Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Busy Christmas Day?

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Posted by Chase Hanson (Member # 2779) on 12-26-2004, 03:24 PM:

For any of you guys that were open on Christmas day, how was business?

My theater was kinda busy, we did about 10,000 people gross which wouldnt have been too bad, but our projected attendence was only 6000. [uhoh]

We were a tad understaffed.

Posted by Richard Greco (Member # 2032) on 12-26-2004, 04:17 PM:

We were slammed at the drive-in. We had 1 call-out and 1 no call/no show so the other manager was in the box office and I was all by myself with 2 people in concession.

We had 84 cars for one screen, 25 for another and 92 for our main screen. We average 30-40 a night for the 2 big screens. I ran a WHOLE lot across the fields last night.

Posted by Jason Gazaille (Member # 2846) on 12-26-2004, 04:33 PM:

We had 7,000.
Projected 6,500.

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 12-26-2004, 08:02 PM:

10000 people? Sweet Jesus.

No wonder those managers make $60+ annually.

Our business was somewhat higher than I had expected, given the [bs]

we have onscreen.

The staff all showed up, as scheduled, and we all had a generally good time. Several opf us brought food to work so that everyone could have a festive meal at work among their 'theatre family'.

Given the weather today (rain/sleet) we have been surprisingly busy.

Posted by Barry Martin (Member # 1376) on 12-26-2004, 11:06 PM:

Deadly slow, which was a shock. Between Thanksgiving and the day before Thanksgiving we did about 200 people with one show, but this weekend we barely broke 200 people and with 2 shows on Friday and 3 shows on Saturday and Sunday, with Sunday being the busiest with 108 people. Hopefully this vacation week will be good for our little twin. [uhoh]

Posted by David Yauch (Member # 2754) on 12-27-2004, 02:59 AM:

We projected around 11 I believe, but we did over 12 gross. Of course when you get that busy there's not much christmas spirit floating around. Not too many customer complaints, but the ones we did have were awfully cranky. I even had one customer remark that he though he was going to be the only one with the idea of seeing a movie on christmas!

Posted by Paul Konen (Member # 41) on 12-27-2004, 08:06 PM:

Let me just say it was busy

[ 01-28-2005, 10:27 AM: Message edited by: Paul Konen ]

Posted by Jason M Miller (Member # 2597) on 12-30-2004, 02:16 PM:

We were a little slower then what I thought we would be

Posted by Brandon Willis (Member # 2345) on 01-01-2005, 01:15 PM:

Slammed, all day.

Posted by Brent Neal Jones (Member # 1048) on 01-01-2005, 01:27 PM:

Yes we were busy too, didn't really surprise me though. What did surprise me was the business Tuesday night. We were slammed, guess there was nothing else for people to do. Also got slammed again Thursday, not something I've really had experience with in a while. The more the merrier though, its no fun if it's not running you ragged. [Smile]

Barry- What you running there?

Posted by Barry Martin (Member # 1376) on 01-01-2005, 09:14 PM:

We were running 2-3 shows of Ocean's Twelve in it's first week and Lemony Snicket's in it's second week. The rest of the week did do very well, so we must have a population that either a) didn't think we'd be open on Christmas Eve/Day (possible if they don't know we're under new ownership) or b) don't go out on those days of the year. This weekend has been great so far with Ocean's Twelve and Finding Neverland, in fact Neverland is doing better than Ocean's on some shows and of course we have great percentages on both so that helps. I still wish we got Meet the Fockers on opening, Universal was willing, but one of the owners thought it would be a really lousy movie. Hopefully we will be opening it this Friday.

Posted by Brent Neal Jones (Member # 1048) on 01-02-2005, 02:40 AM:

Barry: I hear ya on "Fockers". I'm hearing it everyday and can't wait myself. NO you didnt have a bad line-up, though Im with your boss, I wouldnt expect Oceans to do anything, or at least anymore than you've done. I was just expecting with all the star line up in it that it would hold on longer. We had to drop it at the Galaxy. Got down to like fifteen cars out of fifty staying for it on just the first five days we had it. I think what helped our Christmas most was the interstate and being this close to Dallas. They say the car count out there is like 10,000 peak a day. Heres to better movies for the new year....take care

Posted by Barry Martin (Member # 1376) on 01-02-2005, 09:36 PM:

Brent, we got more than a fair amount of business off of Ocean's, we didn't open it on the 10th because they would have forced us to keep it 3 weeks to include this past vacation week. So we took it in on the 22nd and got a great percentage on it. Because of the percentage and the good traffic before and after christmas, we ended up making a little less than we usually would make with a film on it's opening and a little more than something we picked up 4-6 weeks late. I think Ocean's might have been hurt by a lot of word of mouth too, nobody came out of it saying how they loved it. I myself much prefer the first one. So this one might have got a lot of people saying "no, don't go watch that, I hated it."

The big surprise has been Finding Neverland. Between all the screwups Miramax pulled with it's release and the fact that we're getting it so late I thought it would do fair at best. We're making about as much if not more on some days with Neverland over Ocean's. [thumbsup]

Fockers I'm just hoping that Hoffman and Streisand make it funnier than Meet the Parents...which I only marginally enjoyed. The previews make it seem everyone else is doing the exact same jokes/routines in Fockers, but any scene with Hoffman and Streisand makes me chuckle.

Posted by Brent Neal Jones (Member # 1048) on 01-05-2005, 12:32 AM:

It sounds that you really pay attention to your movies. Hell, I have to admit I didn't watch anything but snip-bits of "oceans" and didn't finish watching it at that. Just wasn't my kind of movie. Your problably right about the bad word of mouth, though. By the way, you've got a heck of a booking situation there. didn't you say you were in a twin and running first run? That's almost unheard of now in most places...I'm soooo jealous ! Ive really had a ball with the last two indoor twins I helped run, but only one of them ever had the chance to run first run. By the time it was made available to it, it was put under by bad management.

Glad to hear y'all did well, though. Good booking stratagy by the way, sounds like the work of someone else I know. Take care now...

Posted by Barry Martin (Member # 1376) on 01-05-2005, 05:57 PM:

It is tough running a twin first run with the minimum 2 week run requirement on most occasions. Fortunately our nearest competition (other than a crappy non-profit that runs mostly months-old product) is about 30-45 minutes away and they have a habit of turning people off with their policies/prices.

We don't only run FIRST-RUN, sometimes we get it at the break (Incredibles, National Treasure, Spiderman 2, etc), sometimes a couple weeks late (Ladder 49, Ocean's 12, Fahrenheit 9/11) and then when we have no new product worth getting or there aren't enough prints to include us in the first week or month we'll fill in with "thoughtfully chosen movies" such as Sideways, Stander, I'm Not Scared, Strayed, etc. and play a couple month old sub-run (I Robot, Alien vs. Predator, Cinderella Story, etc.) under the "thoughtfully chosen movie" on the same screen, just adding a second showtime for the other film. We've had increasing attendance with this method, and the owners love not relying on mainstream Hollywood and just running whatever new movie comes out that the studios felt like giving us a copy of.

Thanks for all the discussion and well-wishes, and best of luck to you too!

Posted by Brent Neal Jones (Member # 1048) on 01-05-2005, 06:37 PM:

That's what I thought. And we used to think 6 screens was enough. We're just twin screen guys in a 30-plex mega-chain world...isn't life cruel? I loved my twins, I did everything for them. I even cleaned them. And you know what makes it even worse...I really don't watch that many movies. In fact, I don't like a lot of them, I just have to be careful when a customer asks for my opinion (unless it's something I really did like). I still have to be "salesman".
My love in life for the last ten years has been listening and watching film run through the projector. And Phill says he has no life, Hah! In fact, most movies I've seen in the theatres I've run have been no more than an excuse to do this. Aren't I sick? There have been some exceptions like Gladiator...ohh, I could watch that at least ten more times. That film has soo much....well... gravity. [Cool]

Well...I've done made this too long, great discussion, you take care now!

Posted by Jarryd Beard (Member # 2543) on 01-07-2005, 08:36 PM:

With six screens, we did about $13,000. I can't quite remember total attendance. We had Fockers on two screens, Lemony Snickets, Fat Albert, Spanglish, Polar Express (afternoon only), and Nation Treasure (evening only). This was much better than the previous couple of year when the weather was very bad. Albert and Spanglish were by far the slowest that day. Fockers, Snickers, and Polar Express were at the top.