Saturday - June 11, 2011

My Way Or The Highway

15 years ago Tim League and his wife opened their first movie theater, after going to the local multiplex and coming away quite disappointed. The magic of the movies was gone. They thought about what made that experience so poor, and realized it was mostly the audience. So they set out to bring back the cinema magic by enforcing civil behavior. And it worked. People flocked to their screenings, and now they have a small chain of successful theaters, in an era when most movie houses are on the brink of going out of business.

They have simple rules, and everybody knows what they are. No talking, no cell phones, no texting, no throwing popcorn, no babies, and no groups of kids without adult supervision. And they enforce these rules. First offense gets you a reminder, second offense gets you tossed. No refunds. No excuses. Happy trails cowpoke, hit the road.

Recently they had to give some young woman the old heave-ho. And she was so offended that she called them up and cussed them out. Twice! So now they use her rants as part of their policy announcement (but only before R rated films). And people love it even more. The magic of the movies turns out to be more the shared cultural experience than just what you’re looking at. It’s a group thing. And selfish self-centered simpletons destroy the group. So they have to go.

Pure, undistilled Awesome.

As many of you know, I really can’t abide people who talk during a movie. ... When we adopted our strict no talking policy back in 1997 we knew we were going to alienate some of our patrons. That was the plan. If you can’t change your behavior and be quiet (or unilluminated) during a movie, then we don’t want you at our venue.
...
Recently, we had a situation where a customer persisted in texting in the theater despite two warnings to stop. Our policy at that point is to eject the customer without a refund, which is exactly what went down that night.  Luckily, this former patron was so incensed at being kicked out, she quickly called the office and left us the raw ingredients for our latest “Don’t Talk or Text” PSA.

The funny thing is, they put her recorded rant and it’s text transcription up as a YouTube video, and it went completely viral. Nearly 1.5 million hits, and it’s only been up a couple of days. 5500 comments and counting, and it’s being shown (bleeped and blurred out) on TV news shows.

Kind of makes me wonder if this is another Tea Party founding moment. A camel’s back breaking piece of straw that starts a tidal wave of change. A move away from tolerating the Me Me ME and Screw You rude society that we’ve become. Maybe. When ladies go back to wearing hats and gloves in public, and gentlemen wear hats, sport jackets and ties, then we will have come full circle. Don’t hold your breath for that much, but don’t be afraid to stop being excessively tolerant. “An armed society is a polite society” the sci-fi master once wrote. But a polite society is it’s own kind of armament. It’s armor against cultural decay.


From the owners -

In the first couple of months of operation, we came up with some very simple guidelines that all of our theaters still adhere to today. They were all born from our own reactions to experiences we hated and endured when we went to the movies. The insistence on these simple policies is one of the main reasons people are loyal to our cinemas today.

We also serve beer, and that helps.

[these are the rules:]
1) We do not play ads before the film,

2) We do not allow children under 6. [ except for kiddie films ]

3) We do not allow unaccompanied minors.

4) If you persist in talking or texting, we will throw you out.

Simply outstanding. And in true American fashion, by making things better they’re making themselves a good living. More power to you, Mr. & Mrs. League. A business that actually cares about it’s customers. Well done.

Or, as they put it, in reaction to that little rant video above ...

Ma’am, you may be free to text in all the other theaters in the Magnited States of America, but here at our “little crappy ass theater,” you are not. Why you may ask? Well, we actually do give a f*$k.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/11/2011 at 07:57 AM   
Filed Under: • OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT •  
• Comments (6) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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