|
This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
|
Author
|
Topic: Another one bites the dust....
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
David Kilderry
Master Film Handler
![](http://www.film-tech.com/ubbmembers/142c.jpg)
Posts: 355
From: Melbourne Australia
Registered: Sep 1999
|
posted 11-08-2000 02:56 AM
A drive-in run right today can still do big boxoffice. Many that are left are run the way they always have been, but times have changed. The successful ventures today have multi-screens, FM and speakers, smart programming, clever marketing and operators/managers with a "can-do" attitude.I have visited over 200 drive-ins in my lifetime (USA and Australia) the ones that close fall into the following catagories: 1. Big circuit sell to realise land value and put $ into an indoor multiplex - often operating profitably at closure. 2. Old Bill & Norma who have run it the same way for 40 years & finally run out of puff. 3. Single screener, can't book the right product, sells lousy food and don't know what the term "customer service" even means let alone marketing sell to meagstore developer. Now picture the drive-ins that run today and will continue to do so: 1.Multi screens with 1st run product, 2.Know the market and where it comes from, 3.Networks with fellow drive-in operators and watches the indoor competition like a hawk, 4.Quality food, friendly staff that are a mix of youth AND experience, 5.Combine the best of old drive-in showmanship eg intermission clocks, speakers on posts, flashy roadsign, 6. Quality presentation with a BRIGHT picture no larger than 80ft wide that is 10 footlamberts not 3 footlamberts, Dolby stereo processors, platter and definitely no carbons! 7. Let the market know you are a drive-in that is still open - you would be amazed how many people think they are all gone when one may be close by but no longer on that major Hwy. Follow these rules and you have a better than average shot of a very successful theatre business for the long term. See how the good ones do it today at: www.drive-insdownunder.com.au David
| IP: Logged
|
|
Rick Long
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 759
From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Nov 1999
|
posted 11-08-2000 10:33 PM
Tim Reed, in a post a few months ago, made mention of the section of the "Greater Amusements" trade magazine, known as "International Projectionist" and it's writer, Wesley Trout. One of Wesley Trout's articles advised projectionists to be sure to take pictures of a brand-new Drive-In before the first car drives in. Never again, he advised, will the speaker posts be so straight, the paint so new, the speaker cords so straight.... Now we have come to the point of history where most Drive-Ins are closed, or at the point of doing so. It is an emotional experience, to walk the field of a closed Drive-In, one in which you have worked the booth, especially near dusk. You can almost hear the sound of car horns, the rush of the concession staff to get ready for intemission, and, as you enter the booth, the whinning of the arc-feed motors. You feel tempted to appproach where the sound rack used to be, to announce one last time that "The concession stand will be closing in ten minutes.." I wonder if, in the future, I shall feel such foolish sentimentality about the mega-booths of today.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Barry Floyd
Phenomenal Film Handler
![](http://www.film-tech.com/ubbmembers/385.jpg)
Posts: 1079
From: Lebanon, Tennessee, USA
Registered: Mar 2000
|
posted 11-09-2000 08:39 AM
I've walked the grounds of many "dead" drive-ins... and your correct, it is an erie feeling. When I purchased the projection equipment from the defunct "Woodzo Drive-In" in Newport, Tennessee, the theatre had been closed for over a year but when you walked in the door to the concessions/projection building everything was there waiting for the next show. There was still food in the concessions stand (i.e. 14 month old Nacho Cheese - still in the warmer), and trailers still threaded on the platter. It looked like they just walked out and and never came back. By the time we had finished loading the equipment into the truck, dusk had fallen over the lot. The massive 104' concrete screen stood silently across the field - it seemed to know it would never see another film projected across it's face. I imagined what it would have been like to see the lot filled with cars and children playing on the lawn beneath the screen. Like Rick said... if you listen closely.. you could hear them. Now months later, I'm faced with the decision to sell my home, move my family to the middle of "B.F.E." nowhere, and take a $300,000.00 gamble, to show movies in the middle of a corn field - hoping the patrons will come.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|