How much does it cost a multiplex to screen a movie?
Sep 3, 2012, 10:14 am
#1
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How much does it cost a multiplex to screen a movie?
Many of the movies I go to at non-prime timings have very few customers? I have always wondered what it costs to screen a movie, pay utilities, etc. Anyone with knowledge about this?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Sep 3, 2012, 12:11 pm
#3
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I read somewhere that it is a (fairly high) percentage of the ticket sales, so no cost other than utilities to show a movie to an empty theater. The same article said that theaters can easily make more on concessions than admission fees.
Sep 3, 2012, 1:18 pm
#4
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Figure Ticket sales cover the cost of showing it. Maybe a little less. Concession is where they kill it!
A $5 soda that cost them $0.50 to put in your hand, a $10 'tub' of popcorn that cost $0.25 to make That $7.50 box of snow caps or jujubees? Yeah you know it cost them less then $1 to buy. That is why you bought it at Wal-Mart for $1.25 :P
A $5 soda that cost them $0.50 to put in your hand, a $10 'tub' of popcorn that cost $0.25 to make That $7.50 box of snow caps or jujubees? Yeah you know it cost them less then $1 to buy. That is why you bought it at Wal-Mart for $1.25 :P
Sep 3, 2012, 1:34 pm
#5
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Figure Ticket sales cover the cost of showing it. Maybe a little less. Concession is where they kill it!
A $5 soda that cost them $0.50 to put in your hand, a $10 'tub' of popcorn that cost $0.25 to make That $7.50 box of snow caps or jujubees? Yeah you know it cost them less then $1 to buy. That is why you bought it at Wal-Mart for $1.25 :P
A $5 soda that cost them $0.50 to put in your hand, a $10 'tub' of popcorn that cost $0.25 to make That $7.50 box of snow caps or jujubees? Yeah you know it cost them less then $1 to buy. That is why you bought it at Wal-Mart for $1.25 :P
Sep 3, 2012, 1:59 pm
#6
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I can't be completely specific but the general rule of thumb is .. The longer the movie is being screened the more money the theater makes. (i.e. after three weeks or more the venue takes a greater slice of the ticket sales) The owners would prefer you didn't come on opening weekend! As previously mentioned concessions make up the shortfall for most venues.
Sep 3, 2012, 2:58 pm
#8
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Ten people, especially if it's a half price period, is probably a loss. But they would not keep doing it if over time it didn't work out and they made money from screenings with only ten empty seats.
One theater near our old office would rent out the theaters starting at 8 or 9 for business meetings, so they were already open when the place opened for the early shows. Indeed, they had the popcorn going like crazy at eight for the later shows.
One theater near our old office would rent out the theaters starting at 8 or 9 for business meetings, so they were already open when the place opened for the early shows. Indeed, they had the popcorn going like crazy at eight for the later shows.
Sep 3, 2012, 5:04 pm
#9
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For major film studio releases at major US chain theaters, the way it frequently works: the first week has a very large percentage of ticket sales that go for the showing rights but no fixed release fee or a low fixed fee. The following week's screening rights are a lower percentage than the previous week. And so on for additional weeks until the minimum percentage of ticket sale revenue is hit under the contracts. The earliest week(s) of a release are generally tied to higher total dollar sales from concessions than later weeks of any given release's showing -- that helps the theater owners/operators somewhat.
Sep 3, 2012, 5:07 pm
#10
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For major film studio releases at major US chain theaters, the way it frequently works: the first week has a very large percentage of ticket sales that go for the showing rights but no fixed release fee or a low fixed fee. The following week's screening rights are a lower percentage than the previous week. And so on for additional weeks until the minimum percentage of ticket sale revenue is hit under the contracts. The earliest week(s) of a release are generally tied to higher total dollar sales from concessions than later weeks of any given release's showing -- that helps the theater owners/operators somewhat.
Sep 3, 2012, 11:17 pm
#12
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They must be loving The Oogieloves 
According to studio estimates, the colorful toddler-targeting entry ... earned a truly awful $448,131 from 2,160 theaters in its debut three-day weekend. That gross yielded a per theater average of $207. Yes, youre reading that correctly: $207!
Just how low is that? Lets pretend that the average ticket price for each customer was about $7 this weekend. That would mean that only 30 people saw Oogieloves at each theater across all its showings over the past three days.
Just how low is that? Lets pretend that the average ticket price for each customer was about $7 this weekend. That would mean that only 30 people saw Oogieloves at each theater across all its showings over the past three days.
Sep 4, 2012, 12:51 pm
#13
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When I was a very young man, I spent about a year managing theaters for ABC Intermountain Theaters in SLC and Twin Falls. I was the manager of the Centre Theater in Salt Lake when The Godfather opened in March, 1972. I had nothing to do with the negotiations, but the deal was that Paramount took 90% of the gross ticket sales for about the first 8 weeks, then the percentage dropped and the theater started making money.
This type of arrangement doesn't happen anymore for several reasons. First, our theater had an exclusive - nobody else in town showed the film. We had 4 showings a day (it was a 3 hour movie), and we sold out every one for several months (the theater held about 1400 with the balcony full). The movie stayed for almost 9 months, and the theater did quite well. Nowadays, this would have opened on multiple screens in multiple cineplexes around the town, and might have lasted 2 months max.
On the other hand, I booked a whole summer of daytime matinee movies for kids at the Orpheum Theater in Twin Falls. We would run 2 different movies a day and parents would dump their kids at our door for a couple of hours away from them, then the theater was prepared for our regular evening movie. Shows like "Cougar Country" and "Old Yeller" could be rented by the theater for as little as $25, and we sold a lot of candy and popcorn showing old family movies.
This type of arrangement doesn't happen anymore for several reasons. First, our theater had an exclusive - nobody else in town showed the film. We had 4 showings a day (it was a 3 hour movie), and we sold out every one for several months (the theater held about 1400 with the balcony full). The movie stayed for almost 9 months, and the theater did quite well. Nowadays, this would have opened on multiple screens in multiple cineplexes around the town, and might have lasted 2 months max.
On the other hand, I booked a whole summer of daytime matinee movies for kids at the Orpheum Theater in Twin Falls. We would run 2 different movies a day and parents would dump their kids at our door for a couple of hours away from them, then the theater was prepared for our regular evening movie. Shows like "Cougar Country" and "Old Yeller" could be rented by the theater for as little as $25, and we sold a lot of candy and popcorn showing old family movies.
Sep 4, 2012, 10:33 pm
#14
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Wednesdays are especially slow. It's not at all unusual to see a relatively high grossing movie drop all the way down to an average of $150 per screen for 2,000 screens on its third Wednesday. If the movie plays 4 times a day, that's about 4 people per showing, and clearly it happens a lot.