Not Playing Outdoor Movie Theatre Marquees

[Terry Monohan]

Do any of you see what is missing with this photo taken this week at the Cinelux Scotts Valley 9 Theatres near Santa Cruz CA? No movies are listed playing inside. This old 1970's lit outdoor marquee is seen by thousands of people driving by everyday and yet a Now Playing feature has been missing. They used to advertise on the whole lit plastic letter tracks but in the last month just had a listing on the last three spaces of this tall marquee.

Now the cinema is advertising Coppola Wine on what was formally space for at least three movies on the lower side bottom were the wino sign is now. Is the Cinelux just a wine & beer rental place now? Are they being paid by the Coppola Wine company to have their company on the marquee?

I know some cities and states have new safety laws about climbing ladders ect. The last bottom three rows are very easy to change. They miss out of the free advertising outside . So many older movie theatres I notice around the country that still have a neon classic marquee that are still open and showing movies don 't bother to list what is playing inside these days. If they don't want to get a ladder they do make a pole that will change the letters from the ground. I think allot of this is just laziness on the theatre owners as they don't want to have a safety issue and take the time to change the marquee every week plus the cost of taking someone away from the candy counter.

Paul the owner of Cinelux tells me they are trying to get permits to get rid of the plastic letters and go for a digital marquee. Gone soon will be the nice old movie marquees that had different size color letters advertising what was playing inside. They just expect people to go on line to see the new features each week.

Till the Scotts Valley Theatres waits for a bright digital flashing non classic marquee they need to list a few of the new Summer movie playing inside not the wine and cocktails served.

[Frank Angel]

Use to be GREASE was the word. Now CHANGE is the word. A new, young director of the PAC here where I used to work, had been on site for about 6 months and she promptly eliminated the entire branching menu on the phone system that gave all the information -- titles, showtimes, ratings, theatres, etc. as well being able to reach various staff and department extensions. She said that using the telephone for that purpose was old school. "Everyone -- especially YOUNG people use their cell phone to get their information" she said. "No one is going to call on a telephone to get showtime information" (there was a hint of sarcasm on the word telephone). Luckily I just retired (53 years) so it's their ballgame now -- they can play it any way they want. Maybe Cinelux just found out that renting the place and selling wine was more lucrative than selling tickets to the movies. You hype what makes you bucks, I guess.

I always thought that Drive-ins missed a big opportunity when they ran only at night. When I worked at the Matsonian DI in Caldwell TX, I use to tell Mr. Matson that his concessions food was so good, he should keep the concessions stand open all day -- make it a full fledged restaurant. He was nearly 90 and I guess to "Old School" to listen to a snot nosed 19yr old like me, and from Brooklyn no less. What goes around comes around.

RE-TIRED
(rəˈtī(ə)rd/ adj
I do what I want,
when I want,
where I want.

Also see: Not my problem anymore.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

In Chicago proper, White Way Sign company used to do all the signage and changes to them due to Chicago mob, er... I mean city codes... But they went bankrupt in 2014, or about the time downtown Chicago theaters were basically gone. There are only three movie theaters left now and they are all live theaters with the exception of The Chicago Theater which can do live or film. So perhaps with these new rules in CA., owners have to hire a sign company to do the changes.

[Frank Cox]

Having spent enough time on a ladder chipping letters out of iced-over tracks in a howling wind (since you really can't leave "now playing" up until the next day after the movie has left) one of my very first decisions when I was designing my theatre was -- no marquee letter signs.

[Mike Blakesley]

I did our marquee myself until about 8 years ago when we started hiring a teenager to do it. Those kids are pretty bulletproof. The frozen letters can definitely be a pain. What's funny to me is, on the rare occasion when they aren't available, I can still do it faster than any of them can.

For a while we had a cute teenage girl doing the marquee and I had to go out there once in a while to chase off boys who would gather around the ladder to "help" her.

[Harold Hallikainen]

A new, young director of the PAC here where I used to work, had been on site for about 6 months and she promptly eliminated the entire branching menu on the phone system that gave all the information -- titles, showtimes, ratings, theatres, etc. as well being able to reach various staff and department extensions. She said that using the telephone for that purpose was old school. "Everyone -- especially YOUNG people use their cell phone to get their information" she said. "No one is going to call on a telephone to get showtime information" (there was a hint of sarcasm on the word telephone).

This reminds me of Kramer as Movie phone.

On marquee letters, we went to a movie in Berkeley CA. The movie start times were all odd times (like 7:32). I asked why. It turns out that they did not have enough zeroes or fives.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Our operations folks have just started collaborating with a teen girls STEM program to 3d-Print new colors and special characters for our Marquee.
Joan Jett was the first one to get colors. Red of course!

Thankfully rarely any snow or ice to deal with here. And yes that's our executive director Jim posing for a photo op.

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[Frank Angel]

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They scoffed at me when I wouldn't budge when they wanted to retire the curtain and masking motors when they needed repair and called me "Old School." So I had this button maid which I wore until my last day and retirement party.

[Jim Cassedy]

Yes, Terry, lots of people every day pass that marquee and the one on the front of the theater I'm at,
but most of them are looking at their phones, or watching where they're walking so they don't trip
over one of the winos or step in some mystery goop on the sidewalk. Even people driving past the
theater are too busy looking at their phones to notice an 'old style' marque these days.

Here in SF, OSHA stepped up their enforcement efforts a couple of years ago, requiring that anyone
required to climb a ladder over 6feet ( I think ) as part of their job had to attend a 'ladder safety'
class. (at company expense) If the ladder is above a certain height, the business is also supposed
to supply fall protection harness and equipment, as well as training on how to use it. (more $$! )

About 7 or 8 years ago, when I was doing some convention center work, I had to attend an all day
class in the proper inspection and use of ladders and safety/fall protection harnesses and equipment,
before The Union allowed me to work on some shows which required working on elevated lighting or
scenery grids. At the end of the class everyone had to properly put themselves into a safety harness,
climb a metal rope ladder up to a some gridwork suspended about 25 or 30 feet above the floor of the
convention center, pick up some tools from the grid, walk about 20ft to the other end of the grid and
then get lowered (hopefully gently) back to floor level by some team-mates who were manning the
harness ropes you were attached to. Fortunately, I'm not too afraid of heights, and I have a certain,
possibly naive faith that a safety apparatus is going to perform what it was designed for, so I made it
through the class & final 'test', although having to walk across a shaky lighting truss suspended by
cables about 30ft above the floor is something I'm glad I don't have to do on a regular basis.
I haven't had to do that sort of thing since I was in the military, over 30 years ago.

Despite their initial expense, I do think that the new whizz-bang brightly lit LED displays with their
animated fonts & graphics, are really what a theater marquee needs to get noticed these days.
A static 'letterboard' is easy to ignore and functionally invisible to most people who have their
attention diverted to their phones or the electronic map displays in most cars these days. But a
theater marquee with fancy flashing fonts & graphics, or even and old-style letterboard with a
flashy neon border or lettering, is much more likely to get attention, IMO.

[Ryan Gallagher]

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The launch of Purple colors for Majestic Ball tomorrow!

[Jesse Skeen]

I was gonna post here asking why theaters don't have marquees anymore. It seems just another corner being cut; driving by a theater I should at least know what's showing and maybe think about going back there (if the theaters here didn't suck, at least.)

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Yes, it seems as though no theaters install nice big marquees any more... I think one of the main issues is local signage ordinances have gotten way too strict on sign size allowances. Also, Movie chains likely have little interest in spending money on attorneys to get a variance so they can install one, but a smart movie chain (Does that even exist today?) building a brand new giant Plex can also negotiate that aspect with the city, or county before construction even starts. Those building at large shopping malls are usually stuck with what ever the mall allows. Around here, that's a sign or lettering that is in tune with the rest of the mall. Second, the cost of a nice large marquee is very high, no getting around that aspect even if you keep it very simple. Sinage is expensive, period. In many areas of harsh weather, the lighting stuff has a shorter life span as well. So that aspect of a marquee has to be maintained. Third is the cost to operate. While LED lighting can help keep that cost down, LED lighting is also expensive initially. So many if's and's or but's are involved, and it seems that theater chains can barely get new locations open any more. Personally, in this day and age, owning or building new Multiplex's is the last thing I'd be doing because of all the streaming going on.

[Ryan Gallagher]

I also expect if you run the numbers, drive-by/park-by signage advertising doesn't have the kind of conversion value that other more modern forms of marketing do these days. (Walk-by in high traffic areas is another story, and still works well I expect). They'd probably rather spend the advertising money elsewhere. But I agree, if you already have a marquee and lettering, and it's not an workplace safety issue to routinely use it, the old-school methods certainly don't hurt. Back in the day the signs was how you got people into the theatre, the posters were how you got them to come back.

Speaking of signage, I should snap a photo of our window applications at ground level promoting the summer series. They did an excellent job this year. Our old school poster boxes at street level tend to house custom posters showing a schedule of all our upcoming events and get rotated periodically. One day soon I expect those will get digitized. We have digital ones in the lobby for our house made event posters. But the classic poster frames still look good as they are.

[Scott Norwood]

One of my local theatres solved the marquee "problem" by just putting up "CALL FOR SHOWTIMES" on its marquee years ago. I think it still says this. Laziest move ever.

[Ryan Gallagher]

One of my local theatres solved the marquee "problem" by just putting up "CALL FOR SHOWTIMES" on its marquee years ago. I think it still says this. Laziest move ever.

At least it's not a giant QR code people have to attempt to scan while driving. ;-)