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Topic: AMC shares plunge 25% after pre-announcing ‘shocking’ quarterly loss
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Jack Ondracek
Film God
Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002
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posted 08-07-2017 11:41 AM
quote: Dave Bird
I understand why they can't afford to go as often as they'd like, but just look at these big, beautiful, new buildings, empty most of the day, heat, a/c, and Hollywood taking 60%. We have no roof, our customers provide the seating and no HVAC. I completely get why they have to charge it.
That's a common observation, Dave, but keep in mind that drive-ins have a very short business day. If you have a larger one, you likely have more payroll per-capita than a comparable indoor house. In my theatre, with a capacity of around 900 cars, I commonly have 17 - 20 people in the snackbar, boxoffices and fields. They're not here the whole night, but it takes that kind of manpower to herd everyone in, keep an eye on blankets, matresses, speeders, hatchbacks, lights, pot smokers, kids in the playgrounds, and getting the lines through the snack bar.
I'd say you're doing a lot more mowing and outside maintenance than the average indoor. If you're not paying someone else, there's a value you should be attaching to your own time.
Finally, there's the matter of that equipment we all had to purchase recently. We watched the process for 10 years and planned accordingly. When the time came for us to buy, we were ready. I know of only a handful of drive-ins that planned it out that way. Many of the rest turned to crowd funding, used equipment leasing, hand-wringing or simply closed. In other words, they were run like hobbies, with little-to-no planning for a new roof, maybe a replacement screen and.... a new projector.
There's also the fact that a lot of these places are closed for 4 - 6 months out of the year. You have to cover a years worth of expenses with the time you have, running only one show per night. Around here, our foot is always to the floor.
The obvious cost of a building may be high, but running a seasonal drive-in isn't necessarily as inexpensive as some might assume.
If taken seriously, drive-ins can still be be attractive mom-n-pop operations, but they don't fit the corporate "cookie-cutter" model and, I think, are no longer well-understood by the larger companies. Too bad, really... Given how our community supports us, I think they still have a place in the bigger picture.
Oh... Hollywood takes the same percentages from me. If you run the movie when the indoor houses do, you're aggregate outgo isn't that much different, if at all... at least around here in the Northwest. The only difference would be what you need to do to to squeeze a co-feature in there. That's what makes it hard to understand why so many of us discount the product we offer. Taken in its totality, it's a different experience, not necessarily one of substantially lower quality.
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Jack Ondracek
Film God
Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002
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posted 08-07-2017 06:05 PM
Cindy and I talked about this, just after I returned from the NAB convention in Vegas. I'd never seen "HD" billboards that are all over the place there, but could see someone talking about the notion they could be used at a drive-in.
All other issues aside, it wouldn't surprise me that it's technically possible. We see it whenever we watch a local baseball game from Safeco Field in Seattle. According to Google, their video board is 1080p x 3840 and 201.5 feet wide. In broad daylight, it still looks very good.
For us however, I don't think the idea would work... for a multitude of reasons. The climate issue, brought up by Justin, is certainly valid, and only serves to lower what would already be a small base of installed screens.
Many of us are still smarting from the cost of digital conversion. You'd need a very compelling reason to travel that road again. I don't think this is it.
Yes, you could start your show 3 hours (or more) before dark. That's something you might think would be welcomed by an industry that's not positively impacted by daylight savings time. Still, I just don't see it as a happening thing.
I put a lot of effort into avoiding "traditional thinking", as applies to drive-ins, but it seems that attempting to move our customers away from the image of us being a night-time event would be a challenge for me, if not for the customers as well. I don't see a positive offset to what would likely be a years-long retraining effort. It took about 5 years to get past the backlash we caused when we dropped carload pricing and went 1st run.
There's the way many of us look. Intended or not, few of us look like Safeco Field during the day. Even if our places are manicured, some were built with paint schemes that look great at night, but are a bit on the garish side in the light of day. Years ago, one of the owners in our state seemed more intent on making it look like there was a circus on his properties than an outdoor theatre.
Then, there's the likelihood, at least at my place, that we might be considering the damage caused by the occasional lobbed rock or swatted golf ball. My corrugated roof metal holds up pretty well against that onslaught, while the big money equipment sits in secure, well-filtered, air conditioned comfort. I'm not sure I could budget for the cost of physical repairs to 3 electronic screens, not to mention the emotional effect on my normally docile personality! ![[Mad]](mad.gif) ![[evil]](graemlins/evil.gif)
So... aside from maybe getting your trailers on the screen a little early... there's not much I can see here.
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Jack Ondracek
Film God
Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002
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posted 08-07-2017 06:29 PM
It's a valid point that comes up now and then, Justin.
Lucky you... Your 9:15 is our 10pm up here. If we were so inclined (not), triple features in July are be nearly impossible to consider, as daylight approaches and the seagulls are flying through the picture, well before it's done.
I've always been amazed that our busiest months are when we start the latest. I hear very little complaining about it... certainly not enough that I'd ever think a video board would make sense.
All else aside, it seems to boil down to weather and content at our place.
I agree on the early start time. We open early enough in the year that we could start somewhere between 6 and 6:30. That seems to mess too much with people getting themselves reset after school, work and dinner. Perhaps it's a nod toward the 7pm reasoning that a lot of our indoor neighbors go by, but it's turned out to be the best time for us as well.
Still, it is odd to open up after dark and wait until a specific clock time to start a drive-in show...
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