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» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Ground Level   » Stupid Showtimes (AKA You Suck: Outing bad showtime schedulers) (Page 3)

 
This topic comprises 8 pages: 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8   
Author Topic: Stupid Showtimes (AKA You Suck: Outing bad showtime schedulers)
Lyle Romer
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1400
From: Davie, FL, USA
Registered: May 2002

- posted 08-16-2005 05:25 PM      Profile for Lyle Romer   Email Lyle Romer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Mike Spaeth
Regal added 4 auditoriums (#11-14) w/ stadium ... 2 75-seaters, 2 99-seaters, and started retrofitting the old auditoriums (#7-10) before pulling the plug on the project mid-way through ... leaving the original 10-screen slope building w/ 8 stadium & 6 sloped.
This along with AMC only retrofitting one of the original 10 auditoriums when they expanded Pleasure Island at Disney to 24 (all 14 add ons were stadium) makes the argument that retrofitting stadium is not cost effective and doesn't bring return on investment.

quote: Mark J. Marshall
And whatever you do, don't start them more than 20 - 30 minutes apart
30 minutes OK but if you are going to start 2 prints within 20 minuts of eachother why not just interlock one print. This way, during the non-peak times you could save money by not having to run all the equipment in the second auditorium. The megaplexes do this all the time with 6 prints of big releases. They play like every 15 minutes. I understand that it spreads the concession lines out but I would think the savings of all the electricity during the week would more than offset the couple of extra minimum wage employees needed to handle more people at once.

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Mark J. Marshall
Film God

Posts: 3188
From: New Castle, DE, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

- posted 08-16-2005 06:14 PM      Profile for Mark J. Marshall     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
When you're running a megaplex, and you CAN start shows every fifteen minutes, that's great because each show overflows into the next pretty easily. But when you're a multiplex, and you don't start your movies close together, then when one sells out, the rest of the people who want to see that movie are forced to either see something else, or leave. Our problem is that too many of them leave and drive down the street to our competitor. Yes, I stand there and watch them come in one after one, look at the SOLD OUT sign, turn around, and walk out.

Perhaps our corp folks are hoping that the customers will instead choose to see something else that gives us a higher percentage or something. And undoubtedly, some of them probably do. But is it worth it to piss that many people off?

Again, every theater is different. I'm speaking about our theater in particular. Your experience on this may vary.

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Darryl Spicer
Film God

Posts: 3250
From: Lexington, KY, USA
Registered: Dec 2000

- posted 08-16-2005 07:02 PM      Profile for Darryl Spicer     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Mark J. Marshall
Yes, I stand there and watch them come in one after one, look at the SOLD OUT sign, turn around, and walk out.
Hmmmmm maybe if there is no sign and they ask someone if it is sold out a chance to intrest them in another time or suggest another movie could be made.

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Mark J. Marshall
Film God

Posts: 3188
From: New Castle, DE, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

- posted 08-16-2005 10:33 PM      Profile for Mark J. Marshall     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Maybe true for the first person, but word travels quickly through the line anyway even without the sign, and folks tend to look at their watch, put their money back in their pocket and dash back to their cars.

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Stephen LaPadula
Film Handler

Posts: 50
From: New York, Ny
Registered: Mar 2005

- posted 08-25-2005 02:40 PM      Profile for Stephen LaPadula   Email Stephen LaPadula   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Anyone who works for a chain should have pretty strict guidelines from the film dept. regarding show times. For example my company *requires* with one print you have a start time between 7 and 8 pm.

7pm is the magic start time. The closer you are to 7, the faster you can show another set with out it getting too late (depending on trends in your area.) That’s probably a reason for all the Carmikes in the small towns to cram around 7pm. Check out fandango or movietickets.com and almost every theatre has a 7pm-ish start time for each movie. This is the busiest time of day for every theatre, despite cheaper prices during the day, more people come at night

Sometimes a studio requires a certain time. Disney mandates that if a house is split, the last time for its film cannot be before 7pm.

For multiple prints, rule of thumb is no less than 40 mins apart.

If your working with like 12 screens or less chances are you won't have too many multiple prints, and your lobby will be full at 7pm.

Higher yields come from concession, but a theatres box office share of gross is about 50% when all is said and done. And everyone needs a ticket; where as many don't stop at the concession stand...the big bucks still come from box office.

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Rob Ferreira
Film Handler

Posts: 25
From: Conway, NH, USA
Registered: Oct 2005

- posted 10-15-2005 12:44 AM      Profile for Rob Ferreira   Author's Homepage   Email Rob Ferreira   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Eric Hooper

Example Aud #2
Dukes first show is not until 3:15. Why not have a 12:45 show also, since the theatre IS open?
Perhaps the theatre is cutting its costs by not having unnecessary showings? I tend to think that Dukes did not need any extra showings, and that the 3 or 4 times a day was more than enough.

My theatre often has "random" times for films, but generally we have a show (around)4 and another (around)7. Weekends we throw in another one (around) 9, not usually later than 9:30. As it works out, the 4 o'clocks are very slow, as are the later 9ish shows on the weekends. The shows that start between 6:30 and 7:30 are most definately our busiest - whether the time be 6:30 or 6:50 or 7:20. Perhaps, though, it's just my area.

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Mike Croaro
Master Film Handler

Posts: 394
From: Millbrae, CA
Registered: Apr 2005

- posted 10-16-2005 11:11 PM      Profile for Mike Croaro   Email Mike Croaro   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Hi Folks:

Saw this one in the weekend paper. UA Emeryville Bay playing "Serenity" at 1:30, 5:00, 7:45, 10:40.

Why start the #2 show so late? I would have thought the #2 show would be between 4:00 and 4:30. No big deal but it sucks if you just miss the 1:30 show and have to wait till 5:00.

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Eric Hooper
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 532
From: Fort Worth, TX, USA
Registered: May 2003

- posted 10-20-2005 02:33 PM      Profile for Eric Hooper   Email Eric Hooper   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Mike and others,

I can see the 1:30 and 5:00 thing as 'spreading out the daytime showtimes' both to keep the low attended shows to a minimum and to help crowd control by evenly spreading out the showtimes for 10 movies starting between 4:00 and 5:30-ish.

However, there was absolutely no excuse for the Skeleton Key showtimes of 7:10pm and 10:40pm which was what started this thread in the first place.

Sidenote:
I think the showtime schedule that the UA Stonestown Twin has been running for a year now is really stupid. 1:30, 3:45, 7:15, 9:30. A later bargain show around 4:45 or 5:00pm is much more appealing IMO. And what are they paying the employees to do in between 5pm and 7pm except pick their nose and sit around while the theatres are just sitting empty and not in use???

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Mike Croaro
Master Film Handler

Posts: 394
From: Millbrae, CA
Registered: Apr 2005

- posted 10-21-2005 04:36 PM      Profile for Mike Croaro   Email Mike Croaro   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Eric Hooper wrote:

"I think the showtime schedule that the UA Stonestown Twin has been running for a year now is really stupid. 1:30, 3:45, 7:15, 9:30. A later bargain show around 4:45 or 5:00pm is much more appealing IMO. And what are they paying the employees to do in between 5pm and 7pm except pick their......."

Hi Eric: Are you suggesting they should run a schedule such as 2:15, 4:45, 7:00, 9:30?

Mike

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Andrew McCrea
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 645
From: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Registered: Nov 2000

- posted 10-21-2005 10:55 PM      Profile for Andrew McCrea   Author's Homepage   Email Andrew McCrea   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Personally, those showtimes of: 1,3,7,9 are what I'm use to here. Usually, employees are scheduled with split shifts, or they get just a matinee or evening shift.

While the first films have all gone in, employees are usually given their breaks.

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Eric Hooper
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 532
From: Fort Worth, TX, USA
Registered: May 2003

- posted 10-25-2005 05:50 PM      Profile for Eric Hooper   Email Eric Hooper   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Mike Croaro
Hi Eric: Are you suggesting they should run a schedule such as 2:15, 4:45, 7:00, 9:30?
Yes.

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Andrew McCrea
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 645
From: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Registered: Nov 2000

- posted 10-25-2005 07:16 PM      Profile for Andrew McCrea   Author's Homepage   Email Andrew McCrea   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Mike, a lot of theatres do that here.

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Michael Brown
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1522
From: Bradford, England
Registered: May 2001

- posted 11-01-2005 08:42 PM      Profile for Michael Brown   Email Michael Brown   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
That's pretty much exactly how we are running our "Saw II" set of showings this week.

And then you can schedual another movie, eg we have 'Brothers Grim' going on at 1.45, 4.00, 6.15, 8.30
to go on inbetween.

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Alexander Smith
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 128
From: Walney Island, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.
Registered: Jun 2003

- posted 11-02-2005 03:34 AM      Profile for Alexander Smith   Email Alexander Smith   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Opening weekend of Harry Potter 4; they've decided
they want shows at 09:45 Saturday and Sunday.

We're not a big enough centre of population to make
it worth doing really.

Alex.

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Eric Hooper
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 532
From: Fort Worth, TX, USA
Registered: May 2003

- posted 11-27-2005 01:26 PM      Profile for Eric Hooper   Email Eric Hooper   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The UA Vogue theatre, a neighborhood theatre serving the upper class Marina districts (along with the UA Metro and the newly 4 screened Presido theatre) opened Harry Potter with only three shows daily: 1:30, 5:00, and 8:30. Can someone tell me what these showtime were good for? 8:30 was too late to take the kids, 5:00 if you could get there with the kids was sold out at a matinee price (regal loosing money again).

After a week of that it seems they wised up and changed the showtimes to four shows at 11:45, 3:00, 6:30, and 9:50, which is what the showtimes should have been opening week.

Further insult, is that the Vogue only has ~300 seats, whereas their (Regal) Metro theatre has 650 seats, and they decided to show Rent at the Metro. Not only is Rent at 6 other theatres in town, but the core demographic for Rent lives on the other side of town. So, I'm sure even with four showtimes, Harry Potter sold out all weekend, and Rent had mostly empty seats.

Seriously, who is doing Regal's booking and scheduling in SF? It is one mis-fire after another. They wonder why they had to close their Coronet and Alexandria theatres??? Looks like the Metro and Vogue will be gone soon too.

They should have opened Harry at the Metro, and Rent at the Vogue. I really hope someone was smart enough to book Narnia at the Metro. I really hope.

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