THE 'SCENE' by Seymore Flix

'WEED' as a Cinema Concession Item

Washington State yesterday became the second State, after Colorado, to legalize marijuana.  To celebrate this historic occasion the makers of the docu film about the legalization, 'Mile High: The Comback of Cannabis' handed out free samples to anyone over 21 with a valid ID - whether or not you purchased an admission ticket.

"To take home and enjoy responsibly" stated Adam Hartle, producer of the film, about the free hemp. Now cinema owners may not be prone to sell cannabis for smoking - which is illegal in public venues - but how about edible weed-laced concession items, such cookies, brownies, cupcakes, chocolate covered buds etc. This could be a wind-full for cinemas. There is nothing better than sitting in a comfy seat while viewing a high-impact movie with great sound and image while high - oh, at least for some folks.

So, my cinema friends, consider this - Seymore Flix predicts you'll be seeing marijuana laced products at cinema concession stands in the near future. This could turn out to be great business if you have the right demographic.




Cine's New Tactic: Fewer Seats/More Profits

Butts have finally won out. The new trend in cinemas is larger, comfy seats and fewer as the large circuits retro their auditoriums.  Started by AMC Theatres - whose parent since 2012 has been the Wanda Group, a Chinese realty holding company, which purchased the U.S. cinema circuit for $2.6 billion - the strategy calls for a less-is-more approach.

AMC will be spending over $600 million to retro their auditoriums where is some cases up to two-thirds of an auditorium's seats are removed and replaced with loungers that fully recline.

Large exhibitors spent years building huge multiplexes with hundreds of seats in each auditorium - now that long-standing trend is falling to the demand for larger and more comfy seating by cinema patrons and AMC is responding as they believe it will, in fact, generate more box office admissions.  Banking on quality or quantity AMC management has plans to raise admission pricing to pay for the new seats but not until a year after the conversions - until patrons get used to and want to attend the cinema with the most comfort and best on-screen image and sound.  Attendance in renovated AMC auditoriums has leapt a  whopping 80% on average, despite the drastic reduction in capacity to sometimes fewer than 70 seats.

Where they have very busy venues in major markets, like LA or NYC, there is no need to convert to attract customers, so it doesn't make sense to cut seating capacity. However, in time, these cinemas will be retrofitted with seats that don't recline as far back, so less than half of the capacity is lost.

Removing seats and filling more of the remaining ones, is counter intuitive, but the data shows that the seating changes bring customers back more often and siphon traffic from competing cinemas in an area. Admissions in U.S. cinemas have been essentially flat over the last decade, there are no more butts coming through the door, so cinemas have to find something to get patrons to come back more often or pay more - it's that basic.

Improved seating, along with enhanced concessions, great sound and picture, and a clean/friendly environment is what cinemas need to continue to increase profits.

It seems other large circuits are following AMC in ramping up there reseating efforts. Both Regal and Cinemark have instituted reseating programs stating that reseated theatres attract more midweek audiences than normal theatres, and tend to draw more adults, who pay higher ticket prices than teens or young children.  AMC's plan is to increase admissions pricing by $1 - $1.25 after one year for the reseated auditoriums.

I attended a movie at one of the AMC reseated auds. The seats are full recliners with motorized leg/foot risers - very comfy.  Hmmmm, I think the airlines should take a page out of the cinemas' new seating playbook.


On-line Box Office Admissions Not All That Great

On-line cinema ticketing seems to have peaked

Contrary to popular belief, less than 24% of all cinema admissions are sold on-line.  That includes ticket services like Fandango and all cinema owned websites.  Cash or credit cards still far outweigh on-line sales and account for almost 75% of all ticket sales.  And there doesn't appear to be any indication that this trend in ticket purchasing  is going to change.

Of the on-line tickets sold, 46% were sold via direct through cinema websites.  31% via people being directed to a cinema's website through email flashes. The rest, about 23%, were sold through the internet ticket service companies like Fandango.

On-line cinema ticket sales are not that great in terms of tickets sold, the old way of paying in cash at the box office still reigns supreme.

by Seymore Flix, 
The go to guy for info on the cinema