Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Renting Theaters for Gaming

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Posted by Brandon Henry (Member # 4161) on 01-06-2009, 02:34 PM:

Just wondering if anyone has done any renting of theaters after hours for gaming purposes. We have the equipment but I am wondering if there is a licensing issue or legal issues if we run gaming tournaments (I believe we could not offer cash prizes). We are trying to find alternate sources of income and an employee asked if we did anything like this.

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 01-06-2009, 03:54 PM:

Talk to Blockbuster or Hollywood video.

A lot of them in my area have been doing things like this. They give away free rentals or games. You could give away posters.

But if you could work it as a tie-in with them you might be able to score a good place to put up upcoming movie posters (maybe) and you could at least get some ideas.

I'd love to do it myself and (hopefully) clean up on concession.

The problem is the nuisance of policing that many children, rabid with video game fever. As well as wiring because the console has to be in the auditorium and the projector up in the booth.

Posted by Paul Goulet (Member # 297) on 01-06-2009, 04:21 PM:

A few theaters in my area have been having a once a month
comedy show with some of the areas comedians..Not sure if it's popular or not though.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 01-06-2009, 07:37 PM:

IN our small circuit in one of our plexes, we had a regular FRI night "Xbox, HALO2" game night (using small dig projectors in the four houses, and I had the sound hooked up to our processors and the four XBOX units were networked together), with permission from MICROSOFT to do such of an afterhours presentation.

Posted by Jonathan Althaus (Member # 5042) on 01-06-2009, 08:44 PM:

I've always wondered how Gears 2 would look on those brand new silver screens of ours......

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 01-06-2009, 08:54 PM:

All I know is that "Halo 2" looked good (even though our cheap projectors only had a 300:1 contrast ratio - made the image look kinda "blah..")filling up our 15 foot high screens in the flat masking tabs. Projectors were placed in the middle of the auditorium connected to the game system.

Plus, along with great sound - only left/right sound since I had to do an "A/B'd" switch with with the non-sync - If I had the CP500's for our processors, then I could matrix the sound to come out of all 5 full range channels doing a custom non-sync format assigned to "61".

Posted by Ron Lacheur (Member # 1126) on 01-06-2009, 11:48 PM:

There was an article in one of the local papers regarding this.

The author and a group of his friends rented one of the screens at one of the Googleplexes and were playing Rock Band.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 01-07-2009, 01:05 AM:

..and "Rockband" is wicked on the big screen - people play that for hours...

Posted by Blaine Young (Member # 3992) on 01-07-2009, 10:52 AM:

We've rented our entire 16-screen complex to Microsoft on a number of occasions. They provided all of the Xbox hardware.

Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 01-07-2009, 02:53 PM:

When I was managing a single screener in upper Iowa we rented out the theatre for gaming and the customers brought their own equipment and ran it through our computer and pre-show projector. It's a profitable venture as the gaming industry is now a multi-billion dollar business.

Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 01-14-2009, 08:04 AM:

We would like to explore this type of use for the theatre. Who do you contact in the community to start setting up something like this?

Do you get a merchant to work with you? Big chain or local store?

Sounds like this could be just plain fun!

KEN

Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 01-14-2009, 02:32 PM:

If you have the equipment to attach the gaming devices to Ken just let the public know that the theatre is available for parties and contests and invite them to bring their own equipment. Equipment and games can also be rented from local video stores.

Posted by Tristan Lane (Member # 1169) on 01-14-2009, 03:43 PM:

We've done similar events in the past.

Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles can remain in the booth in most cases. Controller range is actually pretty decent. We usually end up running via component video, as HDCP has become an issue.

The on-screen image is very good, and we have a DMA-8 in a roll around rack to decode PCM 6 channel.

One event at our theater utilized 8 xbox 360 consoles all networked together in 2 auditoriums. They placed 3 small video projectors and screens in each of the auditoriums, with the main screen being used as well. After getting the controllers all linked to their respective boxes, there were no problems. I believe they played Halo3.

Posted by Julio Roberto (Member # 4976) on 01-14-2009, 04:07 PM:

Interesting. How would the economic model for this work? Charge parties $xx per hour per screen? Unlimited people per screen? (After all, pretty much only one person, perhaps up to 4, can play on the screen at the same time, right? The rest would just be watching or waiting their turn)

How much would be appropiate? Is personnel's cost for concession justified during those events?

Posted by Adam Fraser (Member # 1074) on 01-14-2009, 05:09 PM:

Being a single screen theatre, I would treat it like any other off use or alternative content rental. $300-$500 per 3-5 hours with 2-3 staff if they want full service with use of our projector and sound, with someone in the booth the entire time to monitor/fix things. $200-300 if they bring all their own equipment and don't require to hook into equipment.

Posted by Sean Kapp (Member # 4839) on 01-25-2009, 05:01 PM:

Monte,

Who did you contact at Microsoft for OK on Xbox? We attempted to do this a few months ago and didn't get very far with them.

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 01-25-2009, 07:45 PM:

Monte,

What sound processor are you using? The CP65 can be configured for 2:4 decoding on non-sync. For just about any other processor, another option could be to use the second optical input and short the projector 2 pins on the processor so it would use this input. Then use stereo or SR as your sound format. Of course, you would need to calibrate the optical level for the second input.

Why do you need permission from Microsoft? Yes, I know they make the Xbox, but if you own it, isn't it yours to do with as you please? I would have thought the issue would be getting permission from the software vendors, if you are going to charge people for such events.

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 01-25-2009, 08:09 PM:

We could do it, never had an inquiry though. Would cost$300- $600. for 3-6 hours outside of regular operating times depending on variables or $1200. in the early show time slot on a week night, somewhat less to displace a late show.

Posted by Sean Kapp (Member # 4839) on 01-25-2009, 09:55 PM:

There is a section in Microsoft's EULA about written permission for using Xbox. I don't have the exact text here at home, I'll dig through my files tomorrow for the exact text.

One of those fine print loop holes they like to toss into their agreements.

Posted by Andrew Bangs (Member # 4938) on 01-26-2009, 04:10 PM:

Also I wonder what legal ramifications their could be from making money off public displays of the video games. Would, say Microsoft want a piece of the action or does buying the game give you the rights to play it for as many people as you want? I suppose I could ask my local arcade guy what the legal aspects are. If I find out anything I will let you all know.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 01-26-2009, 06:12 PM:

I can line yous guys up with an 84 X 60 foot screen in Southern Utah... That size image would be very challenging for most... Although I think you'd all end up with the ultimate sore neck.

Mark

Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 01-26-2009, 08:39 PM:

Andrew:

If you rent the auditorium out for private use (birthday party, game club, etc.) it is not a public performance and is no different than setting the games up in you living room for a bunch of friends so there's no licensing problem.

Posted by Andrew Bangs (Member # 4938) on 01-26-2009, 09:53 PM:

So what if you made it your business to have big screen games like an arcade. Plus concession stand? I wonder how that would affect things? I am thinking this could be an interesting nitch that could be filled if you could find an old theatre house that has gone out of business. Set it up especially for parties or just have open game nights and work out some kind of time limit play system.

Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 01-27-2009, 01:49 AM:

quote: Andrew Bangs
So what if you made it your business to have big screen games like an arcade. Plus concession stand? I wonder how that would affect things? I am thinking this could be an interesting nitch that could be filled if you could find an old theatre house that has gone out of business. Set it up especially for parties or just have open game nights and work out some kind of time limit play system.

If you opened it to the public and charged admission you'd probably have to pay a licensing fee.

Posted by Sean Kapp (Member # 4839) on 01-27-2009, 11:49 AM:

I dug up the text that we considered to be "the wall" we hit when we were kicking around the idea of doing an occasional xbox night type event.

Taken from Microsoft’s Warranty information for the 360…

quote:

License: Software in and with the Xbox 360 Console is licensed to you, not sold. In addition the Xbox 360 Console and its separate hard drive incorporates various Microsoft and other 3rd party intellectual property rights which you are authorized to use only as set forth herein. You are licensed to use the Xbox 360 Product and its software together and you may not copy, transmit, circumvent the copy protection system or reverse engineer them, except as expressly permitted by applicable law notwithstanding this limitation. Commercial use, rental, pay for play or other public performance is strictly prohibited except where expressly authorized by written agreement from Microsoft.

Thoughts on the above?

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 01-27-2009, 12:05 PM:

If you're renting the theatre it's commercial use. Pretty much the same as for a movie, if it's for a group in other than a home setting the licensing fees are due even if there is no charge.

Posted by Tristan Lane (Member # 1169) on 01-27-2009, 01:38 PM:

I would read into the statement as follows: If an exhibitor chooses to rent an auditorium, as well as provide an XBOX hardware or software to the renting group, then the exhibitor's use of the XBOX would fall under commercial use.

If the customer supplied all hardware and games, and were simply renting an auditorium for their private party event, then the use of the xbox is non-commercial (at least in the exhibitor's interest). When an auditorium is rented to a private party, it becomes a private event.

Since there are so many different interested parties involved with video gaming, (console provider, game publisher, distributor, developer, etc...) Charging admission for play would be a nightmare. It's better to leave it up to the customer to provide all 3rd party content and hardware related to the event.

Posted by Andrew Bangs (Member # 4938) on 01-28-2009, 11:38 AM:

That is what I figured and right where I thought this would go. In not so many words you would have to get permission from Microsoft (aka Pay a Fee) Plus perhaps a few others and then. It might be possible but then again not in a Small town like this. Well if nothing else it was fun to kick around for a little bit.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 02-02-2009, 02:18 AM:

quote: Ken Lackner
What sound processor are you using?

(Sorry, caught this one late ..) We have old CP55's - I just used the N/S input on the backplane of the processor. Then,I installed an "A/B" switch to select between N/S music and the AUX input.

CP500's are tons better with that second N/S input for format "61" .. but not familar with anything above that - sorry, I work with dinosaur equipment.

Posted by Chris Iacofano (Member # 5074) on 02-13-2009, 02:59 PM:

Just to clear things up - we would need to go to the publisher of the game, not the console manufacturer. Different divisions entirely at Microsoft. There used to be a pay-to-play console arcade here in town run by the college (bunch of flatscreen TVs with all of the systems hooked in). They ran things %100 by the books when it was open, so I'll try and find out what the rights cost and how they obtained them.

Posted by Sean Kapp (Member # 4839) on 02-13-2009, 04:19 PM:

Chris,

It sounds like these people are the ones to talk with to get info on how to do this fully by the book.

Hoping you can get a good bit of info to share with us!