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Author Topic: The Problem of Shows After Midnight Sam King Expert Film Handler Posts: 120 From: Los Angeles, CA Registered: Oct 2006 posted 03-16-2007 07:32 PM                     Ok, you probably all know the situation. It's the night before opening day of say, Ghost Rider. Sony has said no one can do 12:01 shows, ok that's fine. So we have a full day of shows on Opening day, ending with a late show at 12:30 AM. OK, so the ticket says GHOST RIDER 12:30 AM 2/16/07. Now WE all know that means the evening of Friday 2/16/07. But to a guests, it can look like the early morning of Friday 2/16/07, which is technically when we are closing down and leaving on Thursday night. So how do you handle this and make the guests not hate you???  |  IP: Logged David Graves Film Handler Posts: 38 From: Cocoa, FL Registered: Nov 2006 posted 03-16-2007 09:23 PM                     If you do your own ticketing on the internet, you can simply add 12:30am (Friday evening). Signage in the box office as well. But in 4 years at a 2 million+ attended megaplex, I only had a single complaint about this, so I don't think this is really an issue for anyone except America's most retarded.  |  IP: Logged Sam King Expert Film Handler Posts: 120 From: Los Angeles, CA Registered: Oct 2006 posted 03-16-2007 11:16 PM                     Yea, it was really a problem last weekend. We opened 300 in IMAX. We have reserved seating in our IMAX. The 12:25 am show (Friday night late show) was totally sold out. We had about 20 guests come in with tickets to SATURDAY nights 12:25am late show and i had no seats to put them in and had to explain that even though their tickets say 12:25am on 3/9/07, the show they bought for was 24 hours away. They were not happy.  |  IP: Logged Jarryd Beard Expert Film Handler Posts: 229 From: Hellertown, PA Registered: Jul 2004 posted 03-17-2007 01:46 PM                     We had a very similar situation with Fandango. We had a 12:15am show Friday night. However, because Fandango listed the show as 12:15 3/9, some thought it was a Thursday night late show and showed up a day early. Technically, they're correct based upon that listing. However, on the Fandango page, this 12:15 show was listed AFTER the 7:00 and 9:45 shows. The part that upset me was the clarification Fandango provided after the tickets were purchased. Only after you buy tickets and bring up the confirmation page does it put "12:00am Fri 3/9/07 (late Friday night)." If this disclaimer was used from the beginning, we would have avoided several confused customers.  |  IP: Logged Caleb Johnstone-Cowan Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 593 From: London, UK Registered: Mar 2006 posted 03-17-2007 07:50 PM                     Don't know about the US, but it is so rare in the UK for there to be a Thursday late show that if someone turned up it would be through their lack of common sense.  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 03-18-2007 07:37 PM                     To me 2/16/07 is Friday morning, just past Thursday midnite. If you intend the show to be just after midnite Friday, then there is NO question about it being 2/17, Check it, the days of the week officially change at midnight, if it were in court there would be no discussion.  |  IP: Logged Jarryd Beard Expert Film Handler Posts: 229 From: Hellertown, PA Registered: Jul 2004 posted 03-18-2007 08:06 PM                     Just by looking at the last two posts, one can see the confusion. Both Caleb and Bill make interesting points. Although, in the United States, Thursday midnight shows are becoming more and more common for the big blockbusters. I called the Fandango service number and asked why the clarifying statement was made only after the tickets were purchased. I didn't get much of an answer. Even though Fandango claims to give no refunds, apparently they will under correct circumstances (they prefer for the individual theatres issue the refund). Maybe enough complaints and demands for refunds directly from Fandango will make them consider making the change in the future.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-18-2007 08:33 PM                        The U.S. ought to start a new thing whereby the day of the week doesn't change until 3:00 AM, after the bars are closed. That'd solve this problem. What the hell, we've managed to keep the Metric System out, this should be a piece of cake.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 03-19-2007 08:04 AM                        Use military time. But trust me, plenty of people wouldn't know what the hell 00:30 means, but legally, you'd be able to laugh at them.  |  IP: Logged Mark Hajducki Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 500 From: Edinburgh, UK Registered: May 2003 posted 03-19-2007 09:37 AM                     quote: Caleb Johnstone-Cowan it is so rare in the UK for there to be a Thursday late show I think some cinemas have tried Thursday late shows for big new releases, however I don't think they get good numbers. quote: Mike Blakesley The U.S. ought to start a new thing whereby the day of the week doesn't change until 3:00 AM, after the bars are closed. That'd solve this problem. I think that would become more confusing (besides for 3 weeks of the year the bars here stay open until 5:00. It would be easier to just keep counting up so midnight would be 24:00 (as well as 00:00), 25:00 until close of business at which point the time goes back to normal.  |  IP: Logged Christopher Meredith Expert Film Handler Posts: 126 From: Jackson, MS, USA Registered: Apr 2006 posted 03-19-2007 10:36 AM                        It's really an issue of legal date versus business date. If the tickets were changed to read 2/17/07 12:45, that would confuse the theater personnel, particularly in large corporate chains. You'd have tickets with two different dates printed on them for the same business day. Yuck.  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 03-19-2007 09:16 PM                     Without an AM or PM indication it would have to be 12:45, just past noon as without those it must be on a 24 hr system.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 03-21-2007 01:05 PM                        Heh. Looks like this problem can occur with noon shows too. Link to live opera showtimes in Plano & Dallas TX Cinemark Tinseltown USA Plano 3800 Dallas Parkway, Plano, 972-665-2222 Saturday, March 24: 12:30 p.m. UA Galaxy 10 11801 McCree Road, Dallas, 800-326-3264 Saturday, March 24: 12:30 a.m.  |  IP: Logged Scott Jentsch Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1061 From: New Berlin, WI, USA Registered: Apr 2003 posted 03-23-2007 04:18 PM                        We consider all movies starting before 2am to be part of the previous day, so that a 12:01am show on 3/23 would actually appear on the showtimes for 3/22. We've been doing this for several years (since the practice of doing midnight shows for first-run movies gained in popularity). I've never heard any complaints of people showing up on the wrong day, as I would imagine that most people know what's going on and can figure it out.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 03-23-2007 05:04 PM                     I've never heard of "Theatre time" where a theatre can just change how time is read to suit their business needs. How stupid. The time is the time, it isn't a negotiated thing (except on this daylight savings time thingy they felt the need to mess with). If you want to close your business day other than at 12 Midnight, that should be an internal thing and not be part of what a customer would see. For theatres, the business week is Friday-Thursday but that has no affect on how the customer perceives the weekend...their week is still Sunday-Saturaday...the same can and should hold true for a theatre's business day. Steve  |  IP: Logged

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