Dinner and a Show

A compelling story line. A favorite actor. Nothing to do on a rainy Saturday afternoon. A love of hot buttered popcorn. The grandparents want to baby-sit.

People go to the movies for different reasons. But sometimes even the most rabid cinephile needs a push. For Texas-based Studio Movie Grill, e-mail is the ticket to filling seats.

The chain has seen nearly a 70% open rate for its weekly e-mail blasts, leading to a 20% leap in online ticket purchases and an overall increase in attendance, says Brian Schultz, Studio Movie Grill's founder and owner.

A COMPELLING STORY line. A favorite actor. Nothing to do on a rainy Saturday afternoon. A love of hot buttered popcorn. The grandparents want to baby-sit.

People go to the movies for different reasons. But sometimes, even the most rabid cinephile needs a push. For the Texas-based Studio Movie Grill chain, e-mail was the ticket to filled seats.

The chain has seen nearly a 70% open rate for its weekly e-mail blasts, leading to a 20% leap in online ticket purchases and an overall increase in attendance, says Brian Schultz, Studio Movie Grill's founder and owner.

The chain differs from the typical multiplex in that it offers leather seats, table service and a full bar. More than 40,000 customers have opted to receive the 5-year-old e-newsletter, created with the help of e-mail vendor Cinema Source.

“The key is to start with an offer,” says Schultz. “We created a measurable system that people could respond to via an online offer for discounted food and beverages if they signed up.”

The newsletters serve several purposes. By allowing moviegoers discounted food and beverages on slow midweek nights, Schultz is able to fill seats, sell dinners and cultivate long-term customer relationships. The newsletters that follow ensure those relationships will last.

“The key to getting customers to open and read the e-mail is to give relevant information,” he says. “What our customers want is up-to-date show times and special programming that's movie-related or [information about] things happening in the theater.”

Tickets bought on the Web benefit the theater in a number of ways.

“Online purchases help us predict the attendance for certain shows in advance so we can be ready,” Schultz says. Based on the films that sell more tickets, Schultz and his team can anticipate customers' eating habits: “We serve 1,000 meals, fresh made to order, within a one-hour period.”

The e-mails also cut down the “staggering volume” of calls to the movie information line.

“I read an article on how customers wanted to get film information in a format they could print out,” Schultz says. “I realized that I personally would have to write down numerous movies and times to ask my wife which film she preferred. So the e-mail newsletter made sense.”

Each e-mail blast is linked to Studio Movie Grill's home page (www.studiomoviegrill.com), to give customers a rundown of movies and their show times. Customers also have an immediate opportunity to buy tickets.

Newsletter recipients can watch film trailers, answer trivia questions, view box office results or link to official movie Web sites. Additionally, recipients are made aware of special events held at the theater and they have the option of purchasing items from the gift store.

The store offers gift certificates and movie ticket packages, such as “Dinner and a Movie for Two,” which includes an appetizer, a dessert, two entrées, two soft drinks and a movie for two; and a “Movie Night Basket,” which includes four movie passes plus snacks and assorted candies wrapped in a popcorn tub with tissue, confetti and a gift card.

The “For Someone Special” basket is a valentine gift with four movie passes, a bag of gourmet popcorn, a bag of buttered popcorn, a heart-shaped box of chocolates, and “I'm Nuts For You” gourmet snack mix, along with other candy. It can be shipped or delivered to the designated “special someone.”

Schultz's theaters are a family-friendly place — so much so that teenagers are admitted only with a parent. The policy hasn't hurt business a bit.

“Teens aren't the theater's target market,” he says. “We're a niche appealing to young professionals and families. I don't enjoy — nor do our customers — teens talking through the movie and running around with skateboards. We try to create a great experience for moviegoers.”

As for the food, dinners run in the $8 range, with the menu featuring everything from burgers and chicken tenders to sandwich wraps and gourmet pizzas. There's a kids' menu available as well as a full bar.

“The films drive the audience, [but] the food quality makes a difference whether or not they go to a restaurant before or after visiting the theater,” Schultz notes. “A service mentally keeps people coming back.”

Another marketing program offered is the kids' matinee service. “It's a great way to leverage into the community,” he says. For a $1 admission, mothers, daycare centers and camps can enjoy the theater and its facilities. “It's a way we can easily reach out to the general community and get them to come to the theater. The goal of most of our marketing techniques is to get [people] to [visit] the theater one time — most of our customers get spoiled and don't want to go to a normal movie theater again.”

Corporate events round out the marketing script. “We can do anything a hotel does for corporations looking for a facility to hold a meeting,” says Schultz. “Our audio-visual is killer and it helps when they can make a presentation on a 40-foot movie screen with state-of-the-art AV equipment.”

Schultz says that by now most of the Studio Movie Grill's corporate and local business is gained by its reputation. But he does have a corporate-event sales team, and he reaches out to the community through advertising in newspapers and by co-sponsoring local events.

Having a clear goal in mind is the key to success, Schultz says.

“For many companies, their goal is to raise revenue and attendance, but they don't put a system in place to measure the result — as well as a system that can handle the increased volume.”

The “movie grill” concept began six years ago. Today, there are two Studio Movie Grill locations — in Addison, TX (a 25,000-square-foot, 850-seater) and Plano, TX (30,000 square feet, 1,100 seats).

The company has two new Texas locations under construction, in Houston and Arlington. Each one is expected to accommodate about 1,500 seats in 40,000 square feet, says Schultz, who adds: “In my mind, this is the future of the moviegoing industry.”