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Hi i run an eight plex and been having a major kid problem
i want to restrict anyone under 18
unless they ae with a parent
what do you think

We have had a problem the last two weeks with emily rose and cry wolf. If we restricted them it would put a real hurt on our business. We just go in and warn them once then we start throwing them out.

drew: Do you want to do the restriction with only R rated movies or for all movies? If you want to do it for all movies, then you are bound to loose a lot of money as the teen crowd make up a very large demographic of frequent movie goers (take a look at www.mpaa.org for actual statistics). I know you probably don't want to drive away your other patrons who are being bothered by teens, but for every bad teen you've kept out of the theater, there are probably 3 or 4 good ones that you've kept out as well. Also, how many teens are going to want to watch a movie with their parents?

About the best you can do is keep an eye on them when they came into your theater. If they are being disruptive, give them a warning and then kick them out; if you have to, call the police and have them escort the teens out. If it's a particular group of teens that are causing you trouble, then deny them entry into the theater. Perhaps missing a really big movie will make them realize that they need to get their act together. Hope this helps.

I agree with Larry. Go in give the trouble makers their ONE warning, then kick them out on their very next offense. If it is at night, I give them my phone and tell them to call a parent to come pick them up, then I go out and talk to the parent. I have kicked a couple kids out for a year each and one until his 16th birthday. Word gets out and they are much more manageable after that.

i did this about a year ago and it got our adult patrons back but when you are dealing with kids that cause
15,000.00 worth of damages to womans restroom and 15,000.00 to the mens restroom, but the kids crept back in
they were well behaved but then started back up last week they disturbed all 8 of my films
i going to try barring all children
under 18 for all movies for 2 weeks
hopefully this will impact them

Consistent management pays off. When we took over our first theatre the kids did as they pleased. It took a lot of thrown out kids and time. The younger kids learned how to behave and we rarely have the problems we did. In our 2nd theatre we can now see the same effect. Before I banned ALL kids under 18 I'd hire an off duty cop for Fri and Sat nights. Every town and city is different. What works in Belfast, Maine does not compute for Detroit, Mich. Set your own rules and enforcement technique. Consistent management works.

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Michael Hurley
Impresario

if you paid a cop 100.00 for 3 hours. That's 20 kids at 5.00 per cap which is low. And you've let in all the good kids. It would pay to have security.

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Michael Hurley
Impresario

Sorry to hear about the damage problems that you've had at your theater. I know we've had broken seats and such but nowhere near as bad as what you described. Have you been able to take legal action against any of the teens that caused those damages?

I love having an art house. The kids that come in are so coooool...It's really worth it to pay someone to have kid duty--learned that in my first-run previous life.