@directorik Thanks I love your reply because it tells me I need to work on my marketing. Few points to address:
How do you attract that many people to see a movie with no recognizable actors made by a filmmaker no one has heard of?
I think films are held back by the perception that you need a recognizable actor. We can talk above movies that had actors like Johnny Depp, Samuel Jackson, Eddie Murphy, Keanu Reeves, Ryan Reynolds that BOMBED. We can also talk about hits like Superbad that pretty much had a freshman crew of actors.
I'd take it like a startup and survey -
`Do people really care about name brand actors and/or directors when deciding to see a film?`. Based on our past screening turnouts, the answer is no, what is more important is targeting audiences. Horror films are being marketed to horror fans, black films to black communities, etc. Group leaders who people have more of a personal connection too can outweigh name brand. For example, converting a meetup organizer with 5,000 members of a horror group is a perfect person to organize film screenings.
We have this behaviour all the time, when someone you know suggest trying a new food, referring a plumber, to even what movie you should take the time to watch. That recommendation is more powerful than Scarlett Johanson.
Forgive me, but I don't see a correlation between this and Airbnb.
We don't use movie theaters because the business model doesn't work. The problem with ticket decline is pricing issue, not a quality issue. We've seen it with companies like MoviePass (RIP), to certian movie theater chains that offer $7 movie nights and $5 popcorn on Tuesday and people show up. We've also have various pricing experiments to find the
demand vs pricing equilibrium between the two.
Going back to the business model. Theater space is expensive to rent and they require large crowds of 100s of people + concessions marked up over 1000% (no exaggeration) to turn a profit. The result is to raise ticket prices, which have risen several times faster than inflation and caused a death spiral in attendance.
The venues we use like restaurants with event space, only want people to buy 2 drinks to turn a profit. It’s a better win-win-win as film producers bypass expensive theaters, ticket prices are lower for attendees and the venue gets business. Airbnb makes any apartment an hotel, we use any venue as a theater.
Ticket sellers, ticket takers and the space
That's easy, we do that, make it transparent, and give the filmmakers their money within 10 days.