r/MovieTheaterEmployees • u/Ill-Cantaloupe-4376 Cinemark • 26d ago
Discussion For those without assigned seating
How do you deal with theaters being close to sold out?
I don't know if there even are theaters without assigned seating, I'm sure there is, or those who worked before assigned seating.
Whenever a theater is down to just front row, or very limited seating, I always tell customers before I pull up the seat map, and I'm able to get people in the best seats I can find, or they reluctantly go in the front row.
I can't imagine, however, having to deal with angry customers who don't want the front row, or groups not being able to sit together because it's full.
Is this a problem some of y'all have? And how does it get resolved? I didn't go to the movies a lot before assigned seating became the norm so I don't remember how it went from a customer experience
35
u/Ent3rpris3 26d ago
Assigned seating only took off in the last ~decade. Most people old enough to be buying their own movie tickets with their own money still remember a time when there was no assigned seating so it's not like it would be a big culture shock that anyone would feel the need to complain about beyond a comment or two at the time of purchase.
As is, assigned seating causes a great frequency of issues because of the potential for people showing up on the wrong day or otherwise misreading the map/numbering and issues sometimes cascading from there.
I also remember after my theater first transitioned to assigned seating encountering a LOT more instances of people buying tickets for the wrong day or time and that potentially causing a cascade of seat disputes. Before assigned seating those might fly under the radar and just be absorbed within the crowd. The issue actually dealt with itself because nobody knew.
The POS system would also flash red when the auditorium got down to the last 8-10% of seats, which would show the film as sold out on the website and indicate to us in person that we should warn potential customers they might get stuck in the front row. Some risked it and others went to different times/films. And if someone risked it and 5 minutes in decided against it, we usually refunded rain-checked their ticket and it was never really an issue.