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» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Ground Level   » Patrons per auditorium to offset ops costs (Page 1)

 
This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2 
 
Author Topic: Patrons per auditorium to offset ops costs
Evans A Criswell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1579
From: Huntsville, AL, USA
Registered: Mar 2000


 - posted 08-09-2000 01:02 PM      Profile for Evans A Criswell   Author's Homepage   Email Evans A Criswell   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Let's say it's a slow weeknight at your theatre. It's so slow that you don't even have one customer for every movie, so you don't have to run them all. One customer comes in and wants to see one of those movies and you run it for them. I know that it will cost the theatre more to run that movie (considering electricity, equipment maintainance costs, and staff wages) for that one person that the profit made off the ticket, especially if that person does not buy anything from the concession stand.

The obvious question is: How many patrons must attend a movie in a particular auditorium to offset the cost of operations? That is, how many people must attend a movie in one particular auditorium to make ANY profit at all or just break even?

Evans

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Dave Cutler
Master Film Handler

Posts: 277
From: Centennial, CO
Registered: Jun 2000


 - posted 08-09-2000 01:35 PM      Profile for Dave Cutler   Email Dave Cutler   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
That's too many variables.

What does a ticket cost, what percent of that belongs to the theatre? What are you paying your staff? What does the electricity cost in your area? How many people buy concessions, and how much do they spend?

It could take just one person in theory to pay for the show, but it could also take 1000.

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Ian Price
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1714
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Jun 99


 - posted 08-09-2000 06:17 PM      Profile for Ian Price   Email Ian Price   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
When I ran a single screen with a union projectionist and carbon arc our policy was we needed 4 patrons to run the film.

Ever since I have worked in a multiplex our policy is we run for one patron. I'm sure it's not cost effective but it is effective in costomer relations.

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Scott D. Neff
Theatre Dork

Posts: 919
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Oct 1999


 - posted 08-09-2000 06:24 PM      Profile for Scott D. Neff   Author's Homepage   Email Scott D. Neff   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
It is our practice - not our POLICY - but our PRACTICE to entice customers with free passes to come back at another time when we're more busy. We'd rather eat the cost of ONE ticket rather than eat the cost of running all the things necessary to stay open for 1-5 people to watch a 2-3 hour movie.

If they wont' take the pass -- then we show them the movie.

------------------
Scott D. Neff
----------------
www.cinema-west.com

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Richard C. Wolfe
Master Film Handler

Posts: 250
From: Northampton, PA, USA
Registered: Apr 2000


 - posted 08-09-2000 09:50 PM      Profile for Richard C. Wolfe   Author's Homepage   Email Richard C. Wolfe   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
What is the break even cost?

There is no way that that can be determined as it varies from theatre to theatre and even auditorium to auditorium.

A theatre manager may not know the answer to this question for his particular theatre as he is not aware of all the costs involved, but an owner or proprietor certainly should be.

Is it 5 or 10?, maybe 25 or 50? It all depends on the individual house overhead, ticket prices, concession sales, and film rental.

As an example...I own and operate a single screen subrun theatre with an average ticket price of $2.00. My weekly overhead is $2,850 with a concession per cap of $1.25. My film rental averages 40%. My normal schedule concists of 11 shows per week...therefore I have a per show cost of $259.00. I need 128 tickets sold per show at $2.00 for a gross of $256.00. Deduct 40% film rental and I'm left with $153.60. Those 128 people purchase $160.00 in concessions. My share is 66% or $105.60. Add my share of both ticket revenues and concessions and I'm left with $259.20 or a profit of $.20. In other words I need 128 people to break even per show.(1,408 per week)

Naturally the weekend shows do much better then those figures and therefore the weekday shows don't need to do that much. In my case the weekdays probably need about 65 to 70 people to break even. If I schedule any extra shows the cost of those shows only include the extra payroll and utilities as all the other expenses are fixed and already budgeted to the original 11 shows. Therefore the cost of any extra show only costs me about $30.00 and only needs 15 people to break even unless it's a bargain matinee ($1.50) when I need 25.

I can't imagine that those 10 million dollar megaplexes can have a per screen overhead much lower then mine even with the shared costs over all screens. They are running at tremendous loses on weekdays. And we wonder why Carmike and soon the others are bankrupt. I have often been to those theatres on a weekday afternoon when a 16 plex had only 25 people in the whole place!

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Kevin Crawford
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 207
From: Sacramento, CA, USA
Registered: May 2000


 - posted 08-10-2000 01:37 AM      Profile for Kevin Crawford   Email Kevin Crawford   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I have worked for some chains with a minimum of 4 people. One chain that was one person. And GCC which is run it no matter if nobody is there.

Most theatres if it is the last one out, will claim problems, or try to bribe them with passes. Shameful, but hey I get paid to be there whether the film runs or not. More time for maintenance if it doesn't run.

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Russ Kress
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 202
From: Charleston, WV, USA
Registered: May 2000


 - posted 08-11-2000 12:15 AM      Profile for Russ Kress   Author's Homepage   Email Russ Kress   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
We require that all performnances run as scheduled. If it's a no-show the booth operator can turn off the xenon, but the show runs through anyway.

This keeps employees who want to go home early from discouraging customers from staying.

While I think it is a waste of effort to run empty auditoriums, I agree with the policy. If a customer goes to the trouble of coming out for a movie, the least you can do is show it to them.

Russ

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99


 - posted 08-11-2000 01:49 AM      Profile for Mike Blakesley   Author's Homepage   Email Mike Blakesley   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
We've shown lots of movies for one or two people over the years. Often they say they'll leave if we want them to, but they are always so delighted when I tell them they're going to get a private showing that I'm sure they tell dozens of friends. The good PR is worth it.


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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99


 - posted 08-11-2000 02:07 AM      Profile for Brad Miller   Author's Homepage   Email Brad Miller       Edit/Delete Post 
I agree. If someone goes to the trouble to come to your theater, run the flick! Turn them down once and you risk losing their business forever.

There was one time though this didn't work out too well. Anyone had this happen to you?

We were running "Scent of a Woman" with some ludicrously late start time. Being almost 3 hours with trailers (9 reels), the practice was to not start it until a ticket was sold on that last show, for rarely did it do any business that late. Well, a guy came wandering in apparently just as I was walking downstairs to shut things down. The night was a fluke, as for some oddball reason, we had not sold a single ticket for any of the last shows. I was going to do my closing duties, run to the bank and go home early! Not quite.

So I get downstairs to lock the front doors and the cashier tells me to run "Scent". Now doesn't this just suck? Here is the longest movie, scheduled to start last, and it's going to fire up a full half hour late! Oh well, it's my job. I run upstairs and thread it and fire it up immediately. Needless to say, the man was quite pleased, for not only did he get a private screening, but we held it...just for him.

I do my duties and about the end of the first reel I'm done! I do the bank run and am back about halfway through the second reel. What to do? Well I decided to go give a little personal service and check every single person in the building to make sure they are comfortable. But wait, the guy's not there! Bathroom? Perhaps. Nope. The guy's gone! I check every auditorium and clear the entire complex and sure as can be, he must've not liked the movie and skipped out.

This why I am against non-operator side platters with conduit stretching from the front of the machine to the wall, preventing a speed wind to get through the rest of the film. By the time I was absolutely certain the guy was nowhere in the building, the splice to the head of reel 4 had just passed, and 4 reels is just to much to consider running the film down to the next reel change and dropping 8000 feet of film back in the center. It was a lovely night.

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Lance C. McFetridge
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 135
From: Penn Yan, New York
Registered: Jul 99


 - posted 08-11-2000 10:31 AM      Profile for Lance C. McFetridge   Email Lance C. McFetridge   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
We never try to talk a customer into a pass. It is our policy to show a movie for one person and yes, we have had several occasions where we did in fact "speed wind" because they left early. It is good for relations to cater to these customers, they made an effort to come, we give them our best in presentation.
lance

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Dave Cutler
Master Film Handler

Posts: 277
From: Centennial, CO
Registered: Jun 2000


 - posted 08-11-2000 05:06 PM      Profile for Dave Cutler   Email Dave Cutler   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
We run every show every day. Unless the projector is down for maintenence. Being a 24 plex it's too much hassle to communicate with the box office and track ticket sales. Only thing I don't like about that is that there is no way to shut the Xenon off during a show on my Strong Highlight II's with CNA-200 automation. We could run the show manually, but then in the off chance something were to go wrong no alarms would go off and it would damage the film. So we just let them run regardless.

At the 6 plex I started at we wouldn't run a show unless there were people in it and that worked well. At the 10 plex I was at for 2 years we started everything but if there was no one in it would shut down the Xenon and that worked well there.

It all depends on the theatre size.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99


 - posted 08-11-2000 05:47 PM      Profile for Mike Blakesley   Author's Homepage   Email Mike Blakesley   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
We ran Columbia's "Godzilla" over the 4th of July weekend (the year it came out, that is....not this year! ). We had 2 shows scheduled for the 4th. As it happened, during the early show there was a giant thunderstorm in town, and our electricity went out repeatedly. When the first show got out, we were about 15 minutes past the second show's start time, but nobody had shown up yet.... so we prepared to take off and go shoot fireworks. AT that moment, and AFTER the lights were all turned off, one of our best customers (who lives in a neighboring town, 25 minutes away) showed up for the late show. I warned her that further power outages might happen and so on, but she wanted to see the show! So the fireworks display was delayed until 11:45 at night. (But at least the customer stayed until the bitter end!)

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

Posts: 9532
From: Toronto Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 99


 - posted 08-12-2000 02:48 PM      Profile for Gordon McLeod   Email Gordon McLeod   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Dave If the strong consoles you have are the same as the ones we installed at AMC canada there are two options to turn the lamp off during a no show
1 There is a breaker panel on the console turn the rectifier or lamp breaker off
2 By the amp meter is 2 switches turn the auto manual to manual and leave the on off in the off position

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Richard C. Wolfe
Master Film Handler

Posts: 250
From: Northampton, PA, USA
Registered: Apr 2000


 - posted 09-13-2000 08:57 AM      Profile for Richard C. Wolfe   Author's Homepage   Email Richard C. Wolfe   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Considering the discussion of how many people it takes to cover the cost of running a show, I would like to make a prediction. Given the fact that several, and soon possible many more major chains, are filing chapter 11 bankruptcy it will be necessary for them in addition to closing unprofitable theatres to trim the overheads on their remaining theatres as well. This will require a close scrutiny of the cost of all phases of operations. That which doesn't cut the mustard, will have to go. I believe that one of the doomed segments of current operations will be continuous weekday matinees.

We all know that aside from summer vacation and other holiday periods, weekday matinees do not come close to supporting themselves. It is not uncommon for a sixteen plex to have only twenty five people in the entire complex on any given weekday afternoon. This doesn't even begin to cover the costs of operation.

During the depression matinees disappeared from many theatres only to return during World War II. Then in the fifties when TV just about doomed the theatres, those that didn't close gave up matinees again in order to survive. The final blow for matinees almost happened when the large downtown movie palaces closed in the late sixties and early seventies. They depended on the walkin trade that the downtown location provided, and when the theatres relocated to suburban shopping centers and freestanding locations, that walkin trade didn't exist. Most theatres during that period either ran one matinee and then closed to reopen around 6:30 for the evening shows or only ran one midweek matinee on Wednesday afternoons. In my area the majority of theatres didn't run weekday matinees at all.

In the late seventies and throughout the eighties, with the building of multiplexes, some matinees returned, and finally during the nineties with the arrival of the megaplex continuous daily matinees returned to most of the nation.

However considering the present financial situation I believe that over the next few years we will see them disappear once again, except for in the largest markets.

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Carl King
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 199
From: Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
Registered: Mar 2000


 - posted 09-13-2000 01:23 PM      Profile for Carl King   Email Carl King   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I agree with Brad. If a patron shows up at your multiplex to see your product then you are obligated to run the movie for him/her. It is quite likely that other houses are running for more than one person so they probably offset the loss in that auditorium.

With all the competition out there we need to be sure that the patron know that whenever they feel like going out to a movie then we will be there for them. If we aren't open when they want to see the movie then they will rent a vid or take in another event. In the spring of the year when our local AHL hockey team is in the playoffs every venue in the city is empty on game nights, concerts at the local sports complex or the university can hurt us too. So, when John or Jane Patron show up at the door give them what they want. A movie the way a movie was meant to be seen.


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