From: a0s5108@titan.ucc.umass.edu (Neal and Mara Priestly)
Subject: Re: Spike Lee and Whining (Re: Emma Thompson a shoe-in for Best Actress??)
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 17:47:10 GMT

In article <1h53slINNlrt@transfer.stratus.com> lmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com writes:

(I think the double quoted information was from Peter R...It arrived w/o 
 any attributions)
>>By the way, Spike Lee is making a play for the Foolish Desperation award
>>for this year.  He's complaining that multiplexes are selling tickets to
>>"Malcolm X," but crediting the sales to other films, such as "Aladdin"
>>and "Home Alone 2".  Warner Brothers has proof that this has happened.
>>What they and Lee don't like to mention, however, is that it happens mostly
>>because of incompetent employees who are hired for the holiday rush and
>>who punch up the wrong tickets.  When a reporter pointed out to Lee that,
>>all things being equal, "Malcolm X" has probably gotten its share of
>>sales for people who were actually going to see "Aladdin" or "Home Alone 2",
>>the best he could come up with is, "well, my movie needs the sales figures
>>more."  I suspect that a complete audit of all tickets sold would not 
>>significantly move "Malcolm X's" revenues at all.  
>
>I think you're right.  There are times when people engage in deliberate
>acts of discrimination (there was an interesting article in the Wall Street  
>Journal today about Shoney's, for example).  However, there are other times  
>when things happen due to things being rushed or due to incompetence,  In the
>case of Malcolm X, I don't believe for a second that there is some sort of  
>campaign being orchestrated to drag down its revenue reports.  Spike Lee
>is a professional in many ways, but when he whines like this it's
>just irratating.

[deletia]

>What happens when people go into a multi-plex, buy
>a ticket for one movie, and change their minds and go to another movie?
>This happens all the time.

It is called cross-over and it happens all too often.  Many places I have
patronized in the past just ignore it, some don't have the staffing to
stop it, some theatres are laid out in ways that make it impossible to
prevent.  I do my best to quash it, but some people are persistant.

A few different things happen to make it attractive to some people.  First
amoung these things with Malcolm X was early sell outs.  We sold out the
first Saturday evening it ran at about 3 in the afternoon.  So some people
just bought tickets for something else and tried to get there early enough
to get a seat anyway.  They were dissappointed by the constant announcements
that no one would be admitted without thier stub.  Some tried anyway.  They
were turned away.  By me.  I have gotten very good at saying no this season.
We told everyone in line (starting at about 30mins before showtime) every
five minutes that they had to have thier tictet stubs to be admitted to the
auditorium where the film would be shown.  Just in case, we also told them
to retain thier stub as the tickets were torn.  We continued to make the 
announcements as we let in.  And we felt perfectly justified in mercilessly
turning away anyone who turned up with the wrong stub or no stub.  (There
was one person who's stub was not checked.  She is a regular patron who
has seen every single film the theatre has run in the five years I have 
been employed there.  And I sold her the ticket.  I believe in rules, but
not if form when it is unnecessary.  She is a parapelegic (sp?) and has
difficulty presenting her stub.)

I am quite certain that in theatres where they were not staffed for this
level of attendance, or are not really concerned with making people happy
with thier trip to the movies, there was little concern given to a detail
like this and therefore people were seeing the film without having the 
correct ticket.

But there is another flavor of cross-over mentioned above as well.  Some of
those people who either could not find a seat at all, or could not find seats
that met thier criteria for acceptable seating, went to see something else
without telling someone.  Or the someone they told said sure, whatever you
want I am to busy to deal with you.... and so they paid to see Malcolm and
went to see something else.  Spike gets the ticket money that time, and will
probably get more money when those people actually get to see the film on
thier next trip in.

Just my $.02
-Neal