Recliners

[Darin Steffl]

What's everyone using for recliners?

We have looked at Irwin, VIP, and some others at Cinemacon. Irwin seems to be the pretty comfortable when I sat in them and most likely to stay in business forever as they're an old company. VIP went bankrupt last year and was purchased by new investors but I've been to theaters that use their recliners and they're uncomfortable and too narrow. I believe Irwin is zero gravity and that's probably why I liked it more. It reduced strain on my neck unlike other recliners.

Everyone I've talked to says they're worth the money and they've seen screens go from 30% occupancy to 80% from ONLY upgrading to recliners.

Thoughts? Do you add the heated seat option, mass open/close, lighted numbers?

[Mark Lane]

After VIP went bankrupt we purchased the old inventory from the new investors at a very good price. Sent the payment but when they went to ship them they discovered the seats were covered in mold. I am told they where taken to the dump. My payment was returned...They would not make good on the price for other seats. They sold me a product that they could not provide and made no attempt to make it right. I would be reluctant to use them again.

[Gordon McLeod]

We have used Palliser Seating in several locations

[Bob Ezra]

Mobiliario

[Armand Daiguillon]

A lot of this has to do with budget ....get the most comfortable you can for the lowest price. Bells and whistles dont matter much to most customers, as long as they actually recline (not just feet up like some theaters do) and are comfortable thats what matters. More expensive/fancy does not equal better in this case. Our recliners are fully manual (no electric buttons, just push back to recline) and our customers say they prefer them to the AMC down the street ...they're not as pretty, but they find them more comfortable.

[Darin Steffl]

A lot of this has to do with budget ....get the most comfortable you can for the lowest price. Bells and whistles dont matter much to most customers, as long as they actually recline (not just feet up like some theaters do) and are comfortable thats what matters. More expensive/fancy does not equal better in this case. Our recliners are fully manual (no electric buttons, just push back to recline) and our customers say they prefer them to the AMC down the street ...they're not as pretty, but they find them more comfortable.

What brand and model do you have?

[Armand Daiguillon]

What brand and model do you have?

I wouldn't necessarily recommend what we got. (what we got were not designed to be theater specific - regular home type recliner, just with no side lever to recline since that would not let them be side by side) The customers like them, but they are deteriorating 3 years later, I;d go with something a bit better now. My main point was really to go for comfort over all as I've seen some very expensive ones that have all kinds of bells and whistles ... but are not actually comfortable.

[Mark Lane]

When I deal with VIP fell through, we took out three rows of seats and expended the leg room by about 12 inches. This was a low cost way of enhancing the theater experience, kept most of our seating and allowed us to keep the prices low. It is not as good as new recliners but is was a good way to use what we had. People like the more comfortable leg room.

[Mike Blakesley]

Ours are from Telescopic. We did get the mass open/close option but our cleaning people don't use it that often...most of the trash is in the aisles anyway. We've had them going on 2 years now and they've been trouble free. A few hiccups getting everything to work correctly in the beginning but no problems since then except I've had to replace one of the up/down switches. (Easy plug and play.) They have been very responsive and easy to work with.

If I had one gripe (and this is true of all recliners, I suppose) it's how popcorn tends to work its way into the area between the seat cushion and the arms. People being absolute slobs does not help in this regard. But, the best thing about them is they're made of "faux" leather so cleaning is easy compared to the old cloth seats.

[Martin Brooks]

Going from 30% to 80% occupancy isn't what it seems because you might have half the seats. So in a 100 seat theater, you might have 30 patrons today, but 80% of a 50 seat theater is 40 seats. So that's still an improvement, but is it enough to make the investment worth it?

Whatever brand you decide to buy, I'd find another theater that's had them for a few years and check out how they've held up. In some of the theaters I attend, many of the seats have not held up well. Either the cushions have collapsed, the material has worn away, they've been vandalized or the controls don't work.

[Mike Blakesley]

One of the big "selling points" with Telescopic is that virtually every "wear item" on the chair is easily replaceable. The switch, electronic box, motor, etc. all just easily plug in. The seat covers are all held on with velcro. The bottom cushion just lifts out and the back lifts off. So it's pretty easy to swap out parts if necessary.

Going from 30% to 80% occupancy isn't what it seems because you might have half the seats. So in a 100 seat theater, you might have 30 patrons today, but 80% of a 50 seat theater is 40 seats. So that's still an improvement, but is it enough to make the investment worth it?

It all depends on what a theater's average crowd size is. If you have a 150-seat auditorium and regularly fill an average of 80 or more seats, then you might as well leave things alone. But if your average crowd is 25 or 30, then going to 75 or 90 seats wouldn't hurt anything and would probably increase sales, due to the nicer seats.