Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Anyone rent their theatre to others for private or open screenings?

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Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 06-05-2005, 03:39 PM:

Now that our larger theatre has been refurbished, the management wants to rent it to groups that need a venue to screen films, either for private screenings or for open-to-the-public events. We already rent the theatre for many live events where we are basically four-walling it with our production department supplying the tech crew. In other words, we mount their productions for them for a rental fee.

Occasionally we have organizations come in wanting to show a film or run a film festival. The General Manager wants me to investigate what a commercial theatre would normally charge for what we call an "outside contract rental." We are located in New York (Brooklyn); it is a 2450 seat, beautiful theatre in the grand old palace style (art deco, actually).

If anyone is in a commercial situation and does rent out the theatre, I would appreciate it if you could give me a ballpark figure of what such a rental is priced out at (without loosing your job or getting tarred and feathered for divulging secret information), please let me know. If you MUST keep it a big secret -- don't know why that would be an issue as anyone wanting to rent could just call up and ask -- then email it to me and I promise your identity will be kept confidential (unless they offer me vasts amounts of money, or threaten torture [Big Grin]

).

Thanks

<deleted - read the rules Frank>

[ 06-05-2005, 08:16 PM: Message edited by: Brad Miller ]

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 06-05-2005, 07:57 PM:

It depends on many factors ... most notably which would be ... is this during "dark" hours or during time when a show would need to be canceled in order to facilitate the screening? If "Dark Time" ... I've rented out as low as $1/seat up to about $3/seat just for use of the theatre ... so in your case ... $2,450 to $7,350 per rental.

Posted by Jon Morgan (Member # 3059) on 06-05-2005, 07:59 PM:

My experience with this area of the business is very limited, and I'd be interested to know what the general use of your venue is. Do you generally do live events or film? Is the theater in use every night? What do you generally charge for tickets?

Posted by Adam Heath (Member # 2910) on 06-05-2005, 10:52 PM:

A Theater chain I worked for 5 years ago charged a minimum of $1000 for a rental (only does dark rentals). I don't know what the criteria basis is for the charge there but they had one auditorium that seated nearly 1000 people. If you were to do a show during regular hours you would have no choice but to sell every ticket at your group admission price. I would set a minimum price somewhere between $1,000 and $1,500 and then charge $3 per person for any extra people over your set minimum.

Posted by Chase Hanson (Member # 2779) on 06-06-2005, 02:02 AM:

I am going off of memory and I dont know if this particular policy is corporate wide or Regional or by market.

You pay top ticket value per seat for every seat in the auditorium. Now that might seem outrageous, but they try and book you in auditoriums that are as close to your actual head count as possible, so theoretically you arent wasting that much money.

I think to run a currently held movie is like $90, if they have to book a print for you its like $200-$400.

You can choose between no concession, discount concessions or catering. Discount Concessions is $2.25/ea for small popcorn or drink vouchers. Catering is some fee thats a couple hundred dollars.

A/V hookups also carry a fee like 80-100 depending on what you want to do (mic, slide presentation/Power Point, VCR/DVD etc.).

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-06-2005, 01:23 PM:

We'll do private shows for a minimum of 30 adult ticket purchase, or 40 kids. We do several a year for the Chamber of Commerce where everyone gets in free, but we still punch in the tickets, and the Chamber pays for all the tickets.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 06-06-2005, 01:38 PM:

Thanks guys. That's very close to what we had been doing. The GM just wanted to see what commercial operations do; he doesn't want to price us too low or too high.

We routinely rent for live shows but film rentals are usually for much smaller audiences and of course no production crew except for projectionist and a small house staff. And we only book dark nights, so we don't have to make the rental compensate for any lost revenue. And then we can easily close off the balcony and mezzanine seats so we are not incurring cleaning costs, assuming a client is anticipating a smaller audience.

Part of the Center's mission is to outreach to the community by offering our facilities and technical support to local community groups. Although we don't want to loose money, we want to be able to keep rental costs reasonable so that we encourage groups to use our theatres.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 06-06-2005, 07:47 PM:

GCC/AMC used to charge (at least as recently as 2003, when I last dealt with them) $400-600 for rentals in a suburban 5-plex. This was for promo screenings of upcoming films, usually sponsored by film distributors. I don't know if their "general public" rental price is the same or higher. The price seemed to depend upon the size of the auditorium and whether or not the screening displaced a scheduled show (slow weeknights only...no weekend shows) or ran on Saturday morning (not displacing an existing show).

Posted by Gordon Bachlund (Member # 124) on 06-07-2005, 09:12 AM:

Frank, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences publishes the following rates for their Samuel Goldwyn Theater:

Evening (includes house manager, two theater staff, one security guard, projectionist and parking) - $3,500.

With a reception in the Grand Lobby, same as above plus one additional theater staff and security - $4,500

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 06-07-2005, 10:36 AM:

Our rates are:

Day rates (Mon-Fri) $250 an hour
Evening rates (Mon-Fri) $300 an hour
Weekend & Holiday(Day) $350 an hour
(Night)$450 an hour
Before 10am or after 10pm (Mon-Fri) $350 an hour
(Wkends) $500 an hour
Minimum booking time: (Mon-Fri) 30 minutes
(Wkends) 180 minutes
Reception Fee $300 plus hourly rate

Equipment surcharges:
Digi Beta (Ntsc) $100
Digi Beta (Pal) $600
D5 $1700
HDcam $1300
HDcam SR $1700