Pity parades are for losers
Written by Dan
First off, let me apologize for last night's pity post. I was really bummed out over our super shitty February, and was hoping (quite naively) that our luck would change along with the new month. When it didn't, I hit a HUGE low. I won't delve into the gritty details, but Nicole and I ended up having a long conversation where I ended up sounding like the world's biggest defeatist, which is something that has never happened before in relation to The Moxie. Needless to say, we both went to bed with stress-induced stomach aches.
And that's when I had the dream.
From what I remember, I was at the Lion's Choice in Columbia (the one I didn't get to go to over T/F weekend) and I was ordering a roast beef combo meal. Instead of handing me the regular meal, they gave me a box filled with a variety of meats, from which I had to pick and choose what I wanted to put on my sandwich... and then I woke up. As you can see, the dream had little to do with our current situation and more to do with the fact that I haven't eaten in three days. Whether the dream had a point or not, I woke up revived and refreshed. The dark clouds had parted and I was ready to tackle every problem I could find... including why I had woken up with my underwear on backwards.
The first thing I did was change the title of yesterday's post to "Why must you hurt us so?" to "Dan is a panty waste." Seriously though, complaining about a bad month on the blog was one of the stupidest thing I could've done. The people who read this blog are already coming into the theater (if they live in or around Springfield), and the last thing I want to do is make them (you) feel bad if you haven't been in in awhile. While guilt-tripping might work on Nicole when I don't want to take out the trash, it's not an effective form of marketing for The Moxie.
Ok, now let me rewind a bit... what problems do we need to tackle to make The Moxie a success? To properly answer that question we need to figure out what factors made February such a bad month.
Scheduling
After speaking with Paul, our booking agent, and hearing it from several other people, I think our first problem in February was our film selection. Looking back, it seems that our films were a bit too ecclectic for the market. We were showing films that weren't being played anywhere else in the Midwest (MOOLAADE, LOGGERHEADS, COACHELLA), which sounds good on paper, but doesn't really bring in the crowds. I think as our audience expands over time, smaller films like these will become more viable, but right now we need something with a little more draw. As Paul put it, "your February calendar would've had a hard time drawing crowds in San Francisco, let alone Springfield."
Now, don't go accusing us of selling out, because we're not about to do that. Even if we wanted to start showing huge movies, which we don't, Campbell Suxteen and Springfield Great would beat us up and down the "booking" court. We can't compete at that level, which makes it difficult to find something that 1) Campbell won't snipe from us, 2) has a big enough "hook" to draw in audiences, and 3) wants to work with our little 75 seat theater. There's an entire post waiting in the wings about the fine art of booking a single screen cinema - it's not as easy as simply being the first to ask for a movie - but I'll get to that at a later time.
Just know this: every film we're showing in March has a "hook."
Accessibility
The accessibility of our films can be approached from several angles: levity, cost, and promotion. Let's look at each in turn: (For all those people who don't like long posts, I'm sorry)
Levity
I could've used another word to describe this, but I've always had a thing for the word "levity," which basically describes the "heaviness," or lack thereof, of our film's subject matter. In February nearly every one of our films were HEAVY: cafe violence, self-destructive musicians, white trash dollmakers, female circumcision, existential horror films extrapolating on the theme of loneliness in an over-connected world, the Japanese invasion of China, AIDS, Branson, etc.. There were a few happy notes in there (DUMA and COACHELLA), but I think they were hampered by the otherwise HEAVY line-up. March has a strong mix of HEAVIES and LIGHTIES, so hopefully everyone can find something to watch.
Cost
If people don't like spending money on movies, then that obviously creates another barrier between them and us. It might seem assumptive, but I think there's a perceived sense that our theater is expensive, when in reality our admission is exactly the same as Campbell Suxteen and Springfield Great's, and our concessions are cheaper by 50% or more across the board. So, we're going to try something new. It may work, and it may not, but that's why it's called "experimenting"... or at least that's what my dealer told me. MOXIE BULK PASSES: 10 movies for $50. It may not seem like much, but if it helps break down the cost barrier, and creates an added sense of accessibility to our theater, then it's a-okay in my book. I'd much rather have 30 people at $5.00 a pop than 10 at $8.00. We'll should be rolling those out in the next week or so.
Promotion
If people still don't know we exist, that creates another obvious barrier to our theater, and our films. In a town with a metropolitan area of just under 400,000 people, it's hard to imagine NOT being able to find enough butts to fill our 75 seat theater. I mean, we only need 0.0001875% of that population to sell out a show! That's barely 1% of 1%! So, we need to think of ways to let these people know we exist. Our advertising budget is currently invested in our weekend newspaper ad and NPR sponsorships, so we need to think of FREE ways to advertise. Whenever we have a movie that ties in with a college subject (even if it's a stretch), we contact as many faculty and organizations as we can; we send out press releases to all of our media contacts; we distribute our calendar near and far... but we have to do more! MOXIE A GO-GO isn't going to make us much money, but it will help promote our theater. The south side is a particularly tough egg to crack, especially since many think downtown is crime-ridden and devoid of any and all convenient parking.
What we need are spots on local news programs and at special events. I'm thinking "The Moxie Show" on NPR would do just fine. It's not like anyone really needs THREE HOURS of classical music everyday.
So that about does it. Again, I'm sorry for yesterday's post. This blog really needs to learn when to keep its damn mouth shut, that's for darn sure. I know the transparency of our business model is one of the features that make the blog so enjoyable, but I think I'm going to be adding a little opacity to the blend. After all, it's just not sexy if you show it all.