From HBGHSY
on Tuesday November 14, 2000 at 12:43 AM:
Once again the Cocoaplex has destroyed my movie going experience. I went to see Little Nicky with my son, and yep you guessed it the movie stopped and melted on the screen. Sat for 25 minutes until it started again. This is the second time recently I have seen a movie there that has had problems with it in under a week. DON'T GO SEE REMEMBER THE TITANS at cocoaplex, IT IS SCRATCHED. Every time you complain about there presentation they have an excuse, it is never there fault, it is always the equipment. I think the management here should be ashamed. I WONT BE BACK, AND I WILL TELL AS MANY PEOPLE AS I CAN ABOUT YOUR HORRIBLE THEATER.

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Where I was raised, actions speak louder than words. Despite the complaints the fellow went back twice in one week! Now do you really think the quality of presentation is really going to change his viewing habits?

I don't think so......

I'm convinced that the polyester film is to blame. In my experience it scratches extremely easily. I've been a projectionist for 32 yrs and didn't begin to have scratching problems until the advent of polyester based film.

Let me see....

Didn't THEY (cocoaplex) buy said equipment? As such, don't THEY maintain it?...Are THEY saying EVERYTHEATRE has all these problems? If not, then why are THEY so victimized?

Not knowing this theatre....I suspect, they bought junk, maintain it as such and is run by either the unknowing/uncaring or has some booth jockey that is stuck with a bad situation.

Steve

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This has happenend to us. When I call for replacement, I'm usually told "sorry, all the prints we have are out."

In a different thread in Ground Level I referred to a screwup a Loews megaplex did with Made. Since that happened that Loews megaplex has not run a single arthouse picture (which Made was). I don't know if anyone in distribution lurks around Film-Tech but I do know that scenario has come to pass. Imagine having to open Ghosts of Mars on 2 screens!

"It's the equipment's fault." OK. Mabye partially. Flat and/or scratched rollers will scratch film. But it's up to the people to replace them! That is the exact situation I am currently dealing with at my theatre. 99% of our rollers look like . Our tech won't order new ones! Ugh.... So I have to look elsewhere for replacements, which is what I'm doing. Everyone at my theatre blames our scratched and dirty prints on our shitty equipment. The more I work there, the more I like our equipment and the more I am convinced it is not shitty. All it takes is a team of caring operators who know what they are doing and know how to handle film properly.

a) If it is a second run cinema, they should be getting a replacement before general release (though we all know that is usually impossible)

b) The team should be instilled with good film handling skills, dont let it drop on the floor, triple check your lace up's, dont start from the computer etc etc etc... (AND DONT LET YOUR FLOOR MANAGER ANYWHERE NEAR YOUR BOOTHS!)

The only theater I can visit in Oklahoma where I know for sure care is put into presentation quality is the Carmike 8 here in Lawton, but then a friend of mine runs that theater. What is the average movie goer supposed to do?

I'll tell you what they are doing. They are buying up lots of those little $400 home theaters in a box and watching DVDs at home. When movie theater management decides to cut staff back further and further just to please shareholders, to where the same guy running the projectors is having to tear tickets and work the refreshment counter, you just know the quality is going to slip. Cutting all those costs on staffing and letting show quality erode is just going to make a lot more people stay at home and wait for the DVD. If a movie I want to see doesn't play at the Carmike 8, chances are I will wait for it to come out on DVD. I am not wasting $7 on visiting a dump.

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I think in the near future movie theaters will become synonymous with fast food restaurants. You get the same feeling when you walk into one.... sloppy preperation, rushed service, thawed out product, trash everywhere, no employees over the age of 21 and the fact that nobody seems to know what they are doing, even the managers. Who knows, maybe theaters will just go all the way in that direction and stop hiring people who speak english.

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I've been pleasantly surprised with most theatres in my area recently. I know that both Regal and Carmike are in bad financial shape, but three of the five theatres in my area have a higher presentation quality rating this year (so far in 2001, using my review system at hsvmovies.com ) than in 1998, 1999, or 2000. I've not seen a significant "drop-off" in presentation quality recently at any theatre here in Huntsville or Decatur, and have data to support that claim.

There is one location that has had truly awful presentation quality, and that is the Carmike 8 in Decatur, AL. The management and staff there have no clue, but the 10 managers before the current one during the past 4 years didn't do all that hot a job, either. If it weren't for the "1.85:1-only" screens at the Regal Hollywood 18 and Regal Madison Square 12 theatres here in Huntsville, that Carmike 8 would have no trouble being the worst theatre. People still flock to it when they have popular movies, though. People still flock to the Hollywood 18 or Madison Square 12, not caring that they may be missing 23 percent of the image. As long as customers don't care, these theatres will continue to get away with having these problems.

As far as the theatre companies and most customers are concerned, presentation does not matter. That's why we're stuck with Cobb syndrome (1.85:1-only) here in Huntsville and crummy Carmike 8 in Decatur.

Those of us that appreciate and notice "Film Done Right" are in the minority. The group here in this forum is not typical of a random sample of the theatre-going population. In fact, we're the opposite, and I feel we're fighting a losing battle.

The group of theatre personnel that participates here and care about the presentation quality in their theatres are also in the minority, unfortunately. If all theatre managers were Film-Tech types, then very few presentation problems would exist in most theatres.

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Evans, are the 3 theatres that have the higher rating this year Regal? Our Booth Certification Program is only a little over a year old right now, and its very purpose is, of course, to improve presention. So that may have something to do with it.

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Two are Regal and one is Carmike. For those interested, I've listed the year-by-year ratings below. Basically, take the ratings as showing the average number of points taken off per showing due to defects or distractions. A rating of -1.0 would mean that on the average, there is one very small defect per showing (a very good rating), where a rating of -8.0 means that several defects (8 points worth) are present on the average during each show, which is a terrible rating. I put the letter grades beside each rating since the human brain tends to interpret those more easily than pure numbers. For more details and full notes on every presentation attended, go to my WWW site in my signature.

I challenge both Regal and Carmike to try rating their own presentations using a system like mine to see if their results are similar to mine!

Here are the numbers:

Regal River Oaks Cinema 8 (Decatur, AL):

Overall rating: -0.5 [A+] (By far the best of the 5 theatres)
2001 rating (so far): 0.0 [A+] (Perfect score so far this year!!!!)
2000 rating: -0.7 [A+]
1999 rating: -0.7 [A+]
1998 rating: -1.5 [A]

Carmike 10 (Huntsville, AL):

Overall rating: -1.7 [A] (Second best rating of the 5 theatres)
2001 rating (so far): -0.9 [A+] (Outstanding job this year)
2000 rating: -2.5 [A-]
1999 rating: -1.6 [A]
1998 rating: -2.0 [A]

Carmike Century Cinema 8 (Decatur, AL):

This theatre manages to have awful scores even without a facility deduction pulling them down.

overall rating: -8.1 [D+]
2001 rating (so far): -8.4 [D]
2000 rating: -8.1 [D+]
1999 rating: -9.2 [D]
1998 rating: -7.2 [C-]

Regal Hollywood 18 (Huntsville, AL):

Note: 47 percent of the movies released to the market here since July of 2000 have been scope and 53 percent have been flat. The facility deduction (currently between 7.0 and 7.1) is calculated based on the percentage of scope movies and the number of auditoriums that lack adjustable masking, where everything is shown at 1.85:1. Auditoriums 3-8 and 11-16 have this deficiency.

overall rating: -8.8 [D] (-1.8 [A] without facility deduction)
2001 rating (so far): -9.1 [D] (-2.0 [A] without facility deduction)
2000 rating: -8.2 [D+] (-1.1 [A] without facility deduction)
1999 rating: -9.6 [D-] (-2.6 [B+] without facility deduction)
1998 rating: -10.6 [F] (-3.5 [B] without facility deduction)

Regal Madison Square 12 (Huntsville, AL):

See note on Regal Hollywood 18 for facility deduction explanation. Auditoriums 3-6 and 9-12 lack adjustable masking and are 1.85:1 only.

overall rating: -11.6 [F] (-4.5 [B-] without faciity deduction)
2001 rating (so far): -10.6 [F] (-3.5 [B] without facility deduction)
2000 rating: -12.8 [F] (-5.8 [C+] without facility deduction)
1999 rating: -10.9 [F] (-3.8 [B] without facility deduction)
1998 rating: -10.9 [F] (-3.8 [B] without facility deduction)

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Evans A Criswell
Huntsville-Decatur Movie Theatre Information Site