Hey guys, I have what seems like should be a simple way to add/remove a MovieClip from memory.  My game has an animated intro MovieClip, set to export from the library.  I can't get this intro MC to be GC'd and I don't know why.  It's adding around 40 MBs alone to my total memory usage.

So I have 2 Document class-level instances:

var curtain:Curtains = new Curtains();  //my Transition MC, moves the game between screens

var currentScreen:MovieClip;  //stores whatever the current screen is.  Gets swapped out when user changes screens.

When the user clicks a button in my main menu, I call a function in my Document Class that adds a transition MovieClip(called "curtain") to the screen. I pass this function the name of a function to call when the transition is done animating. For example, when the user clicks my New Game button, I'll call: "addTransition(loadIntro);"  Passing it the function to call when its done

public function addTransition(callThisFunction:Function):void {

                              curtain.addEventListener("closed", callThisFunction, false, 0, true);

                              //position and add curtain

                              curtain.x=stage.stageWidth * .5;

                              curtain.y=stage.stageHeight * .5;

                              addChild(curtain);

                              curtain.gotoAndPlay(2);

}

Then the addTransition function sets up an event listener on the "curtain" transition.  This will call the loadIntro function when my curtain MC dispatches the "closed" custom event in its timeline.

So, loadIntro does what it sounds like, creates an instance of the Intro class (linked from the library) and adds it to the screen.  Then I make a reference to the Intro class instance ("currentScreen") to store it globally on the class-level.

public function loadIntro(e:Event):void {

                    removeChild(currentScreen);

                    var intro:Intro = new Intro();

                    intro.x=stage.stageWidth*.5;

                    intro.y=stage.stageHeight*.5;

                    addChild(intro);

                    curtain.removeEventListener("closed", loadIntro);

                    removeChild(curtain);

                    currentScreen=intro;

                    intro = null;

                    currentScreen.gotoAndPlay(2);

                    currentScreen.addEventListener("intro done", startTutorial, false, 0, true);

          }

Now, when the user is done watching (or skips) the intro movie, the startTutorial function is called.   This function is SUPPOSED to remove the intro (stored in currentScreen) from the screen and from memory.  Doesn't work.

public function startTutorial(e:Event):void {

                              if (this.contains(currentScreen)) {

                                        trace("remove intro listener!");

                                        currentScreen.removeEventListener("intro done", startTutorial);

                                        currentScreen.stop();

                                        removeChild(currentScreen);

                                        currentScreen = null;

                                        trace(currentScreen);

                              }

                              curtain.removeEventListener("closed", startTutorial);

                              //adds on top of all other elements

                              addChild(curtain);

                              curtain.gotoAndPlay("open");

                    }

I know this is a lot to take in, so I'm very grateful for any help.  This is really holding up a project that I've poured 300 hours into.

Thanks in advance