Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Reserved seating

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 03-07-2011, 02:39 PM:

Picking up the conversation from this thread.

quote: Mike Blakesley
Not to mention more of a time-consuming pain when buying tickets. The map they show you doesn't indicate where the babies and kids are sitting, so you have no option to sit somewhere else if you want to.

You also forgot what happens when for whatever reason the auditoriums are moved around. Then management selects your seat.

quote: Bobby Henderson
That's the other HUGE disadvantage to reserved seating. It's pot luck on who sits next to you. If you end up stuck sitting next to some obsessive cell phone using douche bag you can't simply pick another seat. Some disruptions, like crying babies, are bad enough it doesn't matter where you are in the auditorium. But, damn, if that baby is right next to you the movie watching experience is all but ruined.

Yup, happens to me EVERY TIME I FLY. I took an SPL meter with me on a plane last year and read just under 100db as it was for ambient noise, yet the screaming baby in the next seat was much louder and ear piercing.

Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 03-07-2011, 02:43 PM:

quote: Mike Blakesley The map they show you doesn't indicate where the babies and kids are sitting, so you have no option to sit somewhere else if you want to.

I doubt there is going to be a bunch of babies sitting behind me in True Grit or Tron Legacy. I mean if I am watching Mars Needs Moms its probably a different story.

I would also give more credit to the people who watch movies with the upgrade price as sometimes but not always they take the moviegoing experience a little more seriously.

In my area we have a VIP reserved seating theatre. The whole cinema is reserved only for those 19+ of age, for any movie that is playing in those cinemas. Could be a PG or R rated film, it still restricts access. If you are under 19, then you can go down the hall and watch it in the regular cinema

quote:
The only way I'm going to like a reserved seating system in movie theaters at all is if the theater had an interactive web-based map of theater seats showing which ones were available and which ones were already sold.

Cineplex AVX has a nice map. So does Empire Extra.

quote:
The only logical purpose I see in reserved seating is the theater stroking the huge egos of certain douches who need to feel exclusive and special and have their seat saved for them rather than showing up to the theater at the proper time.

Well, I am extremely picky of where I sit. It must be in the first 10 rows of the non stadium part of a cinema, usually first 3-4 rows of a small sized screen. IMAX is about 8 row up. I will not sit up in the stadium part, end of story.

AMC in their large theatres has far superior layout over Cineplex as the centre walkway does not cut across the theatre, AMC in town goes underdeath and around leaving rows from screen to the back.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 03-07-2011, 03:03 PM:

quote: Tom Petrov
I doubt there is going to be a bunch of babies sitting behind me in True Grit or Tron Legacy.

PG-13 and R ratings have nothing to do with it. I have encountered the crying baby problem during plenty of showings of R-rated movies.

The funny thing about this is I probably have a slightly better chance of watching an evening show of a new Pixar animated movie and seeing it undisturbed than I would certain new R-rated action movies. That's because of the motives of the parents in seeing either of those movies.

Animated movies often do their best business during matinée day time shows on the weekends. The parents are taking their kids there because the kids want to see the movie. Many parents try to get this movie-watching chore out of the way during the afternoon so it doesn't wreck their evening plans.

Certain less responsible, less thoughtful parents will drag along the infant or restless, bitchy 2 year olds to night time shows of R-rated action movies. This time the parents want to see the movie and the kid is just hauled along as extra baggage. The parents were either too cheap to get a babysitter or just plain unable to get a babysitter (usually they're trying to get the babysitter on short notice). "Who gives a shit!? Screw staying at home! We'll take the baby to the theater! If anyone has a problem with it I'll kick their ass."

quote: Tom Petrov
Well, I am extremely picky of where I sit. It must be in the first 10 rows of the non stadium part of a cinema, usually first 3-4 rows of a small sized screen. IMAX is about 8 row up. I will not sit up in the stadium part, end of story.

First come first serve seating gives you a far better chance of getting the seat you want. You just need to arrive early enough to claim that seat. There's no guarantee with reserve seating. Under the reserved model you're more likely to get a shitty seat.

Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 03-07-2011, 03:08 PM:

quote: Bobby Henderson
Certain less responsible, less thoughtful parents will drag along the infant or restless, bitchy 2 year olds to night time shows of R-rated action movies.

Well in a VIP reserved seating theatre. Nobody under 19 is allowed. So that works for me.

quote: Bobby Henderson
PG-13 and R ratings have nothing to do with it.

Well in Ontario it used to be R means you can't get in if you under 18. At that time at least you knew the R rated movie were 18 over.

quote: Bobby Henderson
First come first serve seating gives you a far better chance of getting the seat you want.

When I bought my online ticket for True Grit which was the Monday before the release day. I got the exact ticket I wanted.

Also, I could of just shown the text message on my phone to get in if I wanted

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-07-2011, 03:15 PM:

Well Tom, unfortunately we don't all live in a perfect world like you do.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 03-07-2011, 03:43 PM:

quote: Tom Petrov
Well in a VIP reserved seating theatre. Nobody under 19 is allowed. So that works for me.

The discussion is about reserved seating and not reserved seating in theaters that only allow adults.

quote: Tom Petrov
Well in Ontario it used to be R means you can't get in if you under 18. At that time at least you knew the R rated movie were 18 over.

MPAA rating of R is equivalent to your "18A"

Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 03-07-2011, 03:49 PM:

Mike-its not about being in a perfect world. Reserved seating does have its pros and it does have its cons.

One of the biggest cons is for the owners of the theatre. If a customer views the seating map and notices that their seats that they like are taken with a theatre that is half full, then the the patron might just leave. On the flip side, being told the theatre is half full without the customer knowing what seats are taken has an advantage.

To dismiss it because of kids or who sit next to you is something I don't agree with. If I get to the theatre early and I get a seat in the middle of the theatre and someone sits next to me, then I have to move.

Noise in the theatre such as cell phone use or babies crying is an issue that is not related to reserve seating. Having a ZERO tolerance policy would work.

I think reserve seating and 19+ admission is a great feature that should be offered for those who want it. I for one would use it for an opening night film that is in high demand.

VIP at Cineplex

quote: Chris Slycord
MPAA rating of R is equivalent to your "18A"

Chris, in the past it was different in Ontario. That is why I said used to be. There were plenty of R rated movies: Berverly Hills Cop, Lethal Weapon, Revenge, Rising Sun all ring a bell. At that time anyone under 18 was not allowed period. That all changed after Jason X.

And we still do have restricted which is one step of 18A which was never around until 2002

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 03-07-2011, 04:39 PM:

quote: Tom Petrov
To dismiss it because of kids or who sit next to you is something I don't agree with. If I get to the theatre early and I get a seat in the middle of the theatre and someone sits next to me, then I have to move.

That sentence doesn't make any sense. Are you saying we should like reserved seating regardless of being confined to a seat that happens to be next to a seat reserved by a disruptive jackass or parent toting a screaming infant around in a car seat? Or are you agreeing with the point the customer should be able to find another seat if he chooses? With reserved seating you're stuck. You can't simply get up and grab another seat. It might be reserved by someone else!

God forbid I'm ever stuck in a reserved seat next to someone who decides to crap in his pants or vomit all over himself. Or just be really gassy.

quote: Tom Petrov
Noise in the theatre such as cell phone use or babies crying is an issue that is not related to reserve seating. Having a ZERO tolerance policy would work.

Very few theaters have such policies. Warren Theaters is the only one I know of in this region that specifically bans cellphone use during the movie under threat of being ejected from the property without a refund. I don't think they have the same kind of rule against crying babies however. The only thing most theaters ban these days is cigarette smoking.

quote: Tom Petrov
I think reserve seating and 19+ admission is a great feature that should be offered for those who want it. I for one would use it for an opening night film that is in high demand.

That sort of thing might be passable at premium-priced theaters in big cities like ArcLight in metro Los Angeles. It would severely piss off lots of customers at mainstream movie theaters in most cities and towns and put those theaters at risk of losing the angry customers for a long time, if not permanently. Quite a few Americans don't go to movie theaters anymore; some even like to brag about how long it has been since they set foot into a movie theater.

Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 03-07-2011, 04:42 PM:

quote: Bobby Henderson
God forbid I'm ever stuck in a reserved seat next to someone who decides to crap in his pants or vomit all over himself. Or just be really gassy

I have seen over 200 movies in that two years. Never once did I sit have a gassy or a vomit ridden patron next to me, actually I don't think I have in my entire life. There were two instances where someone was too loud, I shut them both up by telling them to their face to keep quite.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-07-2011, 05:12 PM:

Tom: Bobby was being sarcastic.

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 03-07-2011, 05:41 PM:

I've only dealt with reserved seating at a National Amusements Imax theatre in Cincinnati. They gave no choice of seats...the computer determined the "best available" seat. I found that their idea of best available and mine were VERY different.

Only one local theatre offers reserved seating for a $4 premium.

Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 03-07-2011, 05:49 PM:

Mark-having the computer determine your seat is useless. I prefer reserved seating only for opening night high demand showtimes.

They have been using reserve seating in some parts of Europe for decades and when I meet someone from overseas, they are surprised that we have just recently been offering reserve seating in our new megaplexes.

I think the ideal cinema would have at least one or two reserve seating theatres, a VIP cinema, some 35mm film and some digital screens. I think choice is better than no choice.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 03-07-2011, 06:01 PM:

quote: Bobby Henderson
God forbid I'm ever stuck in a reserved seat next to someone who decides to crap in his pants or vomit all over himself. Or just be really gassy.

This happened to me twice at the Arclight in Hollywood -- stuck next to smelly people. [puke]

For this privilege, I paid $14 plus $2 for the "validated" parking.

...and that's just ONE reason I don't like the Arclight. [puke]

Posted by Emma Tomiak (Member # 1862) on 03-07-2011, 07:29 PM:

One of the theatres I work for has reserved seating. A customer can ONLY purchase a reserved seat if they also buy a $12 food and drink voucher (basically you've paid for food whether you want it or not). It doesn't make sense for someone who just intends to watch the movie and buy a Coke to get a reserved seat here. You can choose your seats based on a map of each auditorium, and every other row has reserved seats available.

Like Brad said, this system encourages people to show up late and come in during trailers or even into the feature. I've seen it time and time again. I start a movie and scan the seats, and most seats are filled except the reserved ones with menus and place-holder stickers sitting there. I've sat and watched the audience through the trailers and into the feature, and people slowly trickle in and fill in their reserved seats well into the feature. I imagine it must be very annoying to the other customers.

Now I realize that people do this in regular style seating theatres too. The difference here is that since it is a dinner and a movie joint, you've now got servers and runners taking orders and bringing in food quite a ways into the movie. They do their best not to get in the way, but they are still a distraction.

It's also sad to see people show up early, be the first ones into the theatre and not be able to sit in the best seats because they're already marked as reserved. It's funny though, I've seen people unstick the "reserved" markers and move the menus/stickers over and take the reserved seats. [Razz]

Posted by Chase Pickett (Member # 5975) on 03-07-2011, 07:52 PM:

I honestly don't get it. The rule has always been if you want a good seat you need to come a little bit early, and it's not like you would have to get to the theater really early. Usually 15 minutes before the start time works just fine for you to get the seat you want.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-07-2011, 08:23 PM:

quote: Emma Tomiak
A customer can ONLY purchase a reserved seat if they also buy a $12 food and drink voucher (basically you've paid for food whether you want it or not).

Emma - you might want to tell your bosses to take a look at the new Warner Bros contract. It has a "clause" whereby if you sell somebody a food voucher at the door, rather than at the concession stand, then they get their percentage of that money. (It might not hold water at your place since people have the option to "opt out" of the voucher by not buying a reserved seat.)

Posted by David E. Nedrow (Member # 4981) on 03-07-2011, 08:28 PM:

quote: Emma T
One of the theatres I work for has reserved seating. A customer can ONLY purchase a reserved seat if they also buy a $12 food and drink voucher (basically you've paid for food whether you want it or not). It doesn't make sense for someone who just intends to watch the movie and buy a Coke to get a reserved seat here.

That's not a bad idea.

I think the problem with reserved seating, particularly for an opening, is that your even more likely to end up with dozens of single seats that won't be sold. When someone is already there, they may as well sit separately. I can't imagine anyone buying reserved tickets with them in one seat, and their spouse 8 rows away. And one way for a person buying reserved seats to virtually ensure an empty seat next to them, is to just leave one empty between you and the next sold seats when you pick your seats.

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 03-07-2011, 08:37 PM:

For cinema events, we always do general admission because it just seems that most people are just culturally used to that in a cinema, and to do reserved seating would likely make them unhappy. I know personally I hate going to the movies and having assigned seating because I'm always early enough to choose the sweet spot anyhow.

We do utilize assigned seating for the Met Opera HD broadcasts because that crowd is much pickier about where they are for those performances.

AJG

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 03-07-2011, 11:06 PM:

If they wanna be picky, then maybe they should go see those operas at the Met! [Razz]

Don't get me started, Aaron! I'm in no mood [Big Grin]

Kidding aside (wait - was I kidding?) if reserved seats are not claimed at show time, then the reserved status should become void at that point.

The extreme side seats of the very front row should be reserved for latecomers who **had** reserved seats.

Even on Broadway -- where admission is easily $100 per seat -- latecomers know their place.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 03-08-2011, 12:31 AM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
Emma - you might want to tell your bosses to take a look at the new Warner Bros contract. It has a "clause" whereby if you sell somebody a food voucher at the door, rather than at the concession stand, then they get their percentage of that money. (It might not hold water at your place since people have the option to "opt out" of the voucher by not buying a reserved seat.)

The theater she's referring to doesn't have a concession stand. It's a dinner theater chain. So the contract might be drawn up differently for them.

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 03-08-2011, 01:33 PM:

The one thing I like about reserved seating is that I can look in advance on Megaplex Theatres' website and preview how well any given show is selling before venturing out, thus avoiding heavily sold shows.

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 03-08-2011, 03:05 PM:

quote:
If they wanna be picky, then maybe they should go see those operas at the Met!

But they always buy food from us...which I really really appreciate. [thumbsup]

Actually, the biggest reason for reserved seating for the Met is because they typically get close to capacity, and the crowd has many special needs. Getting that information prior to the show with reserved seating is priceless.

AJG

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 03-08-2011, 04:26 PM:

I've thought about this for a while and I think I'm personally not in favour of assigned seating and that’s coming from someone who can get very pedantic about where I want to sit. Generally in the UK most cinemas don’t have assigned seating however recently one of the countries largest chains has started rolling out assigned seating across their sites (this has why I’ve had to start formulating my opinion on assigned seating). One of the issues I’ve has at a few of these sites is the way the box office staff deal with this. When you buy your ticket they simply ask you if you want to sit front, middle or back. I can understand why they do this, it would get very time consuming to have each customer pick out their seats on a map. (I’m just imagining a busy Friday night when your have long lines at the box office). The problem with this front, middle, back situation is that it still can be very much pot luck on which seat you get given. I like sitting about 4 or 5 rows from the front, but do we classify this is the front or the middle? It could vary on the size of the auditorium. I even know of a small auditorium at one site where row 5 is the back row. The problem is that the customer’s definition could be different to the person serving them on box office. Plus how do you avoid getting bad seats one far side of the auditorium?

Which is why is use an automated machine at these sites because I can pick my own seat. But that is only good for an auditorium I have been in before so I know where I want to sit. If it was the very first time I was going to see a film I’d want to be able to go into the auditorium and pick my seat when I can take into factors such as the size of the screen, position of the aisles, audio sweet spot (as already mentioned). I wouldn’t want to go into an auditorium that I’d never been in before with my seat already assigned, because you're back to pot luck. (In face the very few times this has happened to me before I've either ended up moving or having to put up with a seat I didn't really like)

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 03-08-2011, 04:38 PM:

You have no idea what "select you own seat" can do to a line at the box office during a walk up. This is why once it is an hour before the show, we do best seating unless they really make a fuss. I've also trained the staff to know which seats are best for a given performance. For instance, a few rows back for a jazz vocalist may be awesome, but not so good for a brass band.

Our software can also be programmed to have multiple best seating choices for different types of events so we can choose a template depending on the event.

AJG

Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 08-21-2014, 01:04 PM:

It has been 1261 days since the last post.

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 08-21-2014, 01:04 PM:

quote: Sam Graham
The one thing I like about reserved seating is that I can look in advance on Megaplex Theatres' website and preview how well any given show is selling before venturing out, thus avoiding heavily sold shows.

I've been poking around the Megaplex website and I was surpised at that fact that I could go through all of their shows starting and see how many people were there watching movies. Like - the one dude that was catching the first matinee of "The Expendables 3". I find this sorta odd.

What are your thoughts about this?

Posted by William Kucharski (Member # 7246) on 08-21-2014, 07:39 PM:

I think reserved seating is awesome - no more having to get to the theatre an hour early for a movie, and I can tell when purchasing how full the theatre is and choose a more sparsely attended show, as well as be sure I'll get the seats I want weeks in advance.

If I have a choice, I always choose a house with reserved seating now.

Posted by David Buckley (Member # 2600) on 08-21-2014, 08:31 PM:

All the multiplexes round our way are reserved seating, and have been since well before this thread started. Pick your seat on the web before venturing out.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 08-21-2014, 10:02 PM:

Reserve seating sucks when they tell you where to sit when you enter the theatre like they do at Condolidated's Ward 16 in their TITAN XC house. If they asked me where I would like to sit by showing me a sitting diagram of the auditorium when I buy my ticket or when I enter the theatre, I would have no problem with that but when they tell me where to sit when they take my ticket without allowing me to choose my seat is not right. Worst of all, they made me sit right next to someone in a almost empty theatre off to the side and told me I could move if I did not like the seat after the show had started, the last time I was there a couple of months ago. In fact, I posted a thread here at FT titled RESERVED SEATING SUCKS or something like that.about this incident. Even though they were the only theatre in Honolulu with Dolby Atmos, I never went back and saw all my movies at either Regal's Dole Cannery 18 or at their Pearl Highland 16. "Patience is virtue" has turned out to be true because the Dole Cannery now has Dolby Atmos as of last week in their RPX auditorium and the seats are not reserved.

-Claude

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 08-22-2014, 12:04 AM:

Our location http://www.thevillageatmeridian.com/shop/detail/19 uses the reserved seating format, including D-Box and up in the 21+VIP section.

This location is the first in the area to offer reserved seating. At first, it wasn't welcome too well, but in a few months, the majority of the patrons love this concept.

One week we tried open seating as an experiment and did we have the complaints that groups couldn't sit together, or ones arrive late couldn't have the best seating in the house.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 08-22-2014, 05:19 AM:

quote: Dennis Benjamin
I've been poking around the Megaplex website and I was surpised at that fact that I could go through all of their shows starting and see how many people were there watching movies. Like - the one dude that was catching the first matinee of "The Expendables 3". I find this sorta odd.

What are your thoughts about this?

They're not listing reserved seats by name aren't they? So I don't see any real privacy issues with this.

So, the issue might be that the competition can check on you on how you're a doing? If they want to sink their time and money into that, great, let them do so I would think. Meanwhile, you can focus your time on something meaningful.

quote: Claude S. Ayakawa
Reserve seating sucks when they tell you where to sit when you enter the theatre like they do at Condolidated's Ward 16 in their TITAN XC house. If they asked me where I would like to sit by showing me a sitting diagram of the auditorium when I buy my ticket or when I enter the theatre, I would have no problem with that but when they tell me where to sit when they take my ticket without allowing me to choose my seat is not right.

Don't they have ticketing machines in the lobby that let you choose your seat just like you could do on-line? I guess they don't let you choose your seat at the counter because it would hold up the line too much if everybody did that.

Reserved seating is a bit of a mixed bag. Generally, I have started to like the concept, if it's done right. The main advantage obviously being the fact that you don't need to be there an hour before the show. The biggest downside is that it reduces spontaneous decisions to almost zero.

Besides that, there are tons of other issues, most of which seem easy to fix, but I guess I'm the only one complaining out loud:

- Reservation fees, handling costs, etc. Especially if you pay your ticket on-line. They're saving on box office workers here, so tickets should be cheaper, not more expensive.
- The possibility to reserve a seat and pay it at the box office later. This is often taking up good seats that nobody will claim later on and will then go out to the "late comers" (if there are any). If you reserve a seat, you should pay or at least commit to buy immediately.
- If you do not know the auditorium, you might inadvertently ending up choosing suboptimal seats. Those pesky seat reservation maps usually tell you nothing about the real layout of the room.
- You're not able to choose your neighbors. Then again, you're also not able to choose the neighbors that enter later in a free-seating arrangement.
- Half-assed systems where you can choose your row, but not the seat number in the row. I don't mind systems that try to fill in the gaps that occur if everybody can choose their own seat, but those row-based systems are awkward.
- Theaters that fail to explicitly mention to their patrons they're using a reserved seating system and causing tons of discussions.
- Theaters that fail to enforce their own reserved seating systems.
- Theaters that use ambiguous labeling for rows and/or seats. Examples: One large chain decided to put their row numbers on the threshold of the rows. Nobody seems to be able to figure out the right row number without starting to count, the confusion is increased by the fact that in the bigger auditoria there usually is a very wide row somewhere just below the middle without seats, designated for wheelchairs (and not really indicated as such), but this row is also a designated walkway. Another chain decided to put the seat numbers on the cup holders but failed to put something like an arrow next to it. Nobody is able to figure out if their seat is left or right of the indicated cup holder.

Besides those little issues, reserved seating is just fine [Wink]