“No Outside Food” At Movie Theaters Is A Racist Policy.
It just is. There was an article in The Guardian about movie theater pricing that triggered some PTSD flashbacks. The sensationalism of the theater economy slowly collapsing is fun to watch and makes for a better show, but it’s always worth shining a light on how theater companies can...
The Faces
Of course there were adversaries. Of course there were obstacles. In all of those theater years, of course there were folks who honestly thought their job was creating friction for others. But they were in the minority by far....
Video Killed The Static Sticky Star
Sometime around late ’13 to early ’14 I was tasked with looking into upgrading the menu boards above Winnetka’s concessions with digital panels. AMC had switched over to digital menus years before but we at Pacific were still working with magnets and statics. It was honestly kind of embarrassing....
This is my Eiffel Tower. This is my Rachmaninoff’s Third. My Pieta. It’s completely elegant. It’s bafflingly beautiful. And it’s capable of, well, math.
At Pacific we had a tool for generating attendance and gross estimates. We had a tool for payroll forecasting and staff schedule planning. We had a tool for projecting concession sales. We had a tool for reporting results and planning adjustments. The was no tool in existence for reforecasting...
References? Why yes. I’m glad you asked.
Way back in high school I was in a joint English/Chemistry humanities program thing. Woke liberal nonsense, in modern English. The final for both classes was a group report/presentation on a hypothetical environmental crisis. My group actually put in the work, we knew we were going to kill it,...
What NOT To Do, Unless You Want A Successful Career. Apparently.
You’ve met Flash, my exemplar for everything wrong with AMC Theaters. Today we’ll meet Cletus, a big part of the reason why Pacific Theaters and ArcLight Cinemas are no more. Again, names have been changed to protect the innocent ears of the special people involved. And as an aside,...
We Can Build It, We Have The Technology
I had run successful booths at a handful of buildings, and I’d closed out a building, but I never opened a building with AMC. I’d helped with a few shifts at the Woodland Hills opening (closed last year), but that was it. I signed up for Pacific with a...
2 + 2 = 57 And A Bonus!
My closeouts and scheduling tools created a framework of numerical accuracy and consistency around the day-to-day manager decisions that had immediate financial effects, but getting my boss fired for embezzling thousands of dollars would be my standout money moment with AMC. The Ops Notes that I built out for...
Projection Teaming. Yeah, I got this.
This is vanity talking but projectionists were the theater SEAL teams in film and early digital years. The three- to ten-people cluster of mechanically inclined, take-charge, responsible types who can keep both equipment and schedules running. My first team was all that. Paul Koenig, Russ Quan, Chris Dixon, Jason...
Pacific Theatres HR: Walk like A, Talk like B.
HR at Pacific was a completely different beast than with AMC. AMC had sought control of every aspect of scheduling and development, with authority that was very carefully and specifically delegated. Pacific on the other hand came from a place of empowerment. At least, that was their goal. The...