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I believe this one has been discussed before.

www.thecuart.com/coop.cfm

According to their Facebook page they are pretty close. www.facebook.com/TheArtTheaterCoop

Pretty place.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/1911305952/...storic-patio-theater

www.colonialtheater.com/colonial-theatre...e-digital-conversion

Mike, I love the "quarters for conversion" idea. Is that a mandatory charge? Or is it a suggested donation like you would see at a museum? How are you factoring the VPF? Are you only expecting to receive approx $80,000 plus enough to cover your finance charges since you are hoping to raise $100,000?

We have talked about this one before.

www.facebook.com/groups/303885002956235/

Seems they have raised $40,000 + with $25,000 coming from the Reader's Digest contest.

I post these and keep track of these as I hope to be in a similar situation in the near future if we stay in this business.

Our monthly payment is about 2000.00 for the digital 3 screens. We have a vpf that may pay up to 1/2 of this. Who the heck really knows? We are doing the "quarters for conversion" and charge every man woman child free pass anyone who breathes .25 to walk in the door. We do about 55-60K people per year so that's another +/- 1000.00 per month give or take. We did a quiet launch of the fund raising and have raised over 1000.00 in the first week. We keep it separate and it goes against the loan principal. We do not declare it as a ticket add on as it is regardless of show: this is a charge to walk in the door. So we do not share this with distribs. I do think it is better to do the fund raising before you do the digital as it does heighten the fear factor. But we went with it taking that risk and our local bank officer "got it" , was convinced by the 3 point program: 1. quarters, 2. vpf 3. fund raising. Now that we have digital we can also do things like Hunger Games on 3 screens opening midnight show so 450 instead of 150 tickets potential. We'll keep you posted. The sticking point is that we are a "for profit" but yesterday an exec director of a huge non profit responded to that and said... "The Colonial is an absolute critical asset to this town and it clearly is mission driven as a key component of our community quality of life. We want to support that. Whatever it takes."

Mike wrote:
I think that it will be hard to get the studios to see it that way. Are you charging the UPS driver a quarter? The kid coming in asking for a job?

Mike wrote:
Help me out on the math here. If you play movies for an average of 3 weeks, you will play 17.333 movies per screen. Let us assume you play 2-3 per screen a year that you do not get a VPF on. So that leaves 14 movies you are getting a VPF on. 42 movies netting you only $1000 a month is only $285 net VPF to you per movie. That seems pretty damn low. Are you that cynical about the program? With 55,000 people a year you should be pretty comfortable full time VPF.

Those who are getting VPF checks, should Mike be that cynical?

Probably the best deal I have seen.

beatricedailysun.com/news/into-the-futur...6a-c76c04bd93f8.html

Into the future

By Chris Dunker/Daily Sun news editor | Posted: Saturday, June 23, 2012 6:00 am | (0) Comments
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With a digital conversion complete, Beatrice Movies will now be able to show 3-D movies. The 3-D lens automatically moves into place for 3-D movies at the touch of a button.
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In less than a week, Beatrice Movies has moved forward more than a half century.

The buzzing of the lamp house and hum of the 1960s-era projector in the projection booth have been replaced with high-powered digital projectors capable of showing movies with deeper colors, greater clarity and improved sound quality.

Film stock once stored on reels in the booth has been replaced with a hard drive roughly the size of a small paperback novel.

Wooden box office and concession drawers have been replaced by touch screen cash registers and ticket printing systems.

And not to mention, 3-D.

It’s been a busy week at Beatrice Movies, manager Brad Schaefer said.

“The last few nights I’ve been leaving here at 2 a.m. or 2:30 a.m. and back at 7:30 a.m.,” Schaefer said. “It’s been pretty crazy.”

Sonic Equipment, Inc., an Iola, Kan. based company, helped Beatrice Movies join the growing list of digital movie theaters across the country.

On Monday, Sonic Equipment began the process of renovating the theater for digital projection, hanging new screens and working with electricians to install the necessary wiring to provide a greater movie experience.

“They worked right with the electricians to install the projectors before going to work calibrating the color on the screens as well as the sound,” Schaefer explained.

Patrons will notice some major changes the first time they step into the lobby with touch screen registers and a new ticket machine, but it’s the auditoriums that will garner the most awe, something Beatrice Movies owner Mike Schaefer said is raising the anticipation for big crowds this weekend.

“I think there is a lot of people wanting this and excited about it -- like us,” Mike Schaefer said. “Once they see the clarity of the picture and the amazing sound, they’ll be hooked.”

“The Cinema has never had sound like this,” Brad added.

Sound will also be improved for the hearing impaired, with headphones being available for the hearing impaired.

“If people can’t hear the movie very well, they can get a pair of headphones and adjust the volume themselves,” Brad said.

The theater will now also be able play 3-D movies in Cinema One and 2-D shows of the same feature in Cinema Two, Mike Schaefer explained.

“3-D has come a long way in the last couple years,” he said. “Ever since ‘Avatar,’ -- that was a real good 3-D movie -- the studios have really started getting their act together and creating better 3-D movies.”

In addition to film and sound, Brad said the possibilities for entertainment at Beatrice Movies have expanded exponentially.

Now, Beatrice Movies is looking at hosting patrons for Husker football games, private parties, concert events, video game tournaments and other offerings.

“There’s really no limit,” Brad said. “There is a lot of stuff we haven’t even looked into yet because this conversion is such a large project to get up and running smoothly.”

Brad said Beatrice Movies staff members will experience a shift in duties with the addition of cash registers, but said they are excited to offer digital movies.

In fact, the staff got a sneak peak at the new Pixar movie, “Brave,” in 3D Thursday night to give them a demonstration of the power of digital movies.

“They seemed to have really liked it,” he said.

To assist in the digital conversion, Beatrice Movies applied for and received a Community Development Block Grant in the amount of $299,000 on May 7, allowing Schaefer to upgrade the theater to join 26,000 of 40,000 silver screens across the country that have already made the switch.

Because the move to digital saves money for film companies, they also are helping theaters in the conversion to digital. Ultimately, two-thirds of the loan will be repaid by movie studios, with Beatrice Movies repaying the final third.

Mike Schaefer said for now, the theater is concentrating on providing the best experience it can.

“It’s going to be busy, I’ll tell you that,” he said. “But we’re excited with what we’re doing.”

Don't - won't - the studios take a portion of the quarter leaving the theatre with 12.5 cents?
The note: "We do not declare it as a ticket add on as it is regardless of show: this is a charge to walk in the door. So we do not share this with distribs."
The studios will find out and will consider it an add on. Does the customer coming in to buy a large Coke but not a ticket pay an extra quarter?
It is a fee and when attached to a ticket purchase the studios will want their share. If "hidden" in a total price of tickets and snack bar the studios might not notice, but if someone simply buys a ticket and nothing else the studios will notice.
Do you sell tickets and snack bar together? Will the customer who buys a ticket and then comes back for a drink and popcorn pay the quarter twice?
Like RufusJack I'd be concerned
Bob

Warner Bros made a big stink last year I think as a reaction to what AMC was doing for their Fork and Screen and other dining auditoriums that had a high ticket price with a food voucher. Something like $20 for your ticket and you got a $10 voucher for food. So WB wanted their film rental on the whole $20 not just $10. Soon after that letter went out, AMC changed their pricing to the traditional way.

I think it would be better to make the quarter a suggested donation and have a cool vortez colector bucket or something. That way you are legit with the studios. God forbid one of them finds out and they get pissed and keep in you in the doghouse for a while. I think that happened to someone on this forum with Sony a few years back over a split. I got in to trouble with a split with Disney on Wall*e. I will NOT do that again.

rufusjack wrote:
Let's be realistic: due to movies piled on we do not open a new movie on that rhythmic a schedule/ between missing a film and opening it later/ playing catch up with stuff you have to play we'll be luck to have 30 +/- films. Hunger games we played for 7 weeks. Prometheus will play for 4 days. And so it goes. When I say "who knows" I mean we won't know until it evolves and we start getting real experience.

Mike,

How many movies did you open on the break the last 52 weeks? Most 3 screens around me grossing less than you averaged at least 12 per screen.

Rarely does any 3 screen keep a movie for 7 weeks. I kept Hunger games for 6 because I wanted to and because it was still grossing well and nothing else to replace it with. How many times did you feel pressure to keep a movie for a 4th week when there was something else you wanted? I only had one other besides Hungar Games and that was The Avengers but I wanted to keep it a 4th week. Thankfully other studios knew what they were up against an it was not an issue.

So using 3 weeks as an average hold time is probably a pretty safe assumption for a 3 screen. Keep 12 movies for 3 weeks each an you still have 48 weeks of programming to fill. Keep 24 movies 2 weeks and you played 60 movies in a year. That number is spot on with what the 3 screens around me do as well.

12 full VPFs per screen over the course of a year even after the integrator cut is still more than $1000 a month.

Mike, I do believe that you may run into a problem with your 25 cent digital conversion fee.

I checked my master contract with Warners and it is written this way: Article 12. SERVICE FEES B. The entire amount of any service fee charged by Ehibitor or any other entity owned (in whole or in part) controlled, or affiliated with Exhibitor shall be included as part of the gross reciepts of the engagement applicable to the performance for which the ticket was issued.

That's pretty plain to me. All master contracts from all the distributors have similar language. It is pretty much defined this way. If you can not get to see their movie without paying the fee, then the fee is part of the cost of admission, and they are entitled to the agreed upon percentage.

we're calling it "suggested donation" and if we get in trouble will switch to another method. Thanks/MIke