How do you calculate how many theaters to put the movie in?

[wolfpost]

I am a little confused by that. I literally bankrupted my company because of it. LOL.

[Pedroig]

What has worked dependable for me is this simple formula:

Commercial Rating (the first one in yellow) x 1000 is the number of showings total one should aim for week 1 and 2, after that reduce it by 10% for week 3-4, and then 20% for week 5-7. Can keep all your own theatres on it, but keep the rentals as low as possible. Getting 300 theatres total is enough to show everything in house basically in 0.8.

[UforiK]

So i've gone deep dive on this and you can be really ambitious with week 1. I've rented 20k screens with a 7.0/6.1 movie and still got 100% attendance. Week 2 was 96% attendance after renting 12k.

The only time i haven't hit 100% week 1 was when i hit 99% on a 5.6/4.8 movie where i rented 15k screens.

I then went full on test for a 5.9/4.9 movie and rented the max 28k screens and that still filled 84% of them (23k would've been optimal).

After that i go down pretty drastically for weeks 3 and 4. Like 40-50% reduction from week 2 to 3. And another 40-50% from week 3 to 4. Weeks 4-8 are just my own theaters with no rentals.

This is all assuming advertising for 6 weeks before the movie releases, up until 3 weeks after it releases. Advertising with pretty much all the options (except young kids most of the time)

I'm getting a solid $2-3m profit per movie and just got the $20m in the bank achievement in mid july 1931. I think basically every time, i recoup the massive rental fees/advertising fees/production fees in week 1 of release.

I've been spread-sheeting for like 5 hours and am just trying to get close enough to a formula to create a calculator so that you can input your movie scores and see how many screens to rent for each week

Edit to say: I think the reason so many people (including me my first playthrough) are having such a big problem with money is that they're not maximizing that week 1 cash gain. That's where all the profit is.

[Voice From Beyond]

If you don't advertise to the right audience you won't fill the seats. That seems to be difficult to do.

[Ｚａｌｔｈｏｒ]

Originally posted by UforiK:

So i've gone deep dive on this and you can be really ambitious with week 1. I've rented 20k screens with a 7.0/6.1 movie and still got 100% attendance. Week 2 was 96% attendance after renting 12k.

The only time i haven't hit 100% week 1 was when i hit 99% on a 5.6/4.8 movie where i rented 15k screens.

I then went full on test for a 5.9/4.9 movie and rented the max 28k screens and that still filled 84% of them (23k would've been optimal).

After that i go down pretty drastically for weeks 3 and 4. Like 40-50% reduction from week 2 to 3. And another 40-50% from week 3 to 4. Weeks 4-8 are just my own theaters with no rentals.

This is all assuming advertising for 6 weeks before the movie releases, up until 3 weeks after it releases. Advertising with pretty much all the options (except young kids most of the time)

I'm getting a solid $2-3m profit per movie and just got the $20m in the bank achievement in mid july 1931. I think basically every time, i recoup the massive rental fees/advertising fees/production fees in week 1 of release.

I've been spread-sheeting for like 5 hours and am just trying to get close enough to a formula to create a calculator so that you can input your movie scores and see how many screens to rent for each week :creepy_smile:

Edit to say: I think the reason so many people (including me my first playthrough) are having such a big problem with money is that they're not maximizing that week 1 cash gain. That's where all the profit is.

I'm curious, how would one begin on creating such a spreadsheet?

[wolfpost]

Thanks guys

[FlyingAllNight]

Here is a breakdown I just posted in another post........



Movies run for 4 weeks. After that is an option (the middle one you can click) to change the movie showings.

BTW thanks to Frank River I have gotten way better on the start and setting up your first movies.

Week 1: should be at least 10000. I even got away with 12000.
Week 2: Same go for 10000 or whatever you set for week 1.
Week 3: Now the trick. Your attendance might change week 3. So risk it and go 10k again. or lower the amount? I will usually take the risk and do 10k again. Matters on the movie.
Week 4: Most likely a 20-40% drop has happened. So 8k or maybe 6k. Again your gambling on your movie. Is it good enough to crush for 4 weeks ?

Next you are given a chance to extend to Week 5,6,7,8. Make sure to adjust your independent movie showings. Usually I go for 4-5k at the most. Matters again on the drop you saw in week 1,2,3,4. If it already dropped 50% in the first 4 weeks then you know that 5k is risky and maybe 4k independent showings is fine.

Just make sure week 7,8 are real low or zero out. Chances are the movie will sell well for 6 weeks and really die out week 7 and 8.

Hope that helps

[DAN1]

Originally posted by FlyingAllNight:

Here is a breakdown I just posted in another post........



Movies run for 4 weeks. After that is an option (the middle one you can click) to change the movie showings.

BTW thanks to Frank River I have gotten way better on the start and setting up your first movies.

Week 1: should be at least 10000. I even got away with 12000.
Week 2: Same go for 10000 or whatever you set for week 1.
Week 3: Now the trick. Your attendance might change week 3. So risk it and go 10k again. or lower the amount? I will usually take the risk and do 10k again. Matters on the movie.
Week 4: Most likely a 20-40% drop has happened. So 8k or maybe 6k. Again your gambling on your movie. Is it good enough to crush for 4 weeks ?

Next you are given a chance to extend to Week 5,6,7,8. Make sure to adjust your independent movie showings. Usually I go for 4-5k at the most. Matters again on the drop you saw in week 1,2,3,4. If it already dropped 50% in the first 4 weeks then you know that 5k is risky and maybe 4k independent showings is fine.

Just make sure week 7,8 are real low or zero out. Chances are the movie will sell well for 6 weeks and really die out week 7 and 8.

Hope that helps

Thanks! gonna try this, how do you decide which marketing firm to use? I have trouble understanding which audience each marketing firm caters to and usually end up using the same one everytime

[Bennibus]

I'm liking all the number crunching above but there's just gotta be so many more variables. What happens if your 5/5 movie opens the same week as a 9/9 Gerber classic. No way you're smashing it at the box office unless it's the holidays.

[FlyingAllNight]

Originally posted by DAN1:

Originally posted by FlyingAllNight:

Here is a breakdown I just posted in another post........



Movies run for 4 weeks. After that is an option (the middle one you can click) to change the movie showings.

BTW thanks to Frank River I have gotten way better on the start and setting up your first movies.

Week 1: should be at least 10000. I even got away with 12000.
Week 2: Same go for 10000 or whatever you set for week 1.
Week 3: Now the trick. Your attendance might change week 3. So risk it and go 10k again. or lower the amount? I will usually take the risk and do 10k again. Matters on the movie.
Week 4: Most likely a 20-40% drop has happened. So 8k or maybe 6k. Again your gambling on your movie. Is it good enough to crush for 4 weeks ?

Next you are given a chance to extend to Week 5,6,7,8. Make sure to adjust your independent movie showings. Usually I go for 4-5k at the most. Matters again on the drop you saw in week 1,2,3,4. If it already dropped 50% in the first 4 weeks then you know that 5k is risky and maybe 4k independent showings is fine.

Just make sure week 7,8 are real low or zero out. Chances are the movie will sell well for 6 weeks and really die out week 7 and 8.

Hope that helps

Thanks! gonna try this, how do you decide which marketing firm to use? I have trouble understanding which audience each marketing firm caters to and usually end up using the same one everytime

Good question. I asked Frank River this and said click all of them. I thought he didn't know what he's talking about lol. He's right click them all. It will cost you about 700k but it's amazing how well it works.

I need to add that because im sure most were like you and me and picking one thinking it out.

[FlyingAllNight]

Originally posted by Bennibus:

I'm liking all the number crunching above but there's just gotta be so many more variables. What happens if your 5/5 movie opens the same week as a 9/9 Gerber classic. No way you're smashing it at the box office unless it's the holidays.

Ive ran into this actually. You're still good the first 4 weeks but your movie falls off faster.
So first two weeks you may be the 2nd but you can sell out your theaters you own. Even if you screw up you will make over a 1 mil.

BTW for everyone. When putting your movie out watch for having your movie in competition with another similar movie. I always attack the competition on their 5th week if they extend. Never go heads up.

[Voice From Beyond]

Originally posted by Bennibus:

I'm liking all the number crunching above but there's just gotta be so many more variables. What happens if your 5/5 movie opens the same week as a 9/9 Gerber classic. No way you're smashing it at the box office unless it's the holidays.

Do Holidays matter in this game? I see them marked on the calendar so I have to believe they do.

[Pedroig]

The most EFFICIENT way is to simply take Commercial Rating and multiple by 1000, that is the target number for first two weeks, then reduce by 10% for weeks 4-5 and then by 20% for weeks 5-7.

For advertising, if one selects more than 4 there is a malus on advertising, so one keeps spending more for less. Three will consistently turn out B+ to A results. Read the blurbs and they give an indication. There are only SIX categories of target audience, Young Male/Female, Adult Male/Female, and Old Male/Female.

Each story element has a weighting with each of those groups. Westerns are preferred twice as much by males as females and the inverse for romances, adventure is preferred by the young, drama by the old. So an Adventure 75% Action 25% in a Fantasy setting would be a good movie to target the left column, top,, next one down, and the very bottom. That said, the other elements like protaganist, antagonist, supporting, themes, and finales all have an impact as well.

[DAN1]

Originally posted by FlyingAllNight:

Originally posted by DAN1:

Thanks! gonna try this, how do you decide which marketing firm to use? I have trouble understanding which audience each marketing firm caters to and usually end up using the same one everytime

Good question. I asked Frank River this and said click all of them. I thought he didn't know what he's talking about lol. He's right click them all. It will cost you about 700k but it's amazing how well it works.

I need to add that because im sure most were like you and me and picking one thinking it out.

Oh, this doesnt make sense to me, because some descriptions match to a specific audience, for example the radio one talks about older people being their target and there is another one that talks about the young masses and cleavage, so young men. Those are the ones Ive figured out, but the rest are a complete mystery

[FlyingAllNight]

Think of it in terms of real life. Take Disney. They make children movies. But then they try to get an older audience and market to them. Sure more kids want to see one of their cartoons but you'll find some adults do too.

Another good example is the Star Wars series. Mainly a male audience. But then they create Groku and market that %^#@ing gremlin. Now women are watching the show and buying stuff animals of Groku. It worked for awhile.

Same idea here. Sure women might not want to go see your western. Wasting money on it may not make sense. But some women do and those seats that might have been empty are now full making the marketing make sense

[UforiK]

Originally posted by Ｚａｌｔｈｏｒ:

I'm curious, how would one begin on creating such a spreadsheet?

Honestly i'm mainly just collecting a ton of data and trying to find patterns. I'm recording everything when i release a movie. I always do the same advertising pretty much, always 6 weeks before release, 3 weeks after release. I record both movie ratings, the amount of screenings each week vs the % attendance to figure out the optimal number. I know week 1 is the main profit week and you can shoot high for it but my problem is, despite how high i've gone, all of them except the one 99% one have been 100% attendance, so i havent been able to figure out the top end number, which is the most important. What i need to do is just go full test mode and open every movie with max screenings and find the actual maximum for each rating.