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Two are working the candy bar and one works the box office till and runs the video rental section as well. When I am finished threading-up, I help to run the box office and candy bar.

All the younger staff leave at 9:30 pm the latest and the senoir guy is with me until 10pm (but he stays and helps out until close because I give him a ride). Pretty limited staff but it is a small town (Midland-16,000). If it is slow that night, I pretty much work alone and do everything.

Just being curious Gordon, but which IMAX do you work at? and is that the only place you work? If possible whenever I'm in the 'big smoke' next, I would love to see the set-up.

I run a fairly busy 4-Plex - with separate TEENY WEENY box office. We get to have a separate cashier - most our other theatres have the box office integrated into the concessions counter... they run Manager + 1 on slow nights.

Basically our slow nights (M-W-Th)
1 Manager/Projectionist
1 Box Office Cashier
1 Concessions/Usher

Busy Nights
1 Manager
1 Projectionist
1 Box Office Cashier
2 Concessions
1 Usher/Concessions Heler

But as manager - we're expected to get back there and help at the snack bar. What else would we do? Stand there and watch??? That'd be nutty!!!

We don't have a ratio of customers vs. employees... although if we were slow... and I didn't send somebody home... I'd definitely hear about it.

quote:

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Originally posted by Dustin Mitchell:
[B]Hey Andrew, how big is your theatre? That's quite a staff .
[B]

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Actually we're probably the busiest theater in Minnesota...there are only two theaters that come even close to what we do.

I work at Mall of America - 14 screens, General Cinema. There are plans for 6 more screens and stadium seating conversions.

We charge the most I know of in our area ($5.50 mat/$8.50 evening -- Seniors $5.50/Children $5.00). Our concessions are all about a dollar more per item and we kick most everyone's butt every day of the week. I've seen close to 20,000 on a Saturday. And I believe we topped that quite a few times during Titanic and the re-released Star Wars and the new Star Wars (granted for Episode I we were showing it 24-hours a day over the weekend).

Scream 3, our most recent big hit...we interlocked two prints for a total of 4 screens and about 1700 seats for 6 shows. That's already half way to 20,000 with sellouts in at least 7 different movies at 2-4 shows each.

Our booth is setup in two sides: east & west. We can interlock any of 5 projectors on the east and any of the seven on the west. But not from east to west--the catwalk between the booths is about the same length as each booth. Just about anything that opens sells out or gets interlocked here.

The closest competition...Regal Cinemas 16 which sells tickets for $4.50/$7.00 and way cheaper concessions with stadium seating and it's brand new only does about 2,000 on Saturdays. But if you saw a show over there you'd know why.

The Police Officers on staff are there because the Mall tends to attract the less desireable element. That and gang fights during Next Friday tend to increase the need. This is why I hide in the booth.

Why are we so busy??? We have a built-in clientel. There are 5 of the Twin Cities busiest bars on the same floor right next to us, plus a Planet Hollywood. Not to mention shoppers from the largest mall in the United States. Convenience, I guess.

We also do 1-3 preview screenings per week and have had a number of World Premiers--most recently Here on Earth.

So, yeah...quite the operation.

As far as my comment about needing help. The catwalk between booths makes moving prints a royal pain for two people, let alone one. Each are connected by wheelchair ramps that 'Z' back and forth. Plus a skinny hallway.

Luckily our Union contract forbids management from putting me as a floor employee. No theaters to clean for me

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"And the monkey flips the switch."
- Major Don West, "Lost In Space"