One of the most fascinating threads on this site...love the behind the scenes stuff you folks are texting about...keep it up..
Rob
Hey Rob. It's Rob. Nice to meet you Rob.
Im the Rob from Earth two..LOL..nice to meet you to Rob. We should have a thread like this so we can ask behind the scenes questions..like this one....how much $$$ do theaters get for each ticket? or is their money generated by concessions only?
Rob
How do you react if anyone tries to call you "Bob"? Generally I ignore them until they get the message. Otherwise I warn them that I only answer to "Robert" or "Rob". Over the years I've worked with two "Bob"s , and they were both complete idiots. Which is really bad for theatre managers.
As for movie tickets. It can vary wildly. Remember the first 8 - 10 percent goes to state and local sales taxes, depending on your location. The split between the exhibitor (theatre) and the film company is determined by the booking contract. Which can be done on a location by location basis.
In the DFW (Dallas/Ft. Worth) market, contracts were done on a zone basis. The cities were split up into zones usually corresponding to the large shopping malls, where most theatre chains had locations. During my time, the DFW market had a huge presence from UA, General Cinema (GCC), AMC, and Loews. Cinemark, which is headquartered in Dallas, became a major presence around 1990. All of them had at least one theatre in each zone. GCC sometimes had two theatres in a zone. If the first theatre was successful, they'd build a second one nearby. As a general rule, no two theatres in a zone would play the same movie.
The booking contracts were done on a percentage basis. With the film company geting the lion's share; usually 60 - 75 percent. And sometimes more. Usually the theatre got a higher percentage the longer a movie played. In the particularly luctrative zones, the theatre companies might negotiate a lower percentage for themselves to guarantee getting a particular movie versus their competitors. The theatre would make their money if the film had a long run. Sometimes this can get theatres in trouble if they do something illegal. When I was with GCC they had a practice called "guaranteeing grosses" with the film companies. They would guarantee that a certain location would make at least a certain dollar amount and would promise a huge percentage of that amount to the film company. Essentially a bribe.It finally caught up with them the Summer of 1990. Ever heard of a film called "Dick Tracy" with Warren Beatty and Madonna? That movie had been built up all year to be the huge blockbuster of the Summer. It tanked. Just about every GCC location played it. Every location lost money on the extra floor staff that Corporate told us to have on hand. GCC had to pay the film company money that the film never even made. Plus the theatres lost even more money on the films they gave up to play "Dick Tracy". I'm not completely sure but I believe that the government got wind of it and fined GCC even more money. The next year GCC started closing alot of locations, including mine. It took GCC ten years to die but it was that one act that killed them.
In 2002, both Regal Cinemas and UA declared bankruptcy. UA did because they had overextended themselves building new stadium-style theatres. Plus the CEO, Stewart Blair, stole $900 million of a deal with Merrill Lynch to build additional theatres. Regal was just stupid. They were too busy worrying about paperclips, coupons, and pennies from advertising deals than the big picture. They still are. I'm just waiting for Regal Entertainment Group to do something just as stupid.
I've gotta be careful. The Regal assasins might come after me for divulging sensitive data. They consider everything confidential company information.
(Ex United Artists - Regal Entertainment Group employee)
)
