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Topic: Cinemark to buy Century

Scott D. Neff
Theatre Dork

Posts: 919
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 10-13-2006 05:23 PM

Really? They had a 25th Anniversary trailer that had a CG Front Row Joe walkin the red carpet. Was that just in place of one of their coke ads?

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David Kilderry
Master Film Handler

Posts: 355
From: Melbourne Australia
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 10-13-2006 06:34 PM

Hi Scott,

Is there a listing of the Syufy drive-ins on the web? How do people find showtimes for them? How many are left and are any of the ones they acquired from Pacific still running?

David

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Jared Thornton
Film Handler

Posts: 58
From: las vegas, NV, USA
Registered: Jan 2006

posted 10-13-2006 08:00 PM

What we have been told is that we will keep the Century name, as they believe it is a good brand with high recognition. The only changes involve the addition of Coke ads plus other commercials [Mad]

along with running their pre-show content. So we will still be running the Century/Fandango snipes prior to the start of the feature.

Of course this all could change at any moment as we are still in the "blend" period and final details will be revealed after the first of the year.

We are heading into uncharted waters so it should get really interesting [Confused]

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Paul Konen
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 981
From: Frisco, TX. (North of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 10-14-2006 12:18 AM

quote: Scott D. Neff
Really? They had a 25th Anniversary trailer that had a CG Front Row Joe walkin the red carpet. Was that just in place of one of their coke ads?

That was just for a year or so that those ran. They didn't actually replace anything. NOTE: Actually filmed at The Legacy. Cold night too! Took them so long to set up the shots that what was supposed to be a couple hour thing ended up being more like 6. We had staff there that were in the shots, except at the end, and were holding them late on a school nite.

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Matt Barth
Film Handler

Posts: 46
From: Albuquerque, NM 87109
Registered: Oct 2005

posted 10-14-2006 04:05 PM

Well this event has a silver lining for my city. Now that almost all the theaters in town are owned by the same company it appears there are some ventures going forth to start a few indies. Let the battle for Albuquerque begin!

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Eric Hooper
Jedi Master Film Handler

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

posted 10-14-2006 11:03 PM

The only Cinemark I've been to is here in the Bay Area (Blackhawk 7) and they had an assult of ads on film (no digital projectors) and some 'Front Row Joe' thing...

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Alex Grueneberg
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 125
From: Chicago, IL
Registered: Aug 2004

posted 10-15-2006 01:49 AM

Scott: You know us Century employees aren’t allowed to drink at the bar due to our previous GM getting drunk all the time and harassing employees... Right? [Wink]

Any way, now I remember seeing you in the office a few weeks ago, sorry we didn’t get time to chat. I'm always busy [Frown]

Also, regrettably almost all of my new coke ads have lab streaks and other ugly lab blemishes. In light of what you said David I believe I'm going to make a fuss about it. [evil]

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William Barker
Film Handler

Posts: 2
From: Greensboro, NC, USA
Registered: Oct 2006

posted 10-15-2006 05:34 AM

Hey guys, ive been reading the forums for awhile and finally just joined. So I just wanted to start out with a Hi to everyone, so Hi!
I work for Cinemark, so I think this is really neat (how dorky do I sound [Big Grin]

) to be able to talk to some people that work for Century and get their input and point of view on things. Im sure we both have things we like and dislike about our companies, so it will be interesting to discuss them and see how the dust settles.

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Scott D. Neff
Theatre Dork

Posts: 919
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 10-16-2006 01:36 PM

quote: Alex Grueneberg
You know us Century employees aren’t allowed to drink at the bar due to our previous GM getting drunk all the time and harassing employees... Right?

Man that explains soooo much about him. Actually I've only had the chance to drink there once when I went for Micros training. Missed my showtime of Motorcycle Diaries because the martini glasses are so damn big.

quote: Alex Grueneberg
Any way, now I remember seeing you in the office a few weeks ago, sorry we didn’t get time to chat. I'm always busy

It's what I get for auditing on a Thursday.

quote: David Kilderry
Is there a listing of the Syufy drive-ins on the web? How do people find showtimes for them? How many are left and are any of the ones they acquired from Pacific still running?

Currently the drive-ins have been listed on the Century website but since that is being diverted to Cinemark, I don't know what plans there are for a drive-in/public market website. But still in operation are the following locations:

Capitol 6 Drive-In & Public Market - San Jose, CA
Coliseum Public Market - Oakland, CA (formerly 4-screen Drive-In)
Solano Twin Drive-In & Public Market - Concord, CA
Sacramento 6 Drive-In - Sacramento, CA
Goleta Public Market - Goleta, CA (formerly 2-screen Drive-In)
El Rancho 4 Drive-In & Public Market - Sparks, NV
Las Vegas 5 Drive-In - Las Vegas, NV
Scottsdale 6 Drive-In - Scottsdale, AZ
Glendale 9 Drive-In & Public Market - Glendale, AZ

As for Drive-Ins acquired from Pacific, I'm not aware they acquired any. Century acquired some walk-ins in Marin County, CA a few years back, and each of those locations are still in operation now with Cinemark.

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Jesse Skeen
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1517
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Aug 2000

posted 10-18-2006 12:43 PM

"Public Market"? Is that supposed to be more high-class than "Swap Meet" or "Flea Market"? The only thing I miss about the 49er Drive-In was the flea market which was open Thursday thru Sunday, so I could stop by there Thursday mornings on the way to work. First time I went there I got Meet The Brady Bunch on 8-track, and a Ford dealers' laserdisc player for 10 bucks which got me started on the format.

The one in Oakland's a really interesting place, but I never have time to make it down there anymore.

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Scott D. Neff
Theatre Dork

Posts: 919
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 10-19-2006 04:16 PM

The one in Concord is open on Saturday and Sunday if you're looking to shorten the drive a bit.

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Eric Hooper
Jedi Master Film Handler

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

posted 11-01-2006 10:22 AM

Went to a Century theatre last night. Nothing has changed. There were still lots of "slides" for "visit centurytheatres.com". There were no Coke ads (as previous reported). Everything was status quo... for now.

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Jared Thornton
Film Handler

Posts: 58
From: las vegas, NV, USA
Registered: Jan 2006

posted 11-01-2006 05:38 PM

We are still in the "Blending" period with each region switching over to Cinemarks way of doing things at different intervals.

quote: Eric Hooper
There were still lots of "slides" for "visit centurytheatres.com". There were no Coke ads (as previous reported). Everything was status quo... for now.

Cinemark sent out an email a couple of weeks ago to all theatres instructing us to remove all references to the old website (including slides and posters in lobby) as it no longer exists, but the regional leaders overrode that as they believe the old century website adequately redirects people to Cinemarks, leaving it up to the GM at the theatre to decide if they want to remove the century stuff or not.

Coke ads should have started on Oct 13 as was mandated by those above. I know we are unhappily [Frown]

running them in Vegas as part of our redesigned trailer order. We have been told that once we switch over to Cinemarks digital pre-show the 35mm ads will go away as they will be incorporated into that. All theatres should be running the new pre-show by Christmas.

As far as status-quo goes Cinemark leaves everything (and I mean everything) up to the individual theatre to decide. So if the GM is competent things should continue to run smoohtly, but if the GM is not look out. [Eek!]

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Alex Grueneberg
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 125
From: Chicago, IL
Registered: Aug 2004

posted 11-13-2006 02:27 AM

So by status quo do you mean I could continue to run the THX trailers, even though Cinemark asked to not run them any more?

My question is, why would you want to stop advertising that your fully THX certified (and I make sure it matters) after just paying to continue certification threw 2007?

Also, hey Jared arnt you lovin this St. Jude promo/fandango/coke ads all before the trailers
we got going for friday? [puke]

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Jared Thornton
Film Handler

Posts: 58
From: las vegas, NV, USA
Registered: Jan 2006

posted 11-13-2006 01:59 PM

Alex, to answer your question its [bs]

If you were a paying customer would you want to sit thru all that crap before a single trailer hit the screen?

As far as THX goes, I had a feeling it would be going away shortly after Cinemark took over as it was Century who paid the certification fee and not them. Remember Cinemark only cares about the investor and nothing else, so why should the $8-10,000 certification fee go to George Lucas and not some unknown investment firm?
Besides you can get THX at home now with the entertainment system you bought at Wal-Mart so as an added feature of going to the movies its now almost worthless.

As far as continuing running the THX trailers go, I'll probably remove them as the amount of crap we now play before the trailers is becoming ridiculously long and annoying. Customers are already wise to the fact that once the lights go down they have 2 extra minutes to run to the bathroom or what not before the actual trailers start, now with St. Jude they can add an extra minute to their trip.

The Century Theatres we all knew and loved is now quite dead and after Cinemark is through with us probably gone as well, so for the time being all we can do is put on the best damn show we possibly can until we are told by those above us not to.

post edited to remove company info.

[ 11-14-2006, 02:26 AM: Message edited by: Jared Thornton ]

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