This is topic How Much Does It Cost You? in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Andrew McCrea (Member # 674) on 12-08-2000, 06:30 PM:
Hey Everyone!
How much does it cost you for your film rentals?What do you think of what you pay?
Andrew
Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 12-08-2000, 07:58 PM:
It varies. But this year we have been paying about 41% on average. It would be nice if we could bring it down a bit.
Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 12-08-2000, 10:08 PM:
Average 40-50%. If it was based on how well this years films have done for us it should be 5%.
Posted by Andrew McCrea (Member # 674) on 12-09-2000, 07:19 AM:
40%-50% of what? How much money would that actually be for you?
Posted by Ky Boyd (Member # 23) on 12-11-2000, 02:39 PM:
Box Office Gross. Feature film rental is almost always a % of box office gross. FYI, for mainstream houses average film rental has been slowly creeping up over the past 5 years from about 50 to 55%.
Arthouse film rental runs about 40% on average.
Discount usually averages out between 30 and 35%.
Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 12-13-2000, 04:42 PM:
Ian - does the cut come out of the gross or the net (after sales tax is taken out)? I always understood it was the net.Mike
Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 12-13-2000, 11:43 PM:
What about the 90/10 concept on first run films? Is that still valid, or has that been changed? I am a theater technician - so I don't know what goes on with the film rental aspect. 
Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 12-13-2000, 11:52 PM:
What become of the old 90/10 rental for the first-run shows? I am a projection and sound system technician, and run movies in my spare time. I am not in the management or booking aspect. But, I sure am curious how film rentals chance so much for first run movies. (which this fall were total crap!)
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 12-14-2000, 04:34 AM:
Paul, if you have a Netscape browser, please use it on the forums. Internet Explorer requires you to hit the "refresh" button every time you make a post so you can see it. A real pain. If you click the "submit" button and it takes you to a "thank you" screen, it DID post and your browser is just cacheing the old page. 
Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 12-14-2000, 05:25 PM:
OOPS! 
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Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 12-14-2000, 05:51 PM:
Film Gross is figured with the Net after Tax has been taken out. Here in California, movie tickets aren't taxed making the point moot. Most ticketing systems figure out net of sales tax.The rule is minimum film rental vs. 90/10, which ever is greater. For each theatre, each studio establishes a house allowance. The house allowance is a per seat figure, so the house allowance is the per seat figure times the number of seats in that particular auditorium. You figure the 90/10 rule by deducting the house allowance from the gross. If that figure is higher than your negotiated percentage, you pay the higher amount. (Now you know why theatres cram all those miserable seats up in front by the screens, it brings up their house allowance.)
(Note: New cinemas with stadium seating and all digital sound receive a higher house allowance than older more traditional theatres. But you do get points for having digital sound and other improvements. With this as an incentive, why do theatres hesitate to make upgrades? Example: With Sony pictures, if you install SDDS you get a higher house allowance.)
Most films are on a settlement agreement. So as long as you keep sending in the minimum amount of film rental you owe each week the studios are happy. After the film run, the accountants figure it all out, sometimes months later.
We never paid 90/10 until the Thanksgiving week of Billy Elliot. But we haven't settled yet.
Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 12-14-2000, 06:12 PM:
Thank you, Ian. I remember two instances that really cost theater owners some money. One was the movie "American Graffitti" (poor Spelling) where the theater owner had to guarentee "X" number of dollars for "X" number of weeks. For the first two weeks, the house was filled (450 seats) to capacity. Then the movie died, and the last two weeks it ran to almost an empty house. The theater owner lost his shirt on that one, so he says. The other was "Return of the Jedi", and I had to carry a $25,000 Cashier's check to Seattle just to get the print in the trunk of my car. We ran that thing in a 250 seat house for 4 weeks and we didn't even make the 25,000 guarentee. In fact, we lost 5,000 on it. Quite honestly, I think the owner of that theater used hind sight when he booked that movie. 
Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 12-14-2000, 07:29 PM:
One of our rules is to never pay guarantees. We do pay advances. But if a studio really wants a guarantee, we just let the film go. There are always other films to show and there's no such thing as a sure bet.We once paid a $1,500 advance. The film made $700 for the week so we asked for and received a refund.
Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 06-14-2002, 12:07 PM:
Bumping this up top for Barry.
Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 06-14-2002, 12:40 PM:
This isn't it... I read it earlier, but this wasn't the one. The one I was talking about, Ian had posted a whole list of items that were specifically related to the "operating cost" of his theatre. Things like, lease payments, payroll, payroll taxes, insurance, accounting fee's, etc.. It was a very thorogh list from what I remember, that's why I'm hunting for it.
Posted by Mitchell Cope (Member # 32) on 06-14-2002, 01:59 PM:
Barry,I raised it to the top in Film-Yak. The subject is "Andrew McCrea's business plan".