Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: 3800+ tickets-LOTR 2: 12:01 AM Show

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Posted by Brian Hogan (Member # 940) on 12-18-2002, 05:15 AM:

so we had a special 12:01 am advanced showing of LOTR 2 tonight, late night 17-Dec/early 18-Dec. we had one last year for the first one. sold over 2100 tickets for it. this year, however, we sold over 3800 tickets! had 6 prints (two of which were on loan from another theatre) running all 24 theatres. it was great. it has to be a record for most tickets sold for a single show. it just HAS to be!

oh, btw... our total seating capacity is 4719 for 24 theatres. we would prolly be able to comfortably seat 4100. that means only 300 away from selling out the entire theatre. WOW!

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 12-18-2002, 06:21 AM:

Way to Go, AMC Lennox 24. This is especially impressive since The Ohio State University, which this theatre is adjacent to, is already out for winter break.

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 12-18-2002, 01:06 PM:

The AMC Bay Street 16 is a brand new theatre that opened up December 17th. They only have one movie. It's in Emeryville, CA right next to Oakland and the Bay Bridge.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(PG-13) 2 hrs. 59 min. Buy Tickets
06:00am, 07:00am, 08:00am, 09:00am, 10:00am, 11:00am, Noon, 1:00pm, 2:00pm, 3:00pm, 4:00pm, 5:00pm, 6:00pm, 7:00pm, 8:00pm, 9:00pm, 10:00pm, 11:00pm

They are going to run it on all 16 screens for two days. Then they introduce new films.

Posted by Joe Beres (Member # 678) on 12-18-2002, 01:09 PM:

Does that mean that each print was running interlocked in four theaters? Impressive.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 12-18-2002, 02:38 PM:

What I don't understand is why 6 prints were needed for only one show. One single print could have easily been interlocked through all 24 projectors. Just send the latecomers to the auditoriums at the end of the path!

Joe if you think interlocking 4 auditoriums is impressive, be sure to check out the Interlocking 101 video which is downloadable from thiis site. Also you can check out the Picture Warehouse page for pics from the same video.

Posted by Joe Beres (Member # 678) on 12-18-2002, 03:08 PM:

Joe, I have watched that video, but I was not fooled by your low budget special effects. Try harder next time. [Smile]

Seriously though, the video was incredibly impressive, but most likely done for fun without a looming start time for the film, no?

I am impressed by Brian's theater because of the coordination it must have taken to prepare the theater for a big midnight opening with all 24 screens basically all seating and starting at the same time.

By the way Joe, what was the delay in the start between the first and last projector?

Posted by Brian Hogan (Member # 940) on 12-18-2002, 04:10 PM:

the sync path was pretty awesome. the bare minimum amount a prints we need is 4 because we have 4 separate booths. our 4 biggest houses use 2 booths which means we would have 2 prints for the 10 houses on each side. one of these days, though, im gonna sync that building with one print!

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 12-18-2002, 04:16 PM:

That's pretty awesome, but I really see no reason why one big continuous loop with one print could not have been made such that each showtime had staggered starts and by the time it went back to #1, it was time to start up again. Thus, start them running and then just let them go. [Big Grin]

Of course with 4 booths where there will be audience traffic, you would want to be careful about your film path to keep it out of the patron's grasp.

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 12-18-2002, 05:09 PM:

Brian -

Comfortably seat 4,100? Why exactly do you have 4,700 seats in the building then? That's only 86% occupancy. 100% man ... that's a SELLOUT ... Granted, 3,800 is impressive, but still only 81% occupancy! Sell those extra 919 seats! That's what they're there for!

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 12-18-2002, 07:44 PM:

Mike, the AMC Lennox 24 must be a stadium theater. [Big Grin]

You don't want to sell the seats at ground level unless you absolutely must.

Posted by Tom Wienholt (Member # 1510) on 12-19-2002, 01:09 AM:

Why have ground level seats if your not going to use them. Thats just stupid. I say sell out the entire theatre.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 12-19-2002, 01:11 AM:

Why have crappy seats that you don't use?

House allowance... just to bring it up. [Smile]

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 12-19-2002, 09:16 PM:

About 400 people watched the 12:01am show here in Lawton at the Carmike (including me --I have only now completely recovered from the lack of sleep and having to work early the next day). The theater has two prints; screens 4 and 5 have a little over 200 seats each. The lesser mall theater downtown sold out its three midnight shows.

Not bad attendance at all for some smaller sized city in Oklahoma.

As sleepy as I was, I did think the movie was pretty cool. But that scene where Frodo fell in the water and had the ghouls after him really creeped me out. I lost a little more sleep over that!