Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: How many assistants do you have?

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Posted by R. Andrew Diercks (Member # 1725) on 09-06-2004, 11:40 AM:

I guess I'm wondering, comparative to screen count, how many assistant managers is average? I have 9 screens and currently have 2 assistants. I have been told that I should have more as my sister theatre which is also 9 screens has 6 assistants. I don't really see the point. It seems to me that only a couple of them have any real power or decision making ability. The others just know how to close down. The new 20 screen that recently opened in my area stated that he had 24 assistants, which seems ridiculous. I suppose he's weeding out the bad though.

Do any of you have shift managers or anything of that nature? Thank you for your input.

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 09-06-2004, 12:26 PM:

I have 3 full time assistants (40-45 hrs/wk), one relief mngr (15-20 hours week) and two shift leaders (30hrs wk).

16 screens and this works well. I did have 4 full time asst's but lost one a few weeks ago. I've also lost one staff leader and the remaining two have decreased hours due to school being in session.

24 assistants is ludicrous. Someone is simply abusing a title, period. What good woudl all those people do? The right hand wouldn't know what the left was doing and vice-versa.

I think that 2 asst's for your 9 screen woudl be fine. Use a couple of your long term, trustworthy hourly staff as your shift leaders.

Posted by Scott D. Neff (Member # 185) on 09-06-2004, 12:39 PM:

I have a friend who's at a 5-plex and there are 9 assistants. But there aren't that many floor staff because the theatre went from being nicely busy, to being mostly slow. So I guess they kept the assistants there and cut back on hiring floor staff.

Regarding the 20 plex with 24 assistants, I know that a lot of large theatres like to departmentalize. 1 assistant for floor, 1 for snack bar, 1 for box office, a 20-plex probably has 2 for booth and possibly extra people if there are satellite snack bars. Sounds to me that that's about six per shift, 2 shifts a day plus a possible midshift makes about 14 per day maybe??? 24 sounds about right. As far as people with decision making abilities, that's probably relegated to upper management.

When I ran a 4-plex I generally had 3 assistants. 1 to open, 1 to close every day. I'd have a 2nd manager on shift on Friday night and Saturday mid-shift and possibly sunday morning. And then of course we'd have days off to cover. Three made it perfect.

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 09-06-2004, 04:57 PM:

Don't forget - the 20 that just opened near you is manager-operator. That 24 assistant count includes those you might consider to be projectionists.

Posted by Robert L. Fischer (Member # 2424) on 09-07-2004, 09:12 PM:

My five-plex normally has two assistant managers, but because our GM's wife is expecting a baby in a few weeks, we will have three until one of the other assistants leaves after the holiday season.

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 09-07-2004, 09:53 PM:

There were about 9 at the 24-plex I worked at. Most of them were regular shift assistants and some just worked weekends or holidays. And then alternated during the summer.

Also, another AMC 24 I know of only has 2 assistants. Meanly because it just opened a couple of months ago. They currently just have a lot of supervisors.

Posted by Nate Lehrke (Member # 1460) on 09-07-2004, 10:33 PM:

I have 4 assistants at a 6-plex.
All work under 20 hours each.

I think it works fine. I like having part timers as assistants so they don't burn out so fast.

Posted by Bill Carter (Member # 156) on 09-08-2004, 12:39 AM:

Right now, I have three assistant managers. One full-time salaried, one 30+ hours a week, and a new one working about 20 a week, covering vacations and other oddball shifts. All three of them (in addition to myself) are projectionists.

I think it's a lot easier (and quicker) to teach a good projectionist to be a manager than the other way around.

Posted by Robert L. Fischer (Member # 2424) on 09-08-2004, 11:05 AM:

I agree. I started out in the projection booth and then went on to management. Counting money and filling out paperwork is all common sense and clockwork, but projection takes years to master. I know I'll definitely still be learning for a long time.

Posted by Jim Ziegler (Member # 86) on 09-08-2004, 02:10 PM:

I have 4 part time assistants for a 6 screen right now.

Posted by Brandon Willis (Member # 2345) on 10-14-2004, 11:14 AM:

We have a GM and about a half dozen assistants at the 20 plex where I work. We have a couple of assistants who primarily work the booth (just barely enough to cover all the shifts), and the majority of us, myself included, spend most of our time on the floor. A typical weekday shift consists of a manager in the booth, and 2 on the floor: one in charge of box office and one in charge of concession. On the weekends we have a "floor" manager who assists the box and concession people. We have a First Assistant who is second in command to the GM. We used to have a Second Assistant but that position is vacant right now.

Posted by R. Andrew Diercks (Member # 1725) on 10-14-2004, 11:20 AM:

Along the same lines, when you choose an assistant, do people apply and interview for the position or do you just snag someone and ask if they want it? I am replacing an assistant now and we offered the chance to interview and explain their perceived qualifications. Of course the interview is not the only measure of worth. My goal is to make everyone take the promotion and the promoted individual more seriously.

Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 10-14-2004, 12:20 PM:

We promote from within without a formal interview. However, you may want to do interviews - at least for the managment positions - incase somebody bitches later that they were more qualified than John Doe for the position he got and is now screwing up . . .

(Edited after re-reading Andrew's question more accurately)

Posted by Brandon Willis (Member # 2345) on 10-14-2004, 02:14 PM:

People from outside apply and go through a formal interview.
From within, it's kind of a mixed bag. If an employee expresses interest and the GM feels that they're qualified, he will have an informal discussion about the job with them and then they will apply. I was invited to apply for a management position after about a year as floor staff. I guess that's a good thing.

Posted by Ramin Hashemi (Member # 2694) on 10-15-2004, 12:01 AM:

I guess it also depends on what you call assistant manager. To me, assistant manager is like vice president. They should be ready to step in and take over if the manager is not there. Otherwise, I call them supervisors.

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 10-15-2004, 02:52 AM:

Irrelevant sidetrack:

Actually, most Vice Presidents have particular tasks to do that do not involve sitting around twiddling their thumbs. The Vice President of the United States presides over the Senate (and in the case of Cheney, spends a lot of time doing tactical support for the President).

In many places, you have a Vice President for Research, or a Vice President for Information Systems, etc., and those people manage large portions of an organization.

Or in the movie business, say, FilmJournal lists Warner Brothers as having 7 VPs (Exhibitor Services, Non-Theatrical Sales, Finance and Operations, Print Control, etc.) as well as 8 Senior VPs and an Executive VP.

--jhawk

Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 10-15-2004, 02:47 PM:

Do they really manage large portions of the business or do they just draft a large pay check. Now I'm a capitalist and don't mind somebody making a little more than others, but some of these so-called "vice presidents" earn saleries of just as much as the so-called "presidents".

Vice presidents never seem to get busted or taken down in corporate scandals. They also never seem to be in the office - instead traveling or playing golf. I suppose if I ever hit it big in a corporation I'd want this position in that it doesn't seem to entail a lot of work (or probably even brains).

I'm sure there are exceptions to the rule, yet I've never read, nor heard of a "vice president" that had to sacrifice like the workforce. I've never even heard a good story about a vice president that even had it harder on his / her climb to the top than other members of the board. Regardless of when chips are down, and perhaps even the Feds where on the case . . .

Posted by Greg Davis (Member # 2687) on 10-15-2004, 03:13 PM:

An interesting note, often a theater trains projectionists to be able to close and open as manager, that way keeping both good projection staff and not having to worry about an overstaffed management team. In other words if you would normall need 4 assistants, make 5 and have fewer full time projectionists with assistants taking over those shifts. Saves training hours as well.