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The one thing that puts the fire in my eyes is when I hear some one say that they're going to wait till a movie of choice comes out on cable. I stop and think. It's just 3.99 on pay-per-view and you really don't have to wait that long for a movie to get there. If you anything bigger then a 21 inches and it's plazma screen the picture is great. I think we as movie house owners are being had. There are those who say there is nothing like the big screen to see a movie and I agree, but many don't and that's what scares me the most.

I run across a lot of these consumers also. There is just so much choice for them anymore. Neighbor just had to show me his big new Plasma surround sound set up the other day. I said well the movies will really rock your house now. He just shrugged and said the set up is for Football season game watching. Movies I catch later on HBO or Showtime. If they are good now they will still be good then.

Movies I fear are becomming more and more of a secondary form of entertainment for consumers. And with hollywood now firmly in the hands of corporate conglomerates. Quality product that grabs the consumers attention is getting far and few between.

I saw advertised on tv yesterday "Failure to launch" only available to rent. (Im in Australia)So you can only rent it, but not buy it anywhere.. I guess movie rental stores must have been complaining too.. if you can rent it for $7 (last time i went to the rental store several years ago that was the price.. i assume its the same) or you can nip into target and buy it for $15.. youre gonna buy it. The movie moguls are just ruining their own business.. back when i started ( around 1992) Disney NEVER released their movies to video.. you couldn't screen them untill they themselves ordered a re-release..but now.. sometimes they even release straight to video, bypassing the cinema all together...and ive often seen brand new movies for sale less than $15.. its all gonna come crashing down if they aren't careful

Are you sure you're giving your customers the "theatre experience" or does your auditorium remind them of a big TV. Do you make it as pleasant as possible for them to come to your house? Is your staff friendly, your prices reasonable and your facility clean? How about your screen presentation. Is it flawless?

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Bob Allen
The Old Showman

Well... being a drive-in owner, it's not very convenient to watch a show "off-hours"... so we make a point to see several shows at one of the local indoor houses... matter of fact, the one that Robert used to work at. It's the newest one in town, has the best sound, and has people in there that I've known for years.

We don't bother the manager with requests for freebies... it's more trouble than just buying the tickets. We also pick up at least a popcorn or two, and drinks.

We have a good time, don't worry about the cost, and make it a fun outing for the family that we know we aren't able to do every day (or week).

We could watch the same films at home on a big TV... but we wouldn't be getting out with the family... and that's the whole point. I know several people who have those setups... a few of them are pretty nice. One even went so far as to buy a little "theatre-style" popcorn machine. Once the novelty wore off, those fancy (expensive) setups were pretty much relegated to sports.

Maybe I'm overly optimistic... but if you spend all your time waiting for the end of business as you know it, you aren't going to enjoy the time you have now, where you do have a clientele that appreciates you. At my place, I wouldn't want to miss those years... too much fun!

I find there is so much more different things to get entertained by. The quality of the product has been going downhill over the last few years. We have entered remake city every season. So if the product bombs that first weekend, it will be out on DVD in two months or so. In the last 15 years I have found that I've been going to see films in theatres less and less. This year I'm at a new high over last year, I've been to the movies 6 times since the start of the year. Last year it was twice. Yes I bought a plasma screen two years ago and have the full theatre sound setup in both living room and bedroom. If I don't go to see a film in the first or second weekend I wait till video. In the last few years you no longer have to drive or go out to rent your movies with cable and Netflix services. It's all to convenient to just login and in a day or two you have the new releases and no late charges all for the price of two tickets. So its not a cost factor for me, I live in NYC in midtown Manhattan. Its all about the time. Ok the entertainment dollar does not go that far here with Broadway shows costing $100 a seat, movies are $10.75, comedy clubs have a small cover and two drink min. and $70 for cable. I have a few good AMC/Loews houses here that give the theatre experience. I work in the business and enjoy it. Its not going to get any better.

I hate to disagree but stats show attendance is up and not down.
This summer love it or leave it the movies are bringing them in. 47 mil for Taladegga nights means people are coming back and enjoying the movies regardless of what people say or think.
Movies are an escape from reality and as long as Hollywood put out feel good movies, comedy and kids fare I see big numbers in the near future.
We looked at this summer and said wow this si going to be a bad summer there are no really big hits except for a few but the numbers proved us wrong.
Next summer is going to be one for the record books with Spidey 3, Shrek 3, Transformers, Harry Potter to name a few.
Get set fellas were in for a bumpy ride!!!!!!

I think we all get those quarterly admissions forms from NATO. And it is the actual admissions numbers I follow. Grosses $$$ can be distorted by ticket price increases. But admissions actual numbers counting customers say something differently

2005 1.40 Billion
2004 1.53
2003 1.57
2002 1.63

North American Admissions (customers) have been in steady decline now for four years.

Combine this decline with the USA population growth. Which if we were just holding steady with the percentage of customers. Admissions should be growing.

According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the resident population of the United States, projected to 08/12/06 at 03:49 GMT (EST+5) is

299,452,704

COMPONENT SETTINGS FOR AUGUST 2006
One birth every... 7 seconds
One death every... 13 seconds
One international migrant (net) every 31 seconds
Net gain of one person every 10 seconds

The problem is we can only do so much. It is the product that will either draw them in or they will turn their noses up at the product. Just looking at the flash grosses tonight. I am seeing that Talladega Nights is already down 59% on it's 8th day. I am growing tired of these one and done products.

Not to mention all the other forms of entertainment and venues consumers have now.

Last winter we Harry Potter in November, then Narnia in December. January pretty much sucked, had a minor hit with 8 Below in February. Then it was limp along till later May's release of Over the Hedge (DaVinci Code did well but MI3 and Posidon tanked) closly followed by Cars, Superman Returns and Then Pirates a month later. Family movies are not all guaranteed either. Monster House has, and Barnyard has so far been fair hits. But don't get me started on Garfield 2 or Ant Bully.

And next May June July 2007 is so jam packed. These tent pole releases really need to be spaced out better. Superman Returns this summer was a really good movie. But it was hammered so hard by only having 9 days before Pirates....

Well, ok... but I'm not going to get all depressed over stuff like that. The numbers are largely generated by the big chains, and the decline in attendance is something they're largely bringing upon themselves. One would like to think that they're paying attention to how their customers view them, but I have my doubts.

We broke all records this year... again... in both attendance, admissions dollars and concessions per-caps. We take good care of our market, our customer base is responding, and that means a whole lot more to me than some list of national numbers that I can't do a darn thing about. I know that I'm not the only one out there that's had a good season, so it would seem this business is still working for some of us.

Didn't we see a film this year that broke all attendance and income records? For a country that (supposedly) waits for their entertainment to be mailed to them on a DVD, a lot of theatres sure did pretty well on this one.

We're STILL running "Cars". Not many films have legs like that.

Next year looks like another great one... and it starts in May!

fact''''
box office ticket sales are up 4% in 2006
2005 tikets sales were down yes ..but still the 4th largest ticket sales of all time...

We are breaking records also this summer. But right now I have to start looking at the product I am going to have to offer my customers for the next 8 months of Fall, Winter and Spring. I hear everyone talking about May 2007. And I agree it is going to be blockbuster!

But we need some good product for Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar and April.

I find myself having to be very careful when critisizing the industry. As I age, my taste in movies is definitely changing as well. When I was in high school, my taste in movies was exactly what happened to be playing in the theatre. It appears that is still the case. If I were controlling what movies were being made, I'm afraid that things would be very dead. What I'm trying to say is that at my theatre, I find people standing in line for movies that don't really interest me. But if I think back to my younger days, I probably would have been right there in line with all my buddies making an event out the thing. I don't like pop music either, but it sure seems to be a hit with the younger generation.

I'm not saying that there's not a lot of crap movies out there, but a quick look back in time will show that not every movie released back in the hay-days of cinema was a block buster either. There was a lot of crap back then too.

As far as the industry colapsing, I haven't seen any eating establishments closing just because every home has a kitchen. We need to give the best presentation possible (yes that includes SPENDING some money to update if needed so movie goers can experience a movie in a way that even the best consumer quality home set up can't give). I just bought a small 4 screener in a town of 1100 with a 6 screen 14 miles away and I'm bringing in more than 7 times the population annually. One of the things I hear most is how our theatre is more fun to come to because our sound is better, our picture is clearer and brighter, and our staff is friendlier. We CARE!! To me that says it all.

for 4 years, we had the best of both worlds. we opened a new 8 screen theatre and (for 25 years) had the only video rental store in a small market. we heard the same blah, blah, blah about waiting for video releases, pay per view, and the like. we still believe a video renter is a different customer than a first-run movie goer. alas, blockbuster opened and drove ALL the profits from the rental business. thank goodness, another national chain came along and purchased our video rental store, so now neither of them make a dime. anyway, our theatre visits have grown steadily for 5 years. as long as hollywood produces quality product (as opposed to quantity), we all should be OK longterm.