Jason Delgado: Okay. Yeah. So when and where can people see Arcades and Love Songs: The Ballad of Walter Day?
Ed Cunningham: Yeah, we’re right now having our LA Premier at TCL Chinese Theater, and it’ll be a double bill on Thursday, April 17th.
So next Thursday at six 15. It’ll be King of Kong, and then right afterwards Arcades and Love Songs: The Ballad of Walter Day, plays through that. So, people in LA through Monday, the 21st, so people in LA can go there. But the website will continually update as theaters come on board. Arcades and Love Songs: The Ballad of Walter Day is the website.
And, we’re other theaters want to show it. Theaters are really booked right now. There are a lot of films on the market in theaters, so theater time is really hard to book, but Monkey Wrench Films is working daily, getting other theaters excited and into it. And what’s helping is where it’s played and how it’s been received, which has been phenomenal.
“Walter’s been hearing these songs in his head since 1985.”
The Long Beach screening of King of Kong had a different vibe to it, whereas this one’s more emotional. People at the end of the movie are sobbing. It just has to do with the fact that you root for this guy. You just want him to succeed. And then when he does, and he accomplishes, I, we had one, one of them, our feedback people is a really hardcore dude, he is just a man’s man.
He watched the movie probably three times for us to give us feedback, and he said, I’ve cried every time I’ve watched this movie. So we knew we had something emotionally moving for people. And I think theaters are starting to realize that it’s a great group experience to watch.
So even when it comes on video on demand in May, I want people to get a group together to watch it because it’s very moving and engaging on an emotional level. King of Kong was emotional, and everyone was rooting for Steve and wanting him to do well.
This has a different level of personal journey to it. And seeing a guy who’s had this lifelong dream, Walter’s been hearing these songs in his head since 1985. If you think about just that many years of wanting to do it, and he finally did it, it’s very emotional. It’s fun to watch people in the crowd.
I met a guy there who was a huge King of Kong fan and very mechanical. He’s an IT guy, and I’m here to watch the follow-up, King of Kong. He came up to me after the movie, sobbing and thanking me for making the movie because he expected it to be King of King 2. And what he got was so much different. Here was this guy with a facade almost like a computer, and he had tears in his eyes.
I’m deeply disappointed by how difficult this interview is to read. It reads like a Google voicemail transcript and comes off as incoherent at times. The most egregious error is that it is “Mike J. Nichols,” not “Mike, Jake Nichols.” Anyone familiar with his body of work (Zappa, Echo in the Canyon, John Waite: The Hard Way) knows he is not just an editor who loves editing. This interview does a disservice to the movie, which is enjoyable and should be watched.
Walter Day’s shift from arcade legend to rock opera performer at 74 is nothing short of inspiring. Arcades and Love Songs isn’t just about gaming nostalgia—it’s a testament to chasing dreams at any age. Truly a unique redemption arc!