Info requests were sent to every ticket system listed in an industry guide but that isn't going to work.... management here has no movie theater experience that they haven't gotten since we opened a year and a half ago. They tend to learn by experience.

Every time they learn by experience, I lose money that could be spent on my booth. I still don't have the whole floor tiled yet.

Background: about 4 1/2 yrs ago 4 of us got together and decided we would form a non-profit to buy the defunct gutted Dietrich Theater and bring it back to life for the town. Movies, cultural events, a display gallery, etc. Ignorance is bliss. We now have our 2-screen theater, gallery with 6 large showcases, cultural and afterschool events, etc. We are planning on building a third auditorium in the next couple years. Being a non-profit org. we can get grants for the cultural and afterschool programming. Also for some of the art film events. That side of it is on track.
But when it comes to running a movie theater, Management is still learning the hard way. (I sometimes feel like I'm beating my head against the booth block wall. Really, a lot of times!)

So when they started asking for tickinging system quotes without understanding the concept of ticket systems, I opened my mouth and told them there were experienced theater people on film-tech who could tell us what worked and what didn't. And got assigned the task of getting the info.

I don't know that much about ticketing systems! I do know that some are hooked up to the net and report ticket sales as they occur (? to whom?)and there are some that require hardware like touch screens, and there is software that can be programmed into existing computers and use keyboard control, etc. (that's more than anyone else in management knows) But I don't know anything that is useable in making a decision on the system we need!

Please, oh please!(creak of my knees as they hit the floor in supplicant position) What are your favorite ticketing systems and why?

Thank you in advance for your much needed help.

Their software is pretty good. It will create almost any report you could need. Attendance reporting, projection schedules, cleaning schedules, etc.

The system is also stable as long as they don't use Windows 95a (I've seen systems installed in Nov 2000 using Win95a).

They also have very good phone support for when someone in your cashroom messes up or gets lost.

Good luck!

Although I've never used such a system, I've that the RTS system is pretty good.

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Barry Floyd
Floyd Entertainment Group
Lebanon, Tennessee

Thank you for the rdsdata.com site, Daryl. I'll contact them too.

Does anyone have experience with Sensible Cinema?

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Secondly, we did not supply hardware for your theatres, we can not be to blame for the numerous hardware failures your company has experienced, we cautioned your management as to the nature of used equipment and the problems that go hand in hand with it. We did spend several hours testing used equipment for your theatres at no cost to insure integration with our software, we added several drivers for distribution with the software specifically for Village Theatres existing hardware.

Furthermore, should you have any additional functionality or options you would like added to our program feel free to send me your suggestions, as many RTS users can attest we add things for customers all of the time, to my knowledge we have no requests from your company in regards to adding anything to the software.

Assuming you have 2 selling stations at your theatre, you are paying us $500.00 per year for Software, 24/7 Support, and free updates to new releases, compare that with Splyce or anyone else offering similar software and it's not even close. Other than reserved seating and a security interface we have all of the functionality of the Splyce system at a fraction of the cost.

I don't mean to come off as defensive, but when you pour your life into a business and a product you truly believe in it is difficult not to. I look forward to addressing your concerns and making the product work for you and your theatre. Feel free to contact me at any time.

Greg Borr
Ready Theatre Systems
(269)463-5096
gborr@rts-solutions.com

When choosing a software system it is important to ask around (like you are doing) - you will get opinions from people who work with the systems and people who made the systems. Listen to the people who use the systems on a regular basis. If massive problems are occuring - stay away from it. If a company stands behind their product they will give you names and numbers of locations that are currently using their system - and give you the freedom of calling up the people who use their product.

In this day and age - ticketing software companies are a dime-a-dozen. Do your research. Remember - you get what you pay for.

To answer your question a couple of posts back, we have used both Sensible Cinema and RTS at our 5 screen arthouse in Santa Rosa, CA. When we first opened in 2000, we were cash poor - what start-up isn't. One of our investors donated a couple of used Pentium 1 computers and we bought Sensible Cinema. It's a great little package for the price, it's very stable, and it sells tickets very fast. I understand that the program has now been upgraded to a windows based program with integrated concessions, but I've never used that version so I can't comment on it.

In August of this year we switched to RTS for both box office and concessions. We couldn't be happier with the system, the hardware, the support and the RTS staff. It's a great product, easy to use, runs great, and has wonderful reports and features. RTS is more costly than Sensible because of the annual license fee, but I believe that cost is well justified in the continued development that Greg and his crew put into the product. RTS is also wonderful about listening to suggestions about the system and possible features.

My suggestion to you is to contact both Rusty at Sensible Cinema and Greg at RTS and order demo disks or downloads of both systems. Set them up and play with them. See which you like and what fits your budget.

By the way, my favorite RTS feature is the super-cool fingerprint readers for logging on and off and clocking in and out.

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I must say a BIG BIG thankyou to Rusty Gordon at Sensible Cinema Software ! I downloaded his programme Box office for windows Pro, and was really pleased with it, i asked him if a couple a "alterations" could be made to the programme and he came up trumps ! He has made the alteration and i'm now spending money on his software, WELL DONE !

You may be interested to know that i have approached 4 companies here in the UK and not one has even bothered to return my calls or email's..