Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The Incredible Shrinking Theatres

This is topic The Incredible Shrinking Theatres in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Ky Boyd (Member # 23) on 05-25-2001, 05:53 PM:

Looking at the movie listings in the Fri, May 25th SF. Chronicle, I observed the following:

The 16 plex at BayFair mall has become an 8 plex

The 25 plex at Union City has become a 10 plex

The Jack London 9 is now a 5.

The Hacienda 20 is now an 8

The Concord 14 is now a 6

The Pinole 10 is now a 5

The Crow Canyon 6 is now a twin

The Festival 5 is now a triplex

Century Park 12 is now a 6 plex and the 16 is now an 8

The 1000 Van Ness 14 is now also a 6

The Plaza 10 is a triplex

The Metreon (15) is now a 6 plex

And there are 13 prints of Pearl Harbor in Sonoma County and at least as many Shrek's.

How have theatres in your area shrunk?

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 05-25-2001, 07:33 PM:

I'd say it is a computer error in getting the showtimes into the advertisements, or enough multiple prints running at theatres making them appear to have fewer screens. If they have multiples of "Pearl Harbor", multiples of "Shrek", and multiples of "The Mummy Returns", that'll do it.

Back in 1998 when our local Carmike 10 ran "Godzilla" in 7 auditoriums at once, I'm sure it looked like a 4-plex if the showtimes were listed by movie rather than by auditorium.

------------------
Evans A Criswell
Huntsville-Decatur Movie Theatre Info Site

Posted by Peter Berrett (Member # 672) on 05-25-2001, 09:35 PM:

Down here in Australia they are still bulding miltiplexes and converting old theatres into multiple theatres.

cheers Peter

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 05-25-2001, 10:31 PM:

It's multiple print city here in Columbus. For PEARL HARBOR alone, we have 13 prints at AMC, 5 at Regal, 6 at Marcus, 7 at Faux Cinemark, 1 at Star Cinemas, and one at a local independent single screen. That's 33 prints in central Ohio!

Another local independent has in its ad:
"This weekend, why bother with long lines, sell-outs and over crowded parking lots? That WWII flick will be around all summer. See a Four-Star film at the Drexel this week!"

The local 24-plex has only 12 titles. The local 30-plex has 5 Pearl Harbor, 5 Shrek, 3 Knight's Tale, 2 Angel Eyes, and 4 Mummy Returns.

Not much variety this weekend, that's for sure.

Mark L.

Posted by Aaron Haney (Member # 747) on 05-26-2001, 12:13 AM:

The Century 25 in Union City (near Oakland) only has 11 movies listed.

EDIT: Oops, I didn't notice Ky had already listed this one in his original message; sorry for the repeat. And I was wrong, it's only 10, not 11.

Posted by Sean M. Grimes (Member # 445) on 05-26-2001, 02:02 AM:

and to join to the club I went from a 13 to a five... of course with bad bad film contracts and oversaturation of short films (i.e. less than two thirty) into realatively small markets... what can one expect?

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 05-26-2001, 03:00 AM:

Detroit Metro area (including Ann Arbor):

Just a quick run down the newspaper listing. This is by no means scientific ...

385 first run screens
237 screens not running a 2nd, 3rd or 4th print
61 prints of The Mummy Returns (15.8%)
82 prints of Pearl Harbor (21.3%)
78 prints of Shrek (20.3%)

Most prints of a movie in a single complex:
- Mummy: 4
- Pearl Harbor: 5
- Shrek: 4

Most impressive reductions in screen count:
- Showcase Westland: 8 screens showing 3 movies
- AMC Livonia: 20 screens showing 9 movies

You can definitely expect these three titles in your stockings this Xmas.

Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 05-26-2001, 05:19 AM:

Im not sure about the rest of houston, but my theatre has the following:

4 Pearl Harbors (3 of which interlock two screens each)
5 Shreks
2 Angel Eyes
3 Knights Tales
4 Mummy Returns

We also have 1 each of the following:
Driven
Crocodile Dundee In L.A.
Bridget Jones's Diary
Joe Dirt
Spy Kids
Enemy at the Gates
Along Came A Spider

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 05-26-2001, 07:48 AM:

With all those prints being interlocked, I sure hope people know how to do it properly, and avoid print damage or dirt.

I suspect some theatres that have no experience looping prints are going to try it for "Pearl Harbor" and "Shrek", and a few prints may get trashed.

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 05-26-2001, 01:00 PM:

In today's Huntsville Times, the Hollywood 18 has 11 movies listed, making it appear as an 11-plex until you study the showtimes. Our Carmike 10 lists movies by auditorium (listing Pearl Harbor more than once) since their ad is auditorum-based.

------------------
Evans A Criswell
Huntsville-Decatur Movie Theatre Info Site

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 05-26-2001, 02:48 PM:

John,

I could be wrong here, but I don't think anyone really interlocks much anymore. Too many prints have been damaged by people who did not know what they were doing in the recent past and I think the general attitude by the studios now is to just make more prints for the additional screens.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 05-26-2001, 06:59 PM:

We don't encourage interlocking in my neck of the woods. There are too many people who don't know how to do it right and too much film gets damaged.

Furthermore, studios get pissy about it. Interlocking two houses means that one or more of the other prints doesn't get shown. Even if the print were to be booked to interlock, they still don't like it. Essentially, interlocking means that you magically enlarged the house. If that show doesn't sell out you are wasting space. It's much better to show two prints that start at different (staggered) times. That way you have a better chance of getting more people in each house.

If you have a problem with an interlocked print you will potentially inconvenience more people. If you have two prints and one of your houses goes down you can offer them tickets to the next showtime. If there are two prints the customers will only have to wait for an hour or so. If there are more than two prints they will have to wait even less. If your projector goes down for more than one show and you don't interlock you can recover more easily by shuffling prints so your lowest grossing movie gets cancelled and the highest grossing movies just move to another house. If you interlock there is less chance of finding a combination of house placements that will keep your business intact until the problems can be solved.

We DO have theatres that are allowed to interlock. Most often it is done for Saturday afternoon kid shows that run before the regularly sheduled showtimes. The people we allow to interlock are trained to do it right. Even then it is usually only one or two operators who are allowed to do it. If we have a U.B. who seems to be smart enough we will make sure he/she is brought up to speed before we turn him loose.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 05-27-2001, 02:40 PM:

At first I thought this subject was about the shrinking nature of the size of auditoriums. Really, that is something that has gotten progressively worse over the last few years.

Auditoriums with more than 1,000 seats are disappearing (and it is all but unheard of for any new theater to feature a room of that size). What I see far more often now is the 24-plex or 30-plex fitting into a building that would have housed only a 12-plex back in the 1980s. I still can't get over the time I visited the AMC Odyssey 30 theater at Grapevine Mills shortly after it opened a few years ago. The theater showing "Amistad" couldn't have had more than 50 seats in it. The new Central Mall 12 theater here in Lawton has some pretty small screening rooms. The biggest one has 232 seats with a number of others at just under 90 seats.

Part of the draw for people to leave their VCRs and DVD players behind to see a movie in a commercial theater is for the BIG size of the screen and the large auditorium holding it. If the screening room is not much larger than a living room, what's the point?

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 05-27-2001, 05:46 PM:

Well, as I'm sure you've read by now we only have one good theatre in SLC. Its the single screen Villa which is a sort of dinosaur but continues to liuve on somehow even though Carmike has it. The best part is the screen which is a Cinerama and 93 feet wide. Floor to ceiling! The place is fairly well kept up although the floors are a bit sticky and the candy/snack selection is dreadful, but all in all the best place in town to see and hear a film. Those B-24's taking off the carrier in Pearl Harbor could actually be felt in this place!
Mark @ GTS

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 05-28-2001, 11:46 AM:

When a theatre lists identical start times for more than one screen, or screens "disappear" in the listings, I suspect interlocking. If multiple prints are available, the start times are usually staggered.

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 05-29-2001, 03:02 AM:

quote:
Part of the draw for people to leave their VCRs and DVD players behind to see a movie in a commercial theater is for the BIG size of the screen and the large auditorium holding it. If the screening room is not much larger than a living room, what's the point?

I'm with you. I've found myself in those tiny (50 or so!) auditoriums also.

It would be nice to demand your money back & shriek "I paid for a movie, not TV in your broom closet!", but like getting up to have someone fix projection problems, it's can become perceived as social problem if you've gone to the movie with others.

Paying for a movie & then being shown to a joke entsy auditorium is really one of the ways that theaters burn customer trust & goodwill to an absolute cinder.

(Wasn't there a scene in "Bachelor Party" or something with a chase in a multiplex, they open a broom closet door, & two people are in there watching a movie?)

Posted by Thomas Hauerslev (Member # 566) on 05-30-2001, 09:56 AM:

I wrote an article for Cinema Technology about the cinemas here in Copenhagen. Please find it here: http://hjem.get2net.dk/in70mm/cinemas/cph_cinemas/cph_cinemas.htm

There are some note about the size of each auditorium.

I also tried to list the largest screens here at http://hjem.get2net.dk/in70mm/cinemas/70mm_i_dk/diverse/large_screen.htm

...and a complete list of ALL Copenhagen cinemas since the beginning in 1904 at http://hjem.get2net.dk/in70mm/cinemas/70mm_i_dk/sjaelland/cph/biografer.htm

Have fun.

------------------
All my best
Thomas
..in70mm - The 70mm Newsletter
www.in70mm.com www.dp70.com www.70mm.dk www.hauerslev.com http://hjem.get2net.dk/in70mm

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 05-31-2001, 01:35 AM:

quote:
...and a complete list of ALL Copenhagen cinemas since the beginning in 1904 at CLICK HERE

The Illurn Bio is a Slut 80 ?

How does that work?
Do you have a manual with diagrams?

Posted by Thomas Hauerslev (Member # 566) on 05-31-2001, 05:11 AM:

Very funny, but unfortunately this list is only about boring cinemas and "Slut 80erne" is Danish for "at the end of the 80s".

I'm sure that "Kaj's Kinoteknik" would have plenty of Slut 80s in stock, as a matter of fact, he makes them himself on demand.

The story of "Kaj's Kinoteknik" is long and funny and relates specifically to field service engineers. In short, Kaj's takes over whenever others simply must give up, due to incompetence or lack of ideas.

Kaj's belong to "Film-Yak", there can be no doubt, and one day, he might turn up and entertain everyone with his great inventions like the CoolBooster, the Palermo V (Winner of the Kalashnikow Acheivement Award), the GojnerScope lens and not least, the lens that can turn a faded film into Glorious Technicolor.

He'll be back!!!

------------------
All my best
Thomas
..in70mm - The 70mm Newsletter
www.in70mm.com www.dp70.com www.70mm.dk www.hauerslev.com http://hjem.get2net.dk/in70mm

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 06-02-2001, 12:15 PM:

Taking it back to what Ky and James were talking about ...

In NYC over Memorial Day the UA Union Square had 5 Pearl Harbor, 5 Shrek, 3 Mummy Returns and 1 Amores Perros. That turns a 14-screen theater into a 4.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 05-31-2002, 07:22 AM:

Bumping it back up top for the latest example:

This week the UA Union Square in NYC has 5 prints of Star Wars Episode 2, 4 prints of Spider-Man, 3 prints of Undercover Brother and 2 prints of Spirit.

Once again, it turns a 14 into a 4.

Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 06-01-2002, 02:15 PM:

What is the proper way to do an interlock anyway?

Josh

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 06-01-2002, 04:49 PM:

>>What is the proper way to do an interlock anyway?<<

Surely you have seen Brad's Interlocking video...

Seriously, its easy: feed platter>projector>accumulator rollers>projector>accumulator>projector>take up platter

Automations should be interlock capable so all machines start moving at once, and if something breaks down somewhere in the chain it all stops at once...

-Aaron

Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 06-07-2004, 04:44 PM:

It has been 736 days since the last post.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 06-07-2004, 04:44 PM:

Yet another shrunken theatre. This 8-plex is now a 2.5-plex.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 06-07-2004, 05:05 PM:

Cinemark 17 currently has 8 titles here. Regal Cinema World 8 has 5 titles.

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 06-07-2004, 05:12 PM:

How 'bout the Brenden Palms 14 and the Regal Colonnade 14 here--both running four titles on 14 screens this week.

Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 06-07-2004, 05:33 PM:

7 titles for 18 screens in Lakeville

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 06-07-2004, 09:40 PM:

I saw 4 titles on the Cinemark Hollywood marquee a few weeks ago. (It's a 15 plex)

Posted by Jeremy Fuentes (Member # 2135) on 06-07-2004, 09:47 PM:

6 titles at a 16 plex Cinemark here.

Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 05-24-2006, 03:15 PM:

It has been 715 days since the last post.

Posted by Eric Hooper (Member # 1730) on 05-24-2006, 03:15 PM:

Well, here we go with this again this weekend, with Da Vinci and X-Men on 80% of all screens.... LOL.

The old days: One giant 1500 seat single screen theatre, four showtimes.

Now-a-days: Cookie cutter small auditoriums and screens within the space of the giant 1500 seat single screen, and a showtime for your movie starting every half hour.

Posted by Scott D. Neff (Member # 185) on 05-25-2006, 09:53 PM:

Yeah but can you imagine ANY city in the SF Bay Area dealing with the traffic and congestion that a 1500-seat sell out would create on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday???

I wonder in how many cases theatre owners got 16-plexes approved based on thinning out the crowds to ease the parking and traffic?