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Topic: New website from a template - good idea?

Sam Graham
AKA: "The Evil Sam Graham". Wackiness ensues.

Posts: 1431
From: Waukee, IA
Registered: Dec 2004

posted 02-14-2016 05:12 PM

quote: Buck Wilson
Sam, your rules page is indeed great.

But you're missing a period after "...head west until you get here" in response to one of the "conveniently located from..." FAQs

Hmm. Thanks. I'll have to fix that.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-14-2016 05:55 PM

I fear that people are over-thinking this. Titles, showtimes, prices, directions, and upcoming bookings will probably satisfy upwards of 90% of visitors to a theatre web site. No doubt everyone here (including me) likes to see pictures of the theatre, some notes on its history, etc., but the simple stuff is what matters to the ticket-buying public. Make this information easy to read and fast to load (and don't make people load another page to get any of this information), and customers will be happy.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

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

posted 02-14-2016 08:56 PM

quote: Justin Hamaker
As long as your play date is listed before they even click the trailer, I don't think having a date on the trailer should be an issue.

There's the rub though, I don't usually know our playdates unless it's something we're going to play on the break. I'd guess that at least 50% of our bookings are "Monday for Friday."

quote: Scott Norwood
No doubt everyone here (including me) likes to see pictures of the theatre, some notes on its history, etc., but the simple stuff is what matters to the ticket-buying public.

I'm surprised at how many theater pages I've visited have zero pictures of the theater on their site. You don't need to have a whole photo gallery, but give people an idea what your place looks like. It's amazing how many far-flung out-of-towners look at our website and I've had more than one person tell me that they came to a show here because of the pictures on the website.

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Michael Putlack
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 187
From: Fort Collins, Colorado
Registered: Sep 2011

posted 02-15-2016 03:32 AM

I think when it comes down to a website, whether it is for a movie theatre, restaurant, or whatever, that is the first thing a lot of people will see for your business. You have to ask yourself, is this the first impression I want to be making. If it looks like your website was designed in the late '90s, is that the first thing you want your customer to think? Will they also think that you update and maintain your cinema as well as you update and maintain your website?

For everyone on this site that has a strong opinion about movie presentation (common width screens, curtains, make sure lighting cues are correct, etc.), you all should be having a strong opinion about your own websites. You're not just presenting movies, you're presenting yourselves and your businesses, and every step of the way you should make that presentation the best it should be.

Mike, my advice to you would be to use some of that money you were thinking of spending on a nice new curtain, and instead invest it in a new website.

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Scott Jentsch
Phenomenal Film Handler

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

posted 02-15-2016 06:27 PM

Templates are useful when money is tight, but there's no mistaking a template for what it is. Much like two girls at the prom wearing the same dress, you could run into an embarrassing situation where your customers see your same web site design on another theater's web site. Whether that matters to you is your choice.

I'm a big believer that a web site should reflect the character of the organization it represents. The photos on your site show a side of your theater that makes it different than a corporate chain theater, so I think there's a value to them.

That said, someone on a smartphone is more interested in the core details of what's playing and when, how to find the theater, and how to reach someone by phone. The faster and easier that you can provide that information the more successful your web site will be for you. You can still provide the background information, but you should put the showtimes and contact information front and center.

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Melanie Loggins
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 154
From: Wayne, NE, USA
Registered: Aug 2011

posted 03-11-2016 05:25 PM

We had someone local design our new website. It's just a fancy Wordpress site, and it couldn't be easier to update every week. Our old website could take up to an hour, which is partly because of my crappy html skills and partly because of youtube being weird). You can see it here:The Majestic Theatre

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Justin Hamaker
Film God

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

posted 03-11-2016 07:08 PM

Melanie
I'm curious if you've had any push back about not admitting people under 13 to Deadpool, even when your normal policy is no one under 6. Personally I would love to do this, but I fear it would create vulnerability for a lawsuit.

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Melanie Loggins
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 154
From: Wayne, NE, USA
Registered: Aug 2011

posted 03-11-2016 07:34 PM

Hijacking, but... no! And I was ready for some. In fact, all week people have been thanking/ congratulating me. But then, I live in a very small town.

As for litigation.... The theater's policy is just a policy, based on MPAA recommendations, which are just recommendations. We're free to do whatever we want. When Bully was almost released with an R rating a few years ago, I told people not to worry, that we weren't going to enforce the policy on that one. It's a case-by-case thing, and I don't change policy very often. But in this case, I just figured, it takes a village and if someone was a bad enough parent to let their little one watch Deadpool, they were going to have to do it on their own time.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

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

posted 03-11-2016 11:12 PM

We didn't change our "policy" for Deadpool but I did engage in a fairly agressive "anti-advertising" campaign, where I went to great lengths to inform people about the content of the movie. I figured that might also bring some people in who otherwise wouldn't come, so, win-win.

The result was we no "drop offs" of underage kids at all, and we only had ONE family during the whole run of the movie bring sub-10-year-olds to the show. We even tried to talk them out of it at the boxoffice (to no avail). And, like Melanie, I had people thanking me for getting the "word" out about the movie. We still grossed well on it.

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Sam Graham
AKA: "The Evil Sam Graham". Wackiness ensues.

Posts: 1431
From: Waukee, IA
Registered: Dec 2004

posted 03-12-2016 09:39 AM

quote: Justin Hamaker
I'm curious if you've had any push back about not admitting people under 13 to Deadpool, even when your normal policy is no one under 6. Personally I would love to do this, but I fear it would create vulnerability for a lawsuit.

The Cameo had a strict "16 and over" policy regardless of the feature for decades with some grumbling but no lawsuits. In the last ten years or so, it was relaxed to "under 16 admitted only with adult guardian."

Cinemark's Palace on the Plaza in KC also tried this, at least for awhile. Not sure if they still practice such a policy or not.

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 03-12-2016 12:51 PM

Mike, I wouldn't change too much about your web page. Its like when you go to the food store and they've moved everything around and you have to learn it all over again. You do need to add a page to the Sound system showing the baffle wall and new speakers. when I tell people you have a full baffle wall there they look at me completely baffled!

Also, there is a dead link on that same sound page.

Ken, Your page loaded in about three seconds! That's not slow.

Mark

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

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

posted 03-12-2016 11:58 PM

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
You do need to add a page to the Sound system showing the baffle wall and new speakers. when I tell people you have a full baffle wall there they look at me completely baffled!

Also, there is a dead link on that same sound page.

I know, I have a ton of pics of that project plus the video of us taking the screen down.... I need to get on that. Thanks for the heads-up about the link, I'll fix that when I update next. I mainly would like to remodel the picture pages (because the pics are all small so they would load fast back in the pre-high-speed days) and make the pages wider.

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