Construction of the new screens is completed. Both new cinemas have a balcony, stage curtain, dolby digital with Klipsch, period reproductions, and a seating capacity of 175 per side. Architects for the project were Joy and Hamilton from Auburn Maine.
Great discussion!
While I agree that price has been a major factor in why people don’t go to the movies, presentation and audience rudeness must factor in.
Cell phones are a problem(despite singage asking people to turn phones off) at my theater. I can only hope cell blockers will be legal some day.
Audience rudeness is certainly more prevailant today than 10 years ago-despite our best efforts.
Tonight I asked a teenager to leave the theater as he didn’t have a ticket and was auditorium jumping. His mother came in later yelling 4 letter words at how awful I was to put a teeager out on the street. She refused to leave the building after being asked three times-still screaming at me when the police arrived to restrict her permantly.
Chalet has it right-I would love to have some law enforcement officers work tickets for me!
In order to truly ban a patron police must be involved. Each year we kick out and criminally restrict 5 or 6 patrons that we just don’t want back. In each case we give them a criminal restriction which results in criminal tresspass if the come back. If a patron refuses to leave we don’t engage them but merely call the police and have them escort the person out. Once the police arrive the situation quickly difuses-I don’t want my staff getting into heated arguments and physical altercations with obnoxious patrons-thats why we pay all that money in real estate taxes-use the local police-It has worked for us for 20 years.
What will hurt the movie industry more than anything is the collapse of the dvd window. As long as we have the window small town cinemas will continue to be viable. Without the window, the only theatres left will be in larger urban areas.
The greatest problem cinema operators have is not controlling the product. Control the product and you can control your destiny. Anything theater owners can do to be less dependent on the studios is a good thing in my opinion.
As I have stated before-rolling stock ads(which I personally don’t use) have been around for at least 20 years if not more-why in these
economic challenging times are people making such a fuss?
I repectfully disagree Ken. I had the chance to visit Malco’s Paradiso theater in TN and was blown away. What a classy venue. Yes it is a large complex but very well done. Regardless of advertising the experience watching a movie at this theater was first rate. I can think of many reasons to continue to go-large beautifully focused picture, superb sound complements of Klipsch and Dolby, comfortable seating, high end decor, hassle free ticketing-in short a memorable experience.
Cinema advertising is not new, I found some rolling stock ads at a theater I purchased going back at least 20 years. I’m sure some of the readers of this site can trace advertisng back many more years than this.
As I have said in a prior post advertising has its place and when done right can both be beneficial to the cosumer as well as the owner.
I wonder if “back in the day” the same arguments raged over adding concession stands to the movie palaces. I am sure there were purists who resisted such a move. However the economcs of today as then always require owners to reevaluate revenue. What good is a theater if it goes out of business?
As the owner of two theaters I have long followed this site but never have participated. However this topic interests me a great deal. We currently run a digital slide show prior to the movie which contains ads and thereby generates income for us. I absolutely refuse to run rolling stock commercials spliced to the front of the movie. I started selling ads for a preshow program as a way of keeping our ticket prices flat. We currently charge $5 for adults and $3.50 children/matinees and are a first run cinema with digital sound and some stadium seating. I believe our customers understand that the ad revenue helps keep our ticket prices lower than the competition. I am not sure anyone likes advertisements but I think people understand that they are a necessary evil. Your
thoughts?
Construction of the new screens is completed. Both new cinemas have a balcony, stage curtain, dolby digital with Klipsch, period reproductions, and a seating capacity of 175 per side. Architects for the project were Joy and Hamilton from Auburn Maine.
Great discussion!
While I agree that price has been a major factor in why people don’t go to the movies, presentation and audience rudeness must factor in.
Cell phones are a problem(despite singage asking people to turn phones off) at my theater. I can only hope cell blockers will be legal some day.
Audience rudeness is certainly more prevailant today than 10 years ago-despite our best efforts.
Tonight I asked a teenager to leave the theater as he didn’t have a ticket and was auditorium jumping. His mother came in later yelling 4 letter words at how awful I was to put a teeager out on the street. She refused to leave the building after being asked three times-still screaming at me when the police arrived to restrict her permantly.
Chalet has it right-I would love to have some law enforcement officers work tickets for me!
In order to truly ban a patron police must be involved. Each year we kick out and criminally restrict 5 or 6 patrons that we just don’t want back. In each case we give them a criminal restriction which results in criminal tresspass if the come back. If a patron refuses to leave we don’t engage them but merely call the police and have them escort the person out. Once the police arrive the situation quickly difuses-I don’t want my staff getting into heated arguments and physical altercations with obnoxious patrons-thats why we pay all that money in real estate taxes-use the local police-It has worked for us for 20 years.
What will hurt the movie industry more than anything is the collapse of the dvd window. As long as we have the window small town cinemas will continue to be viable. Without the window, the only theatres left will be in larger urban areas.
The greatest problem cinema operators have is not controlling the product. Control the product and you can control your destiny. Anything theater owners can do to be less dependent on the studios is a good thing in my opinion.
As I have stated before-rolling stock ads(which I personally don’t use) have been around for at least 20 years if not more-why in these
economic challenging times are people making such a fuss?
I repectfully disagree Ken. I had the chance to visit Malco’s Paradiso theater in TN and was blown away. What a classy venue. Yes it is a large complex but very well done. Regardless of advertising the experience watching a movie at this theater was first rate. I can think of many reasons to continue to go-large beautifully focused picture, superb sound complements of Klipsch and Dolby, comfortable seating, high end decor, hassle free ticketing-in short a memorable experience.
Cinema advertising is not new, I found some rolling stock ads at a theater I purchased going back at least 20 years. I’m sure some of the readers of this site can trace advertisng back many more years than this.
As I have said in a prior post advertising has its place and when done right can both be beneficial to the cosumer as well as the owner.
I wonder if “back in the day” the same arguments raged over adding concession stands to the movie palaces. I am sure there were purists who resisted such a move. However the economcs of today as then always require owners to reevaluate revenue. What good is a theater if it goes out of business?
As the owner of two theaters I have long followed this site but never have participated. However this topic interests me a great deal. We currently run a digital slide show prior to the movie which contains ads and thereby generates income for us. I absolutely refuse to run rolling stock commercials spliced to the front of the movie. I started selling ads for a preshow program as a way of keeping our ticket prices flat. We currently charge $5 for adults and $3.50 children/matinees and are a first run cinema with digital sound and some stadium seating. I believe our customers understand that the ad revenue helps keep our ticket prices lower than the competition. I am not sure anyone likes advertisements but I think people understand that they are a necessary evil. Your
thoughts?