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Topic: Did Black Friday kill your Thanksgiving day business?

Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 11-24-2011 09:17 PM

We have historically had very good crowds on Thanksgiving. But this year, with many stores in Billings (our regional shopping mecca, 90 minutes from here) opening at 8:00 or 9:00 tonight, lots at midnight, and the rest anywhere from 3:00 AM to 8:00 AM, I think a ton of people have blown town to get in long lines for "deals." It's as much a party as it is a shopping bonanza.

We used to get quite a few people who would go to the movie, then head to Billings afterward. But I think the earlier openings have changed that -- now they're leaving right after turkey dinner.

I'm sitting here tonight with 9 people. I was expecting 10x that many.

Just wondering if the same thing is happening elsewhere.

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Chris Mosel
Film Handler

Posts: 74
From: New Braunfels, TX, USA
Registered: Sep 2002

posted 11-24-2011 11:29 PM

We were slower than previous years. I can see the line at Best Buy across the street. Way too much football today as well. I think the final Texas v. Texas A&M game hurt us a bit.

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Dwayne Benallie
Film Handler

Posts: 19
From: tempe, Arizona / USA
Registered: Aug 2007

posted 11-24-2011 11:55 PM

we were dead today, I came in early thinking I'll be parking across the entire complex. Nope park right behind the building, walk into the lobby and only a hand full of people standing in the concession lines. Sad day, i believe the black friday deals some starting at 10pm today and midnight kinda killed us also the all day pre-black friday deals on bestbuy.com, amazon and others may have hurt us too.

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Justin Hamaker
Film God

Posts: 2253
From: Lakeport, CA USA
Registered: Jan 2004

posted 11-25-2011 03:20 PM

We did about a third less business than we did last Thanksgiving. All in all it was a quiet day.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 11-25-2011 05:12 PM

I think the drop-off has something to do with the movies currently in theaters. The latest "twilight" sequel is the main title raking in the money and have I zero desire to see (I haven't watched any of those movies).

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 11-25-2011 06:31 PM

You could have something there. We're playing Happy Feet Two and I don't think word of mouth is all that great on it. In previous years we've usually definitely had better movies. But still, a kid show is almost always a Thanksgiving day draw....but not this year.

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Steven J Hart
Master Film Handler

Posts: 282
From: WALES, ND, USA
Registered: Mar 2004

posted 11-25-2011 09:16 PM

We had good crowds for "The Muppets" Not spectacular, but not complaining.

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David M. Leugers
Film Handler

Posts: 43
From: Fairfield, Ohio, united States of America
Registered: Jan 2005

posted 11-25-2011 11:37 PM

It may be worse than that. I had to go to a giant mall area to get a part I needed and I was dreading fighting the heavy traffic and madness. Nothing. Even my wife commented on how empty Kohl's was and they had huge price drops just for the day... We drove around and there was not much going on at any of the major shopping complexes near us. Very strange to see. I don't think all the female shoppers were at home watching football...

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 11-26-2011 12:12 AM

Our crowds were back to normal for the day after Thanksgiving. This makes me more convinced that it was the "Black Friday" early store openings that made things slow for us last night.

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Jim Cassedy
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1661
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Dec 2006

posted 11-26-2011 09:48 AM

In my area, our Thanksgiving business is always slow.
We usually shut down early. (No late shows)
We did great on Friday though. Sold out two shows of
MUPPETS & ARTHUR CHRISTMAS, & had to turn people away.
HAPPY FEET 2 has been a waste of time since we opened
it two weeks ago in Tech 3D. Business has sucked on
it since day one. It probably costing my boss more to
run the film than we take in on admissions on it on
most days. Unfortunately, we're 'stuck' with it in
our largest auditorium, since that's the only one
thats equipped for 3D.

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Mike Frese
Master Film Handler

Posts: 465
From: Holts Summit, MO
Registered: Jun 2007

posted 11-27-2011 11:22 PM

I agree Mike. Our late shows (9ish) had zero tickets sold! I attribute that to the much earlier start of the Black Friday sales and some credit going to the children heavy target of movies this weekend.

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