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>Stacy e-ed me and asked the following question........

Do you have any research info on how long movie-goers spend in the theater lobby and in the auditorium before the show? If not, do you know what I might be able to get this information? Thank you for you help.
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> Stacy Ludwig( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

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Mike Hurley
www.bigscreenbiz.com

I'll answer my own post....... as long as they want! We try to make no one wait at the counter as waiters often leave without buying. In our lobby we post endless reviews, historical displays of the Colonial, we have a life sized baby elephant statue that they can sit on, cool retro chairs, a book rack, and lots of other displays to amuse. Some people sit and knit, others read books while waiting, etc. etc. Is that scientific? I don't think so. Has the National Assoc. of Concessioneers studied it?

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Mike Hurley
www.bigscreenbiz.com

Based on this Forum. People must stay in the lobby forever. More topics are posted in the Lobby then anywhere else.

Good observation but it seemed like a good catch-all kind of place. Sort of like a real lobby.

Last night I went in to see Space Cowboys and as I was in the Men's room I could hear water running so after a suitable bit of yelling I went into the Ladie's room where the hot and cold faucets were running full tilt. Later I was in the Men's again and ...there's a chalk board there... on it was written... "Faucets that stay on would be good!" as a commentary that in the Men's room we have spring loaded faucets. I wondered had they wanted to leave the men and ladies faucets running?!!!

And who knows how long they sayed in a lobby to play with the faucets?

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Mike Hurley
www.bigscreenbiz.com

People hanging out in the lobby depends on how emotional the film is. We had a 20 minute conversation after Croupier about why the woman died. In the big theaters, they are not shy about shooing you out the door, so I have a hard-core policy that none of the lights go out until the last person leaves. And if they are BSing on the front sidewalk, we leave the light on out there until they leave.

I agree with Avalon. We have a "cafe" seating area where we encourage people to hang out. We don't shoo people out at the end of the night. But that hasn't stopped me from checking all the exit doors, loudly and checking the bathrooms so that they might get the hint. Last night Ky had some people who wanted to look every single poster, 38 total. Ky just went upstairs and broke down trailers untill they left.

We have 5 now playing poster cases out front. We have 13 coming soon poster cases in the lobby and 20 classic posters in frames down our 85 foot featureless hallway.



[This message has been edited by Large (edited August 07, 2000).]