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I'm not an Art House and I don't want to be. I like to play the action films but also like to put in some art films and family features to balance the programs out. The problem comes with the customers. I get people complaining that I'm not showing enough for the family when I'm doing the action films and I can't seem to find a good balance. Do any of you have any suggestions?

Mike and I just had this very conversation this morning, and we too are looking for that magic formula. We've booked all the top movies for the summer and just haven't gotten the response we were looking for (HULK, T3, XMEN, ANGELS, 2 FAST, MATRIX). Our customer base here generally tend to go to the family / kid movies, romantic comedies, etc( BRUCE, DADDY, NEMO, PIRATES). I would stick with what works, but continue to try and build that other customer base you aren't reaching.

Hard subject,
sometimes the product is just not there.

and when you do get the "family film" they complain because it had " damn and hell " in it.
We were bugged to death to get "art flicks" so when you got them no one would come.

Then sometimes the art film will bring in more people in that one week than the other "blockbusters" are pulling in at the same time.

We recently had BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM, which played to 70 people on a Tuesday evening while HULK and CHARLIE'S ANGELS 2 both played to about twenty people each at the most.

I think we all know that big first weekends do not exactly maintain that intensity for long. The word-of-mouth smaller films can sometimes have a better week than the so-called big hits.