Q: First things first, I thoroughly enjoy living in Negishi. Whatever disadvantages Negishi has, it will never change my feelings towards this wonderful, family friendly community. However, I have a complaint about the movies Yokosuka sends our way. Our “totally revamped” theater seems to get the bottom of the barrel movies and sometimes four weeks after they are shown in Yokosuka. There is a particular movie that has been showing in Yokosuka now for almost three weeks, and a short phone call to the Benny Decker theater (Negishi informed me the Benny Decker theater chooses our entertainment) and they informed me that this particular movie will not be on our schedule for at least another 3-4 weeks. By that time, it will be on video. If you want more people to move out this way, don’t you think these small baby steps will help pave the way??

A: Thank you for your feedback. We apologize that you may have received inaccurate information. Apparently the person you spoke with was not fully informed of the scheduling procedures. They should have referred you to the Theater Manager for the correct answer. The movie schedule is always prepared less than two weeks in advance, not the three to four weeks you were told. In total, Yokosuka MWR runs three movie theaters: the Benny Decker, the Fleet and the Negishi Theater. The Navy Motion Picture Service (NMPS) supplies only one print per movie, which must be shared between these theaters. It has been MWR’s practice since we opened the Negishi Theater last November that movies are normally played at least once in Negishi during the first two weeks of their authorized play dates. For weeks where no new movies are received, some titles may be repeated. During this summer alone, Negishi screened every single blockbuster film we received during the same opening weekend as Yokosuka, or the week immediately afterwards. What you may be seeing and not realizing is that for very popular movies NMPS sends them to us twice – we get a first, First Run Over Seas Theater (FROST) run approximately two weeks after initial play runs in the Continental United States (CONUS) commercial theaters, and then these same movies come back to us again approximately 4 - 6 weeks later as regular NMPS releases. So if you missed the first FROST showings in Negishi and only see the follow-up run a month or so later you may very well conclude Negishi is getting movies much later than Yokosuka. I can assure you that is definitely not the case. One very important thing to remember is that the Negishi Theater was never an “official” theater with planned and funded addition support from NMPS. It was renovated by local decision in direct response to Negishi resident imputs and funded entirely with local CFAY money. It was always clearly understood that Negishi Theater had to “share” resources with the Yokosuka theater program and that this would mean slight delays in getting new movies out to Negishi. However, I believe the MWR staff has done a superb job in keeping movie schedules for Negishi up to date with the latest available releases. If you have further questions or concerns, please contact Gregg Hooper, Theater Manager at 243 - 5406 or e-mail him at hooper.gregg@cfay.navy.mil and he will provide you with an answer.