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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Topic: No movie schedule in Honolulu's newspapers anymore
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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God
Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted 07-14-2016 06:31 PM
A while back, Regal dropped publishing their movie schedule in our major newspaper, the Honolulu Star Advertiser and Honolulu's other major exhibitor, Consolidated Theatres operated by Reading International also did the same two days ago.
I remember when I was young, I used to go first to the almost full page movie section in both of our major newspapers at that time, the Honolulu Advertiser and the Honolulu Star Bulletin and enjoy looking at the display advertisements. On Fridays and Sundays the section would be full page the the ads were bigger The Waikiki, Kuhio, Princess, Hawaii, King, Queen, Palace and sometimes the Liberty would each have their movies advertised in a display ad everyday. Only the neighborhood theaters like my hometown theatre, the Waipahu would have their movies and playtime listed only.
I guest the exhibitors feel the internet is the way to inform the public what they are playing but I feel for the people who love movies but do not have a computer.
-Claude
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Justin Hamaker
Film God
Posts: 2253
From: Lakeport, CA USA
Registered: Jan 2004
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posted 07-14-2016 07:15 PM
We dropped our ad in the local paper about 3 years ago. Prior to doing so we surveyed our customers and found that close to 75% got show times online. Of the remaining 25%, many were from our show times recording, driving by the theatre, or from word of mouth. Only about 5% of our customers were getting show times from the newspaper, and of those something like 60% also used the internet and other sources.
With this data we were able to calculate out that our ad in the newspaper cost in the ballpark of $1.25 per ticket generated. And many of those tickets were senior citizens. So roughly 17% of the revenue from each of those tickets went to the newspaper ad. Needless to say it was obvious the newspaper ad had to go. For those customers who depended on the newspaper, we now send a schedule through the mail. In the 3 years we've had 15 people total sign up for this mailing, and 2 have since dropped off. It's probably been more than a year since we've even had someone ask about a listing in the news paper.
It's a similar story with our show times recording. We used to have 4 incoming lines and received something like 3000-4000 calls a week. We have dropped down to just 2 lines and we are only seeing about 200-300 calls a week, even on really busy weeks.
Unfortunately the phone companies and newspapers are driving these decisions by driving rates up to the point that eliminating these costs makes sense. When I was a kid, I know movie listings would actually drive newspaper sales, and many papers provided the listing for free for this reason.
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Mitchell Dvoskin
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1869
From: West Milford, NJ, USA
Registered: Jan 2001
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posted 07-15-2016 10:29 AM
Years ago, there used to be "press books" sent out to all the locations that booked a specific film. They contained information about the film, faux news stories you could provide to local newspapers, ordering information on all the types of promotional items that were available (poster sizes, banners, standees, radio spots, etc), ideas for theatre managers to promote the film, and of course add slicks for the film in various sizes. In later years, these "press books" dwindled down to mostly just add slicks.
Do these still exist for current films?
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Scott Norwood
Film God
Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 07-16-2016 03:23 PM
I have a pretty ratty book of advertising artwork for Bonnie and Clyde that I found in a theatre attic. I think that I paid the theatre owner $10 for it in the '90s.
Does anyone still do movie press kits? The ones from the '90s and earlier were interesting, with B&W stills, color slides, and press releases. Last I heard, most were on CD or DVD now, so printing the photos required a trip to the local photo lab (and payment by the theatre, not the distributor, for the prints).
When I was submitting two short films that I made to festivals a couple of years ago, I was asked once or twice about press kits (for a short film? really?). The ones that actually screened the films were happy with a few scanned stills that they could use in their program books. Oddly, one asked for a trailer (how does one make a trailer for a five-minute short?). I told them that I didn't have one....
As for movie times in newspapers, I am sure that this is a cost-saving move as newspaper circulation goes down and advertising rates go up. People without computers can always call the theatre by telephone, although this is admittedly annoying for large multi-screen theatres with long lists of movie times.
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Jack Ondracek
Film God
Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002
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posted 07-16-2016 08:15 PM
Prior to '86, I also did ads the hard way... press books, grid paper, line tape, blue pencils, exacto knife, rubber cement and a nice drawing board.
When we took our drive-in over in '86, the place was running 2-column display ads EVERY DAY. That soon dropped to weekends only. We had 12 lines on our phone system. Down the road, we had an opt-in fax page (we never did do mail). We reduced our line count as phone usage decreased. Now, it's just phone company voice mail on one line (multi user). We dropped the newspaper nearly 12 years ago, when they neglected to insert our ad (tried to charge for it though) and NOBODY asked about it. That alone saved me about $2,500 per month, as by that time, I was just running small directory ads.
Today, Facebook is our major connection to our customers. Behind that is an opt-in email sheet I send out each week... basically, a copy of our web site's front page. Our highway sign is passed by over 35,000 cars per day, and I suppose word of mouth fits in there somewhere. Phone usage has just a minimal influence on our business, but I keep it around as it does get used some.
My phone lines used to cost some $40/mo each, plus a raft of taxes and fees. That's gone, as well as the newspaper. Now it's $19 per month for the internet account and whatever my wife pays in for extra boosts on the Facebook page.
I do agree though. The old display ads were a lot of fun to look at, though they sure did take time to produce.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 07-17-2016 02:37 PM
I think the quality of advertising in movies has been on a downward decline for a long time. I think it has taken away some of the "big" buzz, hype or whatever you want to call surrounding movies versus that of a TV show. It seems like the movie poster of tomorrow will be a 150 pixel by 300 pixel thumbnail image for a web page or mobile phone app.
I really liked the big "stack" co-op ads in newspapers -the ones that would have a big poster image of the movie and all the theaters playing it listed below. They were even better when things like those big 70mm logos came into play. Those ads are still being placed in newspapers of the largest cities, even full page ads in some cases. Not as much work is being put into them anymore due to the decline in newspapers advertising. A lot of the sound & projection info has disappeared in such ads. Just plain location listings. Those kinds of ads are all long gone in the newspapers of many other cities. There has been no attempt to duplicate that kind of advertising online.
One of the things I also liked about the stack ads is you could immediately see which theaters were playing a certain movie and in which sound/projection format. A movie-goer could quickly size theaters up against each other and maybe try out a different theater rather than just driving to the nearest one.
Web sites have replaced theater directory ads in newspapers. Some of this is the fault of newspapers for gouging on the ad prices. Web sites can be updated more easily, more frequently and with no worry of a mistake getting printed and unable to adjust for a solid day or more.
I'm not a big fan of the new trend to replace 27" X 41" printed movie posters with HDTV screens showing electronic versions. While a HDTV screen rotated vertically might seem high-tech and slick, that screen doesn't have the resolution to do the imagery, graphics & type any justice. Credits at the bottom of the poster can end up looking pretty bad due to the limited resolution. I can see movie studios adjusting to that by either eliminating the credits or simplifying them so they can be bigger. But what we'll end up getting is something more plain. Movie poster art has already been on a downward decline anyway. So many of them just feature some actor's Photoshopped head and very little else.
I haven't seen as much movie advertising done "out of home" lately -things like billboards, bus wraps, giant posters in high traffic locations. So much of it seems to be devolving into ads just for computer screens, phones and tablets. There's nothing BIG about that kind of advertising. There's no epic scale to it.
Maybe all this is fitting with movies whose plot lines are churned out via the Save the Cat! templates and dialog watered down to people in China and elsewhere can understand it more easily.
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