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UA & Carmike Web Sites

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Jesse Skeen

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May 16, 1997, 3:00:00 AM5/16/97
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He he, hope the UA site lets you live chat with their company head
sometime so I can tell him what a bunch of MORONS he's got running the
Market Square Cinema in Sacramento- a great example of how a good theater
can be completely RUINED just by employing people who apperently don't
give a damn about what they're doing!!! (They've already TRASHED their
print of "Austin Powers" in just the first week! And the assistant
manager I talked to about it YELLED at me!)
Someone has a part of their own web site devoted to how much Carmike
Cinemas suck, glad I don't live near one. Century Theatres has their own
site at http://www.centurytheatres.com check it out to see the most LIES
your screen will ever display at one time! Landmark Theatres and
CinemaCal Enterprises, 2 other dispicable chains, have their own web
sites, I emailed them from there telling them how dare they waste money
on web sites when apparently they can't even afford decent sound
equipment in their theatres! (CinemaCal built a theater in 1991, with 8
screens but only 2 having real stereo, the rest have that ripoff system
which has surround speakers but only one mono channel behind the screen!
Plus they show those stupid slide ads during intermission, so you can
tell the only thing this company really cares about is making money- and
keeping it all to themselves!)

Bobby Henderson

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May 16, 1997, 3:00:00 AM5/16/97
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I just noticed both the number 1 and 2 theater circuits (in terms of
screen count) have web sites now.

Carmike Cinemas is found at http://www.carmike.com
United Artists is found at http://www.uatc.com

The UA site is apparently under construction. You hit it and get the
opening splash page with no active links to the sections shown
(showtimes, UA Starport Virtual Theme Park, Special Ticket Programs, the
Satellite Theatre Network and UATC Promotions). The opening page is
kind of neat looking. Hopefully there will be a detailed listing of
audio and projection formats to go with the showtimes.

I really enjoy the Carmike theater where I live. However, their web
site has very curious slant to it. THEY WANT TO SELL ME STOCK! What
the hell is that about!? The "Home Page" is a letter "to our
shareholders" The "Information Page" has a few links other movie
databases, but much of it has to do with investment options. The
"Movies" page is a listing of coming attractions that can be found in
many other web sites. The "New Projects" page is pretty much just a
deal about their "Hollywood Connection" entertainment complex currently
under construction in Columbus, GA. There is also a page called
"Edgar," which is really a search engine for stock trading data. The
page has lots of listings for Carmike Cinemas and Regal Cinemas.

All this stock information may be nice for some people, but why base the
primary subject matter of a theater circuit web site on that alone? I
don't think any other theater circuit web page pulls this bull crap.
All of the others give you some way of finding out what is playing where
in their circuit. Carmike is dropping the ball BIG TIME if they can't
do the same. Or, with the need of making those quarterly reports look
bitchin' every time, maybe they don't have the staff to do it.

The way it sounds, the only people they give a hoot about are the
shareholders. They brag about their goal of building the circuit up to
5,000 screens. In doing that, Carmike is going to have such a horrible
cost overhead they'll have to cut corners everywhere. I can't make any
sense at all of them buying out so many old, existing theaters either,
unless they intend to demolish them and start over with new
THX-Digital-Stadium Seated theaters.

Carmike's managers in Columbus are obviously on some kind of ego trip
with their being so bent on having the biggest circuit. While they're
busy buying out theaters all over the place, other smaller circuits are
concentrating on something more important: BEING THE BEST.

Want to know who the best circuits are? ACT III tops the list for their
unequaled commitment to THX and all three digital sound formats. AMC
deserves credit for bringing the stadium seating craze into the
mainstream with megaplexes like The Grand 24 in Dallas and the Ontario
Mills 30 in Ontario, California. Pacific and Mann theaters are building
some great all-THX, all-digital sites. Some of the new Sony complexes
are very good as well.

Anyway, I'm getting off on a tangent here (and possibly pissing off a
few people). If folks from Carmike are reading this (and I really hope
you are) this is the point: The average ticket buyer could not care
less how many screens Carmike operates. They only care about the one
theater they are paying money to enter. It is of the utmost importance
that one theater is clean, attractive and offers some of the finer
things about movie-going. If cupholders are enough, okay. But many
people are expecting THX, at least one type of digital sound and stadium
seating. Many people know what this stuff is now. And many, many more
will know once Dolby Digital and DTS become common in people's home
theaters, music racks, computers and car stereo systems. You can't
offer all this stuff across 5,000 screens unless your pockets are deeper
than those of Bill Gates'.

There, I'm done.

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