Oct. 17, 2008
Q: Our family enjoys going to the movies at the Benny Decker Theater on a regular basis. You can’t beat the price, and there is a steady flow of good movies that are shown there. However, I am sometimes disappointed with the decision to not show any child appropriate movies on the weekends. From Sept. 26-Oct. 2 there was only one movie rated under PG-13 showing and it is was on a weeknight. We don’t live on Yokosuka base, so driving there from Ikego on a school night doesn’t work out for us. I’ve also noticed that some of the movies shown at Benny Decker were also shown at the Fleet Theater. It doesn’t seem fair that when there is an “adult” theater, and a “family” theater, that we should lose out on family movies that can be shown over there during the same week.

A: All of our films are selected for distribution by the Navy Motion Picture Service (NMPS) and we have no direct input as to what movies are received. During the summer months, we may receive up to four new releases per week, while in the off-season we average only two movies per week. Additionally, our movies have limited authorized play periods of approximately 3 - 4 weeks so as you might imagine we’re constantly pulling and adding titles to and from the authorized rotation. Currently, we are in the off-season, and we only have a total of 10 movies on hand (one of each), which must support a total of three theaters (i.e. Fleet Theater, Benny Decker Theater and Negishi Theater). Of these 10 movies, all of the titles are rated “R”, or “PG13” with the exception of “Space Chimps,” which has been playing since Sept. 5 and was played in Negishi this past weekend. As a side note, immediately following the summer months, studios tend to release very few “G” or “PG” rated movies for two reasons; first, children are back in school and second, the fall TV series’ resume thereby competing with the film industry for the same patron base. In summary, your suggestion is reasonable and we would like to accommodate it. However, we’re at the mercy of the film industry’s seasonal trends and the negotiations that are conducted between the respective film companies and NMPS. Thank you for your valued feedback and if you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact the Theater Manager, Gregg Hooper at 243-5406 for more information.