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I decided last week that I would try to sell hotdogs during the lunch hour since nobody in town sells them. Tomorrow is my first attempt. In the winter I am usually closed Tuesday through Thursday because of very poor attendance. So I thought I would try to make a few extra bucks selling hotdogs and sodas at lunch time, on Mondays only for now. If I get enough customers I might do it every day. Anyone else try this without a movie going? (My fancy new marquee is my advertising medium and partial explanation for needing more cash!)

This seems like a great idea! Let me know how it works out. Besides hamburgers and pizza, hot dogs are a fast and easy sale, and best yet, people like them.

Hey BurneyFalls!

You may want to think about consistancy. If you are open only on Mondays it may go unnoticed. But if you were open M-F people would get used to the idea that during any lunch hour (and I'd make it a couple of hours) they can stop by for a bite. But I'd suggest you expand it to include pizza, nachos and sandwiches. Most of these are sold in microwaveable form.

In the project I'm working on I plan to include a game room where the concession stand will be located and that part of the theatre will be open from noon to midnight seven days a week. This is a small, rural county seat town of 2,000 (5,000 in the general area). Of course, the fact that there are no entertainment facilities here will help, I believe.

Good luck!

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Bob Allen
The Old Showman

My first lunch was today. I sold 11 hotdogs, two popcorns, two candy bars and 9 large sodas for $53.50. I know I should do it every day, but don't want to be that committed. If it catches on I will hire somebody to work it. I might think about the nachos like they gave away at ShoWest, but my place is really small and I don't have room to store a bunch of inventory.

Gotta get Pepsi to make me a banner and get a sandwich board out front for additional advertising.

I will sell about 20-25 more hotdogs/sodas tomorrow as some of the handicapped adults are coming in for a special showing of HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS.

Hi Burney. how was your table for the last night? We are thinking of exactly this idea as well for the same reason. At Show Wst we looked at the various items you could freeze and cook like a hot dog with litle prep: we're going to do something like this so let us know how it evolves.

I agree that consistency is what is needed to make it a real success. If people could realize that everyday from 11-2 they could get lunch by you,it would help you out. I run a movie theatre full time, and recently bought an ice cream store. The store only sold ice cream type treats, but due to its location, and the fact that I like money, I have added hot food to the menu. It always closed in the winter months before, but I kept it open this winter with the added hot food. In the beginning I had not consistent hours, and it was OK, once I expanded the hours to be more convenient and the people realized when we were open it did very well.

On a side note:
I didn't want to go thru with the expense of adding a grill, the big fryer, the hoods and venting that are required(because of cost).
What I added was hot dogs,corn dogs, and Hamburgers-all of which get microwaved. I also bought a "perfect Fry" a small self-contained fryer that requires no venting- to add french fries, mozzarella sticks, onion rings, chicken sandwiches etc. All of these items have really added to my bottom line, and I could see them selling in certain theatres as well.

One product that I really like (which I thought I would HATE) is my Hamburger. It is a pre-cooked burger that gets microwaved in only 1 minute. Has a great taste, and cooks in only 1 minute. Costs about 75 cents with the bun and condiments and sells for $1.99
Its called quick-to-fix if anyone is interested.
Jeff

>>This is a small, rural county seat town of 2,000 (5,000 in the general area). Of course, the fact that there are no entertainment facilities here will help, I believe.<<

Sounds interesting. Are you retrofitting downtown, or new build? How far is the competition? How many screens, capacity?

Dave

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Sounds interesting. Are you retrofitting downtown, or new build? How far is the competition? How many screens, capacity?

Dave[/B]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It will be going into the multi-purpose room of a former primary school on the main highway. Single screen. 400 seats. There is really no competition because I will not be programming as most theatres do. In fact, my slogan is "If it's playing everywhere it's not playing here". I plan to mix foreign, late-run domestic, inspirational and classic films. It has a full stage and will also be used for live performances. The nearest theatres are 30 miles north or south (both single screen).

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Bob Allen
The Old Showman

If you are not running a feature at lunch time, how about making a long trailer reel and invite your lunch purchasers to eat their lunch in the theatre while watching free coming attractions at your theatre? Might get more people to see films at your theatre, and more people wanting to eat lunch at your theatre.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide 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

That sounds like a good idea, John. I might give it a try. Reel to reel might be the way to go.

Anybody have any 6,000' reel arms (complete) they want to sell? I need a pair for a show I want to run in May anyway. The distributor will not allow the print I want to play to go on a platter.

6000 feet of trailers (over an hour!) may be a bit of overkill! Your lunch time customers will leave in a stupor.

For a bit of nostalgia, how about playing the "Let's All Go to the Lobby" trailer?:
http://www.filmack.com/products/stockpolicy.htm
http://www.filmack.com/classic.html

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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

I don't think overkill is the right description here. Think of when you go to a sports bar and they run sports events after sports event on those big screen t.v.'s. Do you watch them all? My point being that you'll only watch what you want to watch.