Date: Fri 25-Aug-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Edmond-Town-Hall-Theater-film

Full Text:

Sagging Movie Attendance Strains Budget At Edmond Town Hall

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

Six months after boosting ticket prices at the Edmond Town Hall Theater, the

Board of Managers still is facing a financial crunch and is looking for ways

to generate more revenue.

Casper , the movie which played last week, was the first to draw sell-out

crowds this summer. Competition from the new Sony Multi-Plex in Danbury has

had a significant impact despite the fact that Sony charges $7.50 for adults,

$4.50 for children and senior citizens, more than twice the $3 and $2 ticket

prices in Newtown. But ticket prices aren't always the determining factor,

according to Tom Mahoney, the ETH Theater manager.

"We've lost a lot of young people - young adults and teenagers who drive -

because they want to go to the movies where their friends go," Mr Mahoney

said. "They seem to prefer the Sony. They want to see the movies as soon as

they are released."

As a second-run theater, ETH gets movies after they are done at the first-run

houses. The Sony chain tends to hold onto films longer when they are still

drawing customers than the Crown theaters did, a situation which has caused

some problems for ETH.

"We don't get the films when we want them if Sony decides to hold onto them

longer," Mr Mahoney said. "That's why we often haven't printed handbills this

summer. There isn't any point in spending the money for handbills if they turn

out not to be accurate."

Mr Mahoney said the theater has finally begun to get the "summer" movies that

draw large crowds.

"Basically, I'm just getting the summer movies now," he said. "We'll have

Crimson Tide this weekend and Batman Forever over Labor Day so we should do

well," he said.

Movie attendance is goes up and down, he said, dropping off in the fall after

elementary and high school students go back to school and college students

leave. It picks up again at Thanksgiving and Christmas, when many people are

on vacation. "It's cyclical - we've got some good movies coming so we will

just have to wait and see."

"We've always depended on volume," he said. "If people don't come, then we

don't sell concessions. That's where every theater in America makes its

money."

Raising ticket prices may have resulted in reduced attendance by individuals

and families on limited incomes and by those people who like to see some

movies several times, first at the first-run theaters, then at an inexpensive

second-run theater.

But Sandra Motyka, chairman of the Edmond Town Hall Board of Managers, said

decreasing attendance isn't something that began when the ticket prices were

raised at ETH last March.

"There was a double whammy and we're feeling the pinch," she said. "Our gate

has been down for over a year. That's why we felt we had to raise the prices

in March. Maybe the timing wasn't the best but we had tracked the decrease for

six months. Before that we suspected it was going down but now we knew it."

The theater has to find its niche in the market and capitalize on it, she

said.

"Probably our place in the market is the family theater," she explained.

"Sometimes we do have R-rated movies but we try never to have a string of

them. For the $15 price of two adult tickets at the (first-run theaters), you

can bring the entire family to see a movie here."

At the same time that ETH prices increased, Sony's Fine Arts Cinema in

Brookfield and the Palace Theater in Danbury dropped prices to $2. Both have

since gone out of business. Part of the reason may be due to the increased

cost of renting the movies from distributors.

"It used to be that there were many movies that had a 60-40 or 70-30 split,"

Mrs Motyka said. "Now most movies are 90-10. That means that we keep 10 cents

of each $1 in ticket revenue; the rest goes to the distributor. So, for a $3

ticket, we keep 30 cents."

Last March the ETH Board of Managers hoped that by increasing ticket prices by

$1, they would generate enough revenue so to allow the $36,000 to $40,000 that

is received each year from the Mary Hawley Trust to be used for capital

repairs to the 65-year-old building instead of for operating expenses.

Instead, the increase has barely kept revenue level.

"We're put all capital projects on hold," Mrs Motyka said. "We did spend

$4,000 to repair the flagstones in front of the building because it was a

safety issue. And we spent less than $5,000 to finish the renovations in the

Mary Hawley Room but that was just to repair the damage caused by the leak,

not to do any decorative work, which would have cost more."

The Board of Managers spends nearly $600,000 a year to operate the building

and the theater. Although many of the town offices are housed in the building,

the board has not received any money from the town in more than 10 years.

Mrs Motyka said that at this point there are no plans to ask the town for

rent. "But I don't think that most people are aware that we provide the heat,

air conditioning, lights, cleaning, painting and other maintenance for the

entire building. We have a staff of three full-time persons, three cleaning

persons, a part-time movie staff and security officers. We do all of this with

the movie revenue and rental fees for rooms like the gym and the Alexandria

Room."

There is no charge for governmental, civic and community meetings held in the

rooms, she said, but commercial, social and charitable events pay on a sliding

scale based on the type of event and the hours booked. Booking the Alexandria

Room from 3 to 11 pm for a social event, for example, would cost $175 plus

another $100 for full use of the kitchen; the fee for weddings is $300 for the

room plus $200 for the kitchen including dishes and other supplies. The

auditorium is available for $125 to $300 (when not being used for the movies);

the gym is available for sports use at $15 per hour.

"We try very hard to keep the prices in reach of people who couldn't afford to

otherwise rent a place," Mrs Motyka said. "That's why we also have tried to

keep the movie prices low."

About two years ago the board spent money to air condition and paint the

Alexandria Room, install new draperies and refinish the floor. "That has

turned out to be a wise investment because bookings increased," Mrs Motyka

said. "But we really have to continue to get the word out because we need to

generate more income."

To attract more movie goers, Mr Mahoney and the board have discussed a number

of options.

"Tom started offering ladies' night on Mondays when many men are watching

football," Mrs Motyka said. "We've talked about a college night when students

can get a dollar off by showing their school ID. Or maybe a

two-for-the-price-of-one night on Monday or Thursday when attendance is low."

"It's ironic that only three years ago our big concern was the problem of

parking on Main Street," she said. "People used to say they wouldn't go to the

movies (at Edmond Town Hall) because they had to wait in long lines. Well,

that certainly isn't the case anymore."