(For reference - the topic was under Film Reviews -Lilo & Stitch)

As a general manager of a 14-plex, being in the business for 14 years, and working at over 30 movie theatres in my life -there is one thing that will always remain true:

THE GENERAL MANAGER HIRES THE STAFF INCLUDING PROJECTION (99% OF THE TIME). THE ATTITUDE, PROFESSIONALISM, AND DEMEANOR OF THE GENERAL MANAGER TRANSFERS INTO THE REST OF THE STAFF INCLUDING PROJECTION.

If you disagree with this - then you have not been in the business long enough to understand it.

In corporate office situations - the same rings true company-wide. If a home office has a bad attitude - then usually that rains down upon the many locations the company has. {If the company treats their employees unfairly- then that company's patrons get treated poorly.}

As the saying goes "Sh*t runs dowhill". Pardon the really bad expression - however it is absolutly true.

Thank you - and I am not trying to be rude. However in our business - we have to learn to work as a team. Projection and downstairs staff. We all work together to give our patrons the best experience. It is the General Manager of the location that leads their team into a successful business atmosphere.

{After all the GM who hired me (John Zampi R.I.P.) always said that a movie screen is a reason for people to walk past the concession stand - which we ALL know is what pays our bills.}

Anyway to make a long story short, she has told me directly to my face over the last month that "presentation no longer matters. All that matters is getting the customer's money and getting them out the door." Since that day, her attitude toward the booth has been very clearly, exactly that. We also have plenty of equipment problems in the booth requiring parts, yet there has been no support from the tech department. Even with all of this, that has not detered me from putting on the best show possible, given what I have to work with including the new attitudes. It is called PRIDE and even though the popcorn may taste like crap or maybe the auditoriums were poorly cleaned or the bathrooms are a mess, I will not let my presentation drop in quality if I can at all prevent it. We have 3 auditoriums only running in dts because I brought in spare drives after the company's drives died! We have dead platters and yet I have brought in led assemblies that bit the dust to keep them on screen! Yes the management is important, but I could sit here and give you a TON of other examples of thetaers where the management did not give a flip and yet the booth personnel busted their butts putting on a good show regardless.

I agree *generally* that the managers need to set up a proper atmosphere and it absolutely helps the pride in the workplace and desire to put on an even better show, but in all honesty, the BEST presentations I have personally witnessed that were truly flawless have ALWAYS come from projectionists who went out of their way to put on a flawless show and had ZERO management intervention. This is not to say that it can't and does not happen otherwise, but I've yet to see it. I would make a humorous comment about "maybe it's just Dallas", but I saw this same thing happen when I was in Colorado too. Of every theater I've been to, serviced, known a friend who worked there or worked there myself, I have yet to see a flawless presentation from one that had direct management intervention. Sure they were plenty adequate, but not flawless. Perhaps we are rating things on a different scale here.

How many theaters are out there where the GM sits on his/her butt in the office and NEVER EVER works the floor. I'm talking about never lifting a finger to do ANYTHING, except perhaps shoot money down the tubes to the box office or watch the security cameras or a television or surf the internet. Then of course there's the whole question of actual hours in the theater in the first place. If I was to ask for a raise of hands (which won't work because this forum uses real names and the members would regret it) showing how many managers show up late in the afternoon and leave before the last round when they are scheduled for a double, you would probably be shocked at the large numbers. In fact, I can honestly sit here and say that easily less than 10% of the GMs around the Dallas area are NOT ever the first person in the building in the morning and are NOT ever the last person out. This sort of thing is VERY COMMON and is most often found in the super large complexes. This kind of manager does absolutely nothing for the theater, but sign paperwork that his/her assistants prepare, yet by your argument just because that person is "the manager", that person is automatically responsible for a fabulous presentation??? Hell no. Now in Evans instance the GM may very well indeed be an excellent manager and may be pushing his employees to give the best show possible, but that is certainly not par for the course. (That being said when I was managing theaters I was on the floor constantly, even though I also had to run booth.)

So yes the manager's attitude has a HUGE impact on the theater's performance in general, as can be seen throughout the building now, but that is NOT always the case when you have people who care. Please don't give me that nonsense as an absolute. Also, I have many years under my belt as a manager and as a whole have more years worth of experience than you. I have been around long enough to know how things really are. Yes the concession stand pays the bills, but NO ONE WILL COME TO YOUR CONCESSION STAND WITHOUT THAT MOVIE! Of course both must work together to make a successful theater, however you can have a movie without the concession stand and people will come, but people will not come to the concession stand without the movie. Sure you can't make money off of a movie without selling concessions, but you HAVE to have that movie to even bother opening up the concession stand. THAT is the cold hard fact of life.

This topic also belongs in Film Handler's Forum. Moving.

In any case, I can't imagine anyone disagreeing with you that a GM with a good attitude and who fosters a good work ethic among ALL the employees will therefore probably positively affect presentation quality, whether it's directly or indirectly (i.e. whether or not they ever actually work in the booth).

When that mgr. says "presentation no longer matters", is that really her speaking, or is it her perception of Regal's attitude now that they're running the show? If she was really dedicated to her work, and the work situation changed for the worse like that, I would think she would try to keep doing the best job possible (just like you are doing). Don't get a rep among peers for running a crap location, regardless of the reasons. Look for other opportunites if you have to, but don't just give up with the current situation and get a rep as a bad mgr.

I've worked in so many cinemas where there has been a 'Them and Us' approach to the day to day running.

I believe in the Manger running front of house and the chief running the Tech department.... but the bottom line is we are serving the same people....

Managers seldom understand the needs of the projection department and projection seldom 'cares' about front of house!

I have a constant dialog with the manager about Interlocking shows. I insist that 30 min be allowed between a film finishing and the next show starting. He allows only 10-15min. His argument is run late if needed. My argument is my staff will try to run to time as they don't want to finish late! I'd rather have the time allowed and run later so they finish 'on time' than encourage them to rush and risk damaging a print.

Now things run well most of the time, however when a problem does happen where do you think the finger of blame is pointed.

I am fortunate in that I was a manager for 9 years and fully understand the pressures of running a building, not just unlocking the doors and letting the punters in.

3 min turn arounds, rushed lacing on interlock.... who has to sort it all out at the end of the day..... US!

Mind you the front of house have it as bad in their own way. How do you clean an auditorium with only 3 or 4 min, get a full house in and be happy and smiling at the same time.

So who's to blame?

It's easy to say the manager... but he's under pressure of his own, targets to meet etc etc.

Presenation does not suffer unduly at my theatre, we are automated, Non-sync fades out and in, as does film etc etc. We don't have auto len's turrets so the feature is always seen 'On Screen' and in focus! All shows run exactly the same and its very tightly controled. But its just a factory, a process, nothing more.

I have a very long history in cinema, and take a great pride in my work, but is it really appreciated today. The bottom line is the film starts and does not break down! Run to the time sheet and get on with it. When it goes well thats what you are paid for.... when it goes wrong, its your fault.

To be honest its business as usual.... thats the way its been since I've been in the business and thats the way it will continue.... Think about it in a few years time when 'E'cinema has taken hold.... one guy running 20 screens and not actually 'seeing' any of them. The same guy could well be running a number of remote sites never actually seeing any of them.

I should add that I have an excellent relationship with the manager and I have NO problems with parts to maintain my equipment, I installed it I repair it.

Depressing it may be, but its reality...... now I'm off to cut my wrists, long ways.... its harder to stop the bleeding!!

The person running the booth be it manager or projectionist/opperator is responsable for the equipment and the films they are showing. THey are responsable for giving the best presentation possable for the customer who paid for it. On a whole the general manager is responsable for the theater opperations. But everyone is responsable for giving the customer a 100% customer satisfaction.

Stop worrying about who you point the finger at to get the blame for something going wrong. Point the finger at yourself because we all are responsable. I have been in this busines for 18 years and the thing I learned from day one was that I do the things I do for me and the customers not anyone else. I treat my projection equipment as if I paid for it myself. Not with a someone elses and who cares if something goes wrong attitude. I am not out to make my boss look good I am out to please myself. The rewards of that benafits the boss and others and make there jobs easier.

It is important to get as many people as we can to buy tickets to the movies. If people have any reason not to return to the theater they will go somewhere else or stop going to movies. THey must purchase tickets at that box office before they will purchase our valuable concession products making our comission checks bigger.

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I'm sorry that the Regal fallout has discouraged your manager to the point that he/she is just putting in the hours, but the real situation is that the very best managers can (an do) tell corporate exactly where to stuff it and how deep. It takes cohones, and it takes a willingness to lose everything, but it does happen. When a manager loses that battle, it is time for him or her to move on to something else. If the rest of the staff doesn't get the clue, so be it. The problem is that the point of moving on is much more quickly reached in large corporations than smaller ones.

Dennis is exactly right. I won't go into my background, but I will say that Zampi and Dugger were legends at Cobb for many of the managers.

I remember when managers (GMs to you) at (cough) were being told to work extraordinary hours and I flat out said to the owner and son that such hours were not in the best interest of the manager or the company. Hey, I only got fired twice from that company.

I'll say it publicly that if your manager has the attitude you describe, she is quietly sucking at the corporate teat until she gets laid off or retires, and that the higher ups at Regal directing her are thinking short term or personally masturbating stockholders and bankers.

There was a recent thread about a family owned circuit (Eastern Federal) that was doing things right and by doing so was in a position to be at the head of the pack. The attitude of a caring family or privately owned company can be radically different than that of a corporation, where loyalty is to the CEO first, stockholders second, customers a distant third, and employees somewhere after the guy who supplies the candy machines in the home office.

I cannot personally think of a single time when a private company sold out to a conglomerate that there was a positive change. I'm becoming more and more convinced that most public corporations are self-destructing organisms.

BTW, Ken, I've only seen a couple of posts from you, but I'm already impressed.

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Post slightly edited by moderator for offensive personal attacks against another member.

Jerry - your next offense will result in a permanent ban from these forums. Read the final paragraph in the FAQ document fully before posting again and email me once you understand our one cardinal rule here "do not insult another member". There are no exceptions to this rule. Your posting priviledges will be turned back on once I get email acknowledgement (without sarcasm) that you understand the policies of this board. -Moderator

Nontheless, I have always tried to give the best presentation possible under whatever circumstances prevailed.

This kind-of relates back to an even older discussion wherein I declared that there's probably a gene for this type of work. If you don't have the gene (or the passion) then you probably won't be a stellar projectionist, regardless of how great or horrible the GM may be.

I quit working as booth manager because the corporate nonsense had gone too far and I was tired of fighting for basic stuff like...projector oil and lube...remember that thread sometime back when Scott couldn't believe there were people out there cutting the oil & lube budget? (I think the thread was called "Manny's Strip Show.")

A year and a half later, they have INVITED me to come back to work and I must say that they are bending over backwards to accommodate me. This company has learned some hard lessons about projection (as well as customer service) and it seems that they just might be able to recover and reclaim their position as this nation's leading entertainment company.

What happened that caused them to lose their lead? They went from being a privately owned family business into being a publicly traded stock. And we're only talking about a small expansion from 6 screens to 20 or so. Multiply that by ten or twenty and that's what's going on in the U.S.A.

The most successful system I have personally seen did not have the manager in charge of their projectionist (hiring/firing or corrective measures). The manager could expect a competent projectionist to be supplied by the company and have the company respond to complaint about a projectionist that wasn't working out. The quality of the operators, as a group, were 2nd to none. There simply weren't damaged films, broken equipment or messed up shows. If so help me an exciter lamp went out during a show, two administrators were paged (any show interruptions resulted in the operational supervisiors being paged). There was a very tight check on anything that might give a patron the feeling of poor service.

As to the relationship of the manager and projectionists in the above case...I've never seen it better (though some are as good)...if there is a personality conflict, the personalties were separated...with the preference given to the manager, naturally. The manager DOES run the theatre. The manager is responsible for all customer contact. The projectionist was treated as a valuable asset that manager, quite frankly, didn't have to worry about...they just worked.

I bring the above senerio up because I have personally seen it work very well. I do not say it is the only sucessful way of handling the operator and the manager, just a sucessful alternative.

The above situation is almost like a union except the "union" was onto the company and disipline could be administered (or promotion) based on difficulties or merit.

During the summers, as an incentive program, the company even had separate contests for operators and managers.

Just an alternative view point.

You have a theater (screen count is irrelevant) and you have a good manager who runs the floor and also a good projection team running the booth. You are a customer and go see the movie "On the Line 2". You are so mesmorized by the flawless performance that you cannot keep your giddiness to yourself. So what would you choose to do? Do you walk up to the manager and say "Your projection staff must be excellent, they did a great job and I am thouroughly satisfied." or do you say "You are an awesome manager. The show rocked! You, like, need to be cloned, dude!" Of course you opt for comment #1 since it is placing the compliment where it belongs. You are letting the manager know that the booth staff is doing a great job, and that can reflect on their upcoming reviews when the time comes. The manager will be happy that he/she doesn't have to spend time worrying about projection and can spend the time worrying about everything else.

When a potential projectionist gets interviewed, it really is best if the head projectionist at the very least talks to them and makes a recommendation. This is assuming the head projectionist is a good worker. But a projectionist can discern a good or bad potential projectionist a lot better than management can. It gets frustrating when management THINKS that they know what it takes to be a booth operator and they use this limited knowledge to hire/not hire. Some managers DO know what it takes, but the rest do not but are 100% convinced that they do. They're managers. They love the feeling of control.

Also if the manager is the leader of the theater, and whether the manager is good or bad directly affects everything, then this argument should be that corporate affects everything. If corporate is bad how do you explain having a few good theaters in the chain? Also if corporate is good, how do you expect having a few bad theaters? If you see a great presentation at a theater that has a bad corporate, you need to call the corporate office and speak to the CEO and tell him or her "Like, dude! The presentation rocked! You rule! Can I have your autograph?". Of course then the CEO responds with "What the hell is this 'presentation' thing you speak of?" Wouldn't that be asinine? Instead, it would be more logical to give the compliment to the person/people who deserve it, mainly the ones who provided you with the presentation.

In my experience, many managers just like to believe that they control EVERYTHING.

Everyone has their opinions and experiences, but the best all around teamwork examples I have seen have been very close to Steve's description. In fact the best EVER team was at Northpark. The managers had nothing to do with booth except for relaying the showtimes, auditorium placement and any customer complaints (which was *maybe* one every few months, and it was always trivial). The management was responsible for everything on the floor (and they did a damned good job of it too) and the projectionists were responsible for everything having anything to do with the presentation (and our reputation still lingers today). I have worked at other theaters that had similar types of relationships, most noteworthy being the Mann Chinese 16 and the Cinemark Vista Ridge 12 (even though the Vista Ridge took awhile to get to that point), and our overall customer presentation from the front doors through the concession stand, presentation, all the way to the exit doors was excellent. The same thing could be said about the current theater I work at, until recently. Now it's more like Joe described.

As sad as this may seem, Joe is right that many managers THINK they know what they are doing, when they really haven't a clue. These are the managers that cannot frame or focus a film, much less thread up a movie without scratching it. That being said, I can honestly state that I have never worked with a manager who knew what he/she was doing in the projection room. Yeah they can make the movie run and get sound in the auditorium, but 9 times out of 10, the print is damaged after that one run. Projection is a skill and a craft. It is more than just sticking the film in the machine and walking away. Anyone spending time on this website should be all-too-familiar with the requirements for "film done right". A manager has more than enough to do as it is. Having to mess with the booth is something they should not have to deal with nor worry about. That is what a professional booth staff is for.

So yes in that sense it is the manager's responsibility to "set the tone" as you have put it, but past that unless the manager is personally running the booth (as with some Regal theaters), the managers should not get the *exclusive* credit, which is what started this whole discussion. It's just like giving a director credit for "incredible performances". Sure the director coached the actors, but it is the actors who ultimately gave the performances. As such, the credit should not go exclusively to the director. I am amazed some people cannot see the difference. Any manager who takes credit for a great presentation without pointing out their booth staff is a schmuck.

When I was hired on at this UA, I brought film cleaners to give every house (this was a large multiplex) and supplied the theater with film guard. I also brought in some other items, such as a platter reel, which saved a significant amount of time to assemble the prints which saved the manager payroll. This came all from me and without any financial backing from the company. I figured that with the improved presentations that I would bring, some appreciation might be in order, WRONG.

I found out that this manager in respect to the quality of presentations he was looking for, wanted...

1.)Not to screen the movies, not caring about sound dropouts or other lab problems that are becoming more and more prevelant nowadays. And figured that we would catch any problems Friday morning when customers complain. Isn't the idea to catch the problems before the customers complain? He said that we did not need to screen because we should be able to attatch reels in order and frame properly anyway, thus not needing to screen. THAT IS NOT WHY WE SCREEN. (All projectionists know that)

2.)He does not care about getting digital in theaters, only where it is most convenient for him, even though they advertise all digital theaters. I asked him about moving movies in the same sized houses to get digital since our A-chains were so poorly aligned and the analog sound was very bad, and the response was "the customers cannot tell the difference." So this tells about how he feels about quality.

3.)The managers constantly are yelling and complaining at employees bringing the overall morale down at the theater. They take our booth key up at the end of the night I guess because they thought we would steal something, even though almost everything not bolted down was my personal property. I was the head projectionist there for nine months and still was not trusted to get any sort of key anywhere in the building. The lack of trust is enough to kill morale.

I ended up quitting because the presentation that I brought was not appreciated and the projectionists I brought on did the same when they were able to land another job.

The customers will end up suffering because the presentations will now go downhill and the patrons will not attend there anymore. This GM was so worried about the bottom line he apparently was willing to sacrifice quality for quanity.

In my opinion, managers need to focus on the floor and let qualified projectionists do thier job to maintain and improve quality presentations. This will make them and the projectionists look better and give a healthier work environment for everyone.