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Author Topic: Renting Theaters for Gaming Brandon Henry Film Handler Posts: 20 From: Stacy, Minnesota, US Registered: Jan 2007 posted 01-06-2009 02:34 PM                     Just wondering if anyone has done any renting of theaters after hours for gaming purposes. We have the equipment but I am wondering if there is a licensing issue or legal issues if we run gaming tournaments (I believe we could not offer cash prizes). We are trying to find alternate sources of income and an employee asked if we did anything like this.  |  IP: Logged Dominic Espinosa Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1172 From: Boulder Creek, CA. Registered: Jan 2004 posted 01-06-2009 03:54 PM                     Talk to Blockbuster or Hollywood video. A lot of them in my area have been doing things like this. They give away free rentals or games. You could give away posters. But if you could work it as a tie-in with them you might be able to score a good place to put up upcoming movie posters (maybe) and you could at least get some ideas. I'd love to do it myself and (hopefully) clean up on concession. The problem is the nuisance of policing that many children, rabid with video game fever. As well as wiring because the console has to be in the auditorium and the projector up in the booth.  |  IP: Logged Paul Goulet Master Film Handler Posts: 347 From: Rhode Island Registered: Jan 2000 posted 01-06-2009 04:21 PM                        A few theaters in my area have been having a once a month comedy show with some of the areas comedians..Not sure if it's popular or not though.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 01-06-2009 07:37 PM                     IN our small circuit in one of our plexes, we had a regular FRI night "Xbox, HALO2" game night (using small dig projectors in the four houses, and I had the sound hooked up to our processors and the four XBOX units were networked together), with permission from MICROSOFT to do such of an afterhours presentation.  |  IP: Logged Jonathan Althaus Master Film Handler Posts: 435 From: Bedford, TX Registered: Dec 2008 posted 01-06-2009 08:44 PM                     I've always wondered how Gears 2 would look on those brand new silver screens of ours......  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 01-06-2009 08:54 PM                     All I know is that "Halo 2" looked good (even though our cheap projectors only had a 300:1 contrast ratio - made the image look kinda "blah..")filling up our 15 foot high screens in the flat masking tabs. Projectors were placed in the middle of the auditorium connected to the game system. Plus, along with great sound - only left/right sound since I had to do an "A/B'd" switch with with the non-sync - If I had the CP500's for our processors, then I could matrix the sound to come out of all 5 full range channels doing a custom non-sync format assigned to "61".  |  IP: Logged Ron Lacheur Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 650 From: British Columbia, Canada Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-06-2009 11:48 PM                     There was an article in one of the local papers regarding this. The author and a group of his friends rented one of the screens at one of the Googleplexes and were playing Rock Band.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 01-07-2009 01:05 AM                     ..and "Rockband" is wicked on the big screen - people play that for hours...  |  IP: Logged Blaine Young Master Film Handler Posts: 477 From: Kirkland, WA, USA Registered: Sep 2006 posted 01-07-2009 10:52 AM                     We've rented our entire 16-screen complex to Microsoft on a number of occasions. They provided all of the Xbox hardware.  |  IP: Logged Robert E. Allen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1078 From: Checotah, Oklahoma Registered: Jul 2002 posted 01-07-2009 02:53 PM                     When I was managing a single screener in upper Iowa we rented out the theatre for gaming and the customers brought their own equipment and ran it through our computer and pre-show projector. It's a profitable venture as the gaming industry is now a multi-billion dollar business.  |  IP: Logged Kenneth Wuepper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1026 From: Saginaw, MI, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-14-2009 08:04 AM                     We would like to explore this type of use for the theatre. Who do you contact in the community to start setting up something like this? Do you get a merchant to work with you? Big chain or local store? Sounds like this could be just plain fun! KEN  |  IP: Logged Robert E. Allen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1078 From: Checotah, Oklahoma Registered: Jul 2002 posted 01-14-2009 02:32 PM                     If you have the equipment to attach the gaming devices to Ken just let the public know that the theatre is available for parties and contests and invite them to bring their own equipment. Equipment and games can also be rented from local video stores.  |  IP: Logged Tristan Lane Master Film Handler Posts: 444 From: Nampa, Idaho Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-14-2009 03:43 PM                     We've done similar events in the past. Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles can remain in the booth in most cases. Controller range is actually pretty decent. We usually end up running via component video, as HDCP has become an issue. The on-screen image is very good, and we have a DMA-8 in a roll around rack to decode PCM 6 channel. One event at our theater utilized 8 xbox 360 consoles all networked together in 2 auditoriums. They placed 3 small video projectors and screens in each of the auditoriums, with the main screen being used as well. After getting the controllers all linked to their respective boxes, there were no problems. I believe they played Halo3.  |  IP: Logged Julio Roberto Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 938 From: Madrid, Madrid, Spain Registered: Oct 2008 posted 01-14-2009 04:07 PM                    Interesting. How would the economic model for this work? Charge parties $xx per hour per screen? Unlimited people per screen? (After all, pretty much only one person, perhaps up to 4, can play on the screen at the same time, right? The rest would just be watching or waiting their turn) How much would be appropiate? Is personnel's cost for concession justified during those events?  |  IP: Logged Adam Fraser Master Film Handler Posts: 499 From: Houghton Lake, MI, USA Registered: Dec 2001 posted 01-14-2009 05:09 PM                        Being a single screen theatre, I would treat it like any other off use or alternative content rental. $300-$500 per 3-5 hours with 2-3 staff if they want full service with use of our projector and sound, with someone in the booth the entire time to monitor/fix things. $200-300 if they bring all their own equipment and don't require to hook into equipment.  |  IP: Logged

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