Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Looking for employment information

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Posted by Joe Elliott (Member # 4006) on 11-06-2006, 05:39 PM:

What I am looking for right now is information. My wife and I worked together managing I-70 Drive-in in KC, and left the business after 8 years of managing. We have decided that we miss the movie business, and would like to get back into theatre management. My question is what theatre chains in Florida allow, or better yet prefer Husband-Wife management teams. AMC I know in KC didn't really like couples to both work for AMC in any capacity.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 11-06-2006, 06:32 PM:

UDITOA convention is first week of Feb in Orlando area; many owners are approaching retirement age. Visit and see if anyon has a job or work to own deal. Louis

Posted by Ross Oba (Member # 3433) on 11-06-2006, 06:45 PM:

Not to be a hardass, but this probably should go in the Employment forum.

Employment forum

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 11-06-2006, 07:56 PM:

quote: Ross Oba
this probably should go in the Employment forum.

quote: The Employment Forum
Help Wanted/Seeking Employment
Do you have some job positions to fill? Are you looking for employment? Post here.

quote: Joe Elliot
What I am looking for right now is information.

I think he's in the right forum. Welcome to Film-Tech, Joe. You're right, AMC frowns on husband/wife teams generally, although I have seen husbands and wives work at different theaters within AMC. You'd probably almost have to be a theater owner to both work at the same theater.

Posted by Scott D. Neff (Member # 185) on 11-07-2006, 12:58 PM:

Yeah, speaking from a Loss Prevention stand point, most corporations likely frown on the husband-wife team. Finding a nice Mom & Pop organization would be your best bet, or an independent that just wants a competent manager.

One of the managers that worked for me was hired and we later found out it was his wife who really ran the theatre. That was more than we bargained for.

Posted by Joe Elliott (Member # 4006) on 11-07-2006, 05:01 PM:

Yes, in our chain in KC, a couple of the theaters were like that, the wives actually ran the theater (in one case, it was better that way). Most of the theaters it was more of a joint management, with the husband having the last say. It has it's ups and downs. You both get the credit for anything done well, and you both take the blame for anything done wrong. At the drive-in since you were spending as much as 70 hours a week at working in the summer, it was the only way to spend time with your spouse.

We want to start our own chain, but we are not ready yet, and it is always better to make a lot of local contacts. I know the theater chains in KC all owned part of each other. Of course thats where AMC, Mid-America Cinemas(now gone), Crown (that was the other one started by the other Durwood brother right?), and Dickinson Theatres all started.

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 11-10-2006, 09:31 AM:

quote: Scott D. Neff
we later found out it was his wife who really ran the theatre

That's how we do it at our place... but don't tell anybody. I'm pretty much the voice and face of the theatre to the genral public, but my wife actually does the moving of the puppet strings. Her full time day job is running the business-end of our drive-in, while I work for a civil engineering firm during the day. In the evenings, I do the "physical" part of the drive-in stuff, everything from building prints, selling conessions, mowing grass, and plunging toilets.

We're getting ready to have baby #3 (probably next week) and I'll be taking over the books and business operations of the drive-in while she's recovering. She's more scared of that than she is having the baby! [Eek!]

One thing we learned real quick as independant theatre owners... "The movie business is alot more about business than it is about movies".

As far as the husband / wife tag-team managers.... I doubt I would go for it. I know a drive-in owner up east who had a heck of a time with a manager he hired that ended up being an un-beknownst "package-deal" of the manager, his wife, and their daughter. Took him awhile to recover from that.