Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Square footage per seat in auditorium/building costs?

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Posted by Adam Fraser (Member # 1074) on 03-03-2004, 10:13 PM:

We are considering adding one or two screens to our single. I measured out our current auditorium 80 ft by 45 ft approx with 450 seats which works out to about 8 square feet/seat. Does that sound about right?

Considering a 100-125 seat 25' by 40' auditorium- approx. 1000 square feet. Is this enough for patrons to be comfortable?

Also considering other costs for building-

Shell with sloped floor- $100/psf

Booth equip/speakers/ 18' screen (Simplex/Dolby Digital/JBL, new or possibly rebuilt/slightly used)- $50,000

2 ADA Bathrooms- $10,000 each

Seats- $110/each installed

HVAC- $10,000+

Any info or insight would be appreciated.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 03-03-2004, 10:17 PM:

8 sqft / seat is about right for sloped floor auditoriums.

Your (new) seats and size sounds about right for a slope floored auditorium also.

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 03-04-2004, 12:29 PM:

I don't know about the numbers, but your room sounds long and skinny.

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 03-04-2004, 12:47 PM:

We figure our layouts based on 9 square foot person;depending on layout either 9 or 10 seats per row x 10 rows + handicap area. The screen size could possibly be bigger if exits are not located on the front wall and the height is available.

Posted by Adam Fraser (Member # 1074) on 03-04-2004, 05:20 PM:

Thanks for the info, I guessed the length and width by using the proportions of our current aud. A square room would allow a bigger screen though than my current lenght and width, thats why we are still asking questions. [Smile]

What are the length and widths of some other people's 100-150 seat aud's?

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 03-05-2004, 01:34 PM:

My 100-seat room has a very pleasing shape. I never get complaints about seeing a film in this room. I do get complaints about seeing a film in the next room that has 120 seats, a slightly smaller and higher screen and is slightly narrower.

My 100-seat room is 30' wide and 40' long. It has a back isle due to the fact that the door is offset. And it has a center isle. I would recommend continental seating with side isle as more ideal. The screen is 20" off of the front wall. The screen is 10' high and 24' wide. If it weren't for the exit door protruding in to the room a bit, I'm sure you could get a 12' x 28' screen in this room. This room is 1,200 square feet.

Some people like to crack that their television is larger than our screen. I’d like to see that, first of all our room is as larger as the typical small 3-bedroom house and second of all, the largest rear screen projection televisions are 80" and $25,000. I'll take your $25,000 and give you a 300" screen. In other words my screen is at least 4 times larger than yours.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 03-05-2004, 02:24 PM:

Or about 16 times the AREA. And you probably show each film in the proper format, without any cropping or letterboxing:

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/newsletters/pytlak/spring2001.shtml

Posted by Jeff Taylor (Member # 443) on 03-08-2004, 01:18 PM:

For a "scratch built" multiplex, which is the most current experience I have, I come up with a total of about $160 psf soup to nuts (i.e. everything but the candy inventory). Assuming you're only building one or two auditoriums, you are obviously going to save on signage, parking, lobby, concessions, etc, so I would vote for roughly $60 psf for the raw box including HVAC but no cinema equipment--assuming your site prep costs are not too bad. For a brand new booth and sound system figure a short $50k, and obviously you can save a lot with used equipment. Hope that helps. PS: In using the above numbers keep in mind that I was talking larger auditoriums than you are, so the booth costs will skew yours more than mine.