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Author Topic: Anyone close early today? Brandon Willis Expert Film Handler Posts: 216 From: Richmond, VA, USA Registered: Apr 2004 posted 01-22-2005 10:12 PM                     Anyone in the Mid Atlantic region - Did your theatre close early do to the inclement weather? Mine closed at 8:00 PM today. I managed to have Saturday off, however, but Cory called me and told me about it. I think the whole district closed early but I could be wrong. And I scheduled all those extra people for nothing...  |  IP: Logged Richard C. Wolfe Master Film Handler Posts: 250 From: Northampton, PA, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 01-22-2005 11:24 PM                        I closed my single screen theatre after the completion of the matinee showing. Our regular schedule is to run a Sat. matinee at 1:00 and then return in the evening for shows at 7:00 & 9:15. We had a private birthday party at 10:00 AM until noon. It was already snowing during that. At the 1:00 show start time we had about 2 inches. 21 people showed up for the matinee. Had it not snowed, I would have expected a little over a hundred. By the end of the show it was up to aprox. 4 in. The forecast was for heavy snow late in the afternoon into the evening with a total of 12 to 15 inches. I think it was a good idea to close as we had about 8 inches by the 7 PM start time. The town had already declared a snow emergency which prohibits parking on Main Street and the parking lot behind the theatre won't be plowed until after they plow all the streets. So there was no place for any one to park. I listed the closing on our telephone message, the website and sent out a special edition of our e-mail newsletter. I'm curious as to what others due to inform your patrons that you're closing, when bad weather forces you to do such. I went to the Carmike website to see if they had closed but couldn't find anything stating such. I guess since it's a national site, it would be difficult to list closings in specific locations.  |  IP: Logged Chris Brown Expert Film Handler Posts: 105 From: Fairport, NY, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 01-23-2005 12:43 AM                        We stayed open all day...of course it was pretty slow. But I was surprised at the number of people willing to brave the weather just to see a movie!  |  IP: Logged Jarryd Beard Expert Film Handler Posts: 229 From: Hellertown, PA Registered: Jul 2004 posted 01-23-2005 01:03 AM                     I drove for a half hour in shitty snow to see a 10:00 Phantom tonight. Unfortunately, when I got to the Destinta Theatre in North Versailles, PA, there was a sign on the door saying they stopped selling tickets for shows past 9:15. Phantom was only 45 min later. I guess the part that pissed me off was the fact that I called the theatre around 8:30 and they gave me no indication they would be canceling shows. The woman said to show up early b/c the last shows start early. Oh well, went to the 10:30 at Loews (The same one that had the riot mentioned in this forum). Speaking of which, I plan on asking a technical question pertaining to why Loew's presentation was so shitty tonight. I'll save that for the Film-Handler's forum maybe sometime tomorrow. Too tired tonight.  |  IP: Logged Mike Williams Master Film Handler Posts: 255 From: Knoxville, TN Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-23-2005 07:47 AM                     quote: Richard C. Wolfe I'm curious as to what others due to inform your patrons that you're closing, when bad weather forces you to do such. I went to the Carmike website to see if they had closed but couldn't find anything stating such. I guess since it's a national site, it would be difficult to list closings in specific locations. With the national chains that post showimtes/sell tickets on services like Fandango and moviefone, usually simply cancelling the show in the POS system takes the showtime off the website. With Regal theaters, the showtimes on the website come straight from Fandango or movietickets.com depending on the theater.  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 01-23-2005 09:06 AM                    It kills me how the corporate bone heads force a theater to stay open in situations like this. Our theater doesn't have the best attendance in the world anyway, we're in an upscale yuppy town, and when it snows like this, no one goes anywhere. We know that. Corporate just thinks we're another mega plex. (We're not, we're a multiplex, but they treat all theaters like megas these days.) And even tho the only people who made it to the theater to work were one manager and one concessionist (who was a trainee), they still made the theater open - and we had a whopping attendance of 22 people for the matinee. [ 01-23-2005, 02:31 PM: Message edited by: Mark J. Marshall ]  |  IP: Logged Jarryd Beard Expert Film Handler Posts: 229 From: Hellertown, PA Registered: Jul 2004 posted 01-23-2005 10:44 AM                     I think changing a website would be hard simply because many of the webmasters probably aren't updating on weekends. Carmike posts all of their showtimes for the rest of the week on Fridays. I think the least theatres should do is place a message on the show announcer. That way, people calling the line for movie times would find out. In my past experience, Carmike's been pretty good with letting theatre managers make the call. They've cancelled shows for snow as well as a water main break. On all cases, the district manager has backed the manager up. [ 04-13-2005, 01:26 PM: Message edited by: Jarryd Beard ]  |  IP: Logged Brandon Willis Expert Film Handler Posts: 216 From: Richmond, VA, USA Registered: Apr 2004 posted 01-23-2005 11:19 AM                     If we were to cancel only a few shows, like the last 4 or 5 shows of the night, we can just lock them out in the POS, in which case the Fandango website will tell you that the show is sold out if you try to buy a ticket. When we cancel entire sets, however, we cancel them in the POS, in which case they won't show on the website. As far as letting everyone know that we closed early, we simply put it on the showtime recording and put up signs on the front doors. I called some of the other theatre's recordings in the area and the only other one that said they would close early was the Regal Short Pump 14. Here's the funny part: Our recording says "This recording is good for Saturday January 22 and Sunday January 23. Due to inclement weather, we will close at 8:00 in Saturday January 22." I guarantee people are going to come up there on Sunday and say "It says you're closing early today on the recording."  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 01-23-2005 12:12 PM                     We opened at the scheduled time and ran everything as scheduled, including the midnight which was the best attended movie of the day. We didn't have the organ overtures before the 7.15 and 9.30 since the organiat didn't want to drive in from Virginia Beach. Our in town location works in our favor on days like that. Quite a few walk. Six guys rode in the back of a pick up from the University of Richmond to the "Big Lebowski" midnite. Two of them were in T-shirts on a 16 degree night! If electricity is on we're usually open. [ 01-24-2005, 07:41 AM: Message edited by: Bill Enos ]  |  IP: Logged Brandon Willis Expert Film Handler Posts: 216 From: Richmond, VA, USA Registered: Apr 2004 posted 01-23-2005 12:52 PM                     Dang. You guys ran "The Big Lebowski" as the midnight last night? I had that rarest of things for theatre managers, a Saturday off, and I was going to go check that out but I assumed you guys were closed. I guess that's why it helps to call the theatre! [ 01-24-2005, 02:17 PM: Message edited by: Brandon Willis ]  |  IP: Logged Jason Black Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1723 From: Myrtle Beach, SC, USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 01-23-2005 08:06 PM                        Jarryd, Carmike does not input showtimes on Friday for the entire week. Often, times are put in on Monday, and most often, on Tuesday for the upcoming weeks schedules. Not sure how it works in other divisions/districts, but in ours, the District secretary is responsible for input of showtimes, unless a city manager is available, in which case he/she is responsible for all his/her theatres schedules. Our site allows for immediate changes at any time. Cold Fusion is great that way.... I change my own as needed. It is also the Division level manager who makes the call on ANY closings, and, from what I now gather, ANY decisions are made from the desk of the COO, Gary Krannaker. Furthermore, it is my understanding that due to some bonehead in the company not following directions, Mr. Krannaker will set ALL showtimes for the ENTIRE company. *EDITED with content removed* [ 01-24-2005, 08:52 PM: Message edited by: Jason Black ]  |  IP: Logged Jarryd Beard Expert Film Handler Posts: 229 From: Hellertown, PA Registered: Jul 2004 posted 01-23-2005 09:23 PM                     I accidently deleted the text of this post. My apologies. [ 01-23-2005, 10:47 PM: Message edited by: Jarryd Beard ]  |  IP: Logged Brent Neal Jones Expert Film Handler Posts: 211 From: Ennis, T.X., USA Registered: Nov 2001 posted 01-24-2005 12:59 AM                     Was the post that bad? I hear 'ya Jason. That's why I'm with the theatre I'm at now. I don't know that you can get much better than a family operation. I've been watching and reading you for a while and I've got to ask, What in hells name is someone as smart as you doing at Carmike? !!  |  IP: Logged Gracia L. Babbidge Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 709 From: Bowdoin, Maine Registered: Aug 2000 posted 01-24-2005 08:56 AM                        Well, I'm working at a single screen (c/o booth) - with a 100 person capacity - so we are not frequently mega-busy. On Saturday we stayed open for all of our scheduled shows, knowing that people would turn up. We are within walking distance of Bowdoin College after all. And all but 2 people that came to our 9:00 show were students. Yesterday I answered at least a dozen calls between the time we opened and the end of the first show from people in a tizzy thinking that we'd be closed. One of the last callers got a less than cheerful response to the effect of "the power's not out, so of course we're open."  |  IP: Logged Jarryd Beard Expert Film Handler Posts: 229 From: Hellertown, PA Registered: Jul 2004 posted 01-24-2005 09:12 AM                     Sorry, I was fixing a typo in my post and the whole damn thing got deleted after accidentally highlighting the full text. I didn't have time to redo the post. I was just reporting that we did end up closing early Saturday night. Apparently, the plow only showed up once to take care of the parking lot. This also led to some serious bitching to the landlord. There were also several major accidents in the area. I'm unsure as to whether or not the other Carmike in town closed.  |  IP: Logged

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