as for advertising the sound formats... i dont think it really matters. only the die-hard movie buff is gonna care about if its SDDS or DTS or whatever. im sure any sound format would look good in print if it were sold to the average joe properly. "SUPER ULTRA-STEREO SURROUND IN ALL THEATRES!!" sure, its always been there and its no big thing, but do they know that? nah.
 

The manager of the local 8-screen Regal says they may be upgrading to SDDS-8 soon (in the 2 largest auditoriums). Would be a marketing tool used against Cinemark 17, who has stolen a big chunk of Regal's business since they opened. The fact that Regal is thinking of doing this suggests they've tried it in small markets and found it works. Or maybe this would be a test. I dunno.

Most of what I've learned about management has been from working with bad managers. There's a certain management style which believes that when the staff is "too happy" then the manager isn't doing his job right. Or, perhaps, they simply want the staff to be afraid of the big, mighty boss. Of course, the customer can sense when the staff is unhappy. The customer is going to the movies to have a good time. The complete environment should reflect that yours is a place to go for a good time. The staff should be bright, happy and fun to be around.

So... what am I really saying? Assuming you already have the digital sound which the customer expects (in whatever format you can afford to have and maintain properly), the money you'd spend on an SDDS-8 upgrade might be better invested in comfortable, clean accomodations or, even better, on the staff. A small, hourly raise here and there can go a long way when it comes with a handshake, a pat on the back and a "I wish I could afford to give you more" speech (if you're really sincere about it... because the staff knows when you're sincere).

By the year 1987, you couldn't buy a VCR without a remote control included. Yet, well into the 1990s, I saw ads for "A 4-head VCR with remote!" The "with remote" seemed silly but some marketing guy must have figured it helped sell VCRs or they wouldn't have spent the money to print it. So maybe if you have a phrase like "Digital Sound in all auditoriums" in every one of your ads or signs at the box office, that constant reminder will be enough to assure the customers that you have met their technical needs. Personally, the phrase "regularly-maintained projection and sound systems in all auditoriums" would mean a lot to me. That's probably why I go to the newer theatres and, after the places are two or three years old, I get really picky about which ones I'll keep going to.
 

Sometimes, home association will help...such as Dolby in the 70s and 80s. Many people had Dolby on their cassette decks (remember cassettes?) and could associate the brand of Dolby. I would still say that Dolby has more brand familiarity than DTS or SDDS though Sony may be a better marketing name (or worse if you dislike Sony) nowadays than SDDS...ie Sony-SDDS-8.

But back to the original question, I can see some additional patrons resulting from advertising a more unique format or the THX good housekeeping sign of approval. How many people it will affect really does depend on the market though. I know that places like the Senator in Baltimore really do promote the various formats the films play in with it right up there on their HUGE curved marquee.

Steve

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"Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"
 

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion
 

Well, it matters to me, Brian, and unless you can tell me a way I can get accurate information about SDDS-8 in AMC theatres, I will spend my money at another theatre.

I want to know for sure when I walk in the door that the film I want to see at the time I am there is in SDDS-8...the newspaper and phone system certainly doesn't tell me. I'd ask a manager but I usually get a blank look.

As far as our advertising, we just specify "digital." It is up to showtime lines and word of mouth to spread the specifics.

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2 Time ICWF Champion

2 Time ICWF Hardcore Champion
 

When Loews opened its New Brunswick megaplex in 1996 it promoted SDDS bigtime. That was when Loews was under Sony ownership. Loews began de-emphasizing SDDS well before Chapter 11 and the Onex takeover.

Reading Cinemas opened a 12-plex in Manville in 1999 (5 days before Star Wars Episode 1) and promoted EX. That stopped because so few films came out with EX on them.

Those 2 theaters do extremely well anyway. Why? Bookings, stadium/digital -- and location, location, location.
 

I live in a small market. We have three first run theaters in Lawton. Two of them are located more on the west side of town (the Carmike 8 and Hollywood Cache 8) and the newest theater is in Central Mall more on the east side of town.

The Central Mall 12 gets just about any film it wants since it is more than 3 miles away from any competing theater. The allocation process demands the Cache 8 and Carmike 8 never show the same film and also alternate on showing films from distributors. For instance one Fox film will play at the Carmike and the next one will go to the Cache 8. Few exceptions are made, such as a George Lucas produced film going to the Carmike, which is the only place in town that has THX.

Clearly, the Carmike 8 is the best theater in town (DTS on all screens, the only THX screens in the area, and has a manager that cares about putting on a good quality show). However, the mall theater often doubles the numbers of the Carmike even though that place is a crying joke of a new multiplex. I mean the place is just embarrasing for how ill-equipped a new theater could be for having opened in 2001. Only 2 of 12 screens are DTS equipped, and the damned projectionists don't even load the discs into the DTS players.

Nevertheless, the Central Mall 12 theater gets more customers because it is in the mall for convenient location. For some odd reason, this theater actually beat the much superior Carmike 8 in a Lawton Constitution Reader's Choice Awards poll for the picking the town's best theater. What a bunch of f**king morons!

Anyway, that's the way it goes. I don't think those people care very much about show quality in a theater and choose convenience above all other things. Many of those folks won't care about surround sound and stuff like that until they buy a DVD driven home theater system. Then they whine and complain if a DVD they buy is not in 5.1.
 

I put together a large and really snazzy Photoshopped newspaper ad for the Carmike 8 last year when they had their 8th DTS unit installed so they could proclaim "DTS on all screens". Out of theaters in Oklahoma, the Carmike 8 is one of the very few multiplex theaters (or maybe the only one) outside of Oklahoma City and Tulsa to have digital surround sound on every screen. But overall, I'm not sure the ad really did any kind of good at all. Many people still stayed at the mall instead of driving out to the west side to watch the show under much better conditions.
 

I don't understand why Regal doesn't advertise it or at least denote "8-Channel Sound" in the newspaper ad here in Eugene. In last Thursday's LA Times Calendar section, there is a full-page ad for Spidey, with 26 SDDS-8 theaters identified (including the Cinerama Dome). All sound formats are specified in the Times' movie ads.