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» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Ground Level   » Experienced "THE DIFFERENCE" at former Loews Megaplex

   
Author Topic: Experienced "THE DIFFERENCE" at former Loews Megaplex
Sean McKinnon
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1712
From: Peabody Massachusetts
Registered: Sep 2000


 - posted 03-16-2008 10:34 AM      Profile for Sean McKinnon   Author's Homepage   Email Sean McKinnon   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Yesterday I took my daughter to the AMC Loews Liberty Tree Mall 20 in Danvers, Mass to see "Horton hears a who". This theatre had been Loews's first megaplex in the Boston area. This theatre hosted the world premiere "The Perfect Storm" and was one of the top theatres in attendance and percap in the chain. This was also the first theatre I managed for Loews. This theatre was built before the bankruptcy and no expense was spared. This theatre had a hughe lobby, a huge booth. It was built with the "Star Theatres" design like the Loews Cityplace in the picture warehouse but with stadium seating, and much larger.

I have never seen this theatre so dirty or poorly run. The box office is set-up with 2 sides and 5 stations each side. They had only 2 stations open both on the same side so the line was out to the mall I waited in line for 25 minutes. The main concession stand only had 3 stations out of 15 open. I waited in line there for 18 minutes. The stand was very dirty, spills on counters were not cleaned just had napkins placed over them and the floor was ankle deep in popcorn. They were scraping popcorn out of an almost empty bin very poor presentation of thier product. The auditorium (the largest house 499 seats) was filthy, it looked like they didnt even try to clean it after the last show. The print was scratched and the lamp was dim and had noticable ark waver. The sound was in poor analog (the house has a 2000 series SDDS set-up and a DCP-1000 for analog) and the volume level was very low.

It is sad to see a once very well run, busy premier location run like this. It seems like AMC has no oversight of thier theatres. I am under the understanding that they dont have district managers and that theatres are only visted once a year by the "brass". Loews had its faults but we always ran with at least 7 or 8 box office stations open on a rainy saturday with a kinds movie opening, and 10 or 12 concession stations in the main stand and one or two stations in each of the two satellites that were both closed. We also would use 6-10 ushers to make sure our auditoriums and the lobby were clean. This was just a terrible experience for me. But I learned one thing THERE IS A DIFFERENCE!

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David Zylstra
Master Film Handler

Posts: 432
From: Novi, MI, USA
Registered: Mar 2007


 - posted 03-16-2008 02:07 PM      Profile for David Zylstra   Email David Zylstra   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Ouch, it's always sad to see theatres go this route! I know the regional manager that oversaw that location for Loews prior to the merger - he would never have allowed things to get this bad.

I have not visited the local ex-Loews/Star theatres recently, but on my last visit things were still clean - but these are locations with higher business levels in the market so they may get more home office visits.

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Tom Mundell
Expert Film Handler

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From: Silver Spring, MD, USA
Registered: Nov 2007


 - posted 03-16-2008 03:01 PM      Profile for Tom Mundell   Author's Homepage   Email Tom Mundell   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I've actually never had a good experience at the Liberty Tree Mall 20 technical wise; every time I went the sound and picture quality were absolutely aweful. However it was usually pretty clean and I never had such a long wait for tickets or concessions. The only times I've been there was prior to the AMC merger. I wonder how much of what you describe is Loews fault though, in the latter years several Loews Theatres I've been too dropped in quality dramatically.

I am kinda surprised though, AMC usually seems to put more effort into the larger plexes; smaller GCC and Loews theaters I've been to that they took over have really gone downhill, but larger ones seemed to be maintained comparatively well. Don't know what they're doing there...

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James Westbrook
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From: Lubbock, Texas, Usa
Registered: Mar 2006


 - posted 03-16-2008 04:51 PM      Profile for James Westbrook   Email James Westbrook   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I am disturbed if the lack of oversight (brass visits once a year) is true. If a company has invested a ton of money in these multiplexes, seems there would be people in place to keep them maintained better. (like...auditors.) The lack of district or regional management would imply the company is either in bad financial trouble or doesn't care to maintain their facilities.
Maybe AMC is waiting for the lease to run out at this location.
(theatres this poorly run also are a haven for thieves, another reason for oversight.)

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Sean McKinnon
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From: Peabody Massachusetts
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 - posted 03-16-2008 05:17 PM      Profile for Sean McKinnon   Author's Homepage   Email Sean McKinnon   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
James,

This wass a VERY busy location in an otherwise dead mall. They have a VERY favorable lease for the business they do I would be suprised if they were looking to get out. I do know that recently some big movies have been shown at the seven screen across the street instead of LTM but I think this is simply a function of split zoning.

David,

I am guessing you are referring to Brian, When I worked for Loews we had Roger Smith, and before him Bruce Taylor who were both very very stand up guys and good managers, I only know of Brian from his reputation which is very harsh but I do not know the man and never worked for him so I don't always take stock in reputations.

Tom,

I am sorry you had such bad experiences there. I personally know that during my time there we had little control over the projectionists due to thier organizing. I got charged with a labor violation for writing a memo introducing Film-Guard, outlining the procedure for using it, and asking for it to be used. We also had to file labor charges against them for purposefully sabotaging shows there which we won a decision by the national labor relations board. I still felt it was one of the better theatres in the area and watched movies there myself every day off I had. I left that location right after they got locked out so I cannot speak to it after that.

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Tom Mundell
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 120
From: Silver Spring, MD, USA
Registered: Nov 2007


 - posted 03-16-2008 06:26 PM      Profile for Tom Mundell   Author's Homepage   Email Tom Mundell   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Sean, I'm not sure if my visits to the theater were when you were working there or not; could be both as I visited several times spread out over several years. Aside from my dislike of the projection and sound, I can't remember ever having any other problems there. It's always been a very busy location as far as I can tell, if they have a reasonable lease it seems like it would be stupid of AMC to give up this theater!

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David Zylstra
Master Film Handler

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From: Novi, MI, USA
Registered: Mar 2007


 - posted 03-16-2008 07:49 PM      Profile for David Zylstra   Email David Zylstra   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Tom Mundell
I wonder how much of what you describe is Loews fault though
Prior to the merger I would put **some** fault of bad presentaion at Loews' door since I know some regions skimped on booth maintenance - but that being said AMC went through every building and had some major expenses bringing all projection systems up to their "standards", they also had every booth person and managers go through the AMC booth training program (and certification?) - if all theatres were retrained by AMC then they hold the blame.

Sean - yes, it was Brian . . . . . and he was definitely harsh, but once our local managers learned to deal with the harshness (i.e. ignore it) they respected Brian.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

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From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99


 - posted 03-17-2008 08:08 AM      Profile for Scott Norwood   Author's Homepage   Email Scott Norwood   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Sean--have you been to Harvard Square lately? That place is a dump now. I always used to like watching films in the big house there (aside from the fact that something always seemed to be "odd" about the sound quality there), but AMC doesn't seem to have upgraded anything and presentation quality and general maintenance and cleanliness seem to have gone downhill.

Boston Common also seems to now be understaffed and presentation quality (which was never all that great) seems to have taken a hit there as well.

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Sean McKinnon
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From: Peabody Massachusetts
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 - posted 03-17-2008 09:31 AM      Profile for Sean McKinnon   Author's Homepage   Email Sean McKinnon   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I really cannot speak for any other regions other than the Boston Market. Yes, Loews had its problems ie; the "Loews at the loop" 20 in Methuen, Ma the company that did the install never aimed the stage speakers or did B-Chains and Loews ran it like that until A.M.C. took over and paid for technicians to go in and aim every speaker and re-do every B-chain (I know this because I was one of the techs to go in there).

Liberty Tree had its problems but we had regular maintenance visits and as far as I can remember never had a lot of down houses and the ones we had were always back up in a few hours. Our hands were tied as far as the operators went when I was there but we took a lot of pride in our staff, the building, and the way we ran it. It was just sad to see that gone. I don't know if its the fault of AMC corporate or the local management but I don't see how they can run all these theatres and not have district or regional managers? Everyone gets stressed and burned out but I think knowing that a DM that is local to the area could walk in at anytime keeps you going when your other motivations might be stressed. I can think of a lot of people I worked with who would do nothing if they knew they werent going to get any visits for six to nine months.

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Tom Mundell
Expert Film Handler

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From: Silver Spring, MD, USA
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 - posted 03-17-2008 10:36 AM      Profile for Tom Mundell   Author's Homepage   Email Tom Mundell   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Oh wow, I had almost forgotton about that Methuen theater! I only went there once, the place had a really nice lobby, but I thought the sound system in the room I was in was so bad that I never went back (even at its worst Liberty Tree Mall was a pretty big improvement over Methuen!) That certainly explains a lot though, how is this theater now that you've redone the B-chain?

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Sean McKinnon
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1712
From: Peabody Massachusetts
Registered: Sep 2000


 - posted 03-17-2008 10:46 AM      Profile for Sean McKinnon   Author's Homepage   Email Sean McKinnon   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Its a lot better now tom. Seriously in every house the stage cabinets were pointing at each other or the walls and the horns were aimed at the ceiling or the projection port window instead of the audience. I should clarify too its not that they didnt do a B chain its that they didnt follow the ISO 2969 or X-Curve they boosted all the High and Low freq's so that it looked like a big V on the RTA!!! Also, something I forgot we opened up the junction boxes on the wall where the Series/Parallell config. for the surrounds was supposed to be. We found all the red wires wire nutted to the + side of the amp and all the black wires conected to the - of the amp. We felt the amp it was extremely HOT! If it wasn't a QSC it certainly would have fried itself again, this was in every house and we had to redo that as well. I guess thats what happens when the lowest bidder hires a "sound expert" whos only experience is installing car stereo's. It made a HUGE difference once everything was done right. They had good equipment there all QSC amps, JBL Speakers Bi-amped, and either a CP500 or a DFP-3000 in each house. LTM Had the same setup with either a CP-500 or a DCP-1000 and a DFP-2000 that is probably why you didnt like the sound at LTM is the DCP-1000's and SDDS in all the big houses. I think we also may have had some subs stolen that didnt get replaced but I am not sure about that.

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