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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Topic: Subscription based theatre
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Scott Jentsch
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1061
From: New Berlin, WI, USA
Registered: Apr 2003
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posted 01-04-2013 09:58 AM
I think this is a novel approach, and I hope that they succeed. However, they just barely reached their goal of 3,000, and that was with the help of lots of publicity. In so many cases of local community theaters that need to be "saved" the community rallies in support, but then the interest wanes as everyone gets back to their regular lives and their habits slide into what caused the theater to decline and close in the first place.
As with any subscription model, they will now have to worry about "new subs" and "churn" on a daily basis. How will they keep those 3,000+ people paying their $20 every month, and how will they attract new people to replace those that do not renew their subscriptions (combating churn) and find new people to grow the business on an ongoing basis?
My guess is that they'll backpedal on the daily passes requirement, because tourists will not pay $16 per day (when most people don't see more than one movie per day) for the non-member rate. They compare themselves to the ticket prices in San Francisco (which they say are $16), but if they are not providing an experience equivalent to those SF theaters, they aren't being realistic.
I like the idea of the membership model, because it creates a community within the community, and many people like being part of a group and seeing familiar people. One would hope that these members are also not being taken advantage of at the concession stand, as is the standard at traditional theaters. Members should expect that beverages should be similar to vending machine prices ($1.00-$1.50 for 12 oz soda, or whatever is typical for the area) and that popcorn and other items are not overpriced either.
These three people have proven that they can rally support behind the idea of saving a community theater with a novel approach that gained them some initial publicity; all very exciting things to do. Time will tell if they know how to run a movie theater on an ongoing basis and handle the non-exciting parts of running a business day after day.
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 01-06-2013 10:39 AM
I am afraid I think Scott is right -- this kind of thing isn't self sustaining. There is a reason a theatre falls on hard time, much of which isn't necessarily anything they have control of. There's demographic changes, population shifts in age, VIDEO and the public's viewing habits in general. As Scott says, there maybe an initial surge of enthusiasm -- mostly there is a built-in nostalgia quotient where people tend to want things to stay the same, especially if they have fond memories of times they've gone to that theatre. But now they mostly watch their movies on cable or Netflix or whatever. And yes, they don't like the idea of loosing the familiar, but that doesn't mean they will change their viewing habits and watch movies differently.
Yes, the membership thing is a good idea, but will it be enough to keep the place running as a viable business model? I hope so, but I have to admit, as someone who has seen what demographic shift can do to decimate a core audience -- where were used to get full houses of 60-80 yr olds, over ten years they a quarter of them have moved to Florida and another quarter have died, and half of what's left are too infirmed to come out to the theater -- I wish I weren't but yes, I am pessimistic that this can work for them.
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