|
|
This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
|
|
Author
|
Topic: Jerry Lewis cinemas
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mitchell Dvoskin
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1869
From: West Milford, NJ, USA
Registered: Jan 2001
|
posted 02-11-2003 02:07 PM
Jerry Lewis Cinemas existed in the early to mid 1970’s as franchises, most of which were sold to people outside the industry who thought there was fame in riches in the exhibition business. Most of the theatres were either singles or twins. Many of their booths, at least here in NJ, had 2 35mm projectors consisting of Simplex 35 heads, Eprad Sabre Systems for film transport, and ORC lamphouses. The theatres themselves were fairly well designed to be run with a minimum of staff.
The problem that led to the chains failure was two fold.
- First, they would not book ‘R’ rated films, at a time the industry was changing to distribute mostly ‘R’s.
- Second, they did not have a product, other than Jerry’s name. In every successful franchise, you have a consistent product nationwide. Take for example McDonald’s. As a consumer, you know exactly what you are getting, what it will look, feel, and taste like no matter where in a given country you go. As a franchiser, you gain the benefit of scale, you can advertise regionally, nationally, because all your franchises sell the exact same products. Jerry Lewis Cinemas bookers still had to bid on film for each individual location, with different films playing at different theatres, with no exclusively. Therefore, they could never mount any kind of regional or national advertising campaign. You were selling the exact same product as your competitors. As a franchise holder, you were locked in to using and paying for the corporate bookers, you could not do it yourself or take your business elsewhere. I believe, but I am not sure, that you also had to buy your concession supplies from them. It was doomed to failure.
Jerry Lewis took the failure of the cinemas hard. He was sued by investors and franchise holders, and it took several years of his life to get this financial disaster behind him.
/Mitchell
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jack Ondracek
Film God
Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002
|
posted 02-11-2003 10:01 PM
My recollection of the Jerry Lewis program runs very much along what Mitchell related (good memory, by the way!).
The owners of the (only) theatre in the town I grew up in were approached about adding a J/L theatre. I don't recall any talk about concession requirements... setting up a national distribution network for Red Vines would have been interesting... but I do recall the strict guidelines, restrictions regarding ratings and the requirement that all booking be arranged through J/L. The booking issue was a huge negative to the local operator, because he had done his own for years.
Part of the package included some form of creative financing, with (of course) the J/L company carrying some kind of note after an investment of something along the lines of $10k or so in late '60s dollars. That, plus the franchise requirements would have really locked you up for a long time, even if the program had worked.
In the end, we passed on the "opportunity", and nobody else took them up. I've only seen one J/L cinema, which was in Roseburg, Oregon... built very much like earlier descriptions here, and now long gone.
| 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.
|
Home
![[puke]](graemlins/puke.gif)
or a 35mm set up usually with the baby ORC lamphouses. The situation lasted only a few years since most investors and buyers where poorly equipped to handle the business. Translux was also doing this at the time with a like concept. Jerry Lewis lent his name and was trying to interest producers to create family fare for the proposed cinemas. He distanced himself from the company when things began to fall apart.....I did several insurance adjustment claims for abandoned and vandilized locations. A few years later there was TDC which did the same thing with twins and fourplexes and they made an attempt to better train the people. I personally did more than 200 of these cinemas in the U.S. and Canada in the late 1970's - early 80's. 
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic