I've got a lot of experience with this topic.

I opened Canal Place theaters 5 years ago with Adolfo & another theater in NCarolina 3 years ago.
I developed all of the systems/logistics of serving folks in a movie theater setting for this theater group as it was their first one.

I've visited different concepts across the country & they all vary very differently.

The movie showing business is very tough & profit margins razor thin. The hardest thing to deal with is that you are at the mercy of what the movie studios produce. They put out a bad product & your business suffers.
The technology in people's homes these days is another hurdle.
Me, I never go to the movies. Not worth price of admission IMO.
That being said, theaters are forced to introduce more amenities to draw crowds in, otherwise they will go away.
Food & beverage service creates the scenario that on a weeknight you can do dinner & a movie in less than 3 hours when you normally wouldn't have time to do both.

Although I'm not associated with this business anymore, I'll defend its purpose.

Having servers inside the theater is a necessary evil unless you want to receive all your food/beverage purchases for the duration prior to the movie starting, or you leave your seat to order more(which virtually no one does in those type of business models.)

Take the good with the bad.
I'm proud of what we built & the folks who run it.
My .02¢

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Posted by Y.A. Tittle

Member since Sep 2003

101688 posts

Posted on 8/31/15 at 12:38 pm to BocaJared

quote:
I've got a lot of experience with this topic.

I opened Canal Place theaters 5 years ago with Adolfo & another theater in NCarolina 3 years ago.
I developed all of the systems/logistics of serving folks in a movie theater setting for this theater group as it was their first one.

I've visited different concepts across the country & they all vary very differently.

The movie showing business is very tough & profit margins razor thin. The hardest thing to deal with is that you are at the mercy of what the movie studios produce. They put out a bad product & your business suffers.
The technology in people's homes these days is another hurdle.
Me, I never go to the movies. Not worth price of admission IMO.
That being said, theaters are forced to introduce more amenities to draw crowds in, otherwise they will go away.
Food & beverage service creates the scenario that on a weeknight you can do dinner & a movie in less than 3 hours when you normally wouldn't have time to do both.

Although I'm not associated with this business anymore, I'll defend its purpose.

Having servers inside the theater is a necessary evil unless you want to receive all your food/beverage purchases for the duration prior to the movie starting, or you leave your seat to order more(which virtually no one does in those type of business models.)

Take the good with the bad.
I'm proud of what we built & the folks who run it.
My .02¢

Nice post and thanks for your perspective.

I don't see movies often, but when I do (without kids) it's pretty much only Canal Place. As I said, I don't really find the concept or execution all that obstructive - and certainly less so than a lot of what one can expect to experience at other movie theaters.l In short, I dig the concept.

That being said, did y'all ever give any thought to just having the waiters act normal and not make a big to do about trying to duck and run past patrons? As I said earlier, it almost seems just allowing them to act normal and causal would be less a distraction than the goofiness they do (which is not that distracting, but a little bit so to me). Just a thought from one patron's perspective.

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