I didn't realize until today how fortunate I was to see Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie in an actual theater. I knew it was small, but *26* THEATERS? Detroit got 1 theater AND I spotted it in the paper AND my mom agreed to drive us 40 minutes across town AND it got pulled after that weekend.
I had a work-study job in college as the head projectionist at our student movie theater. In Spring of 1994, they held a test screening for the MST3K movie on campus and I was paid union projectionist wages to project it (which was a considerably higher amount than my usual work-study hourly rate).
This was a good 2 years before the film was actually released. I wish I still had any of the free swag (t-shirts, stickers, etc.) that I got from that screening.
Just located an ad for the test screening that appeared in the student paper back in April 1994.
I got to see it in Syracuse!
I would have killed to be that lucky.
My mom was a hero for that one, and it's a miracle I spotted it. We got it months after the initial release (April 19), because I remember Striptease (June 26 release) was playing in the next theater over. She took me, my brother, and my best friend from Grosse Pointe to Westland, IIRC.
Yeah, they tried to do it as a roadshow but it made no sense because the marketing was shit, most people missed it
I was living in Waco and drove down to Austin to catch it.
Holy shit. You think you're lucky, I saw it in ALASKA
INSANE!