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Andy. Per Cap... short for per capita, meaning "the amount per person" in our case the average sales per person of concession related goods sold during a defined period of time. It could mean by the show, the day, week, month or the year. I keep per cap records by the week, and also upgrade them weekly for the year to date.

To figure your per cap, you simply take the total concession sales for the designated period of time and divide by the number of tickets sold. EXAMPLE: A given movie week is Friday thru Thursday. If you had 5,000 admissions and collected $8,500 in concession sales you would divide the $8,500 by the 5,000 admissions and you would get $1.70 as your average sale per patron making your per cap $1.70.

THANK-YOU Roxy!!

Andy

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"I don't want you playing with something that has such bizarre hair. Such awful, awful hair!"
-Marge Simpson, on Bart's toy trolls

Good question Andrew.... I wanted to ask, "OK, all these numbers are nice... but what do they relate to?"

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Barry Floyd
Floyd Entertainment Group
Nashville, Tennessee
(Drive-In Theatre - Start-Up)

It always pays to ask the question when you don't know something or at least admit it right up front. People used to mutter stuff like the 90-10 and I'd be like. "Right! That 90-10! I hate that!"

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Mike Hurley
www.bigscreenbiz.com

So, Nancypu, How do you make sure that it's only 1 free re-fill on drinks?

I know the popcorn trick! Your rip off the rounded tab anfter the refill, and if its gone, no refill!

I just have no clue about drinks. Boy will I feel stupid when I find it out and its simple!

Andy

Andrew,
You mark the bottom with a black marker

or, you just don't worry about it being refilled only once...

Mark the bottom is what we do to--I use red though lol

I have a solution, don't offer refills.

We don't, people understand.

We used to use the same bags as the competition. We shared the same supplier. I used to watch a woman step in to the hall and pull a used bag out of the trash and then come to the stand and ask for a refill. I have seen people bring a bag with them from home and pull it out of their purse.

I think offering free refills on the largest size is a good sales technique. I used to mark the bags and drink cups, but don't even bother with that anymore. I worried about the ink not drying on the cup and rubbing off on someone's "cashmere" sweater or something. One time I did see a kid take a bag out of the garbage and bring it up for a refill on his way out. I filled it for him rather than make a scene. If he did it frequently we would have a chat, but big deal. I think the benefits of larger sales far outweigh the very few problems associated with deceit.
As a consumer/patron in other theaters, I will usually buy the large if they offer a free refill and a medium if they don't. I can't say why because I very seldom go back for that refill. And that is the point. Very few of my patrons come back for their's either.
I also offer refills on the smaller sizes for $1; which I have never seen offered anywhere else. After they have bought a refill on a smaller size on a couple of occasions, the next time they buy the jumbo thinking they will drink all that and come back for more--for free. But the truth is 44oz. of soda is more than most body's can hold and even they don't come back.

I tried refills on large items for an "OCTOBER 1996 SPECIAL" to this day I have never quit, the benefits of the upsell far outways the few people that take advantage of it--but then I am in a small market with very regular customers that watch what other people do--they would be the first to "correct" the person not following our policy

Saw per caps mentioned in another area and thought I'd bring them back up here.
My 3rd quarter per cap average was $2.96 with an average ticket price of $5.62.
So far this quarter my average is $3.29 with an average ticket price of $5.56.

I have had an anniversary special going on for about three weeks. Large 32 oz. soda and large (refillable) 130 oz. popcorn for $5, a $1 savings. They seem to like it. Pepsi provided the large banner for outside for free. I am trying to decide whether to keep the special going or take it off for Harry Potter next week. What would you do?

For a small town theatre to have per caps that good, it really seems to be working for you. I'd say to stay with what works, especially since those are your most profitable items.

Maybe for Harry Potter, "Kettle Corn" would be an appropriate tie-in, but call it "Cauldron Corn" instead?

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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

Our first weekend at the Temple was 2.41 per cap or .56 over the Colonial: could it be the soda on tap?

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I'll be the one to say it, Mike: We told you so!