The Box Office Buzz and Tracking Thread: Electric Boogaloo

[TwoMisfits]

I know I haven't posted these in a few weeks, but this seemed like an eventful weekend to do so:)...

 

1st local (Cinemark) has SET its final schedule for the weekend (now, crazily, they have not set for Wed/Thurs, so this is odd to say the least, but I guess they want the Xmas buying money)...and it's a SHOCKER!  TROS is getting ZERO extra showings from its presale set.  So, it is going into the weekend with 4.5 screens and 19 showings (4 3d, 15 2d), which is LESS than a LOT of the premier supers outings (and about 60% of TLK which got the clear out of clear outs this summer)...and obviously less than the other 2 trilogy Star Wars films...

 

NEW

TROS - 4.5 screens (the biggies) - 19 showings (4 3d, 15 2d)

Cats - 1 - 5 showings (smallest) - it's gonna be all about the legs for this, since 300 seats total per day isn't gonna get much

Dabang 3 - 1 - 4 showings - even with TROS opening, they are keeping some foreign films - these play strongly here, but as strongly as TROS?  I'm betting that TROS contract is a harsh percent split

Prati Roju Prandage / Venky Mama - .5/.25 - 2/1 showings - see above

 

RETURNING

Jumanji - 2 - 10 showings - IT KEEPS A SECOND SCREEN - yep, that opener and its likely lower % take to the studio keeps it on 2 screens - and since this is popular and will presell some tickets for probably every show, the theater won't be able to scratch showings for this for TROS - now, it is dropped from 2 biggest screens to 2 smallest screens, so it's still looking at a harsh drop:)...

Richard Jewell - 1 - 5 showings - For now, holds a full screen - good contract...but I assume the late night one might get stolen here

Knives Out - 1 - 5 showings

Frozen - 1 - 5 showings

 

Dropped (it cleared out most everything at Jumanji) - A Beautiful Day in the Nieghborhood, Queen and Slim

 

This is worrying sign #1 for a $200M+ OW hope...if small and midsize are getting sold a crappy deal by Disney, they have the ability, with the holidays, to hold things like Knives Out, Jumanji, and Frozen and keep their smaller screens for those movies (and other new openers) and not just clear screens for TROS.  It's not a huge deal, but 300 tickets per day/per theater could have a decently big effect if it multiplies over 4000 theaters making the same types of decisions...

[ZackM]

2 hours ago, ZackM said:

I’ll look into it.

A cursory glance at the Cineplex website and the Regal website has me feeling pretty good about their scrapability.

[Porthos]

14 minutes ago, Menor said:

I was surprised that your theaters barely had a Sunday bump yesterday. But today seems like you got both the Sunday and Monday bumps rolled into one.

He does his checks far earlier in the day than most of us do, so I figure he just didn't capture some of/most of the traditional Sunday bump.

[cdsacken]

7 minutes ago, TwoMisfits said:

I know I haven't posted these in a few weeks, but this seemed like an eventful weekend to do so:)...

 

1st local (Cinemark) has SET its final schedule for the weekend (now, crazily, they have not set for Wed/Thurs, so this is odd to say the least, but I guess they want the Xmas buying money)...and it's a SHOCKER!  TROS is getting ZERO extra showings from its presale set.  So, it is going into the weekend with 4.5 screens and 19 showings (4 3d, 15 2d), which is LESS than a LOT of the premier supers outings (and about 60% of TLK which got the clear out of clear outs this summer)...and obviously less than the other 2 trilogy Star Wars films...

 

NEW

TROS - 4.5 screens (the biggies) - 19 showings (4 3d, 15 2d)

Cats - 1 - 5 showings (smallest) - it's gonna be all about the legs for this, since 300 seats total per day isn't gonna get much

Dabang 3 - 1 - 4 showings - even with TROS opening, they are keeping some foreign films - these play strongly here, but as strongly as TROS?  I'm betting that TROS contract is a harsh percent split

Prati Roju Prandage / Venky Mama - .5/.25 - 2/1 showings - see above

 

RETURNING

Jumanji - 2 - 10 showings - IT KEEPS A SECOND SCREEN - yep, that opener and its likely lower % take to the studio keeps it on 2 screens - and since this is popular and will presell some tickets for probably every show, the theater won't be able to scratch showings for this for TROS - now, it is dropped from 2 biggest screens to 2 smallest screens, so it's still looking at a harsh drop:)...

Richard Jewell - 1 - 5 showings - For now, holds a full screen - good contract...but I assume the late night one might get stolen here

Knives Out - 1 - 5 showings

Frozen - 1 - 5 showings

 

Dropped (it cleared out most everything at Jumanji) - A Beautiful Day in the Nieghborhood, Queen and Slim

 

This is worrying sign #1 for a $200M+ OW hope...if small and midsize are getting sold a crappy deal by Disney, they have the ability, with the holidays, to hold things like Knives Out, Jumanji, and Frozen and keep their smaller screens for those movies (and other new openers) and not just clear screens for TROS.  It's not a huge deal, but 300 tickets per day/per theater could have a decently big effect if it multiplies over 4000 theaters making the same types of decisions...

Jumanji have their rights away for close to free. I mean literally nearly paid people to take screens.

 

How do I know this? Blue Mouse theater never gets new releases (never) and gets Disney 30+ days after release. It's a 1 screen theater. It got Jumanji on opening weekend until JANUARY.  I wouldn't be shocked if they paid almost nothing.

 

Normal run is under 9-10 days mind you .

 

12-13 to Jan 2 (my birthday)

Edited December 17, 2019 by cdsacken

[Menor the Destroyer]

6 minutes ago, ZackM said:

A cursory glance at the Cineplex website and the Regal website has me feeling pretty good about their scrapability.

I have a scraper working for Regal off of the Fandango website. Haven't looked at Cineplex yet.

[ZackM]

5 minutes ago, Menor said:

I have a scraper working for Regal off of the Fandango website. Haven't looked at Cineplex yet.

Cineplex is nice because it lets you preview the seats without entering the actual ticket purchasing process.  Should save a ton of bandwidth and processing energy.  At least the theater I looked at did.  I'll check a few more.

Edited December 17, 2019 by ZackM

[Menor the Destroyer]

Just now, ZackM said:

Cineplex is nice because it lets you preview the seats without entering the actual ticket purchasing process.  Should save a ton of bandwidth and processing energy.

Oh that's so nice. So much less shit to write lol. But the only thing is I wasn't able to find a list of theaters for it.

[Tinalera]

Scraping cineplex....it feel like im being laid off......lol

 

Kidding kidding

 

Not  all cineplex have reserved seating. When i do toronto theres only certain theatres i can do manually that show seats sold.

 

I wonder how cineworld will affect thw websites and my seat counting

Edited December 17, 2019 by Tinalera

[ZackM]

3 minutes ago, ZackM said:

Cineplex is nice because it lets you preview the seats without entering the actual ticket purchasing process.  Should save a ton of bandwidth and processing energy.  At least the theater I looked at did.  I'll check a few more.

Actually, better yet, the seat map literally tells you how many seats are occupied and how many are available.

[Legion Again]

1 minute ago, ZackM said:

Actually, better yet, the seat map literally tells you how many seats are occupied and how many are available.

Cineplex is a god among theater chains     
 

MTC1, MTC2, you guys suck. You’re fired. Get your shit together for 2020, please and thanks.

[ZackM]

4 minutes ago, Menor said:

Oh that's so nice. So much less shit to write lol. But the only thing is I wasn't able to find a list of theaters for it.

https://www.cineplex.com/Theatres/CineplexLocations

 

In all honesty, this should be a breeze to write something up for.

[Menor the Destroyer]

Just now, ZackM said:

https://www.cineplex.com/Theatres/CineplexLocations

 

In all honesty, this should be a breeze to write something up for.

Oh wow. Yeah you should be all set then. This has gotta be the most scraping friendly theater website ever lol.

 

4 minutes ago, Tinalera said:

Scraping cineplex....it feel like im being laid off......lol

 

Kidding kidding

 

Not  all cineplex have reserved seating. When i do toronto theres only certain theatres i can do manually that show seats sold.

 

I wonder how cineworld will affect thw websites and my seat counting

I mean scraping is not necessarily sustainable. If the theater chains start putting in CAPTCHAs and whatnot then we might be screwed. So we definitely still need manual counters for detailed comps.

[XXR vs XXR]

These scrapers are to us counters what the automobile was to horse drawn carriages....

[Porthos]

13 minutes ago, ZackM said:

Actually, better yet, the seat map literally tells you how many seats are occupied and how many are available.

 

11 minutes ago, Arendelle Legion said:

Cineplex is a god among theater chains     
 

MTC1, MTC2, you guys suck. You’re fired. Get your shit together for 2020, please and thanks.

 

7 minutes ago, Menor said:

Oh wow. Yeah you should be all set then. This has gotta be the most scraping friendly theater website ever lol.

 

Sure gonna suck when Cineplex replaces its website with Regal's. 

[JB33]

20 minutes ago, ZackM said:

Actually, better yet, the seat map literally tells you how many seats are occupied and how many are available.

Careful though, the counts are totally skewed sometimes. It's hard to explain but the auditoriums will show the total number of seats sold but the seat count for the entire auditorium only reflects non-D-Box seats. Or it's the other way around. Something like that. In a nutshell, you can't always trust the counts. Auditoriums without a sub-section of speciality seats though? You should be good there. 

 

Sorry, I wish I could remember EXACTLY the issues I faced whenever I would do tracking for my theatre but I haven't done it since Endgame so I forget the details of the predicament. I didn't even notice what it was but I did know that when I looked at the seating chart with my own eyes sometimes it didn't look like it matched the count. Then someone here, whether it was @DAJK or @Lordmandeep, I can't remember, pointed out the discrepancy.  

Edited December 17, 2019 by JB33

[VanillaSkies]

2 minutes ago, JB33 said:

Careful though, the counts are totally skewed sometimes. It's hard to explain but the auditoriums will show the total number of seats sold but the seat count for the entire auditorium only reflects non-D-Box seats. Or it's the other way around. Something like that. In a nutshell, you can't always trust the counts. Auditoriums without a sub-section of speciality seats though? You should be good there. 

As someone who goes almost exclusively to Cineplex, I can confirm this. 

For example - At Lansdowne and VIP tonight there is a 10pm show listed twice, once as Ultra AVX DBOX and once as Ultra AVX. 

Both listings show available seat count of 251 seats with 2 seats occupied. However, it is the SAME show, but you have to pick one or the other depending on whether you are purchasing DBOX tickets or not. Not sure why they do it this way, but essentially it means many shows could be double counted if not careful. 

[Tinalera]

2 minutes ago, VanillaSkies said:

As someone who goes almost exclusively to Cineplex, I can confirm this. 

For example - At Lansdowne and VIP tonight there is a 10pm show listed twice, once as Ultra AVX DBOX and once as Ultra AVX. 

Both listings show available seat count of 251 seats with 2 seats occupied. However, it is the SAME show, but you have to pick one or the other depending on whether you are purchasing DBOX tickets or not. Not sure why they do it this way, but essentially it means many shows could be double counted if not careful. 

Yea it can get screwy double counts of screens (one sold out one not) the dbox is weird thing as noted. Sometimes same screen for two movies will show 1 more or less seat (77 78). 

 

Sometimes you will get a showing when you click on it 0 of 0 seats available) but not sold out.

 

Its a fun exercise sometimes

Edited December 17, 2019 by Tinalera

[Legion Again]

16 minutes ago, Porthos said:

 

 

Sure gonna suck when Cineplex replaces its website with Regal's. 

Glass half full: Regal switches their layout to Cineplex’s after the acquisition  

 

Spoiler

Yeah, I know, I know. Let me dream.

 

Edited December 17, 2019 by Arendelle Legion

[JB33]

6 minutes ago, VanillaSkies said:

As someone who goes almost exclusively to Cineplex, I can confirm this. 

For example - At Lansdowne and VIP tonight there is a 10pm show listed twice, once as Ultra AVX DBOX and once as Ultra AVX. 

Both listings show available seat count of 251 seats with 2 seats occupied. However, it is the SAME show, but you have to pick one or the other depending on whether you are purchasing DBOX tickets or not. Not sure why they do it this way, but essentially it means many shows could be double counted if not careful. 

Thanks! Maybe it was you who pointed that out to me during Endgame tracking. 

[ZackM]

12 minutes ago, JB33 said:

Careful though, the counts are totally skewed sometimes. It's hard to explain but the auditoriums will show the total number of seats sold but the seat count for the entire auditorium only reflects non-D-Box seats. Or it's the other way around. Something like that. In a nutshell, you can't always trust the counts. Auditoriums without a sub-section of speciality seats though? You should be good there. 

 

Sorry, I wish I could remember EXACTLY the issues I faced whenever I would do tracking for my theatre but I haven't done it since Endgame so I forget the details of the predicament. I didn't even notice what it was but I did know that when I looked at the seating chart with my own eyes sometimes it didn't look like it matched the count. Then someone here, whether it was @DAJK or @Lordmandeep, I can't remember, pointed out the discrepancy.  

I already deal with this for one of the theater chains that I'm tracking.  They split the D-box seats and the regular seats of a single showing into two separate showings for ticketing purposes, but still display the entire seat map for each of them. I'll figure out a way to manage it for Cineplex.  Thanks for bringing it up, though.  Better safe than sorry.