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Author Topic: Building audience in rural areas Barry Martin Expert Film Handler Posts: 203 From: Newington, CT USA Registered: Jul 2002 posted 09-13-2004 11:33 PM                        Hello fellow film lovers, some of you may remember me from a couple years ago, I've missed the site and the discussion and hope to visit even more frequently than when I had no job taking up my time. I am starting this thread to ask a question related to my new theater. We are located in Springfield, Vermont and if you'd been here before you would know it as the Ellis Theater, Walter Ellis owner. It is a twin screen with 212 and 67 seats and a very small lobby, just enough to fit the box office and concession. The new owners, Daryl and Herb Wisch took over in April and hired me in May after I responded to an ad a cousin saw in the local paper. Originally I was to just be their "head projectionist" with another guy working 2 or 3 nights a week when we were only having one showtime at 7pm. Since then they have pretty much handed the business over to me and made me their manager/projectionist/booker. I could build a whole thread praising these people up and down, from giving me a free room while I looked for a place to live up here (they were very desperate for someone experienced after having tossed films and going through sabotage from former employees) to advancing me enough money to get an apartment for my wife and kids to move into so we could be back together sooner than I could afford. So, that's the beginning of this theater. Since May we have had ups and downs as most theaters do, great takes from Spiderman 2, Farenheit 9-11, and Harry Potter, but we are in a bit of a slump and because of the restrictive nature of contracts with distributors we are looking at alternative programming to increase attendance while lowering costs. For the most part I guess I am asking those who have worked/do run theaters in smaller, more rural areas with few screens to ask how you built your crowds and what balance, if any, you struck between opening "Hollywood Blockbusters" versus "independent or art" films. Unfortunately, the previous owner alienated a lot of his audience through poor facility maintenance and business practices. For instance, no surround sound and no soda machine. He had fruit punch makers, but you could only drink in the small lobby as he did not want to have to mop the theaters. There were hardly ever new releases on the break which just made people drive 30 minutes to the Claremont 6-plex in New Hampshire. After taking over the new owners reduced ticket prices and started running first run. They put in soda, allow anything you buy to be eaten where you please, and increased the candy selection. This past month didn't have anything fantastic and we could not even get several films such as "Wicker Park" and "Papparazzi" (not too disappointed myself) so we started running a film from earlier this year and an "art" film in our smaller theater. Only problem is we're getting 2-5 people per show for the art film and the sub runs are barely making a profit. We are advertising in all local papers, just started our website www.springfieldtheatervt.com, an email list for notification of coming releases, and a membership in which you can buy 5 tickets get one free for the art films (although we'll accept the passes for any film). I've discussed installing slide projectors and trying to kick off our own on-screen advertising with local businesses, but the owners disapprove. I don't fight to hard because I went through years at a Loews 20 screen where the trailer program was 20 minutes long with 8 minutes of ads! Now, we run 3-5 movie previews just to give people time to be late. Anyways, any suggestions or knowledge you would like to share in this area, please let me know. They really want to see this theater take off for more reasons than profit and I would love to help them with it. [ 09-15-2004, 07:35 PM: Message edited by: Barry Martin ]  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 09-13-2004 11:44 PM                        If it makes sense in your zone, look into getting someone to do your bookings for you. Preferably someone who books another 50 or more screens. You may be able to get better product that way.  |  IP: Logged Barry Martin Expert Film Handler Posts: 203 From: Newington, CT USA Registered: Jul 2002 posted 09-13-2004 11:52 PM                        We did have a booker for the first 3 months out of Florida and it was nothing but problems one after the other. For instance, when Princess Diaries 2 came out on a Wednesday he told us it would be fine to cut Manchurian Candidate short 2 days shy of the 2 week engagement we agreed to and Paramount called our recording and realized we weren't showing and demanded we show it Thursday night despite the fact PD2 was advertised and Manchurian was not. The owners were going to switch to someone else that offered to book for cheaper but weren't convinced they were being "truthful" about their amount of influence and asked if I would like to try. I haven't had any problems getting the films I want for the terms we need, with the exception of Wicker and Papparazzi which the owners didn't want anyway. Thanks for the suggestion Daryl and if I do start to run into brick walls with the distributors I will definitely suggest they use someone else. For the moment I was wondering more along the lines of marketing and film selection. ie Whether to have one art film every week until it picks up, one art film on a certain week every month, or a series of art films a couple months/year when new releases are particularly slow and disappointing. Look forward to hearing from you!  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-14-2004 01:49 AM                        As a guy who runs a single screen in a small town I feel somewhat qualified to answer your question. First of all, here was your big mistake: quote: Barry Martin After taking over the new owners reduced ticket prices No, no, no! If you went from running ancient product to running first run, your film rent probably at least doubled, and you LOWERED the ticket prices?! If anything they should have been raised, that is after the place had thoroughly been cleaned and spiffed up. You will ALWAYS see a huge drop in business as soon as school starts. There is literally no way to combat this, you just have to tough it out. I think the problem is worse in small towns, because virtually everyone is either in school sports, or is a school sports fan, or has kids that are involved in sports, and besides there are almost no "mass appeal" movies released in Sept-Oct. (Although holiday stuff is coming early this year.) If your theatre is inviting, clean, well-run and up-to-date with friendly, caring employees, and you're showing the movies the people want to see, in focus, in frame and at the right volume with a good sharp picture and sound, they will come. That's a lot of IFs, but that's the biz. The days of a smaller theatre being able to squeak by on nostalgia value alone are over. The adage, "You have to spend money to make money" applies. You'll always have slow times of the year, but your real challenge is to make people look to your theatre first when they decide to go to the movies. As for the problems with Paramount vs. Disney: Your booker must have been a dork. Anytime you need to go off your contract terms, permission must be obtained from all parties concerned or you're just asking for trouble, and you sure don't want to get taken off service for some little violation (and they will do it). You do need a booker though. 100 or more screens worth of clout will get you farther than 2 screens worth in the long run.  |  IP: Logged Barry Martin Expert Film Handler Posts: 203 From: Newington, CT USA Registered: Jul 2002 posted 09-14-2004 04:42 AM                        Thanks for the reply Mike, I think they reduced the ticket prices to undersell the "local" competition and try to attract the audience that abandoned the theater before they got here. On the attendance we're running now we're only losing $50-100/week for all films combined so the owners feel it's worth the try for the first year and plan on raising prices back to "normal" in April. I didn't come up here until about a month after they took over, but they said during that time they were getting 5-6 people per show and this is why they reduced. As for the attendnce, the school theory is the one I gave them and we pretty much agreed there. Especially last week of August/first week of September because people have to buy school clothes and supplies. Knowing this do you just grit your teeth and hope for the best running new product through September or get in some "art" films with better rent and hope for the adult crowd to come in lieu of the kids? The theater is pretty nice inside, a little old but clean at least. We have only stereo sound in our small theater with speakers installed but waiting on capital to buy and install a processor. The major downside is that there are some rather unsavory people living/hanging around the theater but we are trying to discourage that. The projection is a bit sub-par as the lenses don't seem to be setup correctly (ie flat pictures in small house cut off a bit on sides) and we have no masking in the small house so flat films fill the screen and scope uses bottom half. I'm still convinced we're okay in the booking department, but you all are starting to make me doubt myself Just kidding, for now I'm comfortable trying it, can use the extra money the owners are paying me for it, and I'm getting really good responses from the distributors and getting told "yes" where our booker got "no". Thanks again for the post, look forward to more!  |  IP: Logged Jason M Miller Master Film Handler Posts: 284 From: Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA Registered: Jul 2004 posted 09-14-2004 10:25 AM                     Try doing a Grand Re-Opening, do some special events, get people into the building, make sure you advertise that you are under new managment. Do a cool theme with what ever movies you have showing...like when we had King Aurthor showing we had a mid-evil group come in and show off there swords and stuff..it was cool. To get the people that hang around your theater that are not there for movies and deture people from going in, see if you can contact the local police department to see if they can do drive arounds or something.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-14-2004 12:26 PM                        quote: Especially last week of August/first week of September .... Knowing this do you just grit your teeth and hope for the best running new product through September or get in some "art" films with better rent and hope for the adult crowd to come in lieu of the kids? A little of both. September is a good time to catch up on the "A" and "B" titles that got squeezed out by the longer runs of the summer movies. (It's probably easier for you to get everything played than it is for us since we only have one screen.) You'll find that more "adult" type movies come out later in the year anyway, to capitalize on the adult crowd and also to catch the Oscar nominations. About those unsavory people: You need to adopt a zero crap tolerance policy and stick by it. The word needs to get around that your venue is "safe" for everyone. That'll probably help as much as anything. If I were you I would move the stereo installation project to the large house. You would probably just need to add a couple more surround speakers to the total project because you would still use the same type processor, right? Above all I would start saving up for digital sound...people really expect it these days and I can't tell you how many people come into town and are blown away by the fact that we have digital sound here in this little burg.  |  IP: Logged Barry Martin Expert Film Handler Posts: 203 From: Newington, CT USA Registered: Jul 2002 posted 09-14-2004 02:44 PM                        Thanks again guys, We are advertising under new management, and we are looking at promotions to draw people such as the Shark Tale packet I received from Dreamworks. That King Arthur idea was actually great and there were a couple Rennaissance fairs around at the time, wish we had thought of that (especially since that was one of our flop films). As for the "bad" crowd, the police do drive around quite a lot (station is down the street) and they are quite familiar with these people and their problems. We have had the police sent up to our rooms that we rent above the theater several times and had two tenants sent to jail when they were caught rolling joints/smoking and passing it off to my 17 year old concessionist girl. We only have one problem tenant left, and as she refuses to accept the notices of evicition the owners are in the court trying to get rid of them. Problem is most of these people don't take the police very seriously, have had their encounters, and expect more, but they aren't phased by their presence. Oh well, we're working on that. It has definitely improved and is just a matter of time. The more my owners hassle them about hanging around the more annoyed they will become and hopefully stop. Our small theater has a stereo processor, with speakers installed in the walls but not wired. Our big theater has DolbySR and speakers installed. Originally it was one big screen (and I believe may have shown stage shows as well, as our big house has a backstage behind the screen and a curtain with automation), with the two projectors upstairs set up for reel-to-reel. At some point, the former owner divided the theater to have two screens, and obviously didn't take the time/money to do it properly. For now the setup of the theaters is simply okay, as when we are showing first runs at the break they spend their first week in the big theater with the DOLBY-SR and their second week in the small stereo house, our audience usually drops off by about 70% second week of any film so this is alright for now. When we are running one first-run or a recent release I just pick and choose which film is best suited for each auditorium (ie flat films in small theater, sci-fi/action films with more use of surround in the big theater). The owners aren't afraid of spending money and do have some backup from other businesses they own, but would prefer each one stand on it's own two feet and not be draining on the others. They have had to put up some major expenses since taking over such as calling Boston Light and Sound out a few times before I got here for even simple problems and for the sabotage issues. At 300 miles roundtrip that wasn't cheap. Then the popper which seemed to be running fine at 25 years old quit on us, so that was another investment. And I believe they are the ones that had the speakers installed in the walls of the smaller theater. Thanks again guys, any recommendations for independent/art films you've seen lately? The owners just tell me what they want based on reviews and I never really trust reviews too much.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-14-2004 06:23 PM                        Barry - Curious -- what is the population of your drawing area?  |  IP: Logged Barry Martin Expert Film Handler Posts: 203 From: Newington, CT USA Registered: Jul 2002 posted 09-14-2004 10:33 PM                        I know the town is close to or above 10,000 plus we are near a few skiing resorts so we have that crowd to try and draw in. Unfortunately there aren't a LOT of colleges around so that's a bit of a disappointment. The nearest theaters are 3-4 towns over in each direction so we can conceivably draw the surrounding towns to us as well, with the right films and marketing of course. How bout you?  |  IP: Logged Sally Strasser Film Handler Posts: 16 From: Tupper Lake, NY Registered: Nov 1999 posted 09-14-2004 10:55 PM                     Hi to both of you, I'm reading this exchange with great interest. I am a new theater owner in a small town in the Adirondacks in NY. And I have been booking my own films. So far...business is very good (Shrek 2, Spiderman, Harry, Fahrenheit) or terrible (Catwoman, Thunderbirds). People seem happy when they come but I want to get the right films into this small town. We are renovating, twinning, new projector just installed this week, platter last month, sound going in, new screen...marquee is now lit.... People here seem to be happy we're now first run. And we're available for civic/public events, want to be a contributing part of the town. I am wondering how you market films to the smaller towns?? Barry, I too want to add art product but have been not ready since we're only one screen. Sally  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-15-2004 04:08 AM                        quote: Barry Martin How bout you? Our town is only about 2000 people but we have about 12,000 in our drawing area. No ski resorts though! Sally - It depends on whether you are playing a hitherto-unknown movie, or if you're playing a blockbuster that everyone wants to see (on the break or not). If you're playing the Spider-Mans and the Shreks and such, all you have to do is get the word out that the movie is at your theatre. Between TV, the net, magazines and all the other information sources out there, people are pretty well educated about what this week's hot item is. (However, if you're playing a movie that caters mostly to adults, then you have to work a little harder to get the message out because they may not be as "connected" as the kids are.) The time you really need to promote is when you're selling something nobody knows about. Getting people talking about the product is key. The biggest key of all is TRAILERS. Get trailers and one-sheets for everything that you even think you might play. No trailer = bad business when a movie is an unknown quantity. You must order trailers as early as you can or they will all be gone. If you have a hard time getting trailers, develop a relationship with a larger theatre where you can borrow trailers -- big theatres seem to get more than they can use.  |  IP: Logged Jason M Miller Master Film Handler Posts: 284 From: Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA Registered: Jul 2004 posted 09-15-2004 08:38 AM                     Hey Barry, check out Garden State and Napoleon Dynimate both Greet films  |  IP: Logged Lance C. McFetridge Expert Film Handler Posts: 135 From: Penn Yan, New York Registered: Jul 99 posted 09-15-2004 12:41 PM                     Tupper and Springfield are both great little towns. Lots of outdoor stuff to do, so I think you first need to educate the locals about what you are all about. Then cross promotions with places like the ski lodges....Okemo and maybe Killington, I was in Ludlow last week and the place was hopping with nothing to do at night, Target places around Saranac Lake like Paul Smith, those forestry students need to do something besides look at trees. You need to actively go after their entertainment dollar by proving that you are not the old dump that it may have been. Do things to get the local kids in. Run contests at the schools. Give away small popcorns to students of the week...things like that. If the kids want to go to the movies, and the parents are comfortable with your theatre... get the idea? and kids spend money at the concession stand. All of the posts above offer great advice as well. I am a firm believer in targeting my audience, so find out what your audience might be. Polls, and ways to capture E mail address help as well. my 2cents lance  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-15-2004 03:35 PM                        Barry - the link you posted in your first post is dead. Did you spell it correctly?  |  IP: Logged

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