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A different thread brought this to my attention, but lets start it here. I'll leave it in concessions, even though some of it is box office related.
Anyhow, What is your birthday party policy?
How do you charge for the group? is there a minimum? is birthday child free? What do you do for them in the concession stand? Do they get a booth tour? Do they get a party room? Even though all of us are in different parts of the country, and all of our economies are different what are your costs to the customers?

I'll start-
We don't have much of a formal policy. If someone calls, we'll let birthday child in free with at least 6 other kids. We would recommend they purchase one of our combos LG Soda/LG corn then divide that into little cups and bags if they wanted for each child. thats about it.

My biggest problem setting up birthday parties is that as a single screen I most often don't have a film that is appropriate for the age group that wants the party. Also since subrun has for the most part become a book on Monday for Friday situation, and birthday parties require the sending of invitations, it's difficult to confirm an appropriate film. I refuse to book that way, but still have to wait for a Monday confirmation from the distributor, still making it difficult.

If I have a film that they are satisfied with I charge our regular $1.50 kid price per child, and if they want to come in early to get refreshments before the crowd arrives, I'll open up early for them. NO food discounts either as my prices are low enough already. If they want to stay after for cake and ice cream (which they must supply) I charge $25.00 per hour for the extra time (usually one hour), and of course I charge for a minimum of one hour.

I don't get many birthday parties during our scheduled shows. I do get a lot of private birthday parties on Saturday mornings or sometimes right after school. For those parties if the current feature isn't appropriate, I run an hour of old classic cartoons. They then do the cake and ice cream which THEY bring, or even pizza from next door. We serve the food and drink from the orchestra pit and require that the kids sit in the first six rows in order to keep the mess all in one area for quick cleanup as we usually end shortly before opening for the matinee show.

I don't get involved in selling them any drink or food as I don't want to be bothered with it. That way I don't need to have any extra staff come in. The parents do the serving AND the cleanup. Most parties consist of 25 to 35 kids. I charge $100.00 for the use of the theatre and the film. I report the film payment based on our $1.50 admission price times whatever percentage we are paying for the film. Example: 35 kids x $1.50 = $52.50 x 35% or a film payment cost of $18.38. Take that from my $100.00 rental and I have $81.62 to put towards overhead cost and profit. I figure it costs about $25.00 for heat and electric in the winter time and $10.00 for electric the rest of the year. I therefore make a profit of $56 to $71 per party.

I could have these parties EVERY Saturday, as there are that many people who want to do it. People love them. They don't mind doing the work themselves, and consider the price a bargin to get an entire theatre for their private use for as many kids as they want.

However, I won't do more then two a month on Saturday mornings as that is one of the few times that my wife and I have together as the theatre takes so much of my time.

Sometimes money just isn't that important.

We actually have a separate Birthday Party room. We offer 3 different packages the first is basic admission, booth tour and a gift for the birthday child. The second includes all of the above plus kids packs for each child and reserved seating in the theatre. The third includes all of the above plus 2 pitchers of soda and 2 large pizzas. The last 2 packages have a minimum of 10 people. In addition to that we charge a room rental fee. We limit the use of the room to 2 hours. On a average month with a good kids movie we can increase our revenue just in room rental alone by about 4-5 hundred dollars. Sometimes it can be a pain but with good planning it really is worth it.