This is topic Day after Thanksgiving not what it used to be? in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 11-28-2008, 03:49 PM:
I'm curious to know if other theatres have seen the day after Thanksgiving dwindle in the last few years. It's still a busy day, but the last 2-3 years we've done about 60-70% of the business we used to do. Where we used to have nearly 600 people for the opening rush we now have less than 400.
I have a theory it's the result of increasing importance on the Door Buster sales. I thought this year might be better with people not spending as much as in the past, but the opening rush was only slightly better than last year.
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-28-2008, 04:10 PM:
We usually do quite well the night before Thanksgiving. I think it's because moms tell their kids to "get the hell out of the house, I'm getting ready for company!"
We had a very good Friday, almost as good as opening night for the film last week. ("Bolt") Word of mouth on this movie has been very good.
I didn't get a chance to compare to last year but I think it was about the same. At that time we were playing "Enchanted." Our town has a Christmas parade which draws lots of people downtown so it probably helps.
[ 11-29-2008, 12:06 AM: Message edited by: Mike Blakesley ]
Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 11-28-2008, 06:28 PM:
We need another "Grinch"
Posted by Adam Fraser (Member # 1074) on 11-28-2008, 09:21 PM:
We did $200 more today than we did last year, but that small difference could be purely film or weather based. I didn't look at attendance figures tonight, but I believe we had 220-240 people in for our show tonight (Bolt)based on grosses. By far the busiest night for this film yet.
The night before Thanksgiving has always been an average night here. Friday and Saturday are typically within 5-10% of each other. Sunday goes back to normal.
Posted by Gordon Hedges III (Member # 863) on 11-28-2008, 09:37 PM:
Chad, why did you have to bring back those memories of 'GRINCH'?!?!? ![[scream]](graemlins/scream.gif)
Actually, I was just talking someone about that the other day on how THE GRINCH was probably the busiest Black Friday I have seen since I have been in the business.
Posted by Jeremy Weigel (Member # 4208) on 11-28-2008, 11:00 PM:
We had 423 more patrons this year over last for Black Friday, but our concession per cap was down .17 even though our concession prices went up .25 across the board since last year. Over all not too shabby.
Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 11-29-2008, 12:32 AM:
We were up by 10-15% over last year with a strong per capita, but it still was soft compared to what we did 3-4 years ago.
For what it's worth, the biggest Black Friday I can remember was Toy Story 2. I worked at our other theatre then and at one point we had a line at the box office that was probably 300' long with all 3 stations going. Today we never came close to needing more than 1 box office station.
Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 11-29-2008, 05:09 AM:
The Saturday after Thanksgiving when The Grinch was playing remains my theatres busiest single day ever (revenue wise).
Its hard to measure our Black Friday business year to year because we split product so don't have the prime film every year.
Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 11-29-2008, 08:12 AM:
Thanksgiving day business is going to be very dependent on the quality and appeal of movies being released at that time. Quantum of Solace has already been out for awhile. Twilight seems geared for a very specific demographic (look for attendance numbers on that movie to free fall soon). Bolt isn't going to draw audiences in the manner of a Toy Story 2 or Harry Potter installment.
The struggling economy could have something to do with any downturns in business. However, the movie industry often does pretty well during bad economic times.
Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 11-29-2008, 09:31 AM:
Yes, Bobby,
That is why the theatres did well during the depression!
For the small price of admission the patron could be entertained in a grand manner. Surrounded by uniformed attendants and hosted in carpeted and crystal trimmed luxury, it was a wonderful escape from their circumstances and a chance to be happy for even a short few hours.
Some movie palaces still remain and they should fare well in the coming financial times. The theatre experience is more than just the story on the screen.
KEN
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-29-2008, 09:39 AM:
Going back to 2001, here's a ranking of our best attended films for Thanksgiving weekend.
1. Brother Bear (2003) (See below)
2. National Treasure (2004)
3. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
4. Happy Feet (2006)
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
6. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)
7. Bolt (2008)
8. Enchanted (2007)
Bolt might climb a notch or two since I had to guess what its attendance will be for the week. The reason Brother Bear was #1 is that it only played that one week. The rest of the movies are all films we played on the break so they were in week 2. If I was to rank these by TOTAL attendance for the run, the first Potter film would be #1.
We weren't yet playing films on the break when Toy Story 2 came out. We played that film over Christmas and it did great.
Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 11-29-2008, 10:01 AM:
The theater I'm at got really screwed becuase the newspaper mucked up some showtimes, AND also had us listed as playing a film we weren't running and to make things more fun, they dropped the listing for a film which has been bringing in great business for the past 5 weeks, causing our box office receipts to drop considerably.
Posted by Tyler Potts (Member # 4952) on 11-29-2008, 12:01 PM:
Wednesday night, all Thursday, & Friday night... we'd get a steady but low crowd then expect the real rush to come on the next set... it never came. I'm getting emails from the DM & GM to cut payroll. This is insane, this should be the one weekend where we can go crazy with staffing, but no one's coming.
Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 11-25-2011, 03:24 PM:
It has been 1091 days since the last post.
Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 11-25-2011, 03:24 PM:
The decline of Black Friday continues. While it's still too early to say it won't be a busy day, so far it's no busier than a typical Friday during the summer. I would say our opening was about 1/3 of what it was 5+ years ago.
Posted by Richard C. Wolfe (Member # 431) on 11-25-2011, 11:52 PM:
We opened Puss in Boots today, the first show being a matinee at 1:00 PM (single screen, $3.00 house). I reminded the staff that Black Friday matinees have never done much, so don't expect to be busy, but that we will be busy this evening. Boy, was I wrong! We opened the doors at 12:30 with about 30 people in line. I was only expecting about 50 people total, but we ended up with over 200. The 7:00 PM show sold out and turned away about 75 people (450 seats). 9:00 PM had about 80 people. This is the best Black Friday that I can remember.
It's going to be one heck of a weekend. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Posted by Melanie Loggins (Member # 6454) on 11-26-2011, 03:25 PM:
We also opened Puss in Boots. In 3D, $6. We had 87 people Thursday night (full is 154, average Thursday is around 40). 86 yesterday at 3 and sold out at 7. After being almost busier than I would have like last weekend (Courageous and Footloose, sharing one screen) and this weekend starting so well... I'm exhausted!