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Corona Virus Effect On Theatres In The USA

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  • Van Dalton
    replied
    Another issue that has occurred to me: If this goes on for long a lot of (maybe all of) my candy and drinks and whatnot will expire. Most of that stuff has a "best before" date stamped on it and I don't know if people would want to buy it (or if I would want to sell it) after that date.
    Can your supplier give you credit on expired-unsellable product? I worked in a convenience store years ago and their suplier (company in Olympia called Harbor Wholesale) did. I'd collect all the expired stuff in a cardboard box for the weekly inventory scan then after they issued credit, my supervisor let the employees take however much of it they wanted.

    If you can get credit, you could maybe set them out on a table in the lobby after you get your fresh product stocked and reopen, and put a sign "FREE - EXPIRED BUT STILL EDIBLE" on them so they at least don't go to waste, if just to get rid of it all. There's probably somebody who'll take it off your hands.
    Last edited by Van Dalton; 03-24-2020, 07:03 PM.

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  • Van Dalton
    replied
    And now AMC joins Regal in shutting down
    My sister lives (and I work) near the flagship former Cinetopia rathouse (and the once-glorious Tom Moyer/Act III Cascade Park 4) so I ride past it fairly often. The place has become quite popular with the local sk8r dood/BMXer contingent over the last few days. I mean, AMC; not like they can exactly afford to hire rent-a-cops (not that those'd make any difference anyways). The Cascade Stadium 16 was the same way when I saw it last week, deserted but with a different bunch of skaterz.

    I understand Vancouver Mall is shut down. I don't make it over there very often these days (not many do...) so I haven't seen how desolate the place is.

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  • Frank Cox
    replied
    Another issue that has occurred to me: If this goes on for long a lot of (maybe all of) my candy and drinks and whatnot will expire. Most of that stuff has a "best before" date stamped on it and I don't know if people would want to buy it (or if I would want to sell it) after that date.

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  • James Wyrembelski
    replied
    It's good to hear that the popcorn to go is a success!

    I suppose we could have done it as well, but with the shelter in place initiatives and the recent confirmed cases being right in our county now, I just assume stay closed at this point.

    And, like you said Mike, with the expenses dropping to near 0 we should be just fine. I removed all the registers and concession items out. The heat is completely off. (It's finally staying above freezing most nights). All of our equipment is off, except the projector which I kept on standby.

    I guess with all of the films being pushed down a couple months, we should have more content than we can shake a stick at when it comes time to open again. I guess there's something positive. It will be interesting to see how that plays out. By the time this is said and done, you could probably play a film of paint drying and have a line waiting. I know this is going to drive folks crazy having to stay home for 3 weeks. (As a gamer, I see no issue with this. )

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  • Frank Cox
    replied
    The Saskatchewan government issued an official shutdown order for all theatres (bars, nightclubs, etc) last Friday. So even if I hadn't already shut 'er down, I'd be shut down now due to the order.

    I just finished putting the last coat of paint on my new wainscot that I installed at the switchback on the ramp into the auditorium. While I was at it I re-painted the walls around the ramp too since they looked rather shabby beside the newly painted wainscot. Now it looks beautiful again, and the wheelchairs shouldn't beat it up as much now.

    I wonder when anyone other than me will ever see it, though....

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  • Mike Blakesley
    replied
    We had a few people wanting to pay by cash. We didn't have a problem with it really because mostly they would say "keep the change." I was running deliveries out to the cars and I had gloves on, so anytime I had to carry money back in I would just swap in a new pair of gloves.

    We've only had one lady so far try to walk in, I shooed her back out onto the sidewalk.

    I don't know if we'll do the same level of business in later weeks that we did the first week, but if we do, it'll keep the lights on and the motor running. Considering we're not having to pay film rent, shipping, most payroll, and I turned the heat down to 60 (plus it's getting warmer out anyway), advertising, and the electricity needed to run the projection/sound, I think we'll be OK. I won't be as optimistic if they slap on a shelter-in-place order and shut us down completely that way.

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  • Sarah Treichel
    replied
    We've been wanting to do popcorn pickup, but we're worried that people will keep wanting to come in, look around, pay with cash (or check!), and chat. It would really be better if they would order by web/phone, pay that way, then let us bring it to the car. We still have lots of customers who drop by to see what's playing, even knocking on our door if they see us inside and asking what movies are coming soon, which is great, but I wonder if we'd spend a lot of time asking people to please order ahead and keep to themselves. Did anyone who's tried this have that problem?

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  • David Buckley
    replied
    Not quite the USA, but exhibition in New Zealand has already closed, and will remain closed for at least the next four weeks, by order of the gummint. We're currently in "Alert Level 3", rising to "Alert Level 4" on Wednesday. Under this alert level:

    Gatherings are cancelled

    All indoor and outdoor events cannot proceed.

    These requirements apply to family and social gatherings such as birthdays, funerals, tangi or weddings. These gatherings can not go ahead.
    So that's it until further notice.

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  • Mike Blakesley
    replied
    We did the popcorn-delivery-to-your-car thing on Saturday night. It was just on a whim at the last minute, a friend of ours suggested it. So, one hour beforehand I put up a post on Facebook saying we'd be doing popcorn delivery to cars, and to call us with orders and credit card info. I figured we'd have a very low response since the post was so late, but we were completely slammed and sold more popcorn and sodas and candy than we do on a lot of regular Saturday nights. I was the car hop and I have no idea how many miles I put on running in and out with orders.

    So..... we refined our process a little, brought in one extra employee and did it again last night, and this time I posted the notice in mid-afternoon. We did even more business and are now planning to do the same every weekend we're closed. (I figured if we did it every night people might burn out on it.)

    After this is over, I'm thinking this might lead to a new side-business of drive-up popcorn sales from people who never go to movies.

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  • Mark Lane
    replied
    They've extended the mandatory closures here in Michigan to April 13th. We just had our first confirmed case here in our county (Gladwin).

    I had thought about doing the curbside popcorn delivery idea, but that about kills that.. People will be even more nervous now.

    Our governor has claimed she has no intentions of doing any kind of shelter in place initiatives, but I can see that changing soon.
    James, we are in Michigan too.
    We opened our concession stand last weekend for three hours a day and did very well. Our concession prices are low so it didn't hurt people's budget to buy popcorn and take it home to watch DisneyPlus or Netflix. Our sales where about the same as if we where showing a movie. We are looking to do other things too. We are looking to work with a local upscale restaurant to offer take out meals.. Still working out the details.
    The Governor just issued a Stay At Home order, but we can still offer to-go food.

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  • Barry Floyd
    replied
    I own a drive-in, about 35 miles east of Nashville. In the greater Nashville area - all dominated by Regal and AMC, every single theatre in the middle Tennessee area was closed with the exception of maybe 2-3 drive-ins. We got written approval to remain open from our health department with certain conditions. We effectively cut our parking in half, spacing cars 20 feet apart as opposed to the typical 10 feet allotment per car. Our concessions lobby is an open-air breezeway and we were restricted to ONE person per car to come place food orders. Once the person placed their order they were sent back to the car and we sent them a text message to come get their food when it was ready. It worked out fairly well, but I did spend most of my time on Friday night kicking 20-somethings out of the lobby who would not abide by the one person per vehicle rule. Sold out both screens on Saturday night (albeit it was technically a half full lot.). Got movies booked for this coming weekend already, however I expect our Governor will shut down non-essential businesses before the end of the week.

    Funny thing.... Saturday night after our boxoffice closed I was submitting our grosses to ComScore and noticed at the time I had reported the Top 10 movies for Saturday were listed and Back to the Future was #7 and Jaws (1975) was #9.

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  • Scott Jentsch
    replied
    As of our last showtimes update on Friday at 5:30pm, we had showtimes for 514 U.S. locations on Friday, 506 on Saturday, and 492 on Sunday (today). That number drops to 389 for Monday, but I'm aware of several theaters that closed over the weekend that were originally hoping to stay open for at least the weekend.

    Speaking of Comscore, Deadline is reporting that Comscore is "pausing" box office reporting after Disney decided to suspend reporting box office results for its movies.

    Some theaters are selling popcorn and other concession items out of their buildings, either through drive-up carryout or UberEats/Doordash, while others that have restaurants are doing the same thing but with their expanded menus.

    This period of time is going to require some ingenuity and creativity to survive...

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  • James Wyrembelski
    replied
    They've extended the mandatory closures here in Michigan to April 13th. We just had our first confirmed case here in our county (Gladwin).

    I had thought about doing the curbside popcorn delivery idea, but that about kills that.. People will be even more nervous now.

    Our governor has claimed she has no intentions of doing any kind of shelter in place initiatives, but I can see that changing soon.

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  • Martin McCaffery
    replied
    Just looked at Comscore for Friday, March 20: 624 Polled Locations. Down from what appears to be 3141 last week. Total reported gross: $93,000.

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  • Rusty Gordon
    replied
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