit cultural institution, the Hollywood Theatre is one of the premier repertory houses in North America. Equipped for 70mm, 35mm, and 4K projection, its calendar swings effortlessly from kung-fu marathons and archival restorations to visiting filmmaker Q&As.

In Northwest Portland, Cinema 21 has anchored the city’s independent film diet since 1925, pairing first-run international cinema with weekend director retrospectives. Downtown, Living Room Theaters offers intimate screening rooms for festival winners and independent releases.

Portland is a city of neighborhood movie houses that refused to disappear: the 1923 Laurelhurst Theater on Burnside, the Clinton Street Theater (one of the oldest continuously operating cinemas in the country), Montavilla’s Academy Theater, and the grand Bagdad Theater on Hawthorne.

Major studio advance screenings in the Portland metro frequently land at Regal Lloyd Center, Regal Pioneer Place, and AMC Progress Ridge, while repertory series and filmmaker appearances anchor the independent houses. Set your Pass location to Portland, OR to track both on one calendar.

Where to Watch Movies in Portland

A repertory cinema—sometimes called a revival house—programs films after their initial commercial run. Watching a classic or cult film in a dark room with two hundred strangers transforms a familiar title: jokes land differently, silence feels heavier, and you notice details in the frame that vanish on a living-room television.

Good repertory programming is a form of film criticism. Instead of an algorithm nudging you toward the same ten titles, a human programmer pairs a famous masterpiece with the obscure thriller that inspired it, or builds a month-long series around a cinematographer, a composer, or a single year in cinema.

Look at the format note on any repertory listing: a 35mm archival print carries the history of every theater it has traveled through, while a new 4K restoration often debuts in repertory houses months before a physical disc release.

A Beginner’s Guide to Repertory Cinema

The most memorable nights at the movies—advance screenings, 70mm engagements, one-night repertory prints, and visiting director Q&As—almost never happen on a whim at 7:00 PM on Friday. Checking your local calendar once a week lets you claim passes and reserve seats while the room is still wide open.

When a film premieres at Cannes, Venice, or Sundance, months can pass before it reaches your city. Using Track on The Pass and enabling city alerts ensures you hear the moment an advance screening or local run is scheduled.

The easiest way to expand your taste is to buy one ticket a month to a movie you know almost nothing about—whether a mystery screening, a repertory matinee, or an international premiere at a neighborhood theater.

SAMPUTNAM

A body of work.

Pray for Pow: Arsenic Film Premiere · 2026

What’s next.

PRAY FOR POW: ARSENIC FILM PREMIERE

The complete picture.

In good company.

Cal Carson

Harald Hellström

Vishnu Skis

Good films lead somewhere.