As the title implies there have been some change over the last few years in the attendance pattern at Western Film. This post was prompted by a commenter who mentioned how full the theatre seemed on a recent Tuesday. The theatre was actually only about 1/3 full. (130 patrons). When I first started in 200o Western Film had the same patterns most theatres had. Busy weekends and Tuesday, quiet other nights. We actually used to sell out the theatre on a regular basis for Tuesday. A few times we turned away as many as 150 people.
We used to have no-shows (no customers) on a regular basis on Monday. At certain times of the year on Sunday and Monday we could use only two staff instead of the usual 3.
The patterns gradually changed for the reasons I will postulate below. Note, I'm talking patterns not total attendance.
Most theatres stopped having a discount Tuesday so the concept wasn't as familiar to everyone any more.
The Internet, DVD etc has widened people's entertainment options so they didn't just come on the weekends.
I think this is the big one- additional night classes. The number of night classes has been steadily increasing which moves people around. Someone who has a Tuesday night class has to go another night to see the 7:00 film. Conversely a lot of people are on campus for night classes go to a late show afterward. My staff is kind of a microcosm of this, I have been having steadily more nights being booked off for classes and literally have had to hire because I was short staffed certain nights. This term I can only schedule three people on Thursday instead of the usual four because so many have night classes.
So over time business has spread out. Tuesday is still the busiest night but seldom sells out. Friday and Saturday are still busy. Sunday and Monday are unpredictable but we need three staff and have only had a couple no-shows in the last couple years.
Wednesday and Thursday have become very busy nights, often busier than the weekend. In another example of a pattern changing. Wednesday used to be really busy relative to Thursday. I would usually put 4 staff on Wednesday and 3 on Thursday. A couple years ago the pattern changed and Thursdays became the busy night. Now they have evened out which I'm attributing to an increased number of Thursday night classes.
Overall we are getting about the same number of people but spread out over the whole week. I have to admit I don't miss sell-outs, there were not fun at all.
4 comments:
Wow... I guess I'm always at the unpopular shows, because in my experience (other than this tuesday) whenever I'd consider it relatively full was when there would be more than 30 people... There has actually been a screening I can recall where it was only me and my friend and a couple other people...
I guess I quite enjoy the empty houses, as there are no anxious leg syndrome people around, incessantly tapping their feet, absolutely oblivious to the infuriating distraction they are producing for other patrons.
Thanks for a full post in reply to a comment... it was actually really interesting :)
During the past fall I used to come every Tuesday, trying to bring with me some people. =P
However, this term I had TAing on Tuesdays, so I had to change my weekly visits to Western Film to Thursday. Bad point: some people couldn't make it on Thursdays. =(
Now that I'm almost finished with my TAing I'm gonna move back to Tuesdays and try to maintain that they free of any other commitments.
This was a really interesting post. I should go to the theatre on Mondays then - I hate the crowds!
Btw, here is a plug to play the Diving Bell and the Butterfly. It is a beautiful movie!
Very interesting post indeed, I would not have anticipated that but I think your reasoning is sound.
But come on...you're telling me that our sold-out nights weren't some of the most exciting in your motion picture exhibition career? Sheesh!
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