quote: Evans A Criswell

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It seems screens would be a very easy target for vandalism during normal operating hours.

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quote: Evans A Criswell

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This location has 6 larger screens and 12 smaller ones, but no details were given about which ones were damaged.

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Heh, let's hope it was the small ones!

Geoff "Nowhere Near Alabama Tuesday Night" Jones
 

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Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 03-13-2008, 10:54 AM:
 
Unless they were protected by a curtain

It's a shame curtains went out of style. The last theatre (unless the new Moncaco has them, which I doubt) to have curtains that covered the screen was the Regal Gateway 4 in Decatur, a very good second-run theatre that closed in May 2000. Had it not been for that theatre, I would have never seen curtains covering a movie screen.
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-13-2008, 11:39 AM:
 
We used to have a stage curtain and I want to get another. It's on my list, for sure.

I always wished someone would have taken a pic of our original curtain, before the screen was enlarged. According to a newspaper description it was really nice. The larger one that covered the screen from 1953 until the mid 80s was plain & ugly, not to mention full of dirt and smoke (from when they allowed smoking in the balcony)...so it was no heartbreaker taking it down.
 

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Posted by Ron Funderburg (Member # 4561) on 03-13-2008, 12:45 PM:
 
It is shame that curtains have gone out of style but the curtains cost more than screen usually by a lot. Still if the curtain gets cut up you still have a screen to show the movie on.
 

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Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 03-13-2008, 03:09 PM:
 
One local TV station was asking anyone with tips on the screen slashing crime to notify the police. I hope whoever did that gets caught and this act is not repeated at other theatres around town.
 

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Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 03-13-2008, 04:38 PM:
 
Maybe it's because I'm cynical and often expect the worst, but I have a feeling in my gut that the slashing was done by a disgruntled employee or ex-employee. I assume the police have the names of recently fired employees and follow accordingly.
 

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Posted by Jeremy Weigel (Member # 4208) on 03-13-2008, 10:39 PM:
 
We used our curtains (4 waterfall and 2 side-opening) up until this past summer. They got to be a maintenance headache. The waterfall types collected dust and were a pain in the arse to vacuum all those folds. The other pain was if they got stuck while opening or closing and it always seemed to happen at the least desirable time with a packed house. Hand cranking those things open could take 15-20 minutes.

We had very few problems with the side opening ones, although just before we decided to stop using them, one of them had a runner/glide get stuck and the curtain suffered a tare about 10' long. So that one got mothballed immediately and stayed that way especially after getting a quote to replace it.
 

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Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 03-14-2008, 12:03 AM:
 
What kind of screens cost $10k apiece? Are they silver screens? Are they counting the lost revenue as part of the damage cost? Or was the damage estimate grossly inflated?
 

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Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 03-14-2008, 12:08 AM:
 
Bah! Give me some dental floss and some white gaffer's tape! I'll have it looking good as new in no time!

Kidding aside...

I have repaired screens in a couple of locations. Both were slashed by recently fired employees. Check with your most gruntled employees and see if they can't tell you who the likely disgruntled candidates are.

Offering a reward would help.

The graffiti might actually turn out to be a blessing. The content might lead you to the culprit. If it says, "Joe sucks!" ("Joe" being the manager who fired them) it would sure narrow down the list of suspects. Handwriting analysis might prove to be helpful too. When I was in high school, both of these techniques were used to bust kids who spray painted the walls. One of them was actually caught red handed... LITERALLY! It was when the truant officer found red paint one one guy's fingers that he knew he had the culprit! It only took about a half hour of grilling for the kid to spill his guts and put the finger on the other two kids who were in on the prank.

They all got two weeks of IN-SCHOOL suspension!
 

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Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 03-14-2008, 06:12 AM:
 
Ah, I have seen this before. Usually, the person(s) doing it do have some idea that the damage they are doing is not only going to affect the theatre immediately, but it will take some time to get the screens replaced. When my company opened a theatre in Ashburn, VA - someone slashed the screens there. When I was in Miami, someone slashed two screens at an 18 plex I was at.

Hopefully, Regal had some kind of camera system in the building and got someone on video running around the building.

Yes, it's very expensive damage that was done. Someone should be doing some serious jail time for this vandalism.
 

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Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 03-14-2008, 04:13 PM:
 
About the damage estimate -- the cost to the theatre would be the five screens (cost would depend on which auditoriums, plus the lost revenue). One news source said the theatre planned to have the screens replaced Saturday (tomorrow), so that would mean they're losing a Friday night showing (one of the busiest nights) on 5 screens. By switching out their 5 least-popular movies, they can minimize the income damage. If the larger auditoriums were damaged, it would affect the theatre much more greatly since one showing of a popular movie might have to be in 2 smaller ones to handle the same number of customers.
 

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Posted by Brad Allen (Member # 470) on 03-14-2008, 10:49 PM:
 
Tomorrow? Who keeps spare screens laying around?
 

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Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 03-14-2008, 10:57 PM:
 
Even in an "emergency" situation, those screens would take quite a bit of time to get there. This is not a Fed-Ex item.
They may be using used screens - some chains keep old screens in some of their buildings, maybe for incidents like this -not exactly the same size that got slashed but sizeable enough to hang in their place until new, proper screens can be ordered.
They should thank their lucky stars this didn't happen in late May or June, when the financial impact would be more pronounced.
 

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Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 03-15-2008, 06:53 AM:
 
Just another reason for "standardization-within-a-circuit" on auditorium design. Reordering/shipping new screens would be simply: 2 "A" and 3 "B" sized screens. Storage at a central location would be reasonable for 25 or 30 screens. Alas, that would require forethought! (Could be repaired in 24 hours.) Louis
 

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Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 03-15-2008, 07:21 PM:
 
Been there and done that with one circuit when we standardized on three sizes and only had to worry about an occaisonal special large screen. Their situation for emergency shipping was high coordination and a week in transit / clearance...so they had spare screens in the main warehouse.
 

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Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 03-17-2008, 01:56 PM:
 
This is Regal we're talking about. I'll bet they have spare screens ready for such emergencies.
 

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Posted by Tony L. Hernandez (Member # 3524) on 03-18-2008, 02:20 AM:
 
It always breaks my heart to hear of such Vandalism. Even though its a large chain that does not make it right.
Screens seem to be the prime target of theater vandalism. They are accessible, fragile and the first thing that comes into sight when you enter an auditorium. Even kind intentioned but dim witted people who go up to "feel" the screen with their hand take their toll. I have seen people do this. A second-run multiplex I was involved in some years ago regularly had drinks and even objects thrown at them.

All of my current theaters are single screens with the exception of twin screening rooms in one building. Henceforth, there is not much vandalism problems as there is almost always someone in the auditorium, even if it is just myself in the booth, to supervise. If I am projecting and no one else is in the auditorium, I make sure in a subtle way that my presence "up above" is known to the patrons. One theater that I project at dose not have a screen per se, but a curved drywall substitute painted with special paint and there has been a coffee looking stain on the middle of it that was there when I started working there. We plan to clean and repaint the surface soon.None of my other theaters have had screen damage.
At the theater that I assist in the management of, I am sure to make regular walks down the isles before the show and a couple times during the show both to make sure everyone and everything is okay and also as a deterrent to vandalism and general misbehavior. That theater, I should mention, also stays very clean, undamaged and the audience behaves well. This is amazing considering there are not many regulars as it is a tourist town with thousands of strangers coming in and out of town on a weekly basis. I like to believe both the fact that we keep it looking very high quality and the fact I patrol it regularly helps.

I too wish curtains would make there return. They ad a certain excitement and professional sense to the movie going experience. None of my theaters currently have a working curtain. One did and we used it but the motor has broken. It was working right up to the time we closed for the winter of 2006-2007. When we reopened in May of 2007, it was open and the motor would no longer close it. I had my mechanical genius father look at it, the owners engeneer husband look at it and I bleive even the director of a short musical play who rented the theater durring the morning for the month of June had someone check it out but no one knew what was wrong or how to fix it. So it sits....
Its a beautiful gold curtain. I love the color gold and I love the ambeance a curtain gives a theater as patrons get seated and as the show is starting. How I wish we could fix ours and how I wish all theaters would get back to using them.
One reason I imagine the multiplexes shy away from them is the fact that with a curtain covering your screen until the show starts, you cannot have pre show slides or digital ads. No ads=less money. And we know too many chains are just in it for the money and not the experience of going to the movies.

I tend to disagree to a slight extent about the slashed screens being a target of a former employee. Yes that is possible but wouldn't someone evil enough to break in to a theater and vandalize it who has been in the theater business know to go for the juggler and hit the projection booth with its many delicate, expensive and easy to break and/or screw up items?
 

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Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 03-18-2008, 03:20 PM:
 
I didn't mean to imply that the vandalism happening to a large chain made it any less of a bad thing -- I was just saying since Regal is such a large company, they're likely to be able to get the screens repaired more quickly than a small chain or an independent theatre.

This theatre tends to have some wild customers at times. Huntsville definitely has its share of wild teenagers. I remember being in the top row of the stadium seating in one auditorium and a teenager throwing a drink over the top of the back row from the back, wetting me and several people sitting around me. I've been in several shows where ushers would come in and get groups of them to stop talking. However, unless teenagers are loitering on the property and looking for ways in after hours to do mischievous things, it seems improbable that this was a random act, and think it's more likely to be an inside job.
 

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Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 03-23-2008, 06:46 PM:
 
Are they having union trouble?
 

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Posted by Scott McGuire (Member # 4508) on 03-24-2008, 12:48 AM:
 
Does regal have ia projectionists?
 

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Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 03-24-2008, 09:30 AM:
 

quote: Scott McGuire

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Does regal have ia projectionists?

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quote: Patrick Dunn

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If anyone ever damaged one of our screens we're screwed since we don't have anywhere near enough money to replace one.

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quote: Phil Blake

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when we had the Drive In running , the deciding factor to close it down was not due to lack of customers but the fact the cost of vandalism was more than our takings.

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