Welcome to BigScreenBiz.com

I am curious to know how everyone else handles concession closing after the last show starts.

We use our best judgment based on the movie and number of people in the theater, but generally close 15 -30 minutes after the last show has started. We keep some money upstairs to make change if someone wants something from the candy case or fountain(and the heads are still on!). However, the popcorn is no longer there and the machines are turned off and cleaned. This pattern of closing was pretty standard in our area, but our Regal competitors seem to be staying open throughout the final shows. I am not sure how they keep the kids on payroll that late or when the concession stand gets cleaned. I am also turning over the idea of doing "free" refills on the popcorn, but don't want to disappoint people in the last show who can't get popcorn after a certain time. What are you all doing?

we keep our concession open until we lock the doors when the last show gets out
this is because we do free refills and dont want to miss a sale
our percap at our twin is usually over $2 and close to it at our triple

---

15 minutes after the last show starts we slam closed tighter than a ....

Our concession person holds down the lobby until the last person leaves. We remain open but have cleaned the corn popper, and everything else. So it's really just watching out. We have at the end: one project and on concession staff. They hit the lights and go out together right after the clients leave. We don't have any way to secure our concess booth and we like to have a person on the lobby. One time some mom had lost her daughter and she was frantic while our concess person was watching a movie instead of manning the lobby. Plus.............God help you if there was ever a fire or an emergency.... we've had heart attacks, seizures, broken legs, bomb scares........ we need more than one person to handle those! Sure you might save 1000.00 over a year but...

---

Mike Hurley
www.bigscreenbiz.com

The concession stand remains open until everyone leaves. I do clean the popper about a half hour before the show is over, but I save a small plastic bag or two of any leftover popcorn in case someone wants a refill or to buy some on the way out. The hot dog machine is cleaned about 45 minutes into the show. I don't have any way to secure the concession area either, so someone must stay there.

We usually close down after the first hour of our last show. Some of the people that run the concession stand have a ways to travel home. We have a sign posted at the stand that announces when we are shutting down for that particular night.