Spidey did almost as much on Friday as it did on Wed & Thurs combined for me.

This has turned into an interesting and informative conversation about pricing. I charge less than competitors because we are not as modern and do not currently offer a presentation worthy of the same price. I hope to change that in the near future. Yes, Looney, I am in what used to be a mall and you are right that it is having a negative affect on revenue. I also ended a bargain night several years ago and agree with the rift raft comment. This is becoming scary, Looney hehe

I wish more people around here would carry a screwdriver because most of them have a screw loose.

LOL @ Jason. Lots of loose screws around here too. But most have odd size heads, and hard to find a screwdriver to fit!

Dave, the comments about pricing are based on my own experience and conversations I've had over time with a very savy drive-in owner. Who has owned many many theatres thru out his 40 plus yr stint in this biz. No article involved to read.

I raised prices over the past few years, a good solid 20%. At one point, I raised adult tickets 50 cents at one wack. Didn't hear one single comment about it. Results in the positive across board. Now kick myself for staying cheap all those years. Part of the reason, everytime I turned around my expense's was increasing, insurance took a huge jump last year, utility's jumped past two winters, property taxes, films co's taking a bigger cut than ever, etc, etc. My situation is in an area which is not in good economic shape if that helps.

I know the battle your fighting with your in-laws. The real "old-timers" don't understand that the theatre biz today really doesn't resemble at all what it was in their heyday. I know another drive-in owner that's near 80yrs old, and he still runs the place and books films like it was 1960. It hurts his bottom line, but you can't convince him of that. This is my two cents, If you run first run and if your not charging at least $4.50-$4.75 for kids, and $5.75-$6.00 for adults, your short changing yourself. Not too long ago, I used to cringe at the thought of charging more than a $1.50 for a 32oz drink, now I'm up to $2.50 and much better off for it. But I'm still $1.25 below what the mega charges for the same item.

Actually, the credit card info I was refering to, now that I think of it, I heard on the radio while listening to the Dave Ramsey finance show. Highlights are, people tend to spend 20%-30% more when buying with plastic, 63% of all retail transactions last qtr was made with plastic of some form, Customers are 35-45% more likely to frequent your business if you accept plastic.

Dave, I'm betting your competitions name starts with a K, if so, they wouldn't know a good presentation or good service if it hit 'em in the face. Take advantage of that.

Jason, I know a place you can get "good" used equipment for upgrading sound at reasonable prices. And their not that far from you. I'm in the process of doing so now. I have a garage full of equipment that just arrived waiting to be installed.

I was not impressed with my Spidey's Fri gross. Two week wonder......

Looney: Thanks but I am not interested in upgrading my current place at all. I hope to have better options soon.

My Saturday gross for Spidey bettered my Friday gross - although not by too much. Sunday will suffer due to the holiday. I stopped having a 9:00 show on July 4th because too few people were coming (fireworks are shot off across the street so parking lot is full of people in need of a screwdriver).

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My wife and I are running the business for her mom & dad. He has been in the business since he wes 14 or 15. (lied to get a job) So we fight them on the price thing all the time. They want to be as low as possible and we think if we charge just under going rates nearby we can get the revenue to upgrade systems etc. so we can compete with home theatre and megaplex.

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We have that internal squabble all the time here. My wife is the "consumer crusader" here at the drive-in... reluctantly agreeing to price increases about 2 years after I grumble that they're too low!

Over at our indoor, we opened with prices about $1 below the cheapest first runs in the county. I thought that might make a difference... it didn't. I never perceived a substantial part of my client base was attending my theatre because of the price. When I raised it up to match the chain, my attendance numbers stayed the same and not one person mentioned the increase. The chain has raised their prices once since then... and I've been right up there with them.

Charge what the market will bear... I guess... bargains don't seem to put a positive spin on the bottom line.

Yes, it seems people are more.....I hate to say careless, but it appears are more careless with money than ever before. If they have the urge to do something, and they have the cash or the plastic in their pocket, they do it regardless of price. (Granted, as long as the price isn't highway robbery)

I cringe at the concession stand all the time, when a family comes thru the line, with kids, and they keep ordering and I see the tab climbing above $25 or $30. I brace for a complaint when we tell them the total.....and it never comes. They don't bat an eye.

10 years ago, we would get grumblings about the concession tab from time to time. But not today.

When the megaplex bill would of been 30-40% higher for the same order, I guess the mega has trained the customer to not be shocked at the concession tab.

OK ? about gate price for everyone, since it seams this has turned into that. Matinees... do you charge one price or have a price for adults, children, etc....

BTW Spider did better on Friday and Sat. but it was not a shrek2 for me. about 1/2 of what shrek2 did on its opening weekend. Partly I think because it was not on every screen everywhere.

Jack, here is one more note; I just figured out if we would have taken the modest price increase I wanted to for the opening of Shrek we would have grossed over 8K more at the boxoffice. So the film co's take some of that its still a lot to leave on the table.

I just use one ticket for all matinees since I charge the same price. I'm surprised the film companies haven't made us eliminate matinee pricing since they don't want us to have a bargain night or accept passes. Frankly, I wouldn't mind a nationwide elimination of the matinee discount. The cost factors for us are the same yet we get less money.

I would seperate the matinees by adult, child, etc but it makes it difficult since we are limited to 9 ticket classes. No idea why.

I just use one price for matinees....simply because that's the way the competition does it. And it helps in keeping transaction times low.

I have been just using two prices at night, but recently started considering charging 25 to 50 cents more for seniors at night.

Spidey has not been impressive for me either, as I feared.

Been a lackluster summer so far, and I'm afraid it's over now that Spideys opened. Once the olympics kick in, we are toast.

Spidey did decent here but am sure it will drop like all movies do. Anchorman will open decent but will not hold up. I think I, Robot will do decent but again, all these movies are in and out after a coupla weeks. Movies do not have legs any more for the reasons Looney mentioned in a previous post.

Did you see the end of the credits of Dodgeball? LOL that was funny!

It wouldn't matter so much that films don't last more than 2wks, if the studios would just release more high (or just good) quality product that keep the crowds streaming in, especially more that appeal to adults rather than just kids & teenagers (which generally don't spend just a whole lot in the concession stand around here).

I too have been trying to convince our owners and my general manager that we need to get into the 21st century by accepting credit/debit cards. Myself, I very rarely carry cash or a checkbook anymore. Its just a lot easier to "whip out" the 'ole' debit card right there rather than drive around to find an ATM that doesn't have a sur-charge just to get cash.

Spidey has done consistent business here. Sunday of course was way down due to the holiday, but we made up for it on Monday. I'm just waiting to see if there is going to be at least one "sleeper" hit this summer that the chains don't book heavily on, but so far nothing.

Well Spidey almost made it 2 weeks. I don't know if its the heat wave here or what but it has dropped like a rock for the past 2 days. This week is the worst Mon & Tuesday we have had all summer.

Spidey's dropping like a rock for me as well.
Heat wave's generally help, not hurt.
Another 2 week wonder bites the dust.......this summers been full of them.

Spidey's dying here also. Are these two week wonders this year doing as much business as a 4 or more week film of years past. It seems improbable that a film will have legs like they used to.

Nope two week wonders are not doing as much over all for me as something with legs would of done or does do.

This keeps up, we'll be back to changing films twice per week like we used to do in the "good old days".

can someone send me a shovel please so I can bury it now. Dead down here too.

Let's see, I see another two week wonder in sight..... I Robot,,,,,and then I see a one week wonder right behind it.......catwoman...meow. Once the boys get their fill of looking at cleavage, it's all over.
Maybe once we get out of this loud and obnoxious stage there will be some films with legs hopefully. The Village.....maybe?

If I see Halle on another talk show demonstrating her whip handling ability, I'm gonna hurl. Do the idiots in the film promotion depts not have ANY imagination these days?

A meeting of the minds must go like this: "Gee, to promote Catwoman, lets have Halle booked onto every talk show in existance and and THEN have her do the exact SAME whip routine on all 1,800 talk shows."

Catwoman will be lucky to be a one day wonder. It's official - Hollywood has run out of ideas for movies.

Not that they've totally ran out of ideas, but they have ran out of writers and directors that can develop characters the audience cares about.
Enough already with seeing how many explosions per minute they can put to film and do we need another extended cgi fight sequence. Boring.....
So much crap, and too few toilets.

And those few toilets are backed up.

The best quality movies rarely open in the summer. The Notebook was a rarity but would have done much better opening in the fall.

Even when they have a unique idea and produce a decent movie, they ruin the whole process by making a sequel (The Ring 2 comes to mind).

Digital surround sound has evoked the explosions and taken the attention away from the content.