Whether a movie made big money at the box office or bombed has little to do with whether it becomes a cult classic. In fact, many cult classics were commercial failures. Cleveland Cinemas acknowledges as much each year when it announces its schedule for Late Shift, its cult film series. The local theater chain has just announced the schedule for the first half of 2016, and it’s an eclectic mix of movies.
The films show at both the Cedar Lee and at the Capitol Theatre. In addition to screening at 9:30 p.m. and midnight on Saturdays at the Cedar Lee, the films at the Cedar Lee will now have a third showing on Sundays at 7 p.m. Tickets to all screenings are $6.
The series commences with Stanley Kubrick’s groundbreaking sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which screens at 9:30 p.m. and midnight on Saturday, Jan. 2, and at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 3, at the Cedar Lee Theatre. In honor of Dr. Dave Bowman, one of the film’s main characters, everyone named Dave who attends the screenings with receive free popcorn. Other (more or less) sci-fi entries on the schedule include Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element (Jan. 16 at the Capitol Theatre), Mad Max: Fury Road 3D (Saturday, Feb. 20 at the Capitol Theatre) and Donnie Darko (Saturday, April 16, at the Capitol Theatre).
Since Late Shift encompasses such an eclectic collection of films, it features Quentin Tarantino’s Blaxploitation send-up Jackie Brown (Saturday, Feb. 6, and Sunday, Feb. 7, at the Cedar Lee Theatre), the Loony Toons/Michael Jordan mash-up Space Jam (Saturday, March 5, and Sunday, March 6, at the Cedar Lee Theatre), the spy spoof Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (March 19 at the Capitol Theatre), the baseball flick Major League (Saturday, April 2, and Sunday, April 3, at the Cedar Lee Theatre), the Sly Stallone action flick Rambo: First Blood Part II (Saturday, May 21, at the Capitol Theatre) and the prison drama The Shawshank Redemption (Saturday, June 4, and Sunday, June 5, at the Cedar Lee Theatre).
Anime icon Hayao Miyazaki is also represented with two films, My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away (Saturday, May 7, and Sunday, May 8, at the Cedar Lee Theatre). They screen as part of a double feature. The series concludes with Road House, a Patrick Swayze movie about “a superstar bouncer.” It screens on Saturday, June 18, at the Capitol Theatre.
