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Topic: What's the latest theatre to close or open you have heard about? (part 2)
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Martin Brooks
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 900
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: May 2002
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posted 12-20-2013 11:36 AM
I think you need to be very careful in your business analysis before deciding to open a theatre. Margins in the theatre business are very small - they're basically part-time concession stands that happen to show movies.
At a time when home screens are getting bigger and theatrical windows are getting shorter and shorter, theater audiences are declining.
Figuring that 20% of the population would see 6 movies a year (or 40% of the population would see 3 movies a year), I don't see how you'd be selling more than 25,000 tickets a year. Your net margin on those tickets could be as little as $50,000. You might be able to pull another $50,000 gross out of the concession stand. I don't see how anyone can make it on those numbers considering you also have to pay construction, fixtures, equipment, rent, power, insurance, employees, advertising, etc.
The problem with theaters is that they're only in use part of the day, have slow turnover and low margin, since the distributors get most of the money, and with the entertainment options available at home, more and more people simply don't bother. You have a generation of people who (unfortunately) seem very satisfied watching a movie on a 7" screen.
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Theatre closings: In addition to the American 7 in the Bronx, NY mentioned in an earlier post (about 1400 seats, built in 1939), the Bombay Theatre in Flushing, NY, which opened in 1940 as the Mayfair with about 600 seats has also closed.
Also, something seems to be going on at the AMC (formerly Loews) Fresh Meadows 7 in Fresh Meadows, Queens right off of the Long Island Expressway. The theatre was recently renovated with the seat count drastically reduced and lounge chairs installed. The seat count was reduced to about 700 from about 1900 seats (and 2185 when it was built in 1948). But it seems to be closed again. No show times are listed even on the AMC site. But maybe it's a temporary problem caused by a bad heating system or water leak or something.
Still including the Fresh Meadows as "open", that brings the screen/theatre count in New York City (all five boroughs) to 440 screens at 59 theaters, including only those theaters that have a daily schedule of movies. It was 520/78 in 2001.
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 12-20-2013 01:15 PM
Wow, Martin, the Fresh Meadows closing? That and the RKO Keith's were my two favorite theatres as a kid. I saw my first 3D movie at the Fresh Meadows (HOUSE OF WAX) and also THE ROBE. I snuck in a side door and watched them building the CinemaScope screen frame there, then got booted out by the construction foreman. I didn't realize it was such a large capacity auditorium. Real showmanship there. It even had its own distinct, wonderful smell when you walked in. Each of the theatres had their own distinguishing scent.
When I designed our Whitman Theatre cinema, I insisted the we find the same cream colored, satin curtain material that they had at the Meadows, mimicking it as a kind of respect for the past. Walked all over Canal Street for two days until I found exactly the color and sheen that I remembered....a kind of homage to that great lady.
So sad those great houses went the way of the Dodo bird, and even with multiplying the screens like some sort of creeping virus, they still can't make enough of a profit to stay opened. I guess it is up to us to tell the story far and wide, that for one brief shining moment...
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