We can have 1 concession person per 70 customers. This is watched by the District Office like a hawk and if we're even a little over the correct ratio we hear about it.

Maxinum staffing allowed:
Monday thru Friday Afternoons (per shift):
1 concession
1 usher/projectionist
1 box
1 manager
Sunday thru Thursday nights (per shif):
2 concession
1 usher/projectionist
1 box
1 manager
Fri night thru Sunday Afternnon (per shift):
2 box
6 concessions
1 ticket taker
2 usher/projectionists
1 assistant manager in addition to head manager

Keep in mind this is for a 12 plex. This Saturday night we did 550 people for the seven o'clocks. By the 70 to 1 ratio of customers to concessions we should have been able to have 7 concession workers but were only allowed 6. Not to bad, but I remember having 700 people and only 6 concession to cover it.
 

Oh,yes,I did wash my hands before threading up. No tops-it on the prints please!

BTW,we're a single screen!

--Chris
 

...and THEY say there's no one who can help me move prints!!! Geez. >

Weekdays:
6-10 concessionists
2-4 box
1 ticket ripper
4-6 cleaners
1 coordinator
2 managers
One projectionist

These are usually our limits from what I've observed. But management is quick to cut people if business is slow.

------------------
"And the monkey flips the switch."
- Major Don West, "Lost In Space"

Andrew D'Vrey
IATSE Local 219
 

The routine:

• Set up the concession stand.
  
• Come in, power and thread everything up.
  
• Do the "safety checks" in the auditoriums and such as required by the company.
  
• Get the money out of the safe and get ready to open downstairs.
  
• 1 minute before opening the doors, set the timers on the projectors. (Note: we only had 30 minute timers for a 60 minute rush.)
  
• Open the doors and begin selling tickets, explaining to the customers that I would be at the concession stand in just a moment.
  
• Run to the concession stand after selling a few tickets when the customers looked like they wouldn't wait around any longer (angering the people outside who wanted to buy tickets).
  
• Serve concessions.
  
• Run back to box office.
  

This would continue back and forth until...

• Customer complained the movie was out of focus (we had this one really old Strong turret that was a p.o.s.!)
  
• Lock the box office and put sign up notifying to please wait 2 minutes.
  
• Stick the concession drawer in the freezer (Hey, it locked! Talk about your "cold hard cash".)
  
• Run like hell upstairs and focus that p.o.s. turret on #1 the company wouldn't put forth the money to replace or repair. (Fortunately the other 7 were the TU-2000 turrets which were fine.)
  
• Run back downstairs to greet the very angry patrons because there was no one there to serve them for the last 30 seconds.
  

30 minutes later

• Try and find a "reasonably" slow time to stop selling tickets and concessions.
  
• Lock the box office.
  
• Put the concession cash drawer in the freezer.
  
• Run like hell to set the rest of the timers.
  
• Run like hell back downstairs...more angry customers.
  

And the process would repeat until halfway through the second rush when the ONE daytime employee would get out of school early to come help.

That's no way to run a theater. All the company had to do was pay more for daytime help. They would've made it back easily with the lost concession sales and the people who walked through without purchasing a ticket.

(Thank God I had platters!!!)
 

Why don't people complain and whine when they get poor customer service anywhere else? They really seem to get angry at movie theatres. Perhaps it's because the industry has a (very bad) habit of trying to solve everybody's problems with passes. Shame.
 

I had one employee who loved to work those weekday afternoon shifts. All on her own, she would empty bulk candy bins and wash them out on a rotating schedule (we had 70 bins) between serving customers.

It's funny, we would be told to keep minimum staffing, but then the home office would call looking for some paper work that they lost and expect you to drop everything to fax them copies. I always proposed that all of the home office staff should work at a theater for one week every year just to keep them in touch with reality. LOL
 

I have no problems with only one PROJECTIONIST being scheduled. Its when that projectionist is also usher/ticket seller/ripper/concession person that problems begin.
 

Scott, no I'm not superhuman, but that would've helped. Remember "Clerks"? That one line comes to mind where Dante and girlfriend are under the counter "if people don't see an employee, they assume they're being watched." That's probably what saved me for the most part.
 

Your buddy certainly did staff well, but wow can we say "worst presentation in town"! I've never ran across another theater that had so many film breaks it was required to keep a splicer beside every projector. Funny, I remember that day when they were running Hoffa in 70mm when they made it through all 4 shows in one day without a film break. They all went out and celebrated! (I still maintain that's why he had such a large amount of staff...to be able to control the crowds when the film broke.) If only he would've taken a few extra minutes to TRAIN the staff on how to thread properly. That place was a nightmare of projection until you got there.

Wait, what am I saying? He couldn't thread properly himself! If those loops weren't crammed up against the back walls of the projector, they just weren't big enough for him!!! I remember his soundhead philosophy was something like "the tighter the better" too. Geesch.
 

Two are working the candy bar and one works the box office till and runs the video rental section as well. When I am finished threading-up, I help to run the box office and candy bar.

All the younger staff leave at 9:30 pm the latest and the senoir guy is with me until 10pm (but he stays and helps out until close because I give him a ride). Pretty limited staff but it is a small town (Midland-16,000). If it is slow that night, I pretty much work alone and do everything.

Just being curious Gordon, but which IMAX do you work at? and is that the only place you work? If possible whenever I'm in the 'big smoke' next, I would love to see the set-up.

REG
 

I run a fairly busy 4-Plex - with separate TEENY WEENY box office. We get to have a separate cashier - most our other theatres have the box office integrated into the concessions counter... they run Manager + 1 on slow nights.

Basically our slow nights (M-W-Th)
1 Manager/Projectionist
1 Box Office Cashier
1 Concessions/Usher

Busy Nights
1 Manager
1 Projectionist
1 Box Office Cashier
2 Concessions
1 Usher/Concessions Heler

But as manager - we're expected to get back there and help at the snack bar. What else would we do? Stand there and watch??? That'd be nutty!!!

We don't have a ratio of customers vs. employees... although if we were slow... and I didn't send somebody home... I'd definitely hear about it.

Sometimes I pull a shift at our single screen... I wish i could run that one by myself. We only get 20 people on a Monday, but out of paranoia there's always myself and another employee... just in case something happens. I could always have used the nice remote start switch that overlooks the screen from the snack-bar... if SOME CHIEF TECHNICIAN of ours... didn't disconnect it.

 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dustin Mitchell:
[B]Hey Andrew, how big is your theatre? That's quite a staff .
[B]

---

Actually we're probably the busiest theater in Minnesota...there are only two theaters that come even close to what we do.

I work at Mall of America - 14 screens, General Cinema. There are plans for 6 more screens and stadium seating conversions.

We charge the most I know of in our area ($5.50 mat/$8.50 evening -- Seniors $5.50/Children $5.00). Our concessions are all about a dollar more per item and we kick most everyone's butt every day of the week. I've seen close to 20,000 on a Saturday. And I believe we topped that quite a few times during Titanic and the re-released Star Wars and the new Star Wars (granted for Episode I we were showing it 24-hours a day over the weekend).

Scream 3, our most recent big hit...we interlocked two prints for a total of 4 screens and about 1700 seats for 6 shows. That's already half way to 20,000 with sellouts in at least 7 different movies at 2-4 shows each.

Our booth is setup in two sides: east & west. We can interlock any of 5 projectors on the east and any of the seven on the west. But not from east to west--the catwalk between the booths is about the same length as each booth. Just about anything that opens sells out or gets interlocked here.

The closest competition...Regal Cinemas 16 which sells tickets for $4.50/$7.00 and way cheaper concessions with stadium seating and it's brand new only does about 2,000 on Saturdays. But if you saw a show over there you'd know why.

The Police Officers on staff are there because the Mall tends to attract the less desireable element. That and gang fights during Next Friday tend to increase the need. This is why I hide in the booth.

Why are we so busy??? We have a built-in clientel. There are 5 of the Twin Cities busiest bars on the same floor right next to us, plus a Planet Hollywood. Not to mention shoppers from the largest mall in the United States. Convenience, I guess.

We also do 1-3 preview screenings per week and have had a number of World Premiers--most recently Here on Earth.

So, yeah...quite the operation.

As far as my comment about needing help. The catwalk between booths makes moving prints a royal pain for two people, let alone one. Each are connected by wheelchair ramps that 'Z' back and forth. Plus a skinny hallway.

Luckily our Union contract forbids management from putting me as a floor employee. No theaters to clean for me

------------------
"And the monkey flips the switch."
- Major Don West, "Lost In Space"

Andrew D'Vrey
IATSE Local 219