In San Dimas, ‘Bill & Ted’ Have Muscle

With “Terminator 2” doing heavy business at box-offices across the nation, it’s hard to imagine that any theater owner would pull the movie in favor of “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey,” a movie that is No. 3 in box-office standings.

But that’s what happened in San Dimas where the two fictitious party-on dudes Bill and Ted supposedly reside.

Bill and Ted have bumped Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Terminator 2” from opening this Friday at the Canyon Theater, the only theater in San Dimas and one of the few remaining independently run theaters in Los Angeles County.

When it was reported last week that the Canyon was not showing “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey,” theater owner Gene Harvey was perplexed by the uproar. “With all the attention we got from the media . . . it made me think we better go ahead and play the picture while it’s hot,” Harvey said. “If we didn’t play it soon, people were probably going to stampede the theater or something.”

Harvey denied his decision not to book the movie was a snub. It’s just that his theater’s current feature, “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” and the upcoming “Terminator 2,” were expected to bring in bigger bucks, he said.

None of “Bogus Journey,” and very little of its 1989 predecessor, “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” was filmed in San Dimas. But that’s not stopping city officials responding to requests by the film distributor Orion Pictures to stage a few publicity stunts. One suggestion was to name a San Dimas street “Bill and Ted Avenue.” But city officials are said to be negotiating with Orion to have the stars of the film, Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves, appear at the local premiere on Friday.

A spokesman for Orion said the company was checking out the actors’ availability.