Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: State university run theaters

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Posted by Mark Maxwell (Member # 1355) on 04-21-2003, 01:28 AM:

I only come to Nacogdoches, Tx. on the weekends, so the offices of Steven F. Austin university are close so there is no one who works there I can contact for verification. Because of cuts in college funding here in Texas, I hear the school is going to build a multi screen theater at a cost of $5.00 a semester hour per student for the next five years. That's 30,000 students a semester. In a way I think it's a good idea because this town needs a new theater, and the school could make some extra money. In another aspect, only the sports teams get free travel because of budget cuts. From what I understand, no student will get discounts even though they pay $60 dollars for this theater if they take 12 hours of school and never see a movie. When I worked at the old theater, students got mad that they didn't get a student discount, and that was at a place that they didn't help pay for. This theater is going to be totally open to the public. I never believed in student discounts because if you are in college, you are alot luckier than alot of people, so why should you get in cheaper than someone working there ass off at a factory who never had that chance. But I do believe in a student discount with this, because if this theater is buil, the local theater will go out of buisness, there will only be one place to go to see a movie, and the students who paid for it have to pay full price. Has anything like this happened with other universities.

Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 04-21-2003, 03:23 PM:

It depends on what they decide to charge as full price. Is it going to be $9.00 to $10.00 that you would expect to pay in a major city, or is it going to something around $5.00 or $6.00 which BTW is cheaper than what we charge for the matinee.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 04-21-2003, 07:30 PM:

The Princeton Garden Theatre in Princeton NJ is owned by Princeton University. That two-screen cinema offers a college discount on weeknights at least.

Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 04-21-2003, 08:11 PM:

I dont really see the point of offering a college discount when about 80-90% of your customers are going to qualify. You might as well just keep it at one flat rate and try to make what you can at the concession stand. We have a student discount here but it is mainly targeted at high school kids who have a lot of disposable income, supplemented by mommy and daddie, and are more incline to buy lots of concession. So it is better to give them a break on tickets (where there is a 90/10 split with the film companies) and milk them at the concession stand. College students, on the other hand, tend to have less disposable income and therefore are more inclined to sneak food into the theater or not buy anything at all. So it is better to get what money that you can (ticket prices) from them becuse they won't help your per cap.

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 04-21-2003, 09:32 PM:

Hmmm. $60/student * 30,000 students * 2 semesters per year * 5 years. (we'll ignore a summer term and the fact that a normal load is usually 16 hrs a semester) = $18 Million. Isn't that a bit pricey for a typical plex?

One presumes that student fees are just paying the bonds or mortgage. If the theatre is a going concern and makes a profit over its operating and debt service costs (if it had to pay them) then this profit would go to the University for some other, hopefully useful purpose. If the students are still being surcharged to pay for a theatre that could pay its own way at that point then the so-called theatre fee is really a fee for whatever the university is doing with the additional theatre profits that it are accruing because the theatre debt service is paid by the fee rather than out of the profit.

Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 04-21-2003, 10:26 PM:

Thats assuming that every dime of that $60.00 is actually going to go directly to the theater fund. I am sure that there will be some creative accounting that is going to happen as well as "administrative" costs. Knowing how colleges work in this area it is more likely that they are just using this a a way to raise tuition with out actually raising the actual tuition. This way they can claim that they have a low tuition at the same time all these MANDATORY fees continue to rise adding to the bottom line. Along those lines, it also wouldn't suprise me if they, after passing the new fees, cancel the theater project yet still charge the students the $60.00 fee. That is how the colleges work.

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 04-21-2003, 10:52 PM:

Michael, you have a point. It is kind of like taxes. Temporary taxes never seem to be temporary. They seem to always be "extended" or passed by law as permanent. [Mad]

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 04-22-2003, 12:28 PM:

The way my university works, is there is an "Activity and Service Fee" which is used for events, outings, and building things such as a fitness center and the Student Union. Anything purchased with, or paid for with this fund MUST be free to the students.

For example, last year they had enough at the end of the semester to rent out the "Wet N' Wild" water park. It was open all day to Students only, for free.

Same when they built the "Recreation and Wellness Center" (can't get any more PC than that). They couldn't charge an additional fee or admission to use the facility.

So as I understand it, if the students are paying for building the cinema as a seperate fund, they should be able to use the facility for free since they've already paid for it. It would also be necessary to continue charging the fee (maybe lower once its built) to subsidize its operation if the public use isn't paying for it.

=TMP=

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 04-22-2003, 03:52 PM:

There was some talk that my college might do this when the local art house was threatened with closure. I believe that the idea was to run the theatre as a self-sufficient business under the banner of the "auxiliary services" division of the college (which also ran businesses like the student supply store, campus vending machines, etc., all of which were essentially break-even enterprises). Thus, it wouldn't have cost any money at all from tuition funds, except for the initial start-up costs, which would have been treated as a short-term loan.

In this case, the justification of having the college run the theatre would have been to preserve an historic building and cultural institution (whose existance would benefit the college community) and also to have the building available for classes, screenings, etc.

In the end, a private group ended up running the place, so this never ended up becoming an issue outside of the initial proposal. It was sort of a special case and it seemed like a reasonable idea to me at the time. I'm not sure that I could support the idea of having a college run a mainstream multiplex-type theatre, though.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 04-22-2003, 04:27 PM:

Consolidated's Varsity Theatre is almost walking distance from the University of Hawaii's campus here in Honolulu and if I am not mistaken, it was once used for classes about film many years ago. Today, what was once a large road show theatre that presented films like "THE BIBLE", SAND PEBBLES", "STAR", the original "DR. DOOLITTLE" and revival showings such as "BEN-HUR" and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY" all in 70mm, the theatre has been twinned and is a art house. The admission price is the same as all of Consolidated other theatres in the state. It is not a fancy theatre but as I recently mentioned in a recent post here at FT, the theatre is very comfortable and clean.

-Claude

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 04-23-2003, 07:32 AM:

By law government owned enterprizes may not compete with the private sector. In Richmond, the state Science Museum operates an Imax dome theatre. A few years ago, Edwards announced an new multiples that would include a similar theatre, there was much whining from the museum officials about what they were going to do, fortunately for them the Edwards deal fell thru. Also any operation that gets films at the institutional rental and advertizes to any extent off campus or outside their own publications is in violation of their institutional license amnd should have the whistle blown on them as they are competing at at much lower rate with YOU for the same customers.

Posted by Stephen Jones 1 (Member # 114) on 04-25-2003, 01:35 PM:

In the town, Conway, AR, where I used to manage a 6 screen, the local college used their auditorium as a theatre about 1 or 2 times a month.

They played films about 6-8 weeks old. All UCA students got in free and ALL concession (popcorn, nachos, drinks) were FREE!!

The other college in town used to rent out my theatre once every 2 months for the same type of a College night. Except, they had to pay for concession [Smile]

Of course, my percap was horrible because many students used to sneak in food, beer, etc.

It was hard to compete with UCA when they were giving the movie experience away for free.

Posted by Mark Maxwell (Member # 1355) on 04-28-2003, 01:57 AM:

I did some more research about the college wanting to build a theater. I turns out that the SFA Theater on the main road through town was an actual movie theater until the early 90's. It was a single screen with changeovers run by the same guy since the aerly 60's. In the early 90's some of the college kids stole some banners, and he died of a heart attach that he suffered while chasing them. The theater was left to his wife who didn't know how to work the machines, so she sold it to the university. Most people didn't know it changed hands because it was the SFA theater, and then SFA baught it. At the time there wasn't a film school there, so they had no idia what a goldmine they had. Instead they ripped it apart, the seats, the balcony, the only thing left of the projectors are shells. They only use this building to build parts of sets for plays.