This is topic Studio Screenings in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Michael Riley (Member # 5693) on 05-26-2015, 06:16 PM:
 
Anyone have any experience dealing with these? I had some passes for "San Andreas" tonight, and was surprised for once that it was full to capacity more than an hour ahead of showtime. I understand how these things work, studio books the screening, local film critics get first dibs, x number of tickets to go local radio and TV promotions, and if the studio feels that there's still not enough tickets out there, the rest are given out via online channels like GoFobo or other sites.

Now I get that these things are always overbooked because they want the screening filled to capacity, and there's no guarantee that everyone who gets passes is going to show up, and I also get that the theater has absolutely no control over the screening, but I felt bad for the AMC manager who was getting chewed out by dozens of people that were being turned away, and I'm sure over the course of the hour before the show, that number probably totaled over 100.

Joe moviegoer doesn't understand that AMC has no control over the screening, and doesn't read the fine print that says first come first serve, so if I was the manager, or AMC, I'd be pretty pissed at WB for putting me in this spot. I could see way overbooking the screening if the movie was a real dog, but it doesn't exactly take a genius to realize a film like San Andreas is probably going to be popular, and overbooking the screening by hundreds of tickets is probably not the smartest idea. What goes through the brain of these knucklehead film studios that would think this is a good plan?
 

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Posted by Sally Strasser (Member # 211) on 05-26-2015, 08:40 PM:
 
In NYC, the studios hire outside companies to manage the extra seats, giving them a full audience for their critics to sit with. I used to not like dealing with them...and I hear they are quite expensive!
 

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Posted by Michael Riley (Member # 5693) on 05-26-2015, 08:56 PM:
 
When I worked at the theater, we ran them a couple of times, although it was never a shift I worked, but the other managers hated them because once they filled up, the studio rep would disappear and force the theater management to deal with the guests who got turned away. As far as I know however it was never oversold by maybe 15-20 tickets, and it wouldn't fill up until very shortly before showtime.

This show tonight was oversold by well over a hundred or more, I think the company running the screening for the studio is paid per seat, so it's in their best interest to oversell it and leave it to AMC or Regal or whoever to handle the guest service issues.
 

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Posted by Edward Havens (Member # 4715) on 05-26-2015, 11:21 PM:
 
I've dealt with more than my fair share of these, and the ones that aren't a total pain in the arse are the ones that have been carefully planned out. We know that twice as many tickets will be given out as there are seats in the theatre, because at one time half the people didn't show up. But now, that percentage is closer to 65%-75%. But we also make sure we have a second screen ready to go now, in the event it appears early in the process that we're going to fill the theatre with plenty of time before the schedule showtime.
 

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Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 05-30-2015, 05:37 PM:
 
Funny to read this when I tried this week to see a "San Andreas" screening I got passes via email for and couldn't get in- I got to the theater an hour before showtime (I simply refused to come any sooner than that) and there were already a lot of people lined up outside. I saw some critics go in and I think they had some tickets given away by a radio station who got priority over the regular passes I had. A few people at the front of the line I was in got in, but about 30 minutes before showtime the manager came out and said the theater was filled up. I wasn't going to bitch at him for denying me a free show, but seems they could have counted how many tickets were given away and then counted how many people were in line to tell sooner if they were going to run out of seats. I'll just wait til the 3D Blu-Ray comes out, no need to shell out close to $15 to see it once on a letterboxed screen. The trip wasn't a total loss as I went by the Dollar Tree nearby afterwards and got a bunch of DVDs.
 

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Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 06-02-2015, 08:21 PM:
 
At one of the private advance/preview screenings I worked at recently,
the studio had two or three rows plastered with these signs, which, of
course were all in the "choice" seating rows of the screening room.

 

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Posted by William Kucharski (Member # 7246) on 06-11-2015, 03:07 AM:
 
The last one of these that I attended was a GoFobo and there was a line about thirty people long a good four hours before showtime.
 

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Posted by Buck Wilson (Member # 5885) on 06-11-2015, 06:48 AM:
 
The things people will do for free stuff. I'm not really willing to sit in line for four hours to save $10... That's the worst deal I've ever heard of.
 

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Posted by William Kucharski (Member # 7246) on 06-17-2015, 11:39 PM:
 

quote: Buck Wilson

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I'm not really willing to sit in line for four hours to save $10... That's the worst deal I've ever heard of.

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