Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Consolidated's Titan XC reserved seating sucks!

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Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 05-21-2013, 09:23 PM:

I went to Consolidated's Ward Centre 16 to see the new Star Trek movie because I wanted to check out their new Dolby Atmos sound system in their Titan XC house. Although I did not enjoy the movie, both the films's 3-D and sound in Dolby Atmos were great. One of the features beside of having the largest movie screen in Honolulu, reclining leather seats, Dolby 3-D and now with Dolby Atmos sound , they still have their stupid reserved seat policy. When the house first opened with TOY STORY 3 a couple of years ago, I was told to sit on the extreme left side midway in the auditorium. This Titan XC auditorium has seating for about 700 people and the show I caught was the first one in the day on a weekday and there must have been only about fifty people at the showing with plenty of great seats. I was not happy with my seat so I moved to a better one once the movie started. It was worse today when I was made to sit next to a couple off to the extreme left side again when there must have been almost six hundred unoccupied seats. Once again, I got up and got a better seat after the movie started. I thought by now Consolidated would have done away with this stupid reserve seat policy in their Titan XC house because of customer complaints but I guess they still feel it adds to the prestige of having a reserved seat policy in their "Premium" auditorium. As much as how I love the way Dolby Atmos make a movie sound, I think I will continue to see my movies at either Regal's Pearl Highland or their Dole Cannery. Perhaps Regal will put Dolby Atmos in their RPX house at Dole in the near future. I can only hope.

-Claude

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-22-2013, 01:25 AM:

I don't understand why you are being made to sit in a crappy seat when there are hundreds of really good seats available. Why wouldn't they just sell you one of the good seats or at least ask you were you wanted to sit?

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 05-22-2013, 02:44 PM:

I am very happy you agree with me, Mike. As good as Dolby Atmos sound is, I think I will continue to see movies at Regal theatres in Honolulu and wait for one of their theatres to get the sound system very soon because I refuse to have Consolidated shove that reserve seat bull shit down my throat.

-Claude

Posted by Carlos Villalpando (Member # 7411) on 05-22-2013, 04:22 PM:

What? So they actually chose your seat? That's ridiculous!
Here where I live, we have 1 multiplex with reserved seating, but YOU chose your seats, not the system.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 05-22-2013, 04:42 PM:

Reserved seating in a commercial movie theater absolutely sucks.

I think reserved seating is acceptable only under special circumstances, like a VIP screening, premiere, etc. where the seats are all going to be taken anyway. For general audience screenings, especially those where the show isn't going to sell out, the seating should be strictly first come, first serve.

A theater operator may float an excuse like, "we sell so many of our tickets online and those customers need a seat." Fine. Sell the online customers a ticket and have that factor into the remaining seats left for sale in a show. Whether the customer bought the tickets online or in person his ass should be showing up in person early if he wants a particular special seat.

Movie theaters can even keep track of how many seats are left for sale in a premium balcony/vip area of the house. I don't think there's any need for reserved seating in those areas. It should all be strictly first come first serve.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 05-22-2013, 05:09 PM:

That's actually one of my excuses and/or reasons for not selling "advance tickets" under any circumstances. People sometimes want to buy advance tickets for shows that they think will be busy and I tell them that if I sold advance tickets then there would be two (or three, or ten) seats available, but it would probably be one seat over here and one seat over there. After my theatre gets to about 70% of its seating capacity, it starts to get difficult to find two seats together, and if it's over 85%, forget it.

"But I bought these advance tickets so we can all sit together" isn't going to happen without assigned seating and I can't see any way that could possibly work. Even putting a sign on a couple of seats wouldn't do anything because someone would just remove them and sit there anyway.

I tell people that if they think a show is going to be really busy, then come very early, buy your tickets and SIT IN YOUR SEATS.

Posted by Andrew Thomas (Member # 7000) on 05-22-2013, 08:58 PM:

quote: Bobby Henderson
Whether the customer bought the tickets online or in person his ass should be showing up in person early if he wants a particular special seat.

We do 100% reserved seating at the house I manage. I don't want people showing up early and blocking up my halls or lobby. Customers LOVE being able to buy their seats online and only have to show up a few minutes early instead of as much as an 75 minutes early to avoid sitting in the front. We never get complaints about reserved seating and get tons of customers telling us how they can't believe every theater doesn't do it.

I will certainly be doing it when I open my own cinema later this year.

Posted by David Zylstra (Member # 4230) on 05-22-2013, 08:59 PM:

We use reserved seating 100% of the time for our luxury seating sections and for the regular seats when we know the show will be busy, like prime shows for new titles on opening weekends. We DO allow the guest to choose what seat(s) they want, and will adjust if necessary in the auditorium (i.e. call for a swap over the radio).

We have found a few things along the way as we have instituted reserved seating across the entire auditorium:
1. When it is not busy some people complained because sometimes guests chose seats next to each other even though the rest of the auditorium was open (or 1 group out of 2 thought they were too close to the other group and wanted to move further away) - as such we decided to only do 100% reserved seating for busy shows
2. This practice has led to higher occupancy for busy shows because we rarely allow guests to leave a single seat open by itself (i.e. they must leave at least 2 together between groups, some exceptions are made when there is no choice but to allow it), unlike a first come first served seating scenario guests will by nature of the reserved seating fill every seat
3. Almost no complaints about guests not being able to find a seat and having to issue refunds, going in guests know if only the front rows are available because they had to choose it and many times will opt for a subsequent show if they do not want to sit that close (or they have the option of upgrading to luxury or DBOX if seats are left in those areas)
4. It does drive self-service sales because many savvy guests will purchase advance tickets online for weekend shows in order to ensure they sit where they want to

I don't understand why they would not allow you to choose your preferred seat - not a good customer service policy. Most reserved seating systems have the ability to set selling priorities to seats that will make the system default to the center seats first before it assigns the edges - it sounds to me that they do not have their system configured properly (by how we configured it ours is even set to automatically leave 2 seats between groups unless the guest chooses to be next to another group).

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 05-22-2013, 09:27 PM:

Sounds to me like the ticketing software sucks.

The ticketing software at Mercyhurst randomly chooses seats in an area at the center of the house. There are certain areas marked off as "Gold Circle" (which are supposed to be the better seats, sold at a premium price) and there are seats marked off as "obstructed/back row." Gold Circle and obstructed seats are filtered out of the selection alorithm.

If a customer wants a Gold Circle seat, for a higher price, the cashier hits a button and the computer chooses a random seat in that section. If the computer selects an obstructed or back row seat, a warning pops up so the cashier can tell the customer.

If the customer doesn't like his seat, he can have the computer select another or he can pick his own from the available pool of seats.

I don't know... I thought, if a theater is going to go through all the trouble to have reserved seats, they should have some way to pick those seats that makes sense.

Posted by Jarod Reddig (Member # 6363) on 05-24-2013, 06:38 AM:

I agree this sounds like a rediculous system! Its like they are filling up the seats the same way youare directed to fill up parking spaces at a ballgame or large event. Unreal.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 05-28-2013, 08:52 PM:

quote: Frank Cox
People sometimes want to buy advance tickets for shows that they think will be busy and I tell them that if I sold advance tickets then there would be two (or three, or ten) seats available, but it would probably be one seat over here and one seat over there. After my theatre gets to about 70% of its seating capacity, it starts to get difficult to find two seats together, and if it's over 85%, forget it.

What in the world? You actually think that advanced tickets lead to there being no seats available? Because this hasn't happened in the 12-13 I've worked at places that have advanced tickets. Sure, I've had movies sell out the day prior but that's not been the norm (and certainly doesn't happen on most days/shows, even the busy ones as most people don't buy in advanced even when it's an option).

quote: Frank Cox
I tell people that if they think a show is going to be really busy, then come very early, buy your tickets and SIT IN YOUR SEATS.

That's what people do when they buy in advance...

Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 08-21-2014, 12:59 PM:

It has been 449 days since the last post.

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 08-21-2014, 12:59 PM:

We are opening a complex in the very near future with 100% reserve seating. The customer will be able to choose thier own seats though. Both online, at the Kiosk, and at the box office.

I am curious to know how it works long term though. Does some theatres give up on it after a while? Or only do it on the weekends?

One draw back that I see after checking out some theatres online that have Reserve seating - is that I can see how many people are in a current show watching a movie (online). That's extremely odd - in a very good way - or it could be very bad.

Anyone have feedback on this?

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 08-21-2014, 02:59 PM:

As I had stated when I started this thread , I totally dislike Consolidated's a Theatres reserve seating policy in their Titan XC house at their Ward 16 complex for reasons stated at that time. As much as I would like to see a movie with Dolby Atmos sound, I never went back to the Ward.

My prayers has been answered because Regal has just installed Dolby Atmos in their RPX house at their Dole Cannery 18 here in Honolulu and it is not a reserved seat house. The neat thing about this house is their policy to show a movie in both 3-D and 2-D and not like others in your areas that totally excludes 3-D.

-Claude