selling the premium experience
Sundance (as in the Sundance film festival) just took over the Kabuki movie theaters at Japantown. The Kabuki is the site of the San Francisco International Film Festival, the oldest film festival in the US, and so is beloved among serious movie goers. Still the complex had fallen into disrepair, the sightlines were poor, and newer theaters easily surpassed the Kabuki with stadium seating.
Sundance has taken a novel approach, remodeling the entire complex, adding digital projection capabilities, installing bars and restaurants, upgrading seating, and introducing the ability to reserve your seat online. And it's entirely green: coffee spoons made of potatoes, that kind of thing. They’ve had a great selection of high-brow entertainment since they opened, and I’ve been twice.
The first and primary obstacle is price. All this luxury comes at a premium. Movie going is in decline, and prices above $10 don’t help, nor do 20 minutes of previews and commercials at the local Century. For the first time in my life I see fewer than three movies a month in a theater; this after working in movie theaters for more than five years, including a stint as a projectionist in college, simply so I could see more movies.
Not wanting to blast too far beyond the $10 barrier, Sundance introduced a set of amenities fees. These vary from 0 (for the lone person who goes to the movies at noon on Tuesdays) to $3 for Saturday nights. Most of the time the fee is $1-2; it’s the rule rather than an exception This is coupled with matinee pricing and discounts for seniors and students.
And while I understand peak demand pricing in principle (say for Saturday nights versus 5 p.m. on Wednesdays), it irritates me in practice. Plus it’s just too complicated:
Oh, and the base prices posted on the website are wrong--they're for the other Sundance outpost in Wisconsin. In San Francisco matinée adult tickets cost $8.50 plus amenities fees. But you get the idea.
I was appalled that two tickets to the Kite Runner Sunday at 4:30 cost $24! I picked out our reserved seats on the touch screen and began to complain to the friendly cashier. He handed me a brochure on what all those amenities were for: remodeling, and no commercials. I guess I wasn’t the only one unsold on the complex pricing.
But then I went inside the theater. Even the tiny screening rooms were spectacular. Brand new seats. Big spacing between them. Mood lighting. Prominent recycling bins. Everyone came in and found their seats, in a hush. The whole movie seemed better.
Still, I resisted. Another Sunday afternoon I debated whether to go to the Landmark theater or the Kabuki, giving in only when I couldn’t find parking downtown. On my way to see Persepolis, I stopped at the beautiful snack bar and got a cup of Peet’s tea for $1.75, the same price as at Peet’s. They had boutique gelato and local chocolates and a decent looking panini, all at normal prices. Did I mention the full bar? Yes, you can now drink wine at the movies.
They have a few kinks to work out. Because they show Sundance Channel shorts, the theaters are dark when you walk in so it’s hard to see the seat numbers. And otherwise civilized patrons still leave trash on the floor—a habit I will never understand. (Who do they think picks it up?) But otherwise I'm sold.
So how do you sell customers on a premium experience? I don’t think it’s having a fee structure that’s too complicated to explain without a chart. Sundance Kabuki should just charge more: the $12 movie, $14 on Saturday nights. I’d do a combo with the Balcony Bar: a movie and a drink for $20.
They could give out coupons to introduce the concept to new patrons, to encourage you to come in and see what it’s all about. Now is the time to introduce a loyalty program for discriminating movie patrons, a club I'd like to part of.
They might look to Apple Computer, or to MaxJet, companies that have done a good job of selling premium products. But in this case, the bottom line is the customer experience, which really is superior. Now to fill the seats.
*
On a related tangent, this week SF Chronicle food critic Michael Bauer looks at restaurants adding surcharges to pay for city-mandated health insurance.
P.S. I was telling this story to a friend when I realized why the Kabuki is breaking down their pricing this way: if they increase ticket prices, they have to give a percentage to the movie studios.
So theaters (which have to make their own investments in not just chairs and popcorn poppers but also state of the art digital projection equipment) are trying to find a way to fund their own facilities. Makes perfect business sense in this day and age of DIY publishing and distribution. But still irks me as a customer.
Sundance has taken a novel approach, remodeling the entire complex, adding digital projection capabilities, installing bars and restaurants, upgrading seating, and introducing the ability to reserve your seat online. And it's entirely green: coffee spoons made of potatoes, that kind of thing. They’ve had a great selection of high-brow entertainment since they opened, and I’ve been twice.
The first and primary obstacle is price. All this luxury comes at a premium. Movie going is in decline, and prices above $10 don’t help, nor do 20 minutes of previews and commercials at the local Century. For the first time in my life I see fewer than three movies a month in a theater; this after working in movie theaters for more than five years, including a stint as a projectionist in college, simply so I could see more movies.
Not wanting to blast too far beyond the $10 barrier, Sundance introduced a set of amenities fees. These vary from 0 (for the lone person who goes to the movies at noon on Tuesdays) to $3 for Saturday nights. Most of the time the fee is $1-2; it’s the rule rather than an exception This is coupled with matinee pricing and discounts for seniors and students.
And while I understand peak demand pricing in principle (say for Saturday nights versus 5 p.m. on Wednesdays), it irritates me in practice. Plus it’s just too complicated:
Oh, and the base prices posted on the website are wrong--they're for the other Sundance outpost in Wisconsin. In San Francisco matinée adult tickets cost $8.50 plus amenities fees. But you get the idea.
I was appalled that two tickets to the Kite Runner Sunday at 4:30 cost $24! I picked out our reserved seats on the touch screen and began to complain to the friendly cashier. He handed me a brochure on what all those amenities were for: remodeling, and no commercials. I guess I wasn’t the only one unsold on the complex pricing.
But then I went inside the theater. Even the tiny screening rooms were spectacular. Brand new seats. Big spacing between them. Mood lighting. Prominent recycling bins. Everyone came in and found their seats, in a hush. The whole movie seemed better.
Still, I resisted. Another Sunday afternoon I debated whether to go to the Landmark theater or the Kabuki, giving in only when I couldn’t find parking downtown. On my way to see Persepolis, I stopped at the beautiful snack bar and got a cup of Peet’s tea for $1.75, the same price as at Peet’s. They had boutique gelato and local chocolates and a decent looking panini, all at normal prices. Did I mention the full bar? Yes, you can now drink wine at the movies.
They have a few kinks to work out. Because they show Sundance Channel shorts, the theaters are dark when you walk in so it’s hard to see the seat numbers. And otherwise civilized patrons still leave trash on the floor—a habit I will never understand. (Who do they think picks it up?) But otherwise I'm sold.
So how do you sell customers on a premium experience? I don’t think it’s having a fee structure that’s too complicated to explain without a chart. Sundance Kabuki should just charge more: the $12 movie, $14 on Saturday nights. I’d do a combo with the Balcony Bar: a movie and a drink for $20.
They could give out coupons to introduce the concept to new patrons, to encourage you to come in and see what it’s all about. Now is the time to introduce a loyalty program for discriminating movie patrons, a club I'd like to part of.
They might look to Apple Computer, or to MaxJet, companies that have done a good job of selling premium products. But in this case, the bottom line is the customer experience, which really is superior. Now to fill the seats.
*
On a related tangent, this week SF Chronicle food critic Michael Bauer looks at restaurants adding surcharges to pay for city-mandated health insurance.
P.S. I was telling this story to a friend when I realized why the Kabuki is breaking down their pricing this way: if they increase ticket prices, they have to give a percentage to the movie studios.
So theaters (which have to make their own investments in not just chairs and popcorn poppers but also state of the art digital projection equipment) are trying to find a way to fund their own facilities. Makes perfect business sense in this day and age of DIY publishing and distribution. But still irks me as a customer.
posted by Diana at
5:40 PM
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