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Author Topic: Do you charge for babies? Mitchell Dvoskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1869 From: West Milford, NJ, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 12-06-2006 07:36 AM                     Do you charge for babies? Yes, and we charge extra for buttered babies...  |  IP: Logged Charles Greenlee Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 801 From: Savannah, Ga, U.S. Registered: Jun 2006 posted 12-06-2006 11:55 AM                        Naw, butter is complimentary here. The new theatre that opened up here has self serve butter, so you can more easily control how much butter you put on your baby. But ours is full service, meaning, we do it for you. However have comp. salt, so you can powder your baby when needed, it is self serve. [ 12-12-2006, 03:28 AM: Message edited by: Charles Greenlee ]  |  IP: Logged Christopher Neill Film Handler Posts: 3 From: Houston, TX, USA Registered: Apr 2006 posted 12-10-2006 12:41 PM                        While kids under 6 are not generally admitted, when they are, we usually dont charge for them  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 12-10-2006 03:48 PM                       FWIW, at the drive-ins around Central Kentucky where I grew up, it was always kids 12 and under admitted free. The indoors had child's prices for 12 and under, but I don't know what the cutoff age was for free admission, if any. Probably, they just figured on counting the toddlers, I'd say. Over 12, was full price.  |  IP: Logged Ian Bailey Master Film Handler Posts: 317 From: Nambucca Heads, Australia Registered: Jun 2003 posted 12-11-2006 05:52 AM                     We let 3 & under in for free but let the parent know that the child is not to take a seat. I suppose a better approach could be not to have any free tickets for kids movies. That could stop a lot of hassle.....it's easy...No Free Tickets!! Cheers Ian  |  IP: Logged David Graves Film Handler Posts: 38 From: Cocoa, FL Registered: Nov 2006 posted 12-16-2006 12:15 AM                     We specialize in foreign films, so our policy is strict- -All babies require a ticket. -No children under 12 after 6 for R or unrated films, babies included -No child's discount for any film after 6pm, again including babies For every person that complains, we get thank yous from at least 2 or 3. We haven't had a problem with a crying baby in months- it's heaven.  |  IP: Logged DeeAnn Little Film Handler Posts: 10 From: Sacramento, CA, U.S. Registered: Oct 2006 posted 12-16-2006 04:23 PM                     We had an additional problem when I was working at the dollar house. Sometimes an adult would buy tickets for both them and one or more kids and go in with them, then the adult would later leave to go shopping (or something) and the kids were left in the theatre. We were cheaper than a real babysitter, and what were we going to do if the parent/adult in charge didn't pick them up after the showing, kick them out? Some of them left their kids there all day. Or they'd put an older one in "charge" of the younger one(s) who'd then leave to go to the nearby arcade. It was worse on weekends and during the summer.  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 12-17-2006 09:06 PM                     If it's human and alive we require a ticket. Even at $2 it minimizes the number of bawling brats that the other patrons have to hear. We have two signs in boxoffice window to that effect.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 12-17-2006 10:21 PM                     quote: Tim Reed FWIW, at the drive-ins around Central Kentucky where I grew up, it was always kids 12 and under admitted free. When I was just a kid I remember drive in movie theaters charging admission by the car load. Our family of four watched Jaws at the Crest Drive-In in Yuma, AZ in 1975 for just $2 for the whole car load. Now that's a bargain!  |  IP: Logged Jeff Logan Film Handler Posts: 15 From: Mitchell, SD, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 12-17-2006 10:48 PM                     Hi Mike, I agree with your wife. For over 40 years we had a kids under 3 free policy. We just changed a few months ago. We now charge for all ages. We explain that by contract, we must charge for every seat. "Everyone who takes a seat, must have a ticket." The real reason is that with modern, smaller auditoriums we were often filling up on Disney and family movies and turning away paying customers. The computer would show around 30 seats still available. Most of those were those seats were really free "babies." Parents would even bring in a car carrier to sit on a seat for their child (yes, we have Booster seats) and still expect to get them in free. We had a few complaints but those were invariably from the slob and cheapskate parents who didn't supervise their toddlers and who wouldn't remove their crying babies until we asked. We now are able to sell almost every seat and turn away fewer people due to full houses. The auditoriums are quieter because the few families we might have lost were the ones who drove away everyone else. Like someone said earlier, family and Disney movies are aimed at children. Why should we give the product that's made for children to children for free? I recommend to drop a minimum age for charging for kids as soon as possible. It's worked well for us. Think of it the same way as a live theatre with reserved seats; no one asks for a free reserved seat ticket for their young child at a concert or play. Why do they when attending a movie theatre? All you have to sell is seats, you can't afford to give them away to the target market. It was good to see you at the Rocky Mountain convention.  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 12-18-2006 10:16 AM                        quote: We had an additional problem when I was working at the dollar house. Sometimes an adult would buy tickets for both them and one or more kids and go in with them, then the adult would later leave to go shopping... Some of them left their kids there all day. We had a pretty good fix for that. First, we posted signs at the boxoffice... something like "Children under 12 must be accompanied by a parent or adult guardian, who must sit with them". If our staff discovered something like what DeeAnn described, we'd just bring them out to the lobby and have them sit on a bench until their parent came by... no movie, no popcorn, no video games... just sit. We found that there were a lot fewer parents doing this than we thought... and the problem went away pretty quickly.  |  IP: Logged

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