http://www.multiplexcomic.com/strips/375.php

The two posters behind James are semi-relevant to this strip (one a little bit more than the other). The predominantly black and white poster immediately left of him (Jason's right) is for It Might Get Loud, a documentary featuring Jimmy Page, Edge, and Jack White, jamming and talking about their craft and stuff. It's been at a few festivals, but will have a limited release this August.

The purple poster is for Soul Power and features a mustachioed James Brown. The film is of and about a music festival from 1974 in Zaire (coinciding with the famous match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman known as the Rumble in the Jungle), with a mix of American and African musicians, including James Brown, B. B. King, Bill Withers, the Crusaders, the Spinners, Miriam Makeba, among many others. (James Brown, B.B. King and the Spinners all played at the Regal in Chicago at some point, earlier in their careers; the Regal was demolished in 1973.) Here is its trailer:

Soul Power is out now in New York and LA, but it should be expanding around the US shortly.

Two other things worth mentioning:

1) This strip marks the debut of a few things drawn by one of my new assistants, Jarrett Quan; namely, some of the largely not-visible cars in the parking lot outside of the theater. Thanks, Jarrett! They look very good up close, too. You can see an enlarged view of panel 1 at TopWebComics and sort of see them (and Devi and James) embiggened for yourself.

2) There is a brand new interview with myself about Multiplex up over at Xcentriz. Go read it!

UPDATE: I've gotten a couple of questions about the capitalization of the world "Black" in panel 6, so I thought I would link to this post in the forum where I explain the rationale behind that.

UPDATE (7/14): Oh, I forgot — Multiplex turned four years old on July 10, making #375 more or less the fourth anniversary strip. (That also means I did roughly 120 strips in the past year — not bad for a "twice weekly" comic!)

http://xkcd.com/609/

http://xkcd.com/608/

http://www.multiplexcomic.com/strips/374.php

http://xkcd.com/607/

http://www.multiplexcomic.com/strips/373.php

Note to my projectionist readers: please feel free to e-mail me if I ever have anything explained, drawn or threaded incorrectly, particularly up in booth. Not having worked at a movie theater, I'm always making (educated) guesses about how things look, and the reference I can find on the internet is not always as clear as I need it to be, so I'm constantly relying on you guys to help me keep it real.

You can see a giant-sized, expanded version of panel one as the new TopWebComics vote incentive.

http://xkcd.com/606/

http://www.multiplexcomic.com/strips/372.php

Happy Fourth of July and junk, my fellow Americans.

Oh! I forgot to mention: thanks to Bob Plummer, supergeek_mike and djpowwow for (separately) suggesting the name "Some Like It Hot" for the name of the movie-themed '50s diner down the shopping center from the Multiplex 10 — from the Billy Wilder movie of the same name, of course. I kicked myself for not thinking of it myself, because I've even had that poster up in one of the booths since I first started using it as a location.

UPDATE (7/6): Monday's strip (#373) will be a little late, but since most of you were out barbecuing and stuff over the weekend (at least my American readers), this strip was probably new to you already. Check back later today, and then Thursday's should be back on schedule.

http://xkcd.com/605/

http://www.multiplexcomic.com/strips/371.php

In case you're not up on your new movies (or don't live in the States or something), the movie they're watching is Michael Mann's Public Enemies, which stars Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, opposite Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis, the man in charge of the investigation that kind of just killed him instead of actually bothering to bring him to justice. (Oops.) Here's the trailer:

The use of handheld digital video cameras on Public Enemies has caused something of a movie-geek controversy, in part because some people think it's inappropriate to use digital video on a period film at all (which I think is silly) and in part because some people think the movie looks like shit.

Me, I'll save my comments for Monday, after Lydia and the gang have had a chance to discuss it first, but I will say this: if you don't mind the way it looks, the story is terrific, and the actors are great.

http://xkcd.com/604/