The DeKalb movie-going audience would rather watch grown men purposely paper-cut their tongues than watch Michael Moore verbally grill Charleston Heston in the touching four-star documentary “Bowling For Columbine.”

Bryan Jeffries, the executive vice president of film and marketing of GKC Cinema, 2160 Sycamore Road in DeKalb, said the process in which films will be shown in movie theaters starts at the studio. The studio first decides on how wide the film will play according to the success rates of previous, similar types of films.

Jeffries watches the flicks on the big-screen two weeks before the release, then judges the movie in accordance to how he thinks the DeKalb population will like the movies.

“DeKalb can handle anything,” he said. “They can take a lot of the edgier stuff, and the R rated stuff, and do very, very well with it.”

Therefore, movies like “Jackass,” that cater to an adult population, thrive in DeKalb.

One of the larger problems with grabbing movies like “Requiem For A Dream,” “Bowling For Columbine” and “One Hour Photo” is the lack of copies of the films.

According to Jeffries, hit films like “Lord Of The Rings” or “Harry Potter” sometimes have over 3,000 prints in production.

Only 150 copies of smaller films like “Memento” or “Y Tu Mama Tambien” might be offered to all theaters, which makes it more difficult to bring such films to small towns like DeKalb.

If NIU students or DeKalb residents want to see a wider variety of movies, Jeffries encourages fans to visit and write in to http://www.gkctheatres.com.

Jeffries also wants students to see the smaller films when they are featured at GKC, like Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Punch-Drunk Love,” which currently is playing at the GKC in DeKalb.

Chaz Wilke, a pre-communication major, would like to see “Comedian” and “Bowling For Columbine.”

“It would be nice for them [the GKC Cinema] to show to the video industry that they do have a very eclectic bunch of movie-goers and they should get the limited-release films,” Wilke said.

Kim Hedrick, a freshman English major, is unhappy that distributors assume which movies the public would like to see.

“I think anything should be able to be shown,” she said.

Until Michael Moore becomes the box office king, beating Spider-man into box office dirt, expect more of the same big-budget action duds and mindless stunt flicks.

DeKalb, bring on the paper cuts.