Film-Tech Cinema Systems
Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE


  
my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home
  next oldest topic   next newest topic
» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Ground Level   » Show Times Change on Friday! (Page 1)

 
This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2 
 
Author Topic: Show Times Change on Friday!
Ian Price
Phenomenal Film Handler

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


 - posted 12-01-2000 04:21 PM      Profile for Ian Price   Email Ian Price   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
For the past two weeks we have been running our shows starting at noon and running five shows per day. We did this to maximize our revenue over the Thanksgiving holiday. Our usual schedule is to run four shows per day starting at 1:00 PM.

This week we switched back. We have a few people who thought we still had 12:00 shows and showed up for them. Most were understanding, but a few were downright hostile about our changing the show times. They would spout things like "Why did you do that? NO other theatre changes their show times!" "How do you expect us to know when the shows are if you willy nilly change the show times?" "No other theatre changes their show times on Friday!" "There should be public notification when you change you show times?"

That last one was my favorite because my cashier held up today’s paper and said, "Like this ad we place every day in the newspaper?" I was so proud.

Now I am not totally impressed because we have 50 or 60 people in the auditoriums that got the times right.

Come on say it with me All theatres change their show times on Friday! except when they don't.

 |  IP: Logged

Brad Miller
Administrator

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


 - posted 12-01-2000 04:39 PM      Profile for Brad Miller   Author's Homepage   Email Brad Miller       Edit/Delete Post 
All theatres change their show times on Friday!

The ones I hate are the ones that change their show times EVERY DAY! Also equally bad are theaters that run 5 shows on weekends and 4 shows on weekdays where the weekday times are different than the last 4 rounds on the weekend.

 |  IP: Logged

Jesse Skeen
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1517
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Aug 2000


 - posted 12-01-2000 06:03 PM      Profile for Jesse Skeen   Email Jesse Skeen   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I've always thought it was a bit annoying to change showtimes for movies that have already been showing; if I were in charge I'd try to keep the showings for any movie the same for as long as it plays and schedule any new films around that; the only exception being when only one or two movies end up messing up opening and closing times for the whole theater, like I wouldn't keep an 11 AM show of one movie when everything else started later, or have the last showing of one end around 1 AM when everything else ends before 12.

 |  IP: Logged

Erik Schill
Film Handler

Posts: 38
From: Rochester, NY, USA
Registered: Nov 2000


 - posted 12-01-2000 10:26 PM      Profile for Erik Schill   Email Erik Schill   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Ian:

it's funny that you wrote that because I had the same exact thing happen this morning, we have our first show at 10:45 this week instead of 10:30 which is was last week, and I had an old lady yells at me about changing the movie times without notification, and I did the same thing, I held the paper, said the times are in the everyday, plus whe have a sign outside that tells the times for the day, and on top of all of that we have a voice recording you can call to tell the times, but still after all of that it was still my fault, cause I must work for the booking office or something, I'll hate to be there next week if she comes in to find the first movie is at 11:10 and all our prices went up, which happened today and pisses me off, but that's a whole nother story

 |  IP: Logged

Mike Spaeth
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1129
From: Marietta, GA
Registered: Jul 2000


 - posted 12-02-2000 03:38 AM      Profile for Mike Spaeth   Author's Homepage   Email Mike Spaeth   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I agree w/ Brad on that point. I run 4 (sometimes 5, on short movies) showtimes on Saturday/Sunday (open at 1pm), then I simply drop the first (or first 2) times in each auditorium for Monday-Friday (open at 4pm). The other thing this does is enable you to save money. You can run the same ad every day of the week, and get the repeat discount, just run the first showtimes in brackets, with a notation [] = Saturday/Sunday only.

Jesse - about keeping the times the same, I usually TRY to do that, but sometimes it's necessary to shuffle them around a bit. It's not a scientific process, but a well-built show schedule may require it. Don't get me wrong - there are some people out there that change every showtime every week...but they're just as bad as those that keep the same firm showtimes set in stone for the life of the print.

 |  IP: Logged

Paul Cunningham
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 146
From: Melbourne, Australia
Registered: Jun 2000


 - posted 12-02-2000 06:58 AM      Profile for Paul Cunningham   Email Paul Cunningham   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
1 PM Starts, 4 PM Starts ?

Our first show is normally at 9.30 or 9.45 AM followed by 10.00, 10.15 and 10.30. This is everyday of the week

Our owner figures that he will be there as will a cashier, why let the cinemas sit empty all day when you could have some paying customers. These early morning shows are very popular with housewives who have just dropped the kids off at school and retired people.

It is very rare for us to have the same movie at the same time for 2 days in a row so the customers really need to check our ads or flyers.

My favourite customer for the day was an old lady who came up to the boxoffice and started to complain because she had booked her seats and the usher told her it was not actually reserved. She was so mad she was shaking, she particularly wanted the back seats for her 3 (also elderly) friends. I told her that there would be heaps of seats as only 40 had been sold but she wanted HER reserved seats. What can you do? Nothing, except tell the usher to show the lady some seats in one of the three EMPTY back rows and say that those are the seats she requested.

Paul

 |  IP: Logged

Mike Blakesley
Film God

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


 - posted 12-02-2000 12:52 PM      Profile for Mike Blakesley   Author's Homepage   Email Mike Blakesley   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
We typically have two shows on Fri-Sat, and one show on the other nights. It is amazing how many people show up at the wrong time, even though those times are posted:

On the marquee
In the front window
In two different newspapers
On a cable-tv sports channel (in a neighboring town)
On the radio (usually)
On our own website
On hollywood.com
In our weekly e-mail
On our phone system (regular and toll-free numbers)

Ain't people fun?

 |  IP: Logged

Adam Martin
I'm not even gonna point out the irony.

Posts: 3686
From: Dallas, TX
Registered: Nov 2000


 - posted 12-02-2000 11:18 PM      Profile for Adam Martin   Author's Homepage   Email Adam Martin       Edit/Delete Post 
Just tell them they must be thinking about the monsterplex in the next town, where the movie they want to see plays on 17 screens and has a show starting every 3.5 minutes just for them; where they can sit in the sold-out show with the other 24 people and watch it on a screen the size of the big-screen in the lobby showing previews.

By the way, were these the same people that came to my theatre, looked at the timeboard for six minutes and then asked the cashier what time the movie starts?

 |  IP: Logged

Mike Blakesley
Film God

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


 - posted 12-04-2000 06:10 PM      Profile for Mike Blakesley   Author's Homepage   Email Mike Blakesley   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I'm not sure about that, but a couple of them are the ones who habitually walk under the marquee, past the window one-sheet, buy a ticket, get into the lobby, and then walk into the boxoffice and say "What's showing, anyway?"

I swear this happens at least once or twice a year. (again)

 |  IP: Logged

Brad Miller
Administrator

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


 - posted 12-05-2000 01:43 AM      Profile for Brad Miller   Author's Homepage   Email Brad Miller       Edit/Delete Post 
Most stupidest customer I've ever seen was the fellow who back around 1990ish asked an assistant manager "when is that THX movie going to come out? I've seen the posters and you guys have been running the previews on it forever. I don't even know what it's about, but it sure looks cool."

Oh boy!

 |  IP: Logged

John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000


 - posted 12-05-2000 06:00 AM      Profile for John Pytlak   Author's Homepage   Email John Pytlak   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Now there's an idea for George Lucas! A feature length version of "Tex".

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com

 |  IP: Logged

Jerry Chase
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1068
From: Margate, FL, USA
Registered: Nov 2000


 - posted 12-05-2000 12:37 PM      Profile for Jerry Chase   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I've had my share of odd showtime and showing questions, like the puzzled looks the first times we ran multiple prints with on the hour showtimes...

"Is this film only 45 minutes long?!?"

or confusion from odd titles, like the porno film "Misty Beethoven" where a darling little senior citizen woman came up to our box office limping on her cane, and sweetly and shyly asked for a ticket to see "Mister Beethoven."...

But I'd have to say the stupidist showtime question I've heard of isn't even a question.

The Miami Herald time clock started losing theatres well over a year ago, in 1999. One of the theatres that closed was a little 4plex conversion with no chance of ever reopening. The owner, ever hopeful, requested the Herald slug it as "Closed until January 2000, call theatre for showtimes."

Some brilliant employee of the Herald regularly continues placing this slug, so new readers looking for movies are confronted with the option of visiting a theatre closed "until January 2000" long after January and any evidence of a theatre have passed.

BTW, I'm fairly sure this theatre was in Palm Beach County, and we all know how confused people get there. I'd bet some folks show up to see what's not playing.


 |  IP: Logged

Ian Price
Phenomenal Film Handler

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


 - posted 12-06-2000 12:10 PM      Profile for Ian Price   Email Ian Price   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
"Is this film only 45 minutes long?!?"

We had two prints of Best in Show. Our show times were 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 & 10. I got this question from one person at least once per day.

 |  IP: Logged

John Wilson
Film God

Posts: 5438
From: Sydney, Australia.
Registered: Dec 1999


 - posted 12-15-2000 02:50 AM      Profile for John Wilson   Email John Wilson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The THX movie! Very funny!

When I worked at the Orpheum which is a restored 1935 art deco picture palace, we had little plastic clocks with a real clock face made up and would place them beside the name of the film on the sign above the box office.

Soooooo many (young) people complained that they couldn't understand those times and why didn't we get REAL 'digital' clocks?

Sheesh!

What on earth do they teach kids in school, anyway if they don't teach them how to tell the time?

The Orpheum has a pretty sucky website, but you get the idea at http://www.orpheum.com.au/ . The new cinemas 1 and 2 I had nothing to do with. And from the looks of them...that can only be a good thing.

Hey! Cinema one has 'SR' stereo!



 |  IP: Logged

Joseph Pandolfi
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 213
From: Milford, CT.
Registered: Nov 1999


 - posted 12-16-2000 11:56 AM      Profile for Joseph Pandolfi   Email Joseph Pandolfi   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The time when we were running "Thomas and the Magic Railrad" at 11,1,3,5,7 and another movie for the last two shows. We got quite a few people coming in with babies in arms and stroller luggers at 11PM wanting to see "Thomas". NO THAT'S 11 A.M. :P

 |  IP: Logged



All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2 
 
   Close Topic    Move Topic    Delete Topic    next oldest topic   next newest topic
 - Printer-friendly view of this topic
Hop To:



Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM 6.3.1.2

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.

© 1999-2020 Film-Tech Cinema Systems, LLC. All rights reserved.