The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

I'm guessing there aren't any fliers this year since there haven't been any in years. Hopefully the public at large will find Willcail's smartphone sitting around, open to the website.

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"I came here to chew bubble gum and kick a**. I'm all out of bubble gum."

You do realise that majority of cellphones are smartphones? Plus flyers are so last century. Time to live in the present. How quaint still using a pc to browse the web.

That's just not fair.

It's like sticking your hand in a box of dog bones, pulling out an empty fist and making a throwing motion while your bewildered pet yanks his head around and drools.

But it's still funny every time.

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Aliens? Us?
Is this one of your Earth "jokes?"

It has always been my idea that the lack of advertisement and fliers are the reason for the decline in attendance. Several perfect examples of probable attendees were just blown off by lack of fliers in time aka HorrorHound,CInema Wasteland and The Columbus Toy Show. 1000s of potential patrons will never know about this event because of lack of fliers at these events. Most of the people on this board need to remember barely anybody in the "real world" know this event exists. Some well placed fliers at Half Price Books,various record stores like Used Kids and various comic stores like Packrat,Comic Town and others might just make the difference.

The website is the flyer. By the way the theater always get fill up. I do have a DSL modem connected to my Airport base or directly connected to my Mac Mini or LG Blu Ray player so I can stream nexflix.

There are a small scatter of empty seats.

Heck owning a smartphone isn't expesnsive anymore. Sprint's Virgin Mobile is selling a LG Optimus Android phone for 99.95.

Attendance is doing just fine.

Attendance is *not* doing "just fine". Is the event surviving? Sure - or at least it seems that way from the POV of a fan who isn't involved with the business side of things. But if you were there for the old Drexel North days, you would remember that the event used to sell out. In advance. And the Drexel North was a much bigger house than the Drexel.

And your continued insistence that there is no need for physical advertising is just bizarre. The website only serves as advertising if people go to it - which they will only do if they know about it.

Advertising to bring in new people could be electronic as opposed to flyers or posters or print ads in the paper - but it would still need to be in places other than just the Drexel's site. And I don't see ads on local film sites, or community event pages, etc. So, the idea that "the website is the flyer" is just... inane.

Yes,I'd say willcail is in need of some kind of medication. Some sort of delusion going on there. Obviously he wasn't there for the Drexel North days or for many of the marathons. His constant ramblings about technology being "cheap" and attendance being fine would show a problem.

Does anybody actually have attendance stats or is everybody just kind of making stuff up based on impressions?

The only stats I know are the ones that are plain to see. As stated above the Drexel North had 700 seats and sold out in advance. The Drexel East has 300 seats and doesn't sell out. Back in the "good ol' days" of the marathon the Drexel put tons of effort into advertising the event, fliers, ads in the paper, heck one year they advertised on the NEW Sci-Fi Channel and they were turning people away at the door and were forced to have a "Mini-Marathon" at the Drexel east to try and satisfy demand.

The biggest obstacle for the Sci-Fi Marathon is Jeff Frank, he refusesd to even discuss the Sci-Fi marathon until after the Drexel is finished with the Annual Oscar Event, I think Jeff has lost his excitment for the event and I wish he would find it again and restore the event to it's prior Glory. If Jeff really has forever lost his excitment for the event than he should let Bruce run with it and move the event to the Grandview along with the Horror Marathon.

Last year at the Sci-Fi marathon Joe and Bruce announced the Date of the Horror Marathon (5 Months in advance) and had already booked several films.....Thats the level of excitment that the Sci-Fi Marathon needs if it's goin to survive.

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Jaws3dfan®
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Geez for people who like living in the past comparing the now defunct Drexel North seating to the Drexel seating is like comparing apples to oranges. The Drexel North days are over get used to it.

Second the ad that aired on the SyFy Channel is what called a local ad insert. It was TWC and or Insight and or WOW inserted the ad.

A person who went to twelve consecutives Science Fiction Marathon starting with the first year at the Arena Grand basied on point of view that the twelve consecutive years I've been going the various theaters that it was near occupencency.

According to your "logic" I can state that The Avengers did poorly just because the midnight screening of The Avengers in Real 3D at the Arena Grand consist of about twenty people.

Stating that the Science Fiction Marathon is in trouble due to a few empty seats doesn't help. Other words you're not helping.

The Twenty Four Hour Ohio Science Fiction Marathon have been going on for twenty five consectutive years. Can't say that for the Horror Marathon when there were at times that it wasn't at twenty four hours or held every year.

Please it is 2012. Mobile devices are replacing desktop and laptops. Come and live in the present and not in the past.

When you can find a way to legally spam mobile phones with ads for the Sci-Fi marathon let us know

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Jaws3dfan®
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According to your logic......Hmmm wait there is nothing logical about anything you have said, so nevermind.

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Jaws3dfan®
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How is this relevant? I'm not in any way, shape or form discounting the website and the forum - they're a great wealth of information for those of us who know about the event, to keep us involved and informed, and to point our friends to.

But that isn't the same thing as replacing advertising.

I'm willing to say that paper advertising is less useful than it once was - and that electronic devices (computers or mobile) are the wave of the future - but that doesn't change the fact that there should be advertisement for the event. If your argument is that paper ads (fliers/posters/ads in the paper) are useless, fine. But then where's the advertisements on websites? On other forums? On the web pages of related events like Cinefest, Horrorhound, Marcon, etc.?

And it isn't comparing apples to oranges to say that the event is probably less profitable now then it was when it was at the North. The North sat more bodies, and sold out. The East seats fewer bodies and doesn't. I'm not willing to say that the event is "in trouble" because I don't have access to the books (and neither does willcail or Jaws3dfan or Infra-kid or most of the others leaving comments). But we have all heard Bruce discuss the fiscal issues of getting guests, or bringing in bigger premieres that have come because of declining revenue.

We're all aware that because of the proliferation of home entertainment options, there is less draw for our beloved marathon than there once was. And attendance at some other local events is also dying down (you can see that Marcon's attendance has dropped for the past few years - and the move to Easter weekend this year was only part of that). Which is all the more reason for low-cost (if possible) advertising to be used.

People who go to comic shops or gaming shops or local sci-fi and horror cons are the kind of people we want at the Marathon. And some of them simply don't know about it. The website is great for them to check out - but they need to be told that the Marathon and the website exist.

So out of curiosity Willcail, when you went to your first marathon at the Arena Grand, how did you find out about it? On your phone? I'd be very surprised if there's a single person out there who doesn't already know about these events who randomly googles "24 hour sci-fi movie marathon Columbus" especially from their Virgin Mobile LG Optimus Android. Seriously, you make the stupidest argument anyone could make when it comes to this. And wtf does your streaming ability and netflix have to do with anything anyone has ever talked about on here? Actually, nevermind. Please don't answer.

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"I came here to chew bubble gum and kick a**. I'm all out of bubble gum."

Good points on all sides guys, but let's try and keep the discussion civil. Just a reminder that if this turns into a shouting match we (The Moderators ... THOSE WITH DOMINION OVER ALL YOU PERCEIVE) reserve the right to lock the thread, move it to the Flame Forum, or delete it altogether.

As always, keep away from personal attacks and try to keep calm about it all and we'll be glad to let the lively conversation continue.

For what it's worth, I for one would love to see fliers for ANY AND ALL of the events, but there unfortunately they do represent an additional cost, they do require more advance notice of dates and bookings and especially in the case of Sci-Fi that's been harder to come by.

The question becomes, does a flier coming out the week of the marathon really pay for the costs? Difficult to say, and something that's been on the organizer's minds for quite some time.

Anyway, we now return you to your regularly scheduled program ... already in progress.

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David A. Zecchini; Creature of the Wheel, Lord of the Infernal Engines
"Damnati Im Ludum" (VitruvianZeke@att.net)