It takes 'True Grit' to rope a major movie

It's been a rough and dusty trail to the screen in Sisters for the new Coen Brothers film "True Grit."

The film, based on Charles Portis' classic 1968 novel, gallops on screen December 22 at Sisters Movie House.

It ain't so easy for a small theater to wrangle an A-list film during the holiday season. The difficulty of small markets obtaining A-list films during peak holiday periods is further aggravated by an era of opening weekend box office mania and the sheer cost of each film print.

Lisa Clausen, owner of Sisters Movie House, scored a coveted copy for the enjoyment of local Western lovers after much wrangling with Paramount Studios.

The movie is a remake of the 1969 Academy Award winner made famous by John Wayne's iconic performance of the cantankerous marshal Rooster Cogburn. Jeff Bridges fills the main role in this current adaptation, a closer treatment of the original best-selling novel.

"I looked at all the movies coming out for Christmas season way back in October and saw 'True Grit' and knew we just had to have it," said Clausen. "Since we only have four screens it's absolutely critical to program the best possible content for Sisters. So I started e-mailing Emily Heisler, our booking agent in Portland who works with the film distributors. She was worried that the release pattern was not going wide and prints would be hard to come by."

Studios and distributors have a hard time imagining a tiny town as a viable placement for first-run box office, perhaps underestimating Sisters' passionate and sophisticated cinema-going audience. Heisler talked with Paramount and after a few conversations and rounds of e-mails, they agreed to deliver a precious print of "True Grit" to Sisters - with the condition that Clausen prove Sisters' humble local theater in a red barn can generate adequate revenue to support the print.

"We're extremely fortunate to have this movie for Christmas. If you went around the county you'd find very few markets our size with an opening day print of 'True Grit,'" Clausen explained.

"Paramount took 2,800 actual screens across the United States and mapped out their release strategy," said Portland-based Heisler, a 15-year veteran of buying and booking Hollywood movies. "With Sisters, we had to supply like-minded grosses with films Lisa did really well with, like 'Australia,' 'Secretariat' and 'Invictus,' and prove that the theater would be a suitable choice. The audience there is upper scale and seems to read the reviews and if the actor is well established and it's a quality film the people will come. Sisters likes quality films. This is a huge coup for Sisters Movie (House) and we did everything we could to get them to say yes, and they did. So that's good."

"Anything with horses, dogs and old dudes does well in Sisters," joked Clausen.