Actually, it really does depend on your market. I spend close to 3 years as a manager making $5.50 an hour, but then I wen't to work in a major market and am making signifigantly more.

Your best bet is to go with a smaller company or an independent theater (but one doing good business). Everything tends to be on a more personal level and when you do a good job, people notice! In the big chains, you have what is called the "thankless job". People don't come to the movies to pay exhorbant prices for food or for the friendly staff...they come to see a movie. They come for the reason your specific job exists. Granted they may choose your theater for it's sound or screens or whatever, but it is the movie that brings them there. It's a great and fun job, but you'll have to get used to not being completely appreciated in regards to pay. Obviously the other thing to look for is a truly good and caring general manager. I've worked with many and only two stand out over many years (Mr. Tadd Mansilla of Cinemark and particularly Ms. Zina Monceaux of United Artists).

I would say that you are underpaid. In Denver the projectionists are getting between $6.50 and $9.00 per hour. There is probably only one guy getting $9. I wouldn’t accept less than $7.00 per hour. However you need to be proficient in all aspects of booth operations.

Just to make everything seem out of kilter I thought I would add this bit that I got from a projectionist in NY.

"Ian,
its no big secret. We just got a 10% cut. 5 Years ago we also got a
10-15% cut. Currently 9 screens + over pays $25.75 per Hr. 6-8 screens
$22 per hr. Less screens a few dollars less per Hr. Lot of work, my
theater runs 16.5 Hrs. per day and most interested people can get plenty
of extra work.
Hope that answers your curiosity."

Of course, I hear rent is pretty expensive in New York.

Low pay is prevalent in the film exhibition industry. The theatres are capital intensive operations. The money taken per square foot of retail space is much lower than any other kind of business, i.e. restaurants or retail. The cost of staff is high and runs between 12% and 15% of total revenue. And although you may think that paying $8.75 for a ticket in San Francisco is expensive, ticket prices haven’t gone up as fast as the cost of living. Theatre operators have used the concession stand to offset the higher cost of doing business. It’s no wonder that theatre companies underpay.

A movie theatre used to be something that only happened in the evening or on weekends. Most of the staff was part time. But now movie theatres are opened from 9:00 AM till 1:00 AM in the morning. We had 3 full time projectionists but the theatre company still sort of thought of us as part time, never mind that we were always bumping up to being paid overtime.

A business will always pay what the market will bare. If they can get a projectionist for $5.50 per hour then that is what a projectionist is worth. Somehow I hope that they will realize that their $30,000 worth of prints and their half a million dollars worth of equipment is better cared for by a professional. Once they realize that, then they may get used to the idea of paying for a professional projectionist.

I spent twelve years as an employee of movie theatres and I was never able to get that point across. Now I am about to be a theatre owner myself and I hope we can be fair to our employees.

$5.50 per hour is only fifty cents less than what I presently make at a nine screen. In regards to your question of making it through college at this wage, the answer is probably "yes". I worked through most of my five years at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio, making $5.50. I got student loans, but NO GRANTS. If your going to a private school or the Ivy League, well then you may need some extra income.

I think about this a lot:
Actors and actresses to the likes of Jim Carey, Michelle Pfiffer, Harrison Ford, Gweneth Paltrow, Mel Gibson, Julia Roberts, and Tom Hanks, make an average of 18-20 million dollars per picture. But if it isn't for us poor folks slaving away for minimum wage or slightly higher, they would be NOTHING and probably HAVE NOTHING. I don't think my projection skills are worth twenty million dollars, and I don't think these peoples' acting skills are worth that much either. Celebrities always campion some bull-shit cause, I wonder if any would promote fair pay in the entertainment industry. IF THEY ONLY KNEW!

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