Maltin asks: Who’s running this show?

Entertainment Tonight film critic Leonard Maltin has taken a critical look at what goes on behind
his head at movie theaters, indicating that he frequently has to complain to theater managers about out-of-focus projectors and improperly set sound levels. Writing in the August issue of Playboy, Maltin suggests that theaters often only employ professional projectionists in the evenings. “Management figures that if anyone complains during a sparsely attended matinee, it’s cheaper to pay them for their inconvenience with free passes than to hire union men to work all day,” he writes. Moreover, he continues, even at night, a single projectionist may be responsible for numerous machines. “Most of the time, there is no human being at the projector.” As for Kodak’s vaunted Screen Check quality-control program, Maltin concludes, “The last time I saw the promotional trailer for this service at my neighborhood theater, it was projected out of focus. Honest.”