Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Minimum amount of time between shows

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Posted by Jason Moore (Member # 3935) on 08-21-2006, 06:42 PM:

When you program your showtime schedule, what is the minimum amount of time you would put between a start time and the endtime of the previous show? The reason I ask is that I have a mandated timeframe with which to program 5 shows of any film less than 120 minutes long and that means I have to be very careful how I schedule. I was just curious about where folks on this forum draw the line.

Posted by Ron Curran (Member # 3631) on 08-21-2006, 06:48 PM:

That's a difficult one Jason. 15 minutes absolute minimum - you don't want to rush people and you don't want them standing in the foyer longer than necessary.

For kid's films you need at least 25 minutes for the decontamination of the auditorium.

If you have paid advertising, you can't run it before the audience is allowed in.

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 08-21-2006, 08:51 PM:

I would suggest a bare minimum of ten minutes between shows. Any less and you piss off your floor staff and projectionists no end, and you're more likely to run late.

Ideal gap would be 20 minutes, 30 minutes for busy films. However it depends on efficiency and number of floor staff, the type of film and how far it is into its run, and how busy you are in the mornings. You can get away with five minutes in the morning in a smallish house.

Five shows for a 120 minute film is approaching a joke, unless you run late shows every day. That's a 140 minute programme with ads included, would need a 150 minute gap between shows in the day and 160 minutes in the eveing.

Our programming is erratic at best. Three minutes is the shortest and ninety minutes is the longest I've seen.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-21-2006, 09:05 PM:

You can adjust based on the film's popularity too. If we're running a stinker, where we'll only get a handful of people to each show, 5 minutes is enough. If we're showing a hit movie, I usually try to leave at least 25 minutes between shows.

Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 08-21-2006, 09:06 PM:

Agreed that 15 minutes minimum is best. Years ago we didn't run any 5:00 shows which made for anywhere from an hour to hour and a half down time between the 3:00 and 7:00. That made great time for maintaining equipment or cleaning the booth, but in no way improved our bottom line. Classic case of old style management verses new.

Down-time is also dependent on the number of trailers in your packs. More trailers, the less downtime. Few managers I've ever met have included trailers in their overall running times and looked foolish when shows were routinely dropping five to ten minutes after they were due to start. Our policy is four trailers maximum. On my make-ups three is the limit.

Posted by Charles Greenlee (Member # 3856) on 08-21-2006, 09:54 PM:

quote: Aaron Mehocic
Few managers I've ever met have included trailers in their overall running times and looked foolish when shows were routinely dropping five to ten minutes after they were due to start.

Its odd, when I worked for Carmike, we alloted a flat amout for trailers, either 15 or 20min. It normally works fine, but if you have a required trailer list of long trailers it can be a problem. I've seen a show, which had a 5min downtime due to required showtimes, that had a longer(than the flat time) trailer set, end up dropping 1 min after the next scheduled start time, fortunatly the following downtime was long enough the tardiness didn't affect things. I average about 1 min to fully thread, with framing and automation reset. So you can figure for that week, that that show started 2 min late.

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 08-21-2006, 09:59 PM:

quote: Aaron Mehocic
Down-time is also dependent on the number of trailers in your packs. More trailers, the less downtime. Few managers I've ever met have included trailers in their overall running times and looked foolish when shows were routinely dropping five to ten minutes after they were due to start. Our policy is four trailers maximum. On my make-ups three is the limit.

We are given a trailer plan for each film each week from our advertising agency and have to adhere to that, this will vary from ten to nearly thirty minutes. The timesheet shows the film length and the amount of ads/trails, and then the total run time.

I had a situation once where the manager screwed up programming, underestimated how many ads were in the film and gave us a 20 minute over-run on each show.

We had to clean with lights up and customers in the screen during the credits, then when the last one left let the next shows customers in whilst the credits were still rolling. That was just to get the show starting five minutes late.

Cue incredible amount of apologies by myself, no idea where the managers were every time for that week.

Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 08-21-2006, 10:37 PM:

My theatre runs Firstlook and we have to allow a minimum of 30 minutes intermission to allow the program to run properly. When we are busy, I allow 40 minutes plus.

Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 08-22-2006, 11:15 AM:

quote: Caleb Johnstone-Cowan
We are given a trailer plan for each film each week from our advertising agency and have to adhere to that, this will vary from ten to nearly thirty minutes.

As an independent, we are not beholden to any agency when programing our trailers. Our policy is to give preference to those trailers also produced by the same studio as the feature to be shown. Then one or two extra at our projectionist's disgression.

If we permitted 30 minutes to ads and trailers there would be small riots in each of our auditoriums. A former assistant manager used to program as many as six trailers in his packs. By the time the last greenband hit the screen, more customers were more sour than excited to see the movie.

Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 2038) on 08-22-2006, 12:27 PM:

At our independent single-screen, our rule is 15 minutes between shows. Two trailers maximum on the front end, and the 5 minutes for them is included into the run time schedule. Seems to work just fine.

Posted by Eric Hooper (Member # 1730) on 08-22-2006, 03:58 PM:

You can leave 2hrs 15min in between shows just like the UA Stonestown Twin in San Francisco... [Eek!]

(See showtimes on Fandango for Inconvenient Truth for Friday 08/25).

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 08-22-2006, 04:08 PM:

Whatever you do, please do _not_ send ushers in to clean the auditorium before the film is over and the house lights are up. As a patron, I always hate it when staff enter the theatre (and, occasionally, turn on the cleaning lights) while the credits are still running.

From what I have seen, 10-20 minutes of time between shows is common. Less for single-admission double-features.

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 08-22-2006, 04:12 PM:

quote: Ron Curran
For kid's films you need at least 25 minutes for the decontamination of the auditorium.

I love the way that is said. Decontamination... that's about right for kid's shows.....

Posted by Phil Blake (Member # 2012) on 08-23-2006, 10:05 AM:

We have 4 minutes between sessions , that is from finish of credits to start of slides. This is the norm for average shows , when we have blockbusters , the first week we allow 15 minutes between shows. During the quiet times we actually run with a minute or two overlap between sessions for the main reason being that sessions prior to 11.30am are not economic nor are sessions after 8.30pm so we endeavour to program up 5 shows per day between 12.00 noon to 8.30pm in each cinema more if they have short running times.

It puts allot of pressure on if busy as we dont have ushers or cleaners , the operator does this role but we get by and it makes this day go fast.

Posted by Anslem Rayburn (Member # 1267) on 08-26-2006, 02:59 AM:

We currently run 30 to 40 minutes between shows. It has eliminated lines to get into the auditoriums, increased our per cap, and made our customers much happier. We used to run 20 to 25 minutes, and people would routinely show up 45 minutes prior to the start time, causing lines that ran outside, where it is routinely over 100 degrees. Tons of complaints from customers. We switched when we opened X-Men 3, saw our lines reduce and our concessions sales increase dramatically, and have no plan to go back. It really is something that needs to be done on a per location basis, to maximize patron satisfaction without decreasing ticket sales by slashing number of shows. Delicate balancing act.

Posted by Chad M Calpito (Member # 3736) on 08-26-2006, 09:59 AM:

We usually have between 25-50 minutes between shows, especially with those popular movies and kid movies. Sometimes, there's even an hour between shows, but, to me, that's way to much time since the auditorium is not being used during the hours excess time. But, the common sense time is the best so we can get our guests in within a reasonable amount of time. I do notice that our Theatres #1 (425 seats) & Theatre #10 (625 seats) needs more time for cleaning during the weekends.

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 08-27-2006, 08:53 PM:

quote: Aaron Mehocic
If we permitted 30 minutes to ads and trailers there would be small riots in each of our auditoriums. A former assistant manager used to program as many as six trailers in his packs. By the time the last greenband hit the screen, more customers were more sour than excited to see the movie.

Most cinemas in the UK adhere to roughly the same pre-feature programming. This usually is policy-ads-policy-trailers-'gold spot'-feature. The mobile phone company Orange have paid a large amount of money to have their ads placed in the 'gold spot' before the feature in nearly all UK cinemas. It's been this way as long as I can remember going to the cinema which is 16 years now, so everyone accepts it.

quote: Scott Norwood
Whatever you do, please do _not_ send ushers in to clean the auditorium before the film is over and the house lights are up. As a patron, I always hate it when staff enter the theatre (and, occasionally, turn on the cleaning lights) while the credits are still running.

That's why decent times between shows are vital. If the floor staff know that they won't be able to get the auditorium clean in time they will definitely go in as soon as the lights go up during the credits. Although I've always thought the lights should go down fully at the start of the programme and not come up until the end of the feature.

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 08-28-2006, 01:21 PM:

How bout cleaning during the trailers, instead of the end credits?

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 08-28-2006, 02:34 PM:

quote: Jesse Skeen
How bout cleaning during the trailers, instead of the end credits?

Hopefully you aren't serious. [Roll Eyes]

I personally consider any disruption of my enjoyment of any part of the on-screen presentation unacceptable, including trailers, feature presentation, and end credits. Leave sufficient time between shows for proper cleanup in an EMPTY auditorium.

Posted by Chad M Calpito (Member # 3736) on 08-29-2006, 10:41 AM:

I hope you are just kidding, Jesse. [Smile]

In my theatre, ushers aren't allowed to clean a theatre once the movie is started, so, they have to hussle after each show to get the auditorium clean. They do a pretty good job, which I am happy to say. It's just plain rude when ushers are in the auditorium when the movie has started (Screenvision Rolling Stock, A-Logo Policy Trailer, Film Trailers, FPS Policy Trailer and then, the Movie).

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-29-2006, 12:24 PM:

quote:
I personally consider any disruption of my enjoyment of any part of the on-screen presentation unacceptable,

Me too. I sure wish they'd get rid of CrAP Code. [Wink]

Posted by Andrew Peter Chobaniuk (Member # 3886) on 09-12-2006, 06:15 AM:

at our theatre we run 20 mins minimum between shows
but even that wasnt long enough when when Pirates first came out, even with 2 prints we were sold out for a week and a half straight, thank god im not concession [Big Grin]

Posted by John Caswell (Member # 4024) on 10-21-2006, 11:03 AM:

Hi, just noticed this thread - in our cinema we often have less than 10 minutes turnaround between end of show and start of next. Quite often its about 3 mins or so, and in a number of cases they actually program the shows with an overlap!

The Management allow 15 mins ad time, even though they've now pushed us to 4 trailers, pretty much always a full 10 mins of ads, and then various sponsorship logos. Very often shows are running over into the programmed start time of the next show. At the mo we're running "The History Boys", they've programmed 15 mins of ads as usual, but we're running 28 mins worth of ads/trailers/logos + a short film beforehand. P**sing everyone off!

Regarding ushers cleaning, very often we're getting ushers hitting the cleaners lights (very powerful halogen floods - bleaching out the screen completely) as soon as the credits start to roll. To be honest though we do occasionally have this trouble with the ushers even on the occasions when there's a good hour or so after the show. [Mad]

Posted by Adam Heath (Member # 2910) on 10-27-2006, 05:29 PM:

Our company requires 25 minutes. I used to run them about 15-20 minutes. Now atleast if I make a runtime mistake there is usually still enough time to clean and not have too many people waiting in the lobby

Posted by John Caswell (Member # 4024) on 10-28-2006, 06:36 PM:

I could only wish for 20-25 minutes on every show. On our last 3 70mm shows (tend to show one a month) we had a 9 minute turnaround between end of 70mm show and start of 35mm show (running a Kinoton DP75 35mm/70mm projector), this went to 7 minutes, and then dropped to 3 minutes on our last show. [thumbsdown]

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 10-30-2006, 05:31 PM:

"Quite often its about 3 mins or so, and in a number of cases they actually program the shows with an overlap!"

I would complain to the manager who programs the film times, if they do nothing go to the manager outright or the company. They did this where I used to work, looking back I should have complained. I had a film programmed with a 40-minute overlap in my last week.