Her Majesty the Queen had always acted swiftly and decisively. In just one week, she had summoned the owners of theaters in major cities across the country to Fog City, ordering them to renovate their theaters and screen "Pirates of the Caribbean."
Persuading these owners had taken no time at all. Li Wei simply showed them the entire film, and they practically threw themselves at his feet, begging to work with him. After all, anyone with a functioning brain could see that with the advent of film, theater's days were numbered.
Never mind the dazzling special effects. The biggest headache for theater owners was the performance itself.
Theatrical productions required rehearsals, and actors were not robots. They could not perform nonstop. Major troupes like Muse's Eye would never visit small, out-of-the-way towns, and the theater owners in those places could not afford to invite such luminaries anyway.
Even if they managed to secure a troupe, it could only give one or two performances. There was only one troupe, after all. You could hardly chop it up into several pieces.
These were all practical limitations.
But film eliminated those physical constraints completely. There was no need to make actors perform around the clock or spend a fortune inviting major troupes. All you needed was a copy of the film, and you could run as many screenings as you liked, until whatever hour you wanted. You even saved a huge sum on actors' wages!
As for ticket prices, after a series of discussions, they finally agreed to base them on seating. The best seats would be reserved for the wealthy at one shilling a ticket, while the rest would cost between three and six pence, depending on the location.
Film was different from theater. It was not a luxury reserved for high