This is how I've always seen the breakdown:
Manager
Assistant Manager
Supervisor/Chief (glorified floor staff)
Employees/staff

Some places seem to take on this breakdown
Complex manager (the manager)
House manager (assistant)
Concession/usher/booth/ticket manager (supervisor)
Assistant to above manager (assistant supervisor)
Manager (floor staff)
Supervisor (someone who has applied for employment)
and so forth and so on. My guess is just to make minimum wage seem envious with a title.

What is YOUR title and what does it REALLY mean? Be sure to list the people above you (names not necessary, of course).

Manager
Assistant Manager
Floor Staff.

There are no "supervisors" per se. All employees are employees, and receive direction from myself and my assistants. We are expected to be "floor managers" as opposed to "office managers." How else do you gain the employees' respect unless you're working right alongside them ... not just standing there telling them what to do. The whole supervisor thing, IMHO, is a manager sluffing off his duties on floor staff.

General Manager (in charge of entire complex)
Assistant Manager (of which I was one, usually two or three per theater... more for bigger theaters)
Chief of Staff (glorified floorstaff who can help you count inventory, etc)
Floorstaff
 

I am only interested in theater staff, not corporate personnel titles for the purpose of this thread. (Sorry, I should've been more clear.)
 

I really have no OFFICIAL title.
It can either be considered BOOTH TECH or BOOTH COORDINATOR.
Im in charge of the booth, basically.
I train new people, make schedules, take care of problems that I know how to take care of.

It goes like this:

Managing Director (In charge of the entire complex)
House Manager (Just about the same as MD)
Managers

My job responsibilities include:

Hiring
Cash Deposits/Close outs
Policy Enforcement
Customer Service
Overseeing operations
paperwork
and basically just making sure things run right.

I know what brad means though. My location does a million and a half people a year and really does need 7 or 8 managers IMHO. The supervisors make change, and do the nightly inventory.

 

At the administrative level (home office):

Owner/Owner
Vice President
General Manager
Operational Supervisor(s) (two of them)
Concession Supervisor

At the theatre level you had (in order of authority):

Area Manager (called District Manager in some circles). An Area Manager is a theatre manager with more responsibility. They helped the Operational Supervisiors within their area (district)

Theatre Manager: (runs the theatre, reports to operational supervisor)

Relief Manager: (waiting to get their own theatre so they relieve)

Assistant Manager: (could work at several theatres within the chain, not destined to get their own theatre)

Chief of Service: (like an assistant manager but
only worked one theatre, not nearly as popular as Asst. Manager).

Head Usher: I saw little distinction between "head usher" and Chief of Service. The Head Usher was normally done by a manager that liked having one. So some theatres had them, some didn't. That was back in the days when you had ushers and they really and truely ushered! The head usher generally was the ticket taker, was paid a little more and could direct the floor staff when a manager was not present.

Senior staff: Employees that know what they are doing and can direct other employees (at some parts of the job) and may work at several theatres though have one that is their home. Unlike Assit. Managers, they can't make policy nor do they handle the paperwork...in other words, they are not "managers."

"Key Employee" This was only around for a couple of years and was used mainly as an incentive to achieving a raise. After all...how many tiers of employees does a theatre need?

And Last...the Employee/Usher (depending on the year): This is where the typical applicant started and most lived their theatre "careers."

I don't think any theatre had all the forms of management and employees at any one time. Most common was Theatre Manager, Asst. Manager (the number depended on the complex), Senior Staff (also complex dependant on the quantity), Employee/Usher. Since the Senior Staff and Asst. Managers could float around as needed, they were particulalry useful if a theatre was really busy, they could draw (temporarily) from another's employee pool. If say 4 theatres donate one senior staff for an opening weekend of ET, that busy theatre gets an immediate surge of experience staff that don't need much direction and can direct others, same with Asst. Managers.

Steve

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"Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"
 

Get checked into a 20 and then tell me if giving senior employees some supervisory authority is "sluffing"...
 

General Manager or GM (manages whole complex)
Assistant Manager or AM (experienced managers that are trained in every area of the theater and have passed all necessary tests to qualify as an Assistant Manager. These people are also right under General manager. The GM and AM's are the only ones considered full time so they are elegible for benefits)
Manager on Duty or MOD (Manager in charge of complex when the GM is out)
Head manager ( every area has a head of their department like head manager of concessions etc. but, in order to truly be a head manger of a certain area you must be an AM otherwise you are only acting as a head manager of that particular area)
Manager (manages staff, customer service so on and so on)
Manager in Training or MIT (Duh?)
Controller (dont really know where there rank really is but they are in a managerial position. These are the ones that in charge of all the money for the complex)

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--"That's my story and i'm sticking to it!"--
 

Aside from a home office level, I see no reason for a theatre to have any other breakdown from below.. Any other positions are unnecessary and, to me, are considered to be "title only" positions for glorification purposes.

Keep in mind, this is on an individual multiplex theater level.

General Manager
Assistant manager(s)
Shift Lead (the one or two employees whom are trusted enough to help do inventory counts)
Floor staff (be it concessionist, cashier, or doorperson/usher)
Janitorial staff (which actually falls in line iwth the GM job, as it is as vital to overall operations as the head position)

No theatre can run successfully on one person's ability alone. I don';t care WHO you are, WHAT you know, or HOW you do it. It simply WILL NOT HAPPEN. Anyone who disagrees, I would be glad to listen to your logic..

Corporate positions vary from chain to chain, but the basic jist is:

Chairman of the Board
Board Of Directors (think ENRON)
CEO
COO
President / General Manager (often the same as COO)
Vice President(s) for Concession/Technical/Purchasing/Etc
Division Managers (over multi state territories)
District Managers (over 25-40 theatres normally within two states)

Then it's broken down into the local theatre level.

Now, name that company.. LOL..

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The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese!
 

Manager (or GM whatever you wish, that's me, I'm in charge of my building solely)

Assistant Manger (at my theater I have 2 salaried assistants)

MIT (manager in training)
The thoughts on this are, a training program to have more Assistants. Unfortunately, they don't just add an extra salaried position when someone is "trained". You either stay "MIT" until there's an opening at your theater, and you're ready, or you wish to move up to Assistant at another theater. I fully expect the MITs at my theater to be Assistant Managers w/o the title, and at an hourly rate. That way the transition is smoother.

We also have a Housekeeping Manager, that is in charge of the overnight cleaners. This has been a God-send. I don't have to hire cleaners, or fire them. I just have this person take care of that for me, and gives me input, or requests supplies. Its hard to pinch the pennies on a salary person though, during spring & fall.

Now was Brad asking what the word manager actually means to someone? That's a whole separate post.

 

Manager(salaried) - This is a floor position. I was expected to work a floor position at all times except Thursday night and Monday afternoon. Also required to work Friday night, Sat open to close, Sun Mat (and Eve if Mon was a holiday). I was responsible for all aspects of the operation of the theater. On busy shifts I would usually work box or concession as the shows went in and door or theater cleaning as shows broke. It was also necessary to perform building maintenance and I spent many cold nights changing the marquee and shoveling the walkway that circled the building.

Assistant Manager(salaried) - very similar to manager but with less experience and possibly still learning some aspects of operations. This person was hired by the District Manager not the Theater Manager.

Assistant Manager(hourly) - one or two managers in training that would run Tue or Wed shifts and also help on weekends. These were hired by the Theater Manager...usually promoted from floor staff.

Floor staff(hourly) - some work full time, some part time. They were not specificallly catagorized (Concession, usher, door, box office) as in some chains. They were generally cross trained as much as their abilities would permit.

Booth work was generally performed by an assistant manager (hourly) and the manager would help when necessary.

This chain was very tight on payroll as you might imagine by the above descriptions.

Some theaters were permitted to hire a maintenance person (at a couple bucks over minimum) if they could prove the need.

All theater cleaning (during non-operating hours) was subcontracted with an outside vendor chosen by the Distict Manager.
 

That is a comical way of looking at it.

I might add that a lot of chains are real picky about this.

Customer
Owner
VP
 

VP of Operations: Which as far as I can tell is nothing more thatn a regional manager in charge of all the Area Directors and some ADs are better suited...never mind...LOL

Area Director: Is just that...he is the General Manager of the theatre Managers...confused Yet????

General Manager: The Ultimate Floor Staff who gets his ass chewed out for everything that goes wrong. We are responsible for the entire theater operation inside and out. And I mean everything except the advertising, which is actually budgeted for less than .01% per month to advertise our business...something's wrong....

Salaried Assistant Manager: I don't know what the exact detail is by the book, but if you have an excellent assistant, then I train them to be able to do anything I can...and that's how I keep being put in bigger theatres, I always have a well trained replacement.

Joel
 

A title is in fact a reward of sort and besides when you're a young person looking for work after leaving school "concession supervisor" looks great on a CV

HAPPY NEW YEAR , Y'ALL
 

OFFICE

General Manager = Owner
Field Manager = Owners Sidekick
Quality Control Manager = Owners Kissass
Field Technician = ME

THEATERS

Location Manager = Does what he/she is told
Asst Manager = Tells Location Manager to stick it up his/her wazoo
Projectionist = local high school football jock who destroyed my copy of everything
concessionist = chicks with big breasts
box office = that place we dont use because our labor is too high
janitor = person who smokes in theater 6 even after i said to stop it
floor staff = 14 year old who cant wipe thier own ass without a checklist explaing how and why, when and where.

Dave