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Ditto, GTE. How much does one slide generate per month? Is there a cost per screen, per show, per patron or just a flat rate? I'm still thinking about adding slides before showtime--but will never have any ads, other than trailers, after showtime.

I saw a slide in a theatre where I used to live the other day. It was for the agency I used to work for, looking for recruits. I am calling the agency tomorrow to see if they will put a slide on my screen.

We charge $150 per month, per business. This gets you two slides in each auditoreum carousel (we're a twin). With two slides in each and a 72 slide carousel, we could have up to 36 businesses with a potential of about $65K per year (36 X 150 X 12 = $64,800). Last year we did about $20,000 in slides. I bill quarterly and don't require longterm contracts. There is a $50 set-up fee to change a slide to a new design.

If you don't run slide ads now, you're really missing out. They practically sell themselves and generate over $15,000 a year in revenue.

We have digital data projectors in all of our 7 theatres. We've had them for about a year and a half now, and they are great!

We charge $300 a month for 2 images, or if they go on for 6 months or more it's only $250 per month. (Same as buy 5 months get 1 free) We have anywher from 20 - 40 advertisers on at a time, of course interspersed with trivia. Some kids even do one to ask someone to Grad/Prom. We've even had a couple proposals.

The data projectors allow us to do presentations for business meetings too, play X-Box & Playstation, and show show training videos/dvd's.

We can also do Survivor Parties and Wrestlemania events. (we haven't yet but we could). Slide ads are a great contra too, our cost is next to nothing, and we get $300 worth of stuff!

Mill,

What digital projector do you use? Cost? Thanks.

If you want about 12 footlamberts illumination on a matte white screen using a digital projector for pre-show ads, figure about 12 lumens per square foot of image area on the screen.

So for a 25 x 20 foot image on a matte white screen, your projector should have at least 6000 lumens.

For a 15 x 12 foot image, at least 2000 lumens are required.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Customer Technical Services
Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Eastman Kodak Company
Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Telephone: 585-477-5325 Cell: 585-781-4036 Fax: 585-722-7243
E-Mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Website: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

Yes, Mill, what kind of projectors do you use, where did you get them, how much did they cost, how much setup was involved, how big is your image on your screen compared to a standard flat movie, does the software come with the projector or is that separate, do you make your own images or hire them out, if so where and what is that cost? Did I forget anything?

I'm not sure any businesses here in my small, economically depressed logging town will cough up anything compared to $150, let alone $300 a month, but maybe I can generate enough to pay for the projector to put on some interesting trivia and upcoming movie promotions.

And Mill, are your digital projectors in the booth and projecting through ports or did you ceiling mount them in the auditoriums?

I know you didn't ask me, but we contract our service to a local company, and the projectors are in the booth. They look quite nice (and bright, though I'm unsure of the lumens), and everyone seems to like them. I don't understand the anger over them. I pay for cable, and they advertise things all the time!!

[This message has been edited by Big Guy (edited May 30, 2003).]

I was recently over in Paris in the great country of Freedom and they advertise very clearly: preshow 7:45 show 8:05. Not knowing what the hell a Pre show was I went early. The time during the very clever above TV grade commercials the lights are half up and people chat, use cell phones, etc, come and go.......and then: the lights come up the show stops. Pause. The lights go down: no trailers, no nothing. Movie starts. I liked this fine: if you want to see the commercials go early. If you don't: don't. Of course seats are being taken all through the commercials. Which is why I liked Belfast Northern, Ireland where you bought your seats (actual seats!) numbered in advance. We went to dinner, returned to a full, sold out theatre, except our two seats on the aisle! Show started: heaven! Commercials (though we don't do them!) seem to make an awful lot of $ and sense.

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Michael Hurley
Impresario

we have advertising before the movie when people walk in the theater. WE have right now four resturants, four doctors and 3 srores.Sorry forgot 5 housing developments. We start them 10 minutes before the showtime then we show one or two trailers and then the movie.last year we made 19,856 off of advertising this year we plan 33,000

From the above posts it is clear that most Exhibitors today are now not only changed from 'Impresarios' to 'candy salesmen', to quote the late Ben Hall in his landmark book "THE BEST REMAINING SEATS: The Goleden Age of the Movie Palace" ( www.Amazon.com ), but they now find profit only in selling commercials too. It seems that films matter little. How sad. I, for one, will NOT go to a theatre that shows commercials in any form. I go to be entertained, not annoyed, and with most houses keeping the house lights down as soon as anything gets on the screen, there is not enough light to read something one has brought to avoid the glaring annoyances (as if he could also 'close his ears' to the ear-shattering sound!). This is one reason I so enjoy studying the movie palaces and legit theatres which were not 'party rooms' for unruly patrons nor 'advertising parlors' to treat the patron as though he were Pavlov's dog, with some places now even venting the popcorn maker into the auditorium to entice (nauseate?) the supposedly salivating patrons. This is why I was somewhat discouraging in my reply to Alysia who wrote in to the CINEMA DESIGN forum about a possible career in theatre/cinema design: a successful architect today does not design cinemas to show film, but to be a restaurant and party room, so she would never have designed -- and sold -- the grand theatres she envisioned. Except for rare restorations or new commissions such as that new KODAK TH. in Hollywood where the Academy Awards are now presented, real theatres are all but gone. At least there is a glowing history of fine exhibition maintained by such as the THEATRE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA ( www.HistoricTheatres.org ) where we can retreat into a dreamland of beauty and exhibitioins for exhibitions' sake.
Jim Rankin, member THSA since 1976.

Amen Jim!

I couldn't agree more. What's even sadder is that many in exhibition (especially at corporate headquarters) know absolutely nothing about running a real theatre.

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Bob Allen
The Old Showman

Jim/Forum Readers –

Forgive me for “beating a dead horse” but I did want to add just a short 10-sec comment concerning my “CINEMA DESIGN” question, “Career opportunities in theater architecture & design??”.

Times change and the “Popcorn Palaces” of the past are, with a very few exceptions, relegated to remain there – that is an unfortunate fact of modern life. However, notable exceptions do exist, such as the “Hollywood Kodak Theater” or past “movie palaces” lovingly restored/preserved through the efforts of civic organizations, entrepreneurs, and corporations - their efforts should be encouraged and supported by all of us who love the “palaces of the past”.

But I wonder, isn’t there room for the blending of both the “modern & classic” designs - such that one creates an entertainment venue encompassing:

1. “Interior design” reminiscent of classic “Popcorn Palaces”
2. “Embedded” food-court/restaurant
3. “Crying baby” viewing room (to bring in “new parents” w/o alienating other movie-goers)
4. Modern Audio/Video/seating/concession theater innovations

Living in a suburb of Los Angeles, the nearby theaters are, for the most part, totally forgettable. They seemingly have a “cookie-cutter” (i.e. mass produced) design and it is only the on-screen “logo” that separates “GCC” from “MANN” from “AMC” from “Pacific” theaters.

I now go elsewhere (e.g. Hollywood) for movies that “really” belong on a large screen – otherwise I wait for the DVD, go into my own home-theater and, while lounging in my own recliner with a glass of wine, enjoy the movie on a 10’ Stewart screen The “Orpheum” it ain’t, but its got a classy touch - mine

Alysa

Back in the day there was no central heat or air and maybe only two or three speakers in the whole house. There was always an intermission. Was that better than what we now offer? Things change. Percentages changed.

Theatre owners have the right to make a living. Without concessions, they could not. I do not have any ads, yet, but I am still planning on putting up some pre-showtime slides (trivia and ads) to give my patrons something to do before the movie starts and to boost my revenue.

In the movie, CINEMA PARADISO, the manager turned up the heat and the concessions sales lady walked through the auditorium and sold ice cream after everyone started sweating. I thought that was pretty funny. That is better than venting the popcorn smell into the auditorium.

Absolutely!! I very much WANT theater owners to make a very good living. Anyone who invests their time, money, and sweat to provide me with a wonderful evening at the movies deserves to make a very good living indeed.

Note: Remainder of long posting deleted by Alysa because I don't own a theater and it's very presumptous of me to comment about something I know so little about....

Alysa

[This message has been edited by Alysa (edited June 10, 2003).]

[This message has been edited by Alysa (edited June 10, 2003).]