Dear Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse Family,
This year has been a tough year for the Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse. Decreasing movie business used to be offset by a rapidly growing live comedy business. This year, the comedy business growth slowed, starting in the early summer. Our research has pointed to increased uncertainty and fear around the election as a primary cause of the Summer/Fall slump. Many retail and entertainment businesses throughout the DC area experienced the same slump - and nationally we have found the same trend. While we cannot control these ups and down in the overall market - it has forced us to take a hard look at the balance of entertainment offerings and business operations of trying to maintain both the movie business and comedy business at the same time.
About Sub-Run Movies
While the Summer/Fall slump has been harsh, the overall decline in the movie business for the Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse has been a 10+ year trend. It has greatly sped up in recent years due to increased competition in the area and home entertainment. The decline is mostly due to the dying Sub-Run movie model, the same model that the Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse operates under.
In the Sub-Run movie model, the theater owner can choose their own pricing, can show multiple films in the same theater, and allow for other entertainment (like comedy) to perform. Sub-Run movies are first release films that have been out in the theaters for 2 to 5 months. We get access to them once the First-Run theaters are finished with them (lost their value). We used to get films well before DVD or On-Demand release. That is no longer true. More than half of the films we bring in are either already available at home or about to be. The Sub-Run movie window no longer exists.
If we switched to a First-Run movie model (first week released films), we would not be allowed to do any other entertainment on our screen/stage except for that specific film. We would also have to raise our prices and guarantee 2 to 3 week runs for the films. No comedy, no sports, no TV, no special events, etc. Even if the film is doing terribly - we would have to keep it for the full guaranteed length of play. The advantage to First-Run is you get a film at it's height of popularity and advertising.
How to Keep Movies
Movies have been part of the Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse's long history. Going back to even before the theater was a Drafthouse. In an effort to create a new entertainment model that includes movies, we have come up with a new possible strategy and want your feedback. We have to decide this month if we are going to proceed with this new model.
Proposed New Model
Under the proposed new entertainment model, starting May 1st 2017, we would split the year into two seasons:
- Movie Season (4 months - May through August) - We would offer First-Run movies everyday. Each week would consist of one film and it would play for 2 to 3 weeks. Sometimes it would be for families and sometimes for adults. (Similar to the Uptown theater in NW DC - but just for summer months).
- Comedy Season (8 months - Sept through April) - We would produce a national comedy act for 4 to 5 comedy shows per weekend (Thursday, Friday & Saturday nights). We would host special events (sports, special films, festivals, etc). For families, we would offer matinee family live entertainment and would offer Sub-Run movies as matinees during the weekend. For adults we would offer Sub-Run movies as matinees. Open Thursday through Sunday.
NOTE: The new DC location will continue to do live comedy year round. So comedy fans will still have access to top national comedy acts in the summer.
Upside: The live comedy business softens in the summer, at the same time the First-Run movie business has it's strongest time of the year. The hope is to balance both and present them at their peak season.
Downside: In order to do this, we would have to drop our discount movies on Monday and Tuesday. We would have fixed pricing on movies ($9.50 prime-time, $7.50 matinee) *estimate. We would also have to reduce our menu to fewer food items, in order to streamline food service and offer food service during slower movie nights in the summer. Also if we get a bad movie in the summer - the business will be slow for weeks.
Please take a moment and let us know what you think via the survey link below. Only 3 questions! Please give us feedback.
In the meantime...
We could really use your business and we would love to make you laugh and entertain you. We are working hard this month to fix the Arlington sign and buy new seats. We expect this to be finished by early December. Please come visit us for movies and/or comedy.
Sincerely,
Management
Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse
Drafthouse Comedy in DC
