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Topic: How do you advertise midnight shows?

Justin Hamaker
Film God

Posts: 2253
From: Lakeport, CA USA
Registered: Jan 2004

posted 05-05-2009 05:53 AM

quote: Mike Spaeth
I've never had any confusion on the issue...

I've had about as much confusion about midnight shows as we normally see from the time changes. There may be a small handful of people who get it wrong, but those are few and far between.

I really wish the studios would allow more of the 7:00pm or 10:00pm early openings, rather than the midnights.

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Scott Jentsch
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1061
From: New Berlin, WI, USA
Registered: Apr 2003

posted 05-05-2009 10:55 AM

We get our showtimes data from CinemaSource (West World Media) and they do all their showtimes the same way in that all shows before 2am are listed on the previous day.

CinemaSource works hand-in-hand with movietickets.com, which does online ticketing for AMC, National Amusements, Marcus, and others.

A Thursday midnight show would be listed as Thursday 12:01am, for example.

By doing this consistently every time, I think people get used to the concept that a midnight show Thursday night will be listed on Thursday's showtimes, even though it is technically Friday morning.

Here are some examples of midnight shows coming up for Angels and Demons:

Milwaukee, WI

Chicago, IL

Hollywood, CA

I took a look at Fandango, which does ticketing for Regal, Kerasotes, etc. and they also do the Thursday appearance for midnight shows that night.

I think consistency is the key. Do it the same way every time and people will figure it out. I also think listing it on Thursday makes the most sense.

My recommendation for any theater is to follow the convention of the majority of theaters out there to reduce the confusion. Of course, there will always be a segment of the population that is eternally confused and nothing we do will change that.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-05-2009 12:24 PM

I personally can't understand why midnight shows are so popular.

1. They are usually on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday night, so most people have to work (or go to school) the next day.

2. Why would you want to experience a movie in a state of being tired and having to fight to stay awake? Especially when it's a movie you've been anticipating and been anxious to see?

I know, I know, it's all about the "water cooler talk" the next day. But it sure proves how silly people can be.

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Sam King
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 120
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: Oct 2006

posted 05-13-2009 11:28 PM

My theatre is one of those listed on the Hollywood link and we typically get about 2-3% of people showing up 24 hours early for their show. We educate as well as we can, but it's a bell curve, half of that 2-3% are idiots who didn't think about it and half are very smart and over thought it.

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