Sun-Ray struggling?

[John P]

Sun ray is having a promotion now. 2 free movie passes with the purchase of the $25 gift card.

[ben says]

San Marco is extremely successful at playing into what that areas demographic wants. San Marco/Miramar/Lakewood/St. Nicholas is full of young families with kids....hence every other movie, it seems, is a kids movie. If they aren't playing a kids movie, they're usually playing a mega-hit that is doing equally well at Tinseltown.

For better or worse, that's what separates it from Sun-Ray. Sun-Ray is 'fing awesome, probably the coolest little movie theatre I've ever been to. Unfortunately, not sure how you can make money doing what they're doing unless you play to what the crowd wants.

[Bridges]

I absolutely love Sun-Ray.  It try to make it there as much as I can, but end up not making it as much as I would like.  I think this is something that they can work through (but I don't know the financials).  Hopefully, they can find a good mix of hits, indies, specials, and off-beat flicks. 

I'd love to go to the hooky with Tarantino day, but, I can't play hooky. 

If you follow his facebook, and talk to them, you'll see that they are trying to find the pulse of the city.  They get requests all the time for specific indie flicks, then no one goes.  People always complain in Jacksonville, and this isn't limited to just films, that we don't have things that other cities have, but we do, it's just that you have to find it.   

Also, some of the local media should be ashamed at how they treat the Sun-Ray.  The Folio has twice listed wrong times and wrong movies for them.  Once saying other theaters were carrying the movie when Sun-Ray was the only one.  Folio is the place a lot of people look to for these kinds of movies.

[ben says]

^ +1

[PeeJayEss]

Why not some kind ticket threshold for bringing in particular movies, like groupon, etc do with "deals." If someone requests a movie, add that deal, and require pre-purchase of a certain number of tickets before bringing it in. If it doesn't hit the number, you don't get it. Then, whoever wants to see it will be your promoter. If they want it, they need to help get people committed to seeing it. It could make it fun to try and pull a certain movie you want to see.

Also, the website could use some work.

And I don't know how obtaining the rights to movies works and all that jazz, but it seems showing the same movie for every showtime for two weeks or more, when you only have one screen, is a bit long. Either a couple different movies throughout the week if one is going to run that long, or run it for less time. Killing the Softly is probably a bad example since no one is seeing it, but even Avengers, did that have packed houses the whole time? Again, the length might have something to do with the cost of getting these movies, etc (mechanics I know nothing about).

[funwithteeth]

Someone can better provide the specifics, but the major studios generally require that theaters show their movies a certain numbers of times over a specific period. (Two weeks, I think.) The downside of being a single-screen theater having to contend with this way of doing things is if a movie bombs, you, the theater owner, are stuck playing a bomb for those two weeks.

But hey, I saw Killing Them Softly at Sun-ray and liked it, so Tim did right by me!

Also, there's a kind of group-booking website called Tugg, which I know Tim has mentioned a few times on Facebook. I don't know how much/if any business they've gotten because of it.

[ben says]

Why not some kind ticket threshold for bringing in particular movies, like groupon, etc do with "deals." If someone requests a movie, add that deal, and require pre-purchase of a certain number of tickets before bringing it in. If it doesn't hit the number, you don't get it. Then, whoever wants to see it will be your promoter. If they want it, they need to help get people committed to seeing it. It could make it fun to try and pull a certain movie you want to see.

Great idea!

Also, the website could use some work.

Don't really have a problem with the website...is it anything in particular about it that bothers you?

And I don't know how obtaining the rights to movies works and all that jazz, but it seems showing the same movie for every showtime for two weeks or more, when you only have one screen, is a bit long. Either a couple different movies throughout the week if one is going to run that long, or run it for less time. Killing the Softly is probably a bad example since no one is seeing it, but even Avengers, did that have packed houses the whole time? Again, the length might have something to do with the cost of getting these movies, etc (mechanics I know nothing about).

I, like you, don't know enough about the mechanics of how to work a movie theatre. That being said, San Marco has the same 1 screen 1 movie set up, and unless there's something we don't know, is successful at it. Furthermore, I remember during the Hunger Games, that place was packed for over 2 weeks straight.

[Tacachale]

For one thing, showing a film during its first run (when it gets its national release and is most profitable) costs a lot more than showing it later. Also, studios sometimes have rules about how long you have to screen their picture, and whether you can show anything else on the same theater during that time. We show movies once a week at UNF, but we have to get them after their first run partially for that reason. I expect Sun-Ray probably did well with the Avengers, but when something they pick turns out to be a flop, they're stuck with it for weeks anyway.

Bridges, you may be on to something with that "ticket threshold" idea. You should bring it up with Tim. It may be difficult to pull off since they have to decide their schedule so far in advance, but it may be worth looking into for them.

[Bridges]

Not a bad idea.  Like a kickstarter but for the movies. 

Say something like "ok we need a certain amount of sold seats to offer this movie.  Hit this number by this date, and we can show the movie"

[blizz01]

Just saw this trending on Reddit (I may need to do this):
For my son's 13th birthday, I rented out a movie theater so he could play his favorite games on the big screen. Here are some pics
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1gmezd/for_my_sons_13th_birthday_i_rented_out_a_movie/