Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: best showtime for matinees?

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Posted by Rick Meister (Member # 689) on 04-01-2003, 12:15 AM:

A friend of mine told me to try sunday matinees , that even in the towns that he has that are small they really do well.I have been doing this now for about 2 months and the attendance is not paying for the expenses most of the time. I was wondering if any of you have an opinion on the show time? We have the matinee at 4pm. would moving it to a different time do better?
I would just try it but I have learned from managing a store that no one ever learns your hrs,so don't want to confuse the customers I have now. We always get lots of calls on what time do u close at the store. That's why my show tim,es are set in the evening at 7:30 and 9:30 always.any opinion ?

Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 04-01-2003, 03:20 AM:

9.30 is quite late, can you put a 5.30 on?
We find that in a small town where people are finished work at 5 - 5.30 it can be a very popular time.

You may have to swap sessions as here 4.00 on a Sunday is the ideal spot to put MBFGW. 2.00 is our matinee.

Have you defined who is your target market?
We found our markets through trial & error. We started in a neglected cinema that was ranked at the very bottom of the whole country & are now out performing a every similar market in the country.
Have faith, love your job & your enthusiasm will infect your patrons.

Lotsa luck

Posted by Kara J. McVay (Member # 1285) on 04-01-2003, 07:59 AM:

My weekend matinees are 1:30 & 4:00. The 1:30 by far out does the 4:00 on Sundays. On Saturdays the reverse it true. I am in a town of about 25,000, but I am very close to Columbus, OH, so my customer base has many other options for weekend entertainment.

Posted by Patrick McDonough (Member # 1363) on 04-01-2003, 08:10 AM:

Our mats run 12, 1215, 1230, 3, 315, 330.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 04-01-2003, 12:53 PM:

Rick - Your post could have been written by me, we are in almost the exact same situation. We started doing the Sunday matinees at 4:00 in January.

What I have found, so far at least, is we have moved the Sunday night early-show crowd to the matinee. So effectively, we've added a show time but decreased our revenue (because the matinee has a bargain price).

We're going to give it another couple of months, and if things don't pick up we'll probably stop the matinees.

We tried 1:30 Sunday shows a couple of years ago and they were always nearly vacant. I think it's because we have lotsa outdoor recreation around here (summer and winter) and people are so busy snowmobiling, boating, skiing or etc. on the weekends they wait for evenings for the movies.

I agree that 9:30 is too late for an evening show unless you're forced into it...you'll see bigger crowds at 9:00 or even 9:15.

Posted by Bill Carter (Member # 156) on 04-01-2003, 01:08 PM:

Our biggest Sunday matinees are always the 2:00 set. We seem to catch the after church and/or after lunch crowd.

Posted by Don Bruechert (Member # 1538) on 04-01-2003, 01:12 PM:

We also do multiple matinees on Sundays (weekends). The first is usually between 1230 and 130, second between 230 and 315 depending on timing of the first, and third between 400 and 515 depending on the timing of the second. We usually do well on the matinees, it starts to take a dump Sunday night, and Monday thru Thursday (evening shows only) the average of all 6 houses is maybe 40 - 60 people per night, usually towards the lower side, unless there is a major movie or very popular one playing. We are cental time US.

Posted by Chris Markiewicz (Member # 1415) on 04-01-2003, 09:07 PM:

We only screen films on "dark" weekends when we don't have live performances. We run at 7pm on Fridays and Saturdays, and 3pm on Sundays. The 3pm does quite well for films that appeal to families.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 04-02-2003, 11:15 AM:

In Manville NJ the Reading Cinemas used to start the first Sat-Sun matinees between 12-1. Beginning with Harry Potter 2 the first Sat-Sun matinees have been 10-10:30 AM. Kid fare does great for matinees as there are a lot of families close by. Adult titles depend on the product; About Schmidt and Chicago did very well, 25th Hour less so.

Posted by Tony Ratcliff (Member # 1196) on 04-02-2003, 11:52 AM:

We have a 2pm show on Saturday and Sunday.
Both do well - very well if we have a G film.

Tony

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 04-02-2003, 02:14 PM:

We usually have 4 showtimes per day, around 1, 4, 7, 9ish.

Our second most popular show time is 1:00 PM - 1:30 PM. We have a large senior population.

8:00 PM is the perfect show time, but it kills the possibility of a later show. So we run 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM.

In a smaller town, I might run 5:30 PM and 8:00 PM with a matinee at 2:00 PM on weekends.

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 04-04-2003, 07:52 AM:

To my dismay it seems my local multipley is only having matinees on Saturdays and Sundays now.

'Shanghi Knights' just opened today (friday). The first showing is at 5pm!!

[ 04-04-2003, 06:23 PM: Message edited by: Michael Brown ]

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 04-04-2003, 08:35 AM:

Our Sundays are wierd like that too. the 1pm to 2pm shows do very well, the 4pm much less so, then it picks back up for the 7pm's. We are in a very diverse market with 2 major colleges, some technical office parks, and near a "retirement" town. (mostly elderly -- but hey, ALL of Florida is mostly elderly. [Razz]

)

Our late set of shows STARTS at 9:30, to 9:55. During the week this set is mediocre, but we do get the college kids in the door.

=TMP=

Posted by Donna Sylvester (Member # 726) on 04-09-2003, 08:55 PM:

Single screen, 3500 pop. I always run a 1:00 p.m. matinee on Sundays and it usually brings in enough people to make it worthwhile, sometimes very worthwhile! I tried Saturdays and Sundays individually and Sundays brought in a lot more patrons. When I bring in a blockbuster I run a Saturday matinee also.