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Complaints can create change

By STEVE PERSALL
Published December 2, 2005

Apparently I'm not the only person concerned about the declining quality of the movie theater experience.

More readers responded by e-mail, telephone and conversation to my Nov. 18 column detailing an irritating evening at AMC Veterans 24 than anything I've written about since Michael Moore released Fahrenheit 9/11.

The column described an advance screening of Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang spoiled for 14 minutes by a grotesquely distorted screen image and bad framing. It would have been spotted and corrected by an attentive projectionist within seconds. Two trips to the lobby to alert the management didn't help because neither employee knew how to handle the problem, nor hustled to find anyone who could.

It wasn't the first botched screening I've attended, and won't be the last judging from Monday's screening of The Producers at Channelside Cinemas that was ruined for nearly 15 minutes by faulty projection.

What happens (or doesn't) in the projection booth isn't the only thing going wrong at movie theaters. Ticket sales are lower than any time since the mid 1980s for several reasons including home video convenience, more entertainment competition and Hollywood's decreasing quality.

But several St. Petersburg Times readers believe movie exhibitors who aren't adequately taking care of customers can also be blamed. Rude talkers, cell phones and high prices were cited by many readers. But the most elemental aspect of moviegoing - what we see and hear through projectors and audio systems - drew the most complaints.

"I have been to way too many movie theatres, for advance screenings, regular showings, with MAJOR projector/projectionist errors, way too many," Keith Arsenault of Tampa's International Arts & Entertainment Group said in an e-mail.

"What has amazed me is to see a first-run movie in a first-run house in the initial weekend of release and have really bad splices in the film where it was assembled from the individual reels, or (to) have scratches, dirt marks, etc. on it. In the first week of release? How is that possible?"

There's a chance that a movie print is damaged by another theater's employee during assembly, screenings and disassembly for shipping in advance of opening day. However, only a small percentage of prints are used for such promotional showings. More likely, it's careless handling of the film by whoever spliced the reels at your local theater.

Sprockets can be broken, causing the film to jump off track in the projector, or the film can be creased or scraped by an assembler who isn't paying attention, creating those ugly scratches or causing the film to flutter off track in the projector, doing even more damage.

My father, a former movie exhibitor who taught me to respect a theater like a cathedral, ran into that situation when he saw Walk the Line in its opening week at Regal Hollywood 18 in Port Richey. He reported it to a manager, who didn't know what to do except apologize and hand out passes for a return trip.

Who is responsible for handling this delicate celluloid and expensive machinery? I got an e-mail from a 35-year veteran projectionist (he asked to remain anonymous) who generalized them as "teenage boys paid minimum wage, Burger King rejects, versus unionized, career professionals (who are) paid quite well, able to solve every technical and mechanical problem in a complex booth without having to call in a service technician."

He has a point. Most of my father's theaters in a 30-year career had highly trained union projectionists in the booth. These unions mostly dissolved as right-to-work laws and automation enabled theater owners to pass those duties to employees who may feel they're not paid enough to try harder.

Robert Solomon of Atlanta sees that all the time. He's a booth manager for Regal Cinemas who read the column when a vice president for the theater chain forwarded it throughout the Southeast region. "It was not forwarded as a "Ha ha, AMC looks really bad' sentiment," Solomon said in an e-mail. "Instead, it was used to illustrate the importance of good presentation."

Solomon trains those underpaid ticket takers and popcorn poppers how to operate projectors and correct problems.

"The only way I've gotten good people is to find people passionate about film since the pay certainly isn't there," he said. "By and large it is rare that someone cares enough about the little things such as framing a picture perfectly, not just adequately.

"Usually there is an apathy that permeates the whole building and its staff. Part of me feels that this trend toward enormous megaplexes has made each film feel less special. When you have 20-25 prints it seems to some like it isn't the end of the world when one of them gets scratched up. I get a "Why are you so angry?' (reaction) when I chastise someone for poor presentation or scratching a print."

Compare Solomon's perception with the thoughts of AMC Theatres employee Denise Campis, whose e-mail was one of the few dissenting responses to the column:

"Why don't you write about the increasing problem with Americans wanting more and more efficiency, friendliness, and free compensation without giving anything back? What about the increasing demands that people like you put on the projectionist making minimum wage in the booth?"

For starters, people like me expect decent quality, at least, in what we pay for, whether it's a movie or a meal at a restaurant. Customers are certainly giving back when they pay $8 per movie ticket, plus the expenses of snacks (not to mention ancillary costs such as babysitting and parking). The money spent at theaters is paying those minimum wages. A little efficiency and friendliness in return aren't too much to expect. Free passes to future shows are the best way to ensure return business when things go drastically wrong in theaters.

It's also a way for customers to make exhibitors more careful about their business. Give away too many freebies to dissatisfied customers and somebody higher on the corporate ladder will eventually notice.

Heads might roll, or they might be filled with the knowledge needed to run a theater. Either way, the theater experience is more likely to improve.

Moviegoers should take a tip from Howard Beale, the anchorman in Network who exhorted everyone to get out of their chairs, go to the window and shout: "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore."

Too many moviegoers sit without protest through poor projection, sound bleeding through the next-door auditorium, thermostats set too high or low, and every other movie theater discomfort. They're either timid, or too dependent on someone else to handle the problem.

You don't have to take it anymore. Get out of your chair, go to the lobby and don't stop complaining until you're satisfied. Make theater employees reach for those stacks of passes, or a soft drink that isn't flat, or popcorn that isn't stale. Let them know you don't appreciate the show stopping before the end credits roll, or the lights coming up during a key moment in the movie.

Whatever you don't like, do something about it. It's your money, and theaters are already collecting less of it during the box office slump of 2005. Only a fool wouldn't try harder to earn it by making things right.

AMC Theatres CEO and chairman Peter Brown doesn't seem like a foolish businessman. His e-mail response to the Nov. 18 column was both apologetic and reassuring:

"I can't tell you how much we appreciate your candid thoughts," he wrote. "I wanted to reach out to tell you that we are passionate about taking care of our guests at AMC and we do the best we can with the 180-million people we serve annually to make sure this happens."

Brown urged me to contact him directly with any further ideas on how to make the theater experience better. In a follow-up e-mail I outlined for him the theater horror stories sent to me by readers urging me to "keep up the good fight," as several called it. Brown seemed genuinely appreciative of those comments, and said he would "absolutely" join me in that battle.

We'll see, hopefully focused and properly framed, at theaters near you.

One more thing: Some readers of the Nov. 18 column were left unclear on the capabilities of projector lenses and aperture plates. Lenses control the spread of light to present an undistorted image. Apertures control the image's framing on the screen. Both were problems at the Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang screening. Neither was corrected soon enough.

- Steve Persall can be reached at 727 893-8365 or persall@sptimes.com

[Last modified December 1, 2005, 09:33:03]