Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: People Lining Up to Buy Potter Tickets When We Are Not Playing It.

This is topic People Lining Up to Buy Potter Tickets When We Are Not Playing It. in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=004369

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 11-18-2005, 05:03 PM:

When we opened Thurs. evening at 6.45 there were about 25 in line wanting to buy tickets for an imagined midnight screening of Harry Potter. It's not on the marquee, or on the boxoffice sign or the website or any listing we're responsible for. There was a steady stream all eve. for the same thing. One guy got very indignant and insisted that he has read that ALL theatres were required to show it at midnight and that he was going to report us to the distribtor. IDIOTS

Posted by Floyd Justin Newton (Member # 1316) on 11-18-2005, 05:26 PM:

Bill--

Some people just read the white area above or below the sentence! [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-19-2005, 03:32 PM:

We had a phone call last night asking what time our Sunday shows were. I said, 7:15. She said, "the newspaper said you were having a matinee at noon." (We have never had a noon matinee in 75 years.) I said, I'm pretty sure it didn't. She got mad and said, "WELL, I guess we'll TRY to make it at 7:15 then...." and hung up. I checked the newspaper to make sure, and, of course there was no mention of any Sunday matinee at all in our ad.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 11-19-2005, 03:33 PM:

You do realize Mike that this was YOUR fault! [Razz]

Posted by Anslem Rayburn (Member # 1267) on 11-19-2005, 07:57 PM:

YOUR copy of the newspaper didn't list it, but did you check HER copy? [Wink]

Posted by Robert Harrison (Member # 3202) on 11-19-2005, 09:58 PM:

As you know, ALL customers receive a copy of what is known as "THE PAPER." They never read the imagined features or showtimes in the Times-Picayune, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times or the Idaho Potato Dispatch. This explains the numerous discrepancies we have all experienced over the years.

Come now. How often do customers say they read something or other in a specific paper? It's always "THE PAPER," that one and only periodical that everyone gets EXCEPT theatre people.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 11-19-2005, 10:07 PM:

And they rarely read the paper that is issued for THAT DAY. It's always a few days or even weeks old. They assume theaters have the same times every single day. HUGE mistake. I remember one time my aunt wanted to see Return of da King on Christmas day, so she checked the paper for a few days prior, picked a time (like 9 something PM) and went out to find a closed theater and an empty parking lot. The theater closed early on Christmas day. Ha! I hope she learned her lesson.

Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 11-20-2005, 01:32 AM:

Tribune Media, who service the Star Tribune in Minneapolis recently made a format change in their showtime listings for local theaters. Whereas the listing used to be by chain, the Strib now lists theatres by county, then city. Most of the bold-faced printing was lost, and the font of the whole section was scaled down. Even worse, the sidebar of the page is now home to a guide, by chain of "theatre features" by location. Solid bullets show such presentation-critical things as Stadium seating, digital sound, and (probably the most useful fact) handicapped accessibility, which my theatre continually fails to be included on because Tribune Media is too busy working out the new format to heed our complaint.

The Strib also recently shortened & "simplified" its articles. Fewer big words, self-explanitory headlines, more lifestyle crap and fearmongering for suburbanites. All & all, they've pissed off more people than they'd hoped to attract with dwindling readership numbers. More young people would rather read the Onion; they get our showtimes right.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 11-20-2005, 01:40 AM:

People will read what they want to read - not what they HAVE to read.

..and blame your butt if it isn't what they wanted to read.

..why some people think that the police force is the worst thing ever invented and are fully hated (or feared).

-Monte

Posted by Matt Fields (Member # 3211) on 11-20-2005, 08:21 AM:

Took over a theatre once where the previous management started all of the movies at the same time. I immediately changed that policy, since all the customers came at the same time and caused lines.

The matinees used to be at 2:00. I changed them to 1:00, 1:10, 1:20, and 1:30.

For about a year I had people still showing up at 2:00.

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 11-20-2005, 10:55 PM:

We cancel shows and change times on the fly all the time and then blame the paper for getting it all wrong.

[Wink]

Posted by Matt Barth (Member # 3429) on 11-21-2005, 11:42 AM:

I personally find schedules to be binding and thus destructive to the creative nature of the projection experience.

Seriously though, I always enjoyed pulling out that day's paper and showing it to them and asking them, "Well ma'am/sir, I apologize but this is what's in the paper, do you happen to have your copy?" Edgy enough to make me feel smart but not so much that they leave pissed at me.

---Matt

Posted by Adam Wilbert (Member # 1184) on 11-21-2005, 01:17 PM:

we used to cut out the listing daily and post it in a clear plexiglass stand up counter frame. "Oh, you don't read this paper? No problem, we have the listings from EVERY local paper!" [Smile]