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This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
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Author
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Topic: Drive-In questions
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 12-25-2007 12:45 PM
My days working in DIs was when I was a babe of 19yr. And I just worked the booth so I was not privy to how bookings were done, but I do remember that we played double features from different studios all the time. Here at the indoor, I booked double bill titles but from the same studio and from different studios all the time, but these were classics, not current and the studios always had the percentage of each title halfed so they added up to what we normally would pay for a single, i.e., 35 or 40%. It was always easy from the same studio, sometimes you would have to haggle if you were trying to book from two, but almost always they did the halving thing. In other words, if they normal percentager for the two, if played alone were 35%, the studios would charge us 17.5% for each. I was always amazed that they would do this, basically loosing half their take while the theatre kept its 65%. On occasion I would wind up having to pay 50 and 60% when two studios weren't willing to half their percentage because they would claim THEIR title was the bigger hit than the other one I wanted to team it up with. In any event, I never would book double feature if I couldn't negotiate at least 50% of the gross.
As for car load ticketing, of the three DIs I worked in, all in Texas, and as far back as the 70s, none ever charged by the car load...it was always per capita. Personally I can't see how car-load pricing would ever be even remotely acceptable to the studios. I mean, that would be the same as if an indoor set up a box office at the entrance of its parking lot and collected its admission by the car load out there, and then let however many piled out of the cars into the theatre to see the movie. Don't the studios insist that you pay for the number of PEOPLE watching their movie? I really don't understand how a studio could allow car load pricing as they are so anal about other things like the restriction of passes for staff screenings! Or not allowing staff into preview screenings. Yet they have no problem eating carloads of people who get in for free? Doesn't make a lot of sense.
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Jack Ondracek
Film God
Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002
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posted 12-27-2007 12:33 PM
quote: Frank Angel
Personally I can't see how car-load pricing would ever be even remotely acceptable to the studios.
Back when it was more common, many of us were running MONTHS behind the break. Co-features were usually bought flat. We were pretty much squeezing the last blood out of the turnip, so I doubt the studios really cared much how we did it. Obviously, that's not the case today, with the windows being as short as they are.
quote: Monte
Sadly, those days where the 1st run features playing in an "ozoner" is getting on the thin side,
It's not uncommon in multi-screen drive-ins, Monte. You can hang on to the film, and "mix 'n match" the co-features as the cost moderates out. All the multi-screeners around here are first-run.
I do know of one multi in New Mexico that's sub-run, but they also play only single features, so their situation must be somewhat different. We tried the single-feature idea back in the mid-'90s. It didn't work well at all.
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Barry Floyd
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1079
From: Lebanon, Tennessee, USA
Registered: Mar 2000
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posted 12-27-2007 02:28 PM
quote:
Sadly, those days where the 1st run features playing in an "ozoner" is getting on the thin side,
Like Jack said... it's not uncommon for us multi-screen drive-ins to play on the break. Now that we have two screens, we're able to open a fresh new print almost each week of the season.
Opening a new film, paired with another good one (although older) from the same studio can return fantastic rewards if the crowds and weather cooperate. Memerial Day weekend, we opened Pirates 3, paired it with Wild Hogs, and Screen 2 was paired with Shrek 3 and Disturbia. The result was sell-out crowds on both screens Friday, Saturday & Sunday. The Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend, we brought in more money on that one night than we did for the entire month of November!
We've thought about trying to stay open throughout the winter, but it just doen't make financial sense for our area and climate. We run from March thru Thanksgiving weekend, and once we're able to save up enough to close earlier in the season we will. We stay open in November soley for the purpose of paying the mortgage. In Tennessee, we have "film minimums" and during November, we almost always end up paying the minimums.
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Jack Ondracek
Film God
Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002
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posted 12-27-2007 06:22 PM
Ron, it takes a while to figure a market out.
Our experience is that it can take anywhere from 3 to 5 years of "cut & try" to work out what will be supported in your area. If you change a major part of your operation, it can be painful. We still have people looking for carload pricing that we dropped 18 years ago! Others are sure we took their check last month. We stopped that when we began taking credit cards... also quite a few years back.
Some like the first-run concept. Others are fine with sub-run. Some drive-ins feel they have to add activities like putt-putt golf, mini-carnivals and huge swap meets. Others do fine just running film. Some drive-ins play their "B" film twice. Some do triple features. Others are fine with the simple double feature, and then there are those who seem to make singles work.
Seasons take some time to figure out. In our area, business drops by 2/3 when school starts, then drops by 50% each week through September. By the end of the month, pretty much everyone is busy with school-related activities. We finally figured that out and now we pull the plug at the end of September, regardless of weather or film availability.
Community morals also vary from place to place. I can run pretty much everything below NC17 here. Others don't run anything stronger than PG or PG13.
Then there's the snack bar, where you might also do a lot of trial and error. There are a lot of foods we've tried over the years. Some have done very well... others have not. The trick is being willing to drop the poor producers. The work involved in keeping a huge menu up can blow your whole day. Brands can also be regionally specific. "Red Vines" are hugely popular over here. "Twizzlers" were much less known until a Tennessee-based chain brought them over. I personally think the stuff tastes like a barely-flavored wax-like product, but I guess they have a reason for selling it.
All of this is just fine, and reflects the owner's willingness to provide a product the community wants and will support.
It may be that your owners aren't entirely stupid. If they try something, it doesn't work and they try something else, that's smart. If they don't learn from their experiences, that may be where an opportunity might eventually show itself.
Patience!
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Monte L Fullmer
Film God
Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004
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posted 12-27-2007 06:48 PM
I do agree with you Jack on how your business is being ran and what the market area is - both in film and in snakbar and I've heard that if you sell chips, it'll take away from the popcorn sales, but once agai, that's a demographic condition and have to be a trial and error sort of thing to find the answer (and at this one drive-in that I pull that one shift at - licquorice ropes are the king over RedVines since kids devour those ropes..)
This Drive-In is in a town close to 37k people and the only screen in this town. We're working on getting the other screen open, but some bumps to complete this project is still in the works. Also, they only do discount runs and I've asked the owner on the possibility of doing 1st runs on the break, but those decisions on upgrading to the 1st runs haven't been met yet.
Sadly, about 20 yrs ago, this drive in had all three screens blaring away with 1st run movies and in full 7 day operation. Now, just open on Fri Sat and Sun and presently shooting on the center screen.
(this is where I pull the occasional Sunday night shift at and been doing it for the last 3 seasons..)
-Monte
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Monte L Fullmer
Film God
Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004
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posted 12-27-2007 07:18 PM
quote: Mike Blakesley
Why would you stop taking checks when starting to take credit cards
...That's an easy no-brainer on that one, and that one, once again, is a demographic situation.
Mike, you're out there in a small town all by yourself where the trust level is probably very high, whereas Jack's area could be more problematic where he had no choice to drop off accepting checks - both in boxoffice and the snakbar.
At our small circuit, we used to take checks as well, (I hated them due that it really slowed down the "production line and time" in getting customers serviced, esp. in the boxoffice line),but the bounce from the NSF checks really began to take effect to where we had no choice to drop them and switch over to card machines - which in a way, was a tremendous blessing that it increased our snakbar sales very much since people are using plastic nowdays, people can buy more easilly, and the sales are always guaranteed in payment to the owner.
Also, if the attendant asks if Debit or Credit (and preferably debit), the debit card fee is only $.50 for the transaction. Even though if you're running the cards as credit, the amount of those large sales will easilly offset the fees charged, plus one can easilly raise the price of the more popular items by a quarter to offset that fee charge as well.
Those NSF check fees are horrible to the business owner when they really begin to pile up.
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