Posted on 01/07/2006 12:04:06 PM PST by Ma3lst0rm
Our undying devotion to simultaneous movie releases has earned us a small share of hate mail over the years, especially from folks in the movie theater business. Our complaining about the crowds, the inconvenience, and most importantly, the cost really gets on their nerves. They make all manner of excuses for what goes on in theaters. The high prices of concessions, we're told, stems from two factors. First, they say, movie theater employees earn more on average than your man at McDonald's, so you shouldn't expect the price to compare with Chez McDo. More importantly, they claim that the movie studios take all of the proceeds from ticket sales, leaving the theaters without a way to make money. The problem with all of this is that it's not true.
(Excerpt) Read more at arstechnica.com ...
I would be interested to hear how you think going to a movie theatre (a totally voluntary act)is ripping you off and particularly your thoughts on how it might enslave you.
I dislike the movies of today. But, my babe loves them.
sigh.........
Industries are free to rip us off all they want. We have a choice, unlike when our rulers rip us off.
That being said, I don't understand it, but the reason we have these crappy little theatres and the big ones became obsolete has to do with the way theatres and movie companies divide up the money. The way they gamed the system in the 70s made little theatres more profitable than big ones. Which is a shame.
my son worked for a locally based super-megaplex theatre chain in Az. worked for minumum wage, expected to constantly upsell in the concession, to the point that theatre goers were angry with him, but if he didn't upsell the concessions, he received demerits, to top it off, when he was scheduled for a shipping/recieving/stocking shift, if the trucks were late, they made the kids clock out and wait for the truck and then clock in.
all this hard work, and the kids really do work hard, for minimum wage and they(theatre chain) give the kids 2 conditional passes for the theatre every month. as a result, they have a very high turnover rate.
why work for that when you can go to in/out burger and get 8.50 hr. instead of the 5.15 hr.?
what bugged me most and I encouraged my son to quit, was the demerits for the kids if they didn't upsell enough. the movie patron could have already spent 30 bucks for the family to get in, and then another 20 or so at concession and the kids were ordered to look at what had been ordered and suggest something else, like nachos or pizza. Patrons were angry at him, where the anger should fall on the management.
Maybe if they would come up with something orginal other than remakes of all the stuff made in the 70's and 80's.
I am cheap , I go to the dollar theater .....lol
But he was in showbiz!
So the movie makers get all the profit from those $8 popcorn buckets and $5 watery sodas? I find that a little hard to swallow, pardon the pun.
On a big name release the theaters will sometimes make 5-10%. Why do you think that there are building the multiplex theaters with multiple snack bars? The revenue is in concessions.
Now with the new business plan of the distributors of releasing DVDs closer to the theatrical release dates, the wide screen home technology and Internet distribution of product, I think that movie theaters may become a thing of the past.
:)
well, that's a stretttttttttttch, if they had enough "work hard" tickets, they could exchange those for "movie posters", of course all the popular ones were taken by the managers.
I also disagree with management that they don't even give the kids gloves when they "cup" (clean the theatre after a showing/before the next one). Those kids have to pick up junk left from patrons without gloves. In this day and age of nasty diseases, this is outrageous.
I worked for a super large national chain in the 80's and we had to "cup" the theatre (6 plex then) and run into the concession without washing our hands. I was the only one who washed my hands and I was told not to everytime a manager saw me do it.
my son is much happier at his new job, he only makes minimum wage there too, but no upselling, he's works retail and he's there to help the customer.
When I go to the movies, I just factor in that bucket-o-popcorn as part of the price to pay for being able to sit in a theatre and enjoy a movie. One other thing I will pay extra for: theatres that strictly enforce silence (they do in a few movies where I live).
Movie theater operators usually get half of ticket sales and keep all the profit from concessions. The other half of ticket sales goes to the movie makers.
In the early and mid 80's, I worked part-time at a movie theatre in Edina, a suburb of Minneapolis. The threatre was the old Southdale Cinema, a four-plex. Maybe some Twin Cities Freepers remember the place.
At the time, we were paid $3.35 an hour and never ever received a raise. It was thought by mgmt "Hey, if you don't like the pay, then quit".
One day, one of the managers was feeling in a talkative mood and told us about what it actually costs to make popcorn and what we actually sold it for.
After all these years, I can't remember the number. But the margin was incredible, absolutely incredible. He told me "This is how we make a profit. We don't see that much profit off sales of tickets".
In 10 or 15 years, movie theaters will be slightly more common than drive-ins are today.
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