About 10% of AMC movie showings sell zero tickets. This site finds them

102•MrBuddyCasino•2h ago

Comments

caymanjim•1h ago

Do enough people buy tickets in advance now that this really indicates anything of value? I'm old and have never pre-purchased a movie ticket in my life. I assume a lot of people do, but the few times I've been to the movies lately, it seems people are buying tickets at the theater.

dewey•1h ago

I don’t remember the last time I bought a ticket at the cinema. I like picking my own seats online.

hombre_fatal•1h ago

Yeah, whether I go hinges on the seats available.

pjmlp•1h ago

In most European countries you only get reserved seats at big multiplex cinemas, stuff like Cinestar, NOS and so on.

On the European Cinema network [0], reserved seats is a long gone concept.

So not always a given that seats can be reserved online for cinema, depends on ones location.

[0] - https://www.europa-cinemas.org

sixhobbits•1h ago

I've been to several European Network cinemas and always gotten reserved seats

pjmlp•54m ago

I can assert that none of those I usually go have reserved seats, what they do have is reserved tickets.

I guess it depends then.

delusional•53m ago

I don't recall having been to any cinema in denmark ever that did not do assigned seats. They won't check if nobody complains, but is is printed on the ticket.

kuboble•46m ago

In Switzerland it's a mix. The theater we use most frequently doesn't have assigned seats.

dewey•37m ago

That's not true, I frequently reserve seats at the "Yorck" cinema chain in Berlin which is part of Europa Cinemas and has seat reservation.

magicalhippo•25m ago

Here in Oslo, Norway I only know of the local cinematheque which doesn't do reserved seats. All commercial theaters have reserved seats, even for the small screens with just a dozen or so seats. Been so as long as I can remember, so several decades.

So yea, location dependent.

SwellJoe•1h ago

I'm the same way, as I'm terrible at scheduling and often don't arrive on time for things I book in advance. So, I'll tend to show up at the theater and see whatever looks good that's coming up soon. But, I get the impression a lot of people do buy in advance these days.

But, I love the idea of a theater almost entirely to myself.

pjmlp•1h ago

Same here, gen-x, in what concerns cinema, sometimes I do reserve if it is in high demand, but that is about it.

yieldcrv•1h ago

I haven’t bought a seat at the theater in over a decade

And the online process shows you which seats are already filled and I base my decision on that when there is assigned seating. One thing peculiar is that the theatres are not often as filled as the seat map shows, makes me think that an even newer generation of the movie ticket subscribers (AMC A-List) are reserving seats and changing plans

m463•1h ago

I'm finding that more and more, when I impulsively go to the theater and try to buy tickets at the door... I always find the only tickets available are horrible, like in the front row to the side. You want like F-6 and F-7 and get A-2 and B-2.

And if I even accept this, the people in the choice seats invariably show up right when all the trailers are wrapping up.

so - people buy tickets ahead of time, and it might be the only way to watch it from a reasonable seat.

This probably doesn't apply to off-hours like tuesday afternoon or whatever.

sbrother•1h ago

wait... I don't think I've ever experienced assigned seats in a movie theatre. Is that a thing?

IncreasePosts•1h ago

Yes for higher end theaters like imax and the kind where everyone had a recliner chair

jb1991•53m ago

Or just about any movie theater of any kind outside of North America.

Lindby•1h ago

I've never been to a theater without assigned seats. Maybe it's a regional difference?

voidfunc•1h ago

Regional where...? Never seen this in the Northeast.

jb1991•54m ago

Outside North America just about every country I’ve ever lived in or visited had assigned movie ticket seats.

k4rli•54m ago

I'm also in the northeast (Europe). It is quite normal to have assigned seats.

disillusioned•46m ago

It's shifted a lot in the past few years: AMC has assigned seating in most (all?) theaters, for instance. Our regional theater, Harkins, same.

Personally, I like being able to select the exact seats and pre-order popcorn and soda and just have it show up to me right as the trailers end.

ravenstine•1h ago

When I grew up in LA 20+ years ago, seating was way more casual. Now everywhere seems to want assigned seating. I think this is in part because so many theater chains now offer a "premium" dining experience. It's yet another reason I rarely go to theaters anymore, on top of most of the film offerings being crap.

jb1991•54m ago

It’s the only way I’ve ever seen movie tickets sold outside of North America anywhere.

vasco•47m ago

You can find both kinds, in europe especially the cut is very clear, commercial cinemas ALWAYS have assigned sitting. The kind you see at malls and have the Hollywood rotation of marvel shit movies.

Then you have smaller cinemas with indie movies, european movie festival rotation, etc, and many of those in at least 4 or 5 countries in Europe I can confirm do NOT have assigned sitting.

tdeck•46m ago

I feel like the newer (e.g. post 2010s) theaters with more "premium" comfortable seats tend to assign seats these days. Probably differs by chain.

linsomniac•37m ago

Yes, it's been a thing for at least a decade, I imagine it helps with pre-sales online, though it may just be offered as a convenience. It really does help keep the movie from unexpectedly being a lousy experience; if you're stuck in a crappy seat, or your family can't sit together, it's because you picked those seats. As someone else mentioned, it also allows them to bring you dinner and provide that upsell as well.

Even our small independent theater in town has reserved seats, some of which are couches.

ButlerianJihad•11m ago

If you go up to the box office and ask for "Alt-F4" they will act surprised and confused, but just tell them to type it into their computer

JoshTriplett•1h ago

I exclusively buy tickets online, and whatever seats show up as empty online are empty when we show up.

vidarh•54m ago

Yeah, unless it's just me, and on a whim, which doesn't happen often, I'd always reserve online.

JoshGlazebrook•1h ago

Do people really just show up and hope for the best anymore?

The "box office" is not even really a thing anymore at most theaters. And the single person you talk to inside that is the "box office" just uses the same system you can reserve seats yourself on your own time?

Pretty much every theater is reserved seating these days. Why would I risk showing up last minute on a whim and end up in a horrible seat near the front of the screen?

MattGaiser•1h ago

Mostly because unless it is a really desirable movie, hoping for the best has an expected outcome close to the best.I am a planner in most things, but for movies, it often simply does not matter.

linsomniac•35m ago

Curious... Unless it's a really desirable movie, I typically won't go to the theater to see it. ;-)

stingraycharles•1h ago

> I'm old and have never pre-purchased a movie ticket in my life.

I’m old and have always pre-purchased tickets, even in the 90s, as that’s the way to get better seats.

WillPostForFood•55m ago

You sure about the 90s? Not saying it was impossible, but must have been extremely rare. Arclight was one of the first theaters to do assigned seats in 2002. AMC only started trialing in 2008, but didn't start rolling it out until 2016 in NYC.

magicalhippo•16m ago

In the US perhaps. Seat reservation has been the norm here in Norway since at least the 80s.

lisp2240•1h ago

I assume everyone is using something like MoviePass because it’s way cheaper than paying full price. And they don’t allow you to pre-purchase tickets.

BikiniPrince•50m ago

Quite a bit in the early showing for good movies. Project Heil Mary has continued to sell all the good seats out and I’m bad at planning ahead for entertainment. It usually isn’t obvious because most of the movies have been atrocious in the last several years.

kelnos•26m ago

I'm "old" (mid-40s) and cannot remember the last time I didn't pre-purchase a movie ticket. The movie theater I go to the most (Alamo Drafthouse in San Francisco) rarely has anyone in line at the box office when I walk through there. That box office is usually only staffed by one person, which should tell us something about how many people need in-person service.

orliesaurus•1h ago

Damn, people really love going to the movies here in Austin, Texas.

blintz•1h ago

This is cool. Something about dropping everything to go see a movie in an empty theater is sort of tempting.

HerbManic•1h ago

The only film I saw in an empty theater was 'The Death of Stalin'. That was kind of odd but a decent film regardless.

nebula8804•28m ago

On the one hand Its fun to watch movies alone on a big screen. My area of NJ apparently could care less about movies like Knock Down The House(Biography of AOC and other house candidates), Navalny (Movie about the murdered politician opposing Putin), The Imitation Machine: Movie about Alan Turing or Last Night in Soho (A wonderful Edgar Wright thriller)

On the other hand, I feel sad that no one in my region seems to care enough about these topics. Instead the latest superhero movie is next door packed to the brim and is so loud it rattles the walls to the room playing my quiet documentary with only me sitting inside watching it. :/

zerocrates•19m ago

One of the joys of having Moviepass in that brief period where it was very cheap but still worked was going to random late-night showings of stuff I'd have never otherwise seen, sometimes being the only person there.

Of course you can still do that with the surviving "all you can eat" plans, but they're way more expensive and aren't quite as generous.

wodenokoto•1h ago

I remember I went to a small showing once as a kid. It was just our group and 1 lady in the theater.

We got to small talk and the lady mentioned she had once been the only customer for a showing and told the projectionist that she didn’t want to be a bother and could come back and another day.

The projectionist had apparently replied that it was no bother - they would roll the movie even if no one showed up!

compounding_it•53m ago

Im assuming (though rare) it’s the same with flights. They keep the schedule for movies in case someone joins half hour late. Plenty of people visit my the cinema for all kinds of reasons other than the content (like sleeping in the AC among other things that come to your mind). Keeping the movie going rather than waiting for someone to show up and make it awkward would probably be better for customer service too.

qq66•50m ago

Well it's very different for flights, they need the plane at the destination so they have to fly it. With movies it's probably just simpler to start the movie than to try to manage the logistics of not starting it, just to save 2 hours on the projection bulb.

c0_0p_•41m ago

These days that's probably true, but when a projectionist needed to roll the film and babysit the equipment I doubt it would be worthwhile.

Not to mention that film rolls do wear out overtime.

danillonunes•48m ago

This makes sense if someone bought a ticket and didn't showed up, but what if none was sold? They could just stop selling after a certain time and be sure nobody will be there late.

nebula8804•38m ago

Studio contracts: The movies are delivered digitally on encrypted hard disks and when playing there is a ton of telemetry sent back to the studios. They are watching the theaters like its 1984. Studios have contracts indicating the play will play X times no more and probably no less(else studios might hold back the good movies). AMC keeps it simple. Play the movie even if no one shows up. AMC in particular uses laser projectors now so who cares. They ain't burning out any projector bulb.

kombookcha•14m ago

When I worked at a small cinema we would set up the movie to run regardless, because sometimes you would get late-showers buying tickets at the front desk and it's much more trouble to have to speed-start a movie for the projectionist than to be able to do it at the regular schedule. If you start it too late without manually remembering to forward past ads and trailers, you can also risk spilling into the next timeslot causing a pileup of delays. It's far simpler to just start the movie for an empty hall, and let customers join after it's started if they want to.

I'm unsure exactly how the deals with local businesses running ads before the movies are set up, but I could imagine that you're supposed to be running the ads an agreed upon number of times, regardless of ticket sales.

Sometimes in the daytime we would get retirees who would watch a movie and basically loiter around, and occasionally ask if they could catch the end of a different movie running in an empty hall. You'd sometimes let a regular crash an empty screening like this if they bought an extra snack or coffee for it or something.

yoz-y•42m ago

When I was a kid I wanted to go see The Avengers (the o.g. one, from 1998).

I had to go to the cinema 3 times, because they would not do a projection for less than 5 people.

nebula8804•1h ago

I have been quite a heavy patron of AMC theaters these past few years since COVID ended. I have seen A LOT of movies play to empty theaters. I used to actually peek at many of the rooms when I left my movie and so many were downright empty.

Its the norm and its probably why their stock is trading at $1.45 as of this writing.

Its a dead (not dying, dead) entertainment option. When you are competing for the same 24 hrs in a day with TV, Youtube, Gaming, Streaming, TikTok, Instagram and many others the theater is bottom of the barrel for young people today.

And don't tell me its because people are disrespectful or the commercials are too long. These are a problem but Alamo Drafthouse tried to tackle this and they ended up in bankruptcy. AMC would also be bankrupt today but it's saving grace was the meme stock frenzy they had a few years back. Probably bought them a few more years but that ride might be coming to an end.

Currently they fill the rooms for the pop movies like old established franchises but that only comes along every couple weeks at the most and the rest of the time the place is not really busy. This is a bit different in the big cities but AMC has overextended themselves with too many locations in the rural and suburban US.

...Also this app is not displaying accurate data (I assume they are pulling from AMC's API). My local theater is listing no results and I cross checked and there are movies currently listed that have 0 seats booked so the app is counting incorrectly for at least one theater.

EDIT: After I wrote this, the site auto updated with new data. Now I see some screenings but it is still inaccurate because it is still missing movies from that theater...maybe they are scraping instead of using the API? This is a simple problem if using the API (I wrote my own home cooked app): just iterate through all theater ids, find the ones with 0 bookings and display that list.

locallost•55m ago

It's not the ads, but they're not helping. I still like to go to theaters, but am thinking if not going anymore because I can't really take it. I don't go to AMC since not in the US, but where I go you can't even skip them because you never know how long it will be. I sat once for literally 40 minutes. It's also crazy expensive. So they need to do these things to stay afloat, but they're driving away the last people that still want to go.

It's just dead in its current form, you're right about that. To make it work they need to reinvent themselves. But it's hard.

nebula8804•45m ago

I don't disagree with you at all. Ads suck. But that ship sailed a long time ago. Just to provide some more context to AMC.

They are a US national chain and they don't run "commercials" just lots of trailers. They have recently announced that they have extended the trailer runtime from 20-25 mins to 35-40 mins. While this is frustrating they always indicate in the app which movies have the trailers (most do) and the approx length. As a result, patron who want to skip the trailers use the app for guidance and just arrive +35 mins after the showtime. Example: https://i.imgur.com/bsVf6AE.png

Given this system, I dont think AMC has really lost patrons because of the ads since everyone who hates them know exactly how long to delay their entrance to the movie room. It really is the other factor I mentioned (they are not compelling enough most of the time vs other entertainment).

One more aspect I forgot to mention is concession prices. Small popcorn is ~10$, small drink is ~7$ so ~17$ for basic concessions and that does not include ticket price ranging between 5$ on Tuesday special deals for standard definition all the way to $27.99+ for premium screen. If you are going to the movies you might as well watch it on their best screen. It gets expensive if you are bringing family. The reason for this pricing is the studio. They actually take a majority of the ticket revenue and they refuse to lower their percentage of ticket prices on the marquee titles (and also require 2 week minimum contracts in the premium screens even if the movie is a stinker)

The theaters are essentially just popcorn/soda vendors who just happen to show movies on the side.

locallost•20m ago

Yes, that's what I meant with crazy expensive, mostly the concessions. The tickets I am ok with, I am in th end going there for the big screen and experience, not to eat crappy food. I go with my kids, and it's just painful. We watched Mario 2 recently, and because my youngest didn't watch the first one, we watched that one at home first. 3.99 to rent 4k and 2.50 for popcorn and drinks for three kids. Puts things in perspective.

zerocrates•11m ago

They do also run actual commercials if you're crazy enough to show up before the showtime.

AMC is also interesting because even in the "real" trailer period they have a long ad for AMC itself but also for Coke, then another for themselves telling you to sign up for the loyalty programs, then another for themselves with Nicole Kidman in the theater with her suit with the silver pinstripes. A little thing for the theater is normal but they're going way overboard with it and it's hard to believe it's really effective.

BikiniPrince•45m ago

It’s guaranteed to start 20 minutes or more after the listed start time. I get my seat and I don’t even show up early.

zerocrates•26m ago

AMC have taken to just saying outright that everything will start 25-30 minutes after the posted time. Which is interesting, I guess they're trying to blunt the negative effect of the long trailers but I'm sure the advertisers don't like it.

snailmailman•35m ago

I want to enjoy the movie theater experience. It should be a better screen than the one in my home. It should be a better audio setup, with full surround sound. It should be great, a premium experience.

The last few movies I’ve seen in theaters have not been that. Two of the last 3 movies I’ve seen had audio mixing problems, and dialogue was inaudible in some scenes. (I heard this got fixed later for one of the movies) In all of them, I could hear bass from the adjacent theaters in some scenes. In the last two movies I went to see, both had someone in the audience bring an intermittently crying baby to the movie.

Im done with watching movies in theaters. It’s a better experience to watch at home, with headphones, a blanket, and the ability to pause for bathroom breaks.

nebula8804•13m ago

Sounds like you should be visiting Alamo Drafthouse. They take these things extremely seriously and are for the real fans. Here is their ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L3eeC2lJZs

Unfortunately since they already filed for bankruptcy a few years back they have had to cut costs and so their system for ordering food replaced (from pen and paper collected and an usher quietly brings you your food to QR code with...a cellphone) people are recently concerned that this has reduced their legendary quality. They still take audio and picture quality very seriously in my experience.

Also where are you located? LA and NYC have legendary theaters that are truly a special treat. Its harder to replicate that in various states but there are still some states trying (ex. NJ being the actual birthplace of the American film industry has a few excellent theaters scattered throughout that dont tolerate poor quality/talkers)

If your story is from AMC theaters just know that you are visiting the Mcdonalds of movie theaters.

LarsDu88•48m ago

Would be a wonderful site for people to find places to have private movie sex, but then I remembered that this is HackerNews

ButlerianJihad•28m ago

Movie theaters are reinventing themselves in various ways, and I’m unsure if it’s working, but some of it is creative.

Around here, films from Bollywood show in Telugu, Hindi, Gujarati languages. There are family films in Spanish (those aren’t bad dubs, but parallel scripts and A-list voice actors.) Want to watch a Studio Ghibli film? Here’s the timetable for dubbed; here’s a timetable for subtitles!

There are live video-game tournaments. There are premieres for live operas and symphony orchestra performances that are simulcast around a region.

There are Christian groups who go in to support a film, and they can turn those into fundraisers and evangelization activity.

The auditoriums can be rented out for special events. Big birthday, Kindergarten graduation, Quinceañeras, etc. They will support teleconferencing and businesses can hold seminars or all-hands meetings there.

I suppose that all of these schemes were harmed by the pandemic and lockdowns, but the advertising is still there, and the Hindus are still showing up on public transit.

nebula8804•22m ago

I think you are seeing a slice of the full picture. This app is not accurately showing all empty screens. While all of those are ideas that are increasing viewership there is still so much dead weight. Whether these things offset the dead weight I dont know. All I know is AMC is trading at $1.45 today so it does not look great.

aurareturn•28m ago

There is always that one person who eats popcorn so loud for most of the movie and ruins the experience for me.

cryptozeus•24m ago

May be I am in minority but I would hate to be alone in entire theater. I enjoy some vibe and people around

MrBuddyCasino•23m ago

Yes this is what people get wrong about "home theater". Its not just the tech, its the experience of watching something with others, amplifying the emotions.

bitwize•12m ago

Man, seeing The Avengers (2012) in a PACKED theater full of excited Marvel fans was something else. The deafening roar completely drowned out the Hulk's line "puny god".

flomo•9m ago

In a previous life, I would go to a lot of art movies, often matinees or monday or etc. Sometimes there was one guy who was working the box-office, the snackbar, and the projection. I was glad he had a job.

RagnarD•9m ago

Where does it get the realtime data for this?

dawnerd•9m ago

I’ve been to a few showings by myself back in the moviepass days. It was really nice, I’d wait until a movie was basically at the very end of its run and watch whatever was playing. I can’t stand others making noise, too distracting.

stringfood•6m ago

you can also go on your phone if you'd like and yawn loudly and flatulate

protocolture•7m ago

I used to frequent the brisbane regent cinema precisely because it was reliably empty. The franchise kept it running because having a really nice prestige theatre was good for their brand, but compared to their other sites it was revenue neutral at best.

kleiba2•6m ago

When I lived in Germany, I had an apartment in the vicinity of three tiny arthouse theaters. I used to go all the time by myself because you could basically walk to all three of them. Saw a lot of movies I would have never seen otherwise, most of which I don't remember at all.

The theaters were never full. So it was basically like just watching a movie in your own living room. Yeah, except maybe for the handful of strangers that were there to watch with you.

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Comments

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About 10% of AMC movie showings sell zero tickets. This site finds them

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