Blocking off seats

[Frank Cox]

I have to block off every second row and every seat that's immediately next to the center aisle.

Do any of you folks have a brilliant scheme for blocking off seats so people won't just take the tape or whatever off and sit there anyway? I've tried this sort of thing before to create "reserved seating" for certain events and it's never really worked. Whatever I use to block off the seats just gets moved or removed.

[Lyle Romer]

Heavy metal plates (although they might ruin the seats) to make them really uncomfortable or barbed wire might work! :-)

[William Kucharski]

Electric fence?

[Martin McCaffery]

I've been talking about this with other theatres and, so far, no brilliant solutions. I'm leaning towards marking the seats that can be used, as opposed to blocking off the rest. Trying to find a removable/washable back seat cover that we can replace between shows. Something like a short pillowcase. Of course, we'll need a chaperone in the theatre to make sure they sit where they are supposed to. Are audience is older, so only a few of them will behave like children.

[Frank Cox]

I think I've just had a brilliant idea.

If I get some long zip ties I can wrap one around just under the armrest on both sides of the seat. Then I can put another long zip tie across the front of the seat itself, anchored to the zip ties around the armrests, in front of the pan such that it will prevent the seat from being unfolded for use.

This should be strong enough to discourage anyone from removing it, and it won't look too bad either. Blocking off seats and rows with a piece of lumber or something would look like hell. This shouldn't change the look of the place much at all, especially in the dark.

If you can't fold the seat down, you can't sit there. Sit somewhere else.

I'll purchase a stack of zip ties tomorrow and see how this goes.

[Carl Martin]

labor intensive, but you could remove the seats, leaving only the armrests and backs.

[Carsten Kurz]

I think in these days people will not just take off the tape because they should understand why they are blocked. We use white/red flagging tape and no one so far took it off. We only block the seats, not the row, so people can still use the blocked row to cross the auditorium. One issue might be that people coming in late may not recognize the tape in the dark, so you may add a white sign 'Blocked' or similar on both entry sides of the row.

Maybe you can get 'CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS' tape.

[Marcel Birgelen]

If you have folding chairs, I think the zip-ties method is pretty fool-proof. I would still mark the seat though, so people know why they can't sit there and they don't end up trying endlessly to unfold the chair.

All other methods of blocking people actually using a seat are pretty expensive. I'd say that a big sticker with something on it like: "Temporarily blocked for your own safety. Stay safe!" should be sufficient...

[Mark Lane]

I have also been working on this problem and to be honest, I really don't care much. People are adults and they can count up to three.. If they can find a place to set that is one row and three seats away from someone else, that is okay with me.
I have been thinking about how to block off the rows and currently working on the idea of velvet ropes that are held on to the end seats with magnets. This way if someone walks into it, the magnets will move and a customer will not trip over the rope. I also looked into putting a button hole at the end of each rope and a screw under the wooden arm rest. The button hole would slip over the screw and hold it in place like a button... but I fear it will be to strong and and could lead to people tripping over the rope.
I am leaning towards reducing the amount of tickets sold, so people themselves can find a place where they are comfortable to watch a movie.

I like the zip-tie idea and will look to see if that will work for our theater. Thank you

[Kenneth Wuepper]

This would be the perfect time to do reserved seating. The chart displayed on the internet and box office would only show the seats that could be occupied within the safe zone. Purchasers would be required to occupy the seat they purchased and there would be tape across all seats not permitted to be used.

Policing the auditorium would be a real usher duty as no seat changes would be permitted at any time.

If you want to attend the movie you follow our rules.

[Frank Cox]

I bought 600 fourteen inch zip ties today (the longest ones that I could find in town) and have spent the past couple of hours zip tying seats. This scheme works. It's a bit tedious to do the job, but the result doesn't look too bad and should be tough enough to discourage anyone from removing the ties and sitting in one of the closed seats.

Longer zip ties would be faster to use because most of the time spent is linking them together. If there was such a thing as a 36-inch zip tie that would be just about the perfect thing to use. But the shorter ones get you there too.

[James Biggins]

People are adults and they can count up to three..

You think?

[Jim Cassedy]

If there was such a thing as a 36-inch zip tie . . .

They make them, and larger ones too, but you'd probably have to get them online.

I know they're available because I once had a belt buckle break when I was at work. I needed something
to hold my pants up for the rest of the day and I remembered that I had seen some 36" x ½" cable ties in
our shop that were left over some some project. 36" was about 5 more inches than I needed for the belt,
so I trimmed off a couple of inches, and it did the job. The only thing is that these were single use ties, so
I had to cut the darn thing off when I got home.

[Carsten Kurz]

The trouble with 'just' blocking the folding chairs is that it may lead to damage if people try to 'get the damn thing down'. You also have to signal they are blocked. Agreed, most people that come to us are leaving seats free voluntarily. However, they would certainly not leave free entire rows all by themselves. How bad that could be, but our row blocking also makes sure that we do not exceed the max allowed number of people. Plus, those people being late may not be able to see properly in the dark, an additional visual hint helps.

[Sean Falk]

We've been folding the armrests up on the rows and seats we don't want people to sit in, then box office tells them the rules "arms up don't sit, one row, a couple seats apart, yadda yadda." Most people listen, but I've had to ask a few groups to move, or just let them sit there if they're far enough away from other people.