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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Author
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Topic: should infants be let in free?
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Christopher Duvall
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 500
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 02-13-2002 05:44 AM
It was AMC. They started doing it shortly after I left them in the early 90's. This whole hing with infants is firmly sitting in the grey area of operations. You want to make the customer happy by little them bring their children, however you have make the other patrons happy so they don't have to put up with brats. I know well before my time in the industry, there used to be "Crying Rooms" just off from the auditorium so parent could take their noisy children there to not offend other patrons. I beleive they also had sound piped in as well so the parents could at least keep up with the dialogue and story. I think a few up and coming chains have put daycares in some of their locations. It would be really nice to bring that sort of thing back. Unfortunately, with the money pinch on the exhibitors lately, I just don't see that happening. IMO, not as any representative to any company, I would like to see all theatres have crying rooms and day cares. The perfect thing would to have rooms in the back of the auditorium encased in glass and sound proofed for parents to run to if needed. This will reduce passes going out to patrons, let parents with children to still watch the movie and just plain make everybody happy. Hell, given enough room between auditoriums in multiplexes, these rooms could be on the sides as well. Again, I doubt this will ever happen but it would be nice...
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Dave Bird
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 777
From: Perth, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Jun 2000
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posted 02-13-2002 07:40 AM
This is a tough one. I find that most young couples (including myself) just stopped going to movies when they had kids. Most movies just aren't worth the trouble and money for a babysitter. Certainly it would be nice to maintain those customers. On the other hand, some children are VERY good in theatres, and if their parents aren't idiots, they will take them to suitable films where likely there are plenty of other kids. I saw a feature once and I can't remember where, but this house had enclosed "opera boxes" up the sides of the auditorium. They were sound proof and had small play areas for the kids. You reserved them and they had all the same surround sound. This is the solution! Of course, parents still need to pick suitable films. In our case, we hadn't been to a movie in years, and so we decided to go to the drive-in (which I was sure was closed), and we were hooked.
Every seat's a "cry room" and you can slash the seats!
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John Pytlak
Film God
Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000
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posted 02-13-2002 01:35 PM
Ron said: "I can't see theaters doing this, after all, they are in the ENTERTAINMENT industry, not Baby-sitting industry."It could be an innovative idea to a persistent problem. The European theatres that offer child care do it for the parents while they watch the movie. My local supermarket in Rochester (Wegmans) now has a free child-care center that watches young children while the parents grocery shop. They have one or two attendants, who read stories, play games or watch children's videos with the youngsters while the parents spend money in the store. The parents are provided a short-range pager so they can be called if there is a problem:
http://www.wegmans.com/family/parents/findFunCenter.asp Maybe this good idea could be adopted by theatres to keep noisy kids out of adult movies, and overcome the high (babysitting) cost for young parents to get out to the movies?  ------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 585-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 585-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion
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Brad Miller
Administrator
Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99
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posted 02-13-2002 01:52 PM
Nah, it'll never work. Theaters are too cheap to even have enough staff on duty to handle concession sales, and I routinely see in large circuit theaters people take one look at a long concession line and walk right by it! These corporate guys think they are saving $6 an hour with every employee they cut back, but it really doesn't take but a couple of sales each hour by a customer who would've passed by a busy concession stand to more than make that back.Just imagine it. A busy Saturday night and a couple hundred rowdy and crying kids being held in a room with 2 employees who really don't know anything about babysitting. Diaper change time? Yeah right. The theaters wouldn't hire a professional, they would let the 16 year olds handle it...and then when they got busy the manager would probably pull one of them away to clean theaters! Also, can you imagine how bad the MovieTunes version of the kid's tv programming to keep them occupied would be, because we all know the theaters would find some way to make money off of it. Finally, with the way customers are always looking for something to complain about (so they can get free passes to come back), all a kid has to do when asked the question is "no Mom, I did not have a good time, these people were mean" and POW, it's pass time! The only way that would work is at an independent theater where someone with a brain could watch how things were actually being handled on location and take whatever steps were necessary to ensure it worked properly.
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Dave Williams
Wet nipple scene
Posts: 1836
From: Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Registered: Jan 2000
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posted 02-13-2002 06:41 PM
Here is what I did in my four screen theater. 1. We did not charge for anyone under five years old. We also did not admit them either, unless it was G or a family oriented PG film. This was at first not popular, but in time it got us to sold out shows with 1200 seats in the building. People loved not having to worry about crying babies or not. 2. No one under 18 was allowed to a show starting AFTER 9:00 PM without an accompanying parent or guardian. This in turn upset the teens, but kept them from turning the place into a party zone. This appealed to our adult patrons, allowing us to play more adult oriented films for late show runs only. 3. No one under 18 allowed to any R rated feature without the parent present during the entire show. If the parent ducked out, we threw the kid out. If the parent took off, we had the police next door hold the child until the parent came back. This made some parents upset, but kept a more adult atmosphere in the shows. 4. No one under 12 to any R rated feature, even with a parent present. Young kids in a R movie just keep talking and the parents keep talking back at em!!! 5. No kids to any movie that are under 12 without thier parent with them for the whole show. We kept getting used as a babysitting service, we put a stop to that. Unsupervised young kids just run up and down the aisles. 6. NO LARGE BAGS OR DIAPER BAGS EVER. Was just used to sneak in stuff. They always left thier crap all over the floor too.
With these rules in place for just six weeks, we shot our number of tickets sold each week to nine thousand for a 1200 seat four screener.
People loved that we had the balls necessary to force those that have no manners at all to go somewhere else. We provided a nice quiet place to see a show. Then A megaplex opened up a mile away and we lasted about half a year before shutting down. Dave
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Carl Martin
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1424
From: Oakland, CA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 02-14-2002 05:50 AM
thanks for all the responses. i'm surprised how many theaters have some sort of "toddlers get in free" policy. seems to be the rule, not the exception. i stand by my contention that they should pay too, but that probably won't happen at my theater.the crying room sounds great, but also won't be coming to my theater.
don't see daycare happening either. as someone pointed out, a good idea is to tell 'em when they buy the tickets that the kid has to be quiet while in the theater, and not simply defer to common sense. probably good for the ticket taker to
remind them too in case the baby wasn't visible at the time of purchase. there is a theater nearby that has a weekly "baby brigade" show at which the crying set is welcome. if only parents would bring their infants exclusively to these. carl
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