my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Ground Level   » Carmike Sucks (Page 2)

This topic comprises 4 pages: 1  2  3  4

Author Topic: Carmike Sucks Jason Black Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1723 From: Myrtle Beach, SC, USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 02-25-2003 06:11 PM                        Mark, You may want to rethink your ideas. I'll grant you that your Division Manager may drive a Cadillac, but I'll also inform you that that will be no longer. The Caddy he drives is most likely pre-'98 (not as if it matters to the minimum wage employee) with 150,000+ miles on it. As for the credit card, yes, he has one. Spending laviuosly? I doubt it. There are no personal expenses that are NOT repaid by the holder. Everything is itemized on an expense sheet regularly, just as is done in most major companies. As for being based in Georgia and not paying overtime, the Home Office location has NOTHING to do with the overtime policy. The wages are governed on a state by state basis. While I dont' particularly agree with the non payment of overtime wages, I also can understand, from a company stance, why one would opt not to pay if not mandated to do so. I don't agree with it, but I understand the (so-called) logic. As for a 20 year old theatre having no heat for two winters.. I'd bet that it had as much to do with the non-persistence of local management as it did with upper level management. I, myself, ran a theatre that was nearly 20 years old, and there were several times that the HVAC unit(s) would die, but they never stayed that way for more than a couple days time. Evans: From what I have seen, the problems with smaller markets and teh lack of 'Film Done Right' directly relates to the fact that the managers don't know any better. They do what they were shown/trained to do by the person before them, who was, in turn, trained by the person before them and so on. Bear in mind, this isn't what I deem to be the best method, as there are SOOO many variables in this business, but it seems to be the norm. Unfortunately, there are no routine training classes or seminars for us to attend. There are outlined policies in place, but not all occurences are outlined in a general polcy format. It takes a level head and experience, neither of which can be "trained" rather, they are "learned". As to the chains bought out by Carmike, Excellence seemed to be ok, at best, as far as monies were concerned, or so I have been told. I truly don't know. Martin theatres seemed to have been in an expansion process when they were bought out, so they were either debt laden and wanted out, or tthe offer was too good to pass up. The Odeon theatres were, from what I saw, in a bad state to begin with. The Floyd chain was close to the same. Like what I consider to be the norm, some locations were good, soem were OK, and some, well, they were total holes. At any rate, I thought I'd help 'celar the air' a little on Carmike's behalf. Yes, some of the things they do make no sense whatsoever, but, it is, after all, a job that you (used in loose terms for those who it applies), the employee, accepted. Should you not like what you see, you have the option of leaving, just as you came. That's why I find it a little difficult at times bad mouthing the company myself. I choose to stay, regardless of all the one has to put up with, but, in the end, I simply love what I do. This business is either in your blood or it's not. I don't a single person who is in the business for the money... Sadly.. Anyone else want this box I'm standing on?  |  IP: Logged Evans A Criswell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1579 From: Huntsville, AL, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 02-25-2003 09:36 PM                        Local managers can make a big difference, but only so much of a difference if they can't get improvements made and get problems fixed when things break. Observations: 1. The Carmike 8 in Decatur had at least 10 managers during the 1997-2001 time period. That alone made me wonder if that theatre used to be a "pergatory for bad managers". I'm very surprised that the current manager has been there for nearly two years (longer than any I've seen there before). 2. No noticeable upgrades have been made to the facility since I started going there in 1997. Every other theatre in the area has had upgrades made (or was built recently enough to not need upgrades). This theatre needs upgrades worse than any theatre in the area. 3. Some of the seats in the back 4 auditoriums (the newest ones that Carmike added in 1992) are in terrible shape. The old seats in the Litchfield auditoriums are holding up much better. 4. The audio systems in auditoriums 1, 7, and 8 (3 of the 4 original Litchfield auditoriums) are in very poor condition and often deliver very low fidelity sound with distracting distortion. Auditorium 8 is still mono. 5. Only 6 of the 61 movies I've seen there have been worthy of being considered "deduction free" using my rating system. Some of those were generous, since the images are typically too dim. This is an extremely low percentage in comparison to other theatres in my area. 6. 45 of the 61 movies have had noticeable alignment problems (fuzzy or jagged aperture shadows visible [often drastically so] or image going onto drapes beyond black masking). 7. 15 of the flat movies seen have not had the masking pulled in to the "flat" setting, but were shown with the masking set for scope with jagged and/or fuzzy edges on the left and right. 8. 13 of the 61 movies have had very noticeable brightness nonuniformities across the image. This is the only theatre that has ever had this deduction, I think. 9. 11 of the 61 movies have had noticeable misframing problems. 10. 8 of the 61 movies have had trailers shown in the wrong format (flat trailers in front of scope films, with everything run for scope, stretching the trailers). We've had 10 different local managers, without a lot of change in the presentation quality, so I say that the "local manager" theory is not valid here. I'll bet if the best manager that participates here on film-tech ran this theatre, things would improve, then he'd give up after a while, unless he wanted to spend his personal money on the theatre. There have been two managers that have made a measurable differece in the theatre. One of them now works at a theatre in Florence and the other is the one that is there now. Of course, the one that is there now didn't try to improve things until the Decatur Daily ran a story about the poor condition of the place. Note: I do not work for Carmike or any theatre company. I attempt to be scientific and unbiased in the way I collect and report the presentation quality data. I've been tempted to try writing some letters about the Decatur Carmike 8 to various people, such as district managers or to headquarters, but never have. I feel that if the negative press from Decatur Daily article of December 6, 2001 (which supposedly went all the way up to the vice president of the company) did not get any improvements made to the facility, then nothing will. So, I'll keep going there (spreading my visits relatively evenly among the theatres, as I should) and keep objectively reporting what I see. Carmike 8, Decatur, AL specific data  |  IP: Logged Mark Maxwell Film Handler Posts: 55 From: Tyler, TX, USA Registered: Jul 2002 posted 02-26-2003 12:09 AM                     It's nothing against the District manager because I have known him for years. He knows what he's alowed on his credit card. He's not breaking any rules. His Cadilac is pre 98, but he's due up for a Tahoe. I just hate seeing my old theater become delapidated because they have to reduce costs. That would always be understandable, but so much money is spent in areas that don't improve the experience for the customer. The large manager turnover is because they don't pay well so they get someone who will work their ass off for little pay when you compare salary to hours worked. Eventually they get tired off all of the crapp that comes frome home office. The theater they bought out in my home town was a Plitt. As far as other theaters, I don't know. Carmike.com has a link to corporate history that gives it's story from the begining.  |  IP: Logged Mark Maxwell Film Handler Posts: 55 From: Tyler, TX, USA Registered: Jul 2002 posted 02-26-2003 12:48 AM                     Bobby, The theater in Lawton OK. is run by Jack Connor if I'm correct. He is a great manager and is the guy you paige if you are in the central time zone and have a computer problem. He runs his theater, and doubles as tech support for Carmike's computer system in several states. I do have alot of compliments to give Carmike for some things, and he is one of them. He's top notch.  |  IP: Logged Kristin Wahlund Film Handler Posts: 92 From: Eagan, MN Registered: Jul 2001 posted 02-26-2003 02:33 AM                     The Carmike 15 near me in Apple Valley just has one thing that bothers me. they have ONE very large screen and 14 tiny ones. Then what is really annoying is our customers always say things like "well the carmike sold out of it" like thats a good thing?! We have 2 very large auditoriums and then they decrease in size, but all of the carmike screens are tiny, they are smaller than our smallest one. Our theatre is set up more logically, its cleaner, and its only 5 minustes away from the Carmike! Personally I would rather watch a movie on a bigger screen and with less people, but apparently some people in the area actually like to smushed and pay the same price for a smaller auditorium!  |  IP: Logged Nate Lehrke Master Film Handler Posts: 396 From: Denver, CO Registered: Oct 2002 posted 02-26-2003 03:28 AM                     (kinda off topic) quote: apparently some people in the area actually like to smushed and pay the same price for a smaller auditorium! Hey Kristen, my first stomping ground, the Mann Eagan Cinema 9, was doing great smushing people in small crappy auditoriums. That is until you moved into town! Our business dropped by 50% once Regal came to Eagan! I didn't realize that Carmike existed in MN still!  |  IP: Logged Evans A Criswell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1579 From: Huntsville, AL, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 02-26-2003 09:28 AM                        Another thing I noticed about the high manager turnover at Carmike theatres here: it seems that most of the managers weren't leaving, but being moved around to other Carmike locations. To me, it seems it would be hard on people having to move around every couple of years. As I said before, the Carmike 8 in Decatur had 10 managers from 1997-1992, while the Carmike 10 in Huntsville had 5. Oddly enough, both of these theatres have now had the same mangers for nearly two whole years. The Regal theatres in my area (all 3 of them) have had the same managers since 1997. The Regal environment strikes me as much more stable.  |  IP: Logged Dustin Mitchell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1865 From: Mondovi, WI, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 02-26-2003 11:53 AM                     quote: I didn't realize that Carmike existed in MN still! In Minneapolis/St. Paul Carmike operates three theatres-the Wynnsong 15 in Moundsview, the Carmike 15 in Apple Valley, and the Oakdale Stadium 20 in Oakdale. The 20 plex in Oakdale is the only other 20 screen theatre besides the one in Kentucky. These places make money hand over fist. There are also several smaller theatres throughout the state.  |  IP: Logged Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 02-26-2003 01:47 PM                    Just out of curiosity where is the 20 screen theater in Kentucky?  |  IP: Logged Charles Everett Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1470 From: New Jersey Registered: May 2001 posted 02-26-2003 03:06 PM                     Dustin probably means the Thoroughbred 20 in Franklin TN (Nashville metro). FWIW, I wouldn't have started this topic -- you never know if anyone in the home office might be lurking.  |  IP: Logged Evans A Criswell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1579 From: Huntsville, AL, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 02-26-2003 03:44 PM                        Since I don't work for Carmike, I don't mind if someone from the home office lurks. They need to know, from a customer's viewpoint, what is going on in their theatres. As for employees, it's usually never a good idea to criticise one's employer too much in a public forum. I'd be interested in knowing if anyone from the home office lurks here. I used to get an occasional hit from the carmike.com domain on my hsvmovies.com site, but haven't noticed any such hits in a long time. If this thread (with one of my posts having a link to the site) did not generate a hit from that domain, I'd say that nobody fromt he home office is lurking, or if they are, they're not doing it from work. Of course, Brad could grep the film-tech logs to see if any carmike.com domain hits are appearing.  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 02-26-2003 03:51 PM                        Nonsense, Vi would be much better for searching log files.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-26-2003 04:03 PM                        Brad loves vi! :razz: Actually, grepping for "carmike" in the access logs wouldn't be terribly helpful, since it would only indicate that anyone from the janitor to the company president could be reading this thread. And if the only Carmike person reading this thread is the company president, but he is doing it from his home DSL connection, we wouldn't have any way of knowing. In any case, I've never worked for Carmike, but I can say that both of their Williamsburg, VA. locations (one of which is now closed) definitely suck. They are typical '80s shoebox-plex houses where no one knows or cares about "film done right" or "showmanship done right," but customers keep coming anyway since the only other mainstream theatres are 20+ minutes away. As of spring 1999, the Williamsburg Crossing 7 was a dump. The kind of place where the advertising slides are out of focus and the floors are sticky and the experience just goes downhill from there. One house had a DTS unit slapped onto a cheesy Kintek system . They had mono up front with split surrounds. Their lenses are horrible and their operators were lousy, too, mostly because anyone who cared about "film done right" would stay the hell away from the Williamsburg Crossing 7. I suppose that it is possible that things have improved since then, but I wouldn't bet on it. The Carmike 4 in town was the same way, except worse in every respect. I'm sure that Carmike has some great locations which are well designed, well maintained, and well managed, and I am sure that they have many dedicated employees (some of whom post here). I just haven't personally seen any evidence of any of these.  |  IP: Logged Evans A Criswell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1579 From: Huntsville, AL, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 02-26-2003 04:14 PM                        I love vi also. I've been editing C code with it quite a bit today. Searching for "carmike" in the web logs (using the -i option) may not be too useful, but it's better than nothing. If you get a hit, you know someone in the domain hit the site (if it's the correct field being matched from the log). As for operators that do a good job for Carmike, I can honestly say that the ones at Carmike 10 here at Huntsville have done a very good job since the theatre opened in 1998. I know that the job has changed hands over time, but quality has been maintained quite well. I'm impressed by any theatre that can maintain an "A" grade over time using my rating system. The only theatre that outperforms the local Carmike 10 is the Regal River Oaks 8 in Decatur, which has a very high "A+". It's amusing and amazing to see the contrast in quality between the Huntsvile and Decatur Carmike locations. The Carmike 8 in Decatur now has a "C" rating, up from the "D" they had last year. Since Regal has fixed nearly all of the nonadjustable screens in their Huntsville locations, their scores have improved drastically and the Carmike 8 is now in last place. It's a strange position to be in -- praising one of the company's theatres (and staff), while blasting the other (the company's attitude toward the Carmike 8, not the staff -- I think the problems do not lie with the staff there).  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 02-26-2003 08:03 PM                       I used to service Carmike in Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle about 10 years ago. A good deal of these locations were little twins and triples from the old Video Independent Theatres circuit. Let me tell you, I worked harder than I ever have in my life, just keeping all this old crappy equipment up and running. The Carmike-built 6's and 8's (at the time) were somewhat better, but they had their share of emergency calls and not-so-swift equipment rosters. However, I got to know some of the nicest people I have ever met, dealing with the Carmike circuit. It was a distinct pleasure working with them, and the good nature extended all the way to the home office in Columbus - right down the line. I actually looked forward to emergencies at many theatres, solely because of the individuals I knew I would see. Several acquantainces I made back then are still friends to this day. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 4 pages: 1  2  3  4

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.