What Theatres are Missing Out On

The times have changed.  Movie theatres are no longer simply places where people see movies.  The expansive arcades, cafes and sometimes even full restaurants are common features of theatres.  The main reason for this is to take advantage of every possible earning opportunity available to them.  Some theatres are showing operas, concerts, and special showings, as well as hosting meetings to try to make that extra dough.  What do I feel theatres are really missing out on though?

Sporting Events

Now I know that some theatres do show sporting events.  Actually, one of my local theatre chains (not a local chain, but the local theatres) show the Red Sox games on the big screen.  I think that’s awesome.  When you broadcast a sporting event on the big screen, there’s increased opportunities to sell concessions, and specialty items like posters and T-Shirts.

Basically, you’d be creating an in-game atmosphere for people somewhere else other than the game.  Can you imagine what it’d be like to have hundreds of fans gathering in one spot to watch the game?  Yes, you could go to the bar, but that’s not a friendly family atmosphere.  You could definitely bring families to the theatre to let them watch games.  For those locations that could sell alcohol, they could definitely bring about the bar scene if they wanted to.

TV Shows with Huge Followings

Here’s something I think could be really huge, and I thought about it because of the recent Sex and the City Movie, which was huge.  How many theatres do you think have showings with only a few people in them on weekday nights?  I think it’s safe to say that a lot of theatres do.  Now imagine that theatre filled with a couple hundred Star Trek fans.  Or maybe Simpsons fans.  I think that would be much more lucrative to a movie theatre than to show a movie that will only have a couple viewers.

How would I work it?  First of all, I wouldn’t charge admission.  I think that would defeat the purpose of heading out to see a TV show, since you can see it for free at home.  Next, I would offer discounted concessions for people going to see it, since the mark-up is already pretty big on concession items.  The increased amount of sales should make up the difference.  Finally, I think that this would draw people to go to the movies more often when they see that the theatre is a great place to be, or they have received great service there.

Video Game Tournaments

There’s a huge market out there with video gamers.  Video gamers always want the biggest and best of everything when they play, and it doesn’t get much better than a huge surround sound system and a huge screen.  With the quality of digital projectors, and wireless controllers, it wouldn’t be a problem to host a big video game tournament at a movie theatre.

I’m not saying that this should be something you do every week.  I would say a monthly or quarterly thing, where you charge people to enter the tournament, and offer theatre-related prizes, like free tickets or concessions.  Again, I’d go with discounted concessions, as you can be sure the gamers would get hungry and want something to snack on.  Personally, I think it’d be awesome to host a Halo 3 tournament at my theatre.

There ya have it.  What I think theatres are really missing out on.  There’s a lot of hidden potential that theatres just aren’t taking advantage of.  I don’t know if there are talks out there to get this stuff into theatres, but it’s something I feel should be considered.  What do you think?