Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The Problem of Shows After Midnight

This is topic The Problem of Shows After Midnight in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Sam King (Member # 4029) on 03-16-2007, 07:32 PM:

Ok, you probably all know the situation. It's the night before opening day of say, Ghost Rider. Sony has said no one can do 12:01 shows, ok that's fine. So we have a full day of shows on Opening day, ending with a late show at 12:30 AM. OK, so the ticket says GHOST RIDER 12:30 AM 2/16/07. Now WE all know that means the evening of Friday 2/16/07. But to a guests, it can look like the early morning of Friday 2/16/07, which is technically when we are closing down and leaving on Thursday night. So how do you handle this and make the guests not hate you???

Posted by David Graves (Member # 4069) on 03-16-2007, 09:23 PM:

If you do your own ticketing on the internet, you can simply add 12:30am (Friday evening). Signage in the box office as well.

But in 4 years at a 2 million+ attended megaplex, I only had a single complaint about this, so I don't think this is really an issue for anyone except America's most retarded.

Posted by Sam King (Member # 4029) on 03-16-2007, 11:16 PM:

Yea, it was really a problem last weekend. We opened 300 in IMAX. We have reserved seating in our IMAX. The 12:25 am show (Friday night late show) was totally sold out. We had about 20 guests come in with tickets to SATURDAY nights 12:25am late show and i had no seats to put them in and had to explain that even though their tickets say 12:25am on 3/9/07, the show they bought for was 24 hours away. They were not happy.

Posted by Jarryd Beard (Member # 2543) on 03-17-2007, 01:46 PM:

We had a very similar situation with Fandango. We had a 12:15am show Friday night. However, because Fandango listed the show as 12:15 3/9, some thought it was a Thursday night late show and showed up a day early. Technically, they're correct based upon that listing. However, on the Fandango page, this 12:15 show was listed AFTER the 7:00 and 9:45 shows. The part that upset me was the clarification Fandango provided after the tickets were purchased. Only after you buy tickets and bring up the confirmation page does it put "12:00am Fri 3/9/07 (late Friday night)." If this disclaimer was used from the beginning, we would have avoided several confused customers.

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 03-17-2007, 07:50 PM:

Don't know about the US, but it is so rare in the UK for there to be a Thursday late show that if someone turned up it would be through their lack of common sense.

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 03-18-2007, 07:37 PM:

To me 2/16/07 is Friday morning, just past Thursday midnite. If you intend the show to be just after midnite Friday, then there is NO question about it being 2/17, Check it, the days of the week officially change at midnight, if it were in court there would be no discussion.

Posted by Jarryd Beard (Member # 2543) on 03-18-2007, 08:06 PM:

Just by looking at the last two posts, one can see the confusion. Both Caleb and Bill make interesting points. Although, in the United States, Thursday midnight shows are becoming more and more common for the big blockbusters.

I called the Fandango service number and asked why the clarifying statement was made only after the tickets were purchased. I didn't get much of an answer. Even though Fandango claims to give no refunds, apparently they will under correct circumstances (they prefer for the individual theatres issue the refund). Maybe enough complaints and demands for refunds directly from Fandango will make them consider making the change in the future.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-18-2007, 08:33 PM:

The U.S. ought to start a new thing whereby the day of the week doesn't change until 3:00 AM, after the bars are closed. That'd solve this problem.

What the hell, we've managed to keep the Metric System out, this should be a piece of cake.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 03-19-2007, 08:04 AM:

Use military time. But trust me, plenty of people wouldn't know what the hell 00:30 means, but legally, you'd be able to laugh at them.

Posted by Mark Hajducki (Member # 1732) on 03-19-2007, 09:37 AM:

quote: Caleb Johnstone-Cowan
it is so rare in the UK for there to be a Thursday late show

I think some cinemas have tried Thursday late shows for big new releases, however I don't think they get good numbers.

quote: Mike Blakesley
The U.S. ought to start a new thing whereby the day of the week doesn't change until 3:00 AM, after the bars are closed. That'd solve this problem.

I think that would become more confusing (besides for 3 weeks of the year the bars here stay open until 5:00.

It would be easier to just keep counting up so midnight would be 24:00 (as well as 00:00), 25:00 until close of business at which point the time goes back to normal.

Posted by Christopher Meredith (Member # 3767) on 03-19-2007, 10:36 AM:

It's really an issue of legal date versus business date. If the tickets were changed to read 2/17/07 12:45, that would confuse the theater personnel, particularly in large corporate chains. You'd have tickets with two different dates printed on them for the same business day. Yuck.

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 03-19-2007, 09:16 PM:

Without an AM or PM indication it would have to be 12:45, just past noon as without those it must be on a 24 hr system.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 03-21-2007, 01:05 PM:

Heh. Looks like this problem can occur with noon shows too.

Link to live opera showtimes in Plano & Dallas TX

Cinemark Tinseltown USA Plano
3800 Dallas Parkway, Plano, 972-665-2222
Saturday, March 24: 12:30 p.m.

UA Galaxy 10
11801 McCree Road, Dallas, 800-326-3264
Saturday, March 24: 12:30 a.m.

Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 03-23-2007, 04:18 PM:

We consider all movies starting before 2am to be part of the previous day, so that a 12:01am show on 3/23 would actually appear on the showtimes for 3/22.

We've been doing this for several years (since the practice of doing midnight shows for first-run movies gained in popularity). I've never heard any complaints of people showing up on the wrong day, as I would imagine that most people know what's going on and can figure it out.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 03-23-2007, 05:04 PM:

I've never heard of "Theatre time" where a theatre can just change how time is read to suit their business needs. How stupid. The time is the time, it isn't a negotiated thing (except on this daylight savings time thingy they felt the need to mess with). If you want to close your business day other than at 12 Midnight, that should be an internal thing and not be part of what a customer would see. For theatres, the business week is Friday-Thursday but that has no affect on how the customer perceives the weekend...their week is still Sunday-Saturaday...the same can and should hold true for a theatre's business day.

Steve

Posted by Sam King (Member # 4029) on 03-23-2007, 05:28 PM:

Steve, no offense, but you must not work at a theatre that does a lot of shows after midnight. At a busy megaplex that has movies starting as late as 1am every weekend, it would be impossible to close the business day while the theatre is still open. For example, today is Friday March 23rd. Is you want to see a late show of SHOOTER at 12:30am, you ticket is going to say 3/23/07 12:30am.

Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 03-24-2007, 08:47 AM:

I was able to get the "12:30am" shows of "New York Metropolitan Opera: Rossini - Il Barbiere di Siviglia" fixed for any feeds coming from CinemaSource for the theaters that I list showtimes for in The BigScreen Cinema Guide.

I can't vouch for every theater across the country, but I did what I could.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 03-24-2007, 06:25 PM:

None taken...but I've be running midnight shows for near 3-decades...even before them new fangled computerized tickets (and then subsequently after they became the norm).

There is no sensible reason why you can't end your busness day after midnight...there is no sensible reason for listing the date wrong on the ticket.

Shoot even the government got that right on daylight savings time...they DON'T have it switch at 12:00. So have your business day switch at 3 or 4:00am...certainly no movies are going to start at that hour (except ID:4's 24-hour a thon). But the time is the time, the date is the date.

Posted by Frank Dubrois (Member # 3042) on 03-25-2007, 02:54 AM:

This used to be all so easy. 12:30am Friday morning, is Friday, not Thursday night. Its always been that way...it always will be that way. Whether you sell tickets for business day Thursday or business day Friday should be up to the individual theater, but don't confuse the general public any more then they already are. If you tell someone 12:30am Friday, that means ONLY one time.

quote: Steve Guttag
the date is the date.

Yeah..what he said.

Posted by Sam King (Member # 4029) on 03-25-2007, 05:34 AM:

The issue is that there is currently no ticketing software that can do this. Even Radiant, who is the most used, still will show a late show at 12:30am as the previous day, because that show is part of the previous' days business.

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 03-25-2007, 07:42 AM:

Two not-very-good solutions:

1) Lie on your tickets and list your shows at 11:59pm. Fill the slack time with curtains. [Cool]

2) Get yourself some custom rubber stamps that say in larger letters (well, large enough to fit on your ticket...) "SATURDAY" and smaller "This movie is SATURDAY NIGHT/SUNDAY MORNING" and instruct your cashiers to use them. This obviously doesn't work for tickets sold via computer, etc.

--jhawk

Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 03-26-2007, 07:33 PM:

quote: Sam King
The issue is that there is currently no ticketing software that can do this. Even Radiant, who is the most used, still will show a late show at 12:30am as the previous day, because that show is part of the previous' days business.

It is absurd to have a ticketing system that prints the incorrect time. That is the problem. Get them to fix their software. The show is not part of the previous days grosses, it goes on with Friday. Future sales can be on whatever days business the sale occurs, but again, this is very simple programming.

quote: Christopher Meredith
It's really an issue of legal date versus business date. If the tickets were changed to read 2/17/07 12:45, that would confuse the theater personnel, particularly in large corporate chains.

It shouldn't confuse any personnel because they should be trained on what day it is. Are corporate chain employees by rule stupider and less trainable than independent employees? There is no such thing as a difference between legal date and business date.

Posted by Mark Hajducki (Member # 1732) on 03-31-2007, 05:25 PM:

Why should businesses change their working day at midnight? The staff on duty don't all change at midnight, the tills are not all counted at the change of hour. If there is an event on in the bar, the sales in the morning would be a result of the previous days event, not the next nights.

The ticketing software should be fixed to allow the time to display properly on the system, but unless the theatre is 24hour, the day change can happen at close of business.

Posted by Jarryd Beard (Member # 2543) on 05-01-2007, 07:20 PM:

quote: Jarryd Beard
Only after you buy tickets and bring up the confirmation page does it put "12:00am Fri 3/9/07 (late Friday night)."

It appears that Fandango finally took care of this. Now, when a customer clicks on our 12:01 show of Spider-Man 3, it tells them, "Note: You have selected a late Thursday night (Friday morning) show." I'm hoping this helps us avoid a lot of the problems we were having before.

Posted by Patrick de Groot (Member # 858) on 05-08-2007, 10:25 AM:

Don't know who standardized am and pm. But here in The Netherlands we just use the 24 hour notation where 23:59 means 1 minute before midnight and 0:00 means the start of a new day. Very straightforward.

12:00am Fri 3/9/07
whould be 9/3/07 0:00 [Smile]