Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Rushed summer release schedule screws the single screen theater (RANT)

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Posted by Steven J Hart (Member # 2340) on 06-06-2007, 11:30 AM:

Hollywood's mad dash to get their product out early this year has really hurt my single screen theater's bottom line this year. First to release was Sony with Spider-Man 3. They only offered a three week deal which would make me miss Shrek the Third so I decided to pass on Spidey. Shrek did very well for us, but because I was Playing Shrek for two weeks, I missed the break on Pirates 3. Disney, in a display of their wisdom, decided that all unused prints of Pirates 3 will remain on the floor until the July 4 weekend! My booker tells me that by next week they will have over 1000 prints sitting idle! If they think I'm going to play Pirates when it Six weeks old:fu: they're crazy - I'll take Transformers instead.

So here is the rundown. We missed the opening break on Spider-Man 3. I played it June 1st and had a lousy $900 weekend. When we played Spider-Man 2 on the break we grossed over $3000! Now we are going to miss out on Pirates as well. Why can't the major releases be spaced out a bit so the theaters aren't swamped for a couple weeks, then idle for a couple weeks. It drives me nuts!!!

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-06-2007, 11:50 AM:

We were in the same spot. We decided to go with Spidey and Pirates, and hold off on Shrek. For us at least, PG-13 movies that are "ultra-hyped" tend to burn-out a lot faster than PG animated movies. So we're playing Shrek this coming weekend.

Dreamworks had said that Shrek would be withheld until the July 4 weekend but changed their tune when the grosses started falling in week 2. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney does the same with Pirates in a week or two.

We had the same problem with Star Wars III vs. Madagascar...we went with the PG-13 Star Wars and played Madagascar right after it, and kicked butt with both movies. I'm confident that if we'd done the reverse, we'd have still kicked butt with Madagascar but our gross on Star Wars would have been cut by at least 3/4 or more.

You do have to remember that the studios are not exactly worried about the single-screeners when they make their programming decisions. [Smile]

Here's a semi-related tip that I've found helpful sometimes: When playing a movie for 2 or 3 weeks, put the play-dates on the marquee, such as "NIGHTLY MAY 4 - 23." This helps to spread the crowds out over the whole play time rather than cram everyone in on opening weekend, and you'll get a better crowd in the last week when the film rent might be cheaper.

[ 06-06-2007, 02:30 PM: Message edited by: Mike Blakesley ]

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 06-06-2007, 02:55 PM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
We had the same problem with Star Wars III vs. Madagascar...we went with the PG-13 Star Wars and played Madagascar right after it, and kicked butt with both movies. I'm confident that if we'd done the reverse, we'd have still kicked butt with Madagascar but our gross on Star Wars would have been cut by at least 3/4 or more.

Either way Mike, since one of them didn't open on the break, you definitely banked due to the lower aggregated or flat percentages you had to pay.

Yes, I know quite a few "indies" with single screens that wished that their theatre had more screens to be able to open the majority of the movies on the break. Yet, it also looks like bypassing some of the openers and opening these later that to the proprietor is actually an advantage to them due to lower percentage rates.

Crazy world out there in this industry at times...a dog-eat-dog situation,.,

-Monte

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-06-2007, 04:33 PM:

Right, but our percentage of what Star Wars would have grossed a few weeks off the break would have been a lot less.

That's one advantage of a single or twin screen, you don't have to play many real bombs.

Posted by Steven J Hart (Member # 2340) on 06-06-2007, 07:18 PM:

A twin would certainly help with the summer release schedule. My buddy 60 miles away has a twin in a slightly larger town and has done well with Shrek - Pirates - Spider-Man. I suppose I could convert the balcony into a second screen.......

Posted by Geoff Jones (Member # 3668) on 06-06-2007, 07:25 PM:

Please don't.

[Frown]

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-06-2007, 08:16 PM:

No, please don't, unless you absolutely have to to survive.

We have a balcony here too, and not only would it ruin the "look and feel" of the place to twin it, but people would probably massacre me because they love it.

Also the sound would undoubtedly leak into and out of the balcony house, resulting in TWO unacceptable houses instead of one nice one. No deal.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 06-07-2007, 04:33 AM:

plus, if you think on doing that cinema to a 'piggyback' twin, you'd be finding ways to do mandantory construction overhauls for that cinema to meet occupancy code .. big one is for hdcp usage for starters..

Yea, give it up right there and do your best as a single screen til the fundage comes around to build new..

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 06-07-2007, 07:35 AM:

If your local market doesn't have a drive-in you could invest in outdoor equipment and run shows in the nearest park or field. There's a cinema in the (English) Lake District that does this.

Posted by Steven J Hart (Member # 2340) on 06-07-2007, 09:39 PM:

Hey guys! my tongue was stuck firmly in my cheek when I made the crack about twinning. It would absolutely destroy a pretty nice old theater! I did consider buying the building next door at one time, but it turned out to be architecturally difficult to turn it into a second screen.

Steve

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 06-07-2007, 09:44 PM:

The balcony split idea can be a good option IF you are sensitive not to hurt the look/feel of the existing theatre. Have done 8 or 9 over the years. Downstairs, there is essentially no change; upstairs the normal comment is "Why did you keep this cute cinema closed all these years?"

Sound wise, care must be taken but it is not impossible.

I think you guys have just seen too much sloppy work from the '70s. Louis

Posted by Frank Dubrois (Member # 3042) on 06-07-2007, 09:54 PM:

Why couldn't you book a Spiderman 3 and Shrek and play one in the afternoon and one in the evening? or alternate them? Then possibly drop Spiderman when it dies in week 2. I don't book movies, so I don't know if that is feesable or not, but looking at the way all of the movies have gone from sell outs to nothing in 1 week, it would have been a nice set up. We had 3 prints of spiderman 3, didn't need them, and after the first weekend, we didn't even need 2 prints.Pirates does pretty well, but definately not worth keeping 3 prints. I know multiple prints are kept basically for customer convienience rather than sell out potential, but it seems kind of silly to need to be able to start the same movie every 30 minute. If someone REALLY wanted to goto it, a 30 minute wait wouldn't change their mind.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-07-2007, 10:44 PM:

quote: Frank Dubrois
Why couldn't you book a Spiderman 3 and Shrek and play one in the afternoon and one in the evening? or alternate them? Then possibly drop Spiderman when it dies in week 2.

Frank: That wouldn't work because of the studios' rules regarding bookings.

1. You have to play almost any new release for at least two weeks. (in the case of Spidey 3, three weeks.) They'll make exceptions for weekends-only operations but you still have to keep the same title for the required number of weeks. (If the movie is a guaranteed flop, they might take one-week bookings, but that's rare.)

2. You can't share a screen between two movies. You can sometimes do a G-rated show in the afternoon and an adult movie in the evening, but only if the matinee is a flop and the evening show has no kid appeal. With a blockbuster like Shrek, forget it...they want all the shows of each day.

Rule 2 doesn't seem to apply to drive-ins.

Posted by Marc Hansen (Member # 705) on 06-08-2007, 12:41 PM:

Louis-
If you do the balcony over to a second screen, where do you reposition the booth for the original screen?

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-08-2007, 01:23 PM:

I saw a balcony conversion in California (Susanville) where the new booth for the original screen went right behind the concession stand,therefore it was under the balcony. Luckily their balcony floor is high enough that it was possible to get the projector beam high enough over the audience.

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 06-08-2007, 02:18 PM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
2. You can't share a screen between two movies. You can sometimes do a G-rated show in the afternoon and an adult movie in the evening, but only if the matinee is a flop and the evening show has no kid appeal. With a blockbuster like Shrek, forget it...they want all the shows of each day.

Rule 2 doesn't seem to apply to drive-ins.

I know our booker buys our films in "pairs" - with usually both films from the same studio. Very rarely do we stray from the studio-combo scenerio. When we do combine features from different studios, it takes some wrangling from all parties involved. That's why we have a booker.

Adding the second screen to our drive-in two years ago was the best thing we could have ever done. We usually end up opening a new movie each week. We're actually opening 2 new films tonight - Surf's Up & Oceans 13. I didn't even want to open Oceans 13, but the booker worked out a deal with the studios for both this week and next. This week it will play in front of our last week of Pirates, and next week it will play as the co-feature behind Fantastic 4 & the Silver Surfer. I had planned to bring back Spiderman 3 to play behind Surf's Up (ie. the studio combo), and pair Shrek with Pirates, (lower $%) but our booker managed to swing another week of Shrek 3 - which will make for a hell of a family friendly double feature.

I agree with everyone about getting slammed with all of the good summer blockbusters 3-4 weeks in a row. If they would have stagered them out about 3-4 weeks apart over the course of the summer, I think they could have made better grosses. Heck, Spiderman 3 only opened 4 weeks ago, and it's already old news.

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 06-08-2007, 05:21 PM:

quote:
I know multiple prints are kept basically for customer convienience rather than sell out potential,

Surely multiple prints means less sell-outs and no need for staff-intensive assigned seating? I'm too cynical...

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-08-2007, 08:56 PM:

The main reason for multiple prints is to get as many butts in the seats as possible on the opening weekend. This has two advantages for the studios:

1. They cash in on the highest percentage paid by the theatres.

2. They get maximum tickets sold before word gets around that the movie sucks.

Of course there is the side benefit of making the customers happy that they get to see the movie when they want to, but if there was no money in it, you wouldn't see the multiple prints.

Posted by Lyle Romer (Member # 1266) on 06-08-2007, 09:17 PM:

The multiple prints are also a growth of the operational theory of the megaplex. A megaplex was designed to play 5 prints of a movie in 5, 300 seat auditoriums instead of 1 print in a 1500 seat autitorium (also the ADA benefit of keeping less than 300 seats in a stadium auditorium adds to the reasons). I believe the theory is that you can serve the same number of people with a lot less staff because you are spreading out the arrivals throughout the whole day.

I don't know if the theoretical operation works in practice. I noticed at AMC Pleasure Island 24 that they were running Pirates on (I think) 8 screens but with 5 prints. I noticed that they were running extremely long (well over 1 hour) intermissions between shows on the same screen instead of running every 1/2 hour showtimes all day. Maybe having people coming in ALL the time doesn't work as well in practice as they thought it would in theory.

In the "old" days two prints was a big deal. Interlock was much more common. I remember GCC at their (then flagship) Miracle Center 10 in Miami had 2 prints of Jurassic Park. One print ran interlocked on 3 screens and the other interlocked on 2. If the current release practice was being used back then, I'm sure that they would have had 4 prints and no interlocks.