Roadshows would generally mimic a live theatre production, with an upscale atmosphere, as well as somewhat higher prices than during a wide release.
Roadshows were profitable and effective in the early years of cinema, when films spread by word of mouth and releases were more gradual.
The overture, distinguished from the main title music, was played before the beginning of the film, while the lights were still up and the curtains were still closed.
Many movie theaters until the 1980s had curtains that covered the screen, and which would open when the show actually began and close when it ended.
The original theatrical release of Walt Disney's Fantasia, presented in Fantasound in selected large cities in the United States, never had an overture, entr'acte, or exit music.
The original New York run of the English-language film Cyrano de Bergerac (1950), starring Jose Ferrer and based on Edmond Rostand's 1897 French play, was likewise presented in a roadshow format (that is, one or two performances a day), although the film is only two hours long, was not produced on a large budget, and does not contain an intermission.
[5] The color version of Show Boat (1951) was also shown in a roadshow format in some theaters, despite being less than two hours long, and not having an overture, intermission, entr'acte, or exit music.
Many of these roadshow releases, including Disney's Sleeping Beauty, were shown in six-track stereophonic sound, a then non-standard feature of motion pictures.
[8] The King and I (1956), which had originally been shown in 35mm 4-Track stereophonic sound and without an overture, intermission and exit music, was re-released in 1961 in the 70mm format with an overture, intermission and exit music, remixed into six-track stereophonic sound, and shown in a roadshow format.
The special requirements needed to show films in Cinerama—a theater with a huge, ultra-curved screen, three projectors running simultaneously, and seven-track stereophonic sound—made it impossible to show its films in wide release unless the picture was converted to standard one projector format (i.e. Panavision).
However, it was shown in U.S. cinemas for an extremely limited release: only two days,[11] in contrast to the customary and lengthy months-long engagements enjoyed by most roadshow films.
Filmed over two days in a black-and-white process called Electronovision, which resembled a 1960s videotaped broadcast, this three hours plus production featured none of the epic features that were a standard of roadshow theatrical release – no impressive scenery, no gorgeous color, no beautiful costumes, or stereophonic sound, only an intermission halfway through the performance.
It was not even, strictly speaking, a full-scale film version of the play, but merely a visual recording of a performance of it at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, with a live audience.
However The Mexican release of the picture, did feature a six-track stereo surround mix and was shown with its original 1.66:1 aspect ratio matted to a 2.2 in standard 70mm.
However, several long films, such as Gone With the Wind and The Ten Commandments, have never been released in edited form, and were nearly always shown on a two performance-a-day basis.
The last film musical to officially receive a reserved seat engagement was Lost Horizon (1973), a financial and critical disaster.
[18] Francis Ford Coppola, director of The Godfather, made Apocalypse Now (1979), another three-hour epic which received some favorable reviews and is now considered one of his best.
One development that diminished the novelty of the modern roadshow release was that, beginning with Star Wars (1977), stereophonic sound began to be used more and more in films, even ones that were not really big-budget spectaculars.
[21][22] By 1984, the entire roadshow format had also largely been abandoned, as the rise of the multiplex and competition from cable TV and home video began forcing changes in the nature of film industry.
Even though the format had died out, Gettysburg (1993), Hamlet (1996) and Gods and Generals (2003) were screened with intermissions due to their extreme lengths on their original releases.
Titanic (1997) was 195 minutes long, prompting some cinemas to add a short mid-film break or to screen it without commercials for health and safety reasons.
In 2006, the film Dreamgirls, based on the Broadway stage musical, was given a three-theater road show release, with reserved seats and program guides.