Attendance at the Marathons is an interesting topic, one which we've previously addressed
here. Yeah, the Columbus Sci-Fi and Cleveland Sci-Fi Marathons have endured fluctuating attendance for years. But the Boston Marathon is actually undergoing a sort of renaissance in terms of attendees. Having the gorgeous, 800-seat Somerville Theater as a semi-permanent home doesn't hurt.
The Horror Marathons are another beast. We had out best attendance in ten years at the 2012 SHOCK AROUND THE CLOCK, but we still didn't sell out the 300-seat Grandview. Meanwhile, the twin Horrorthons on Chicago do very well (in 500+ seat theaters) and the Philadelphia Horrorthon (which doesn't even announce the titles in advance.....in fact, the audience doesn't know what's showing next until it hits the screen) sold out in two hours when tickets went on sale in August.
Now, some of this discrepancy is probably due to stability. The Exhumed Films gang in Philly have been running other shows for 15 years, and have held the Horror Marathon at the same venue for all eight years of its existence. Population size is also a factor; having the larger Chicago and Philly audiences to draw from is a boon. But that doesn't account for everything.
I don't want this to sound whiny, but personal anecdotal evidence (mainly with the Horror Marathon, but in some ways with the Sci-Fi as well) has convinced me that the general tenor of the city is one where a good deal of attendees and potential attendees want us to convince them to come to the Marathons. There seems to be around 150 loyalists who will attend no matter what, but even in our better years we still get folks whose general attitudes reflect a feeling that hey, if there's nothing else interesting going on that weekend, they MIGHT show up for the event.
This is why we created the aforementioned missive on the future of the Marathons. It's also why we've tried to emphasize the communal aspects of the event, the fact that these shindigs aren't just a collection of films, but a cultural happening with all sorts of bells and whistles.
Now, has the relatively mercurial state of the Sci-Fi Marathon hampered things over the years? Yeah. Has the lack of one home for both events hurt? Maybe. Hopefully, this seeming new dawn of the Marathons, both united under the Drexel umbrella, will help things out. But we still need more people to view the Marathons as a highlight of the year, not just as a something that will always be there, ready to be dipped into if necessary.