This Alternative to Eventbrite Can Boost Sales for Your Drive-in Theater
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Riley Manning has worked as a travel and entertainment writer for more than 10 years. Today, he writes about unique events and the technology that helps make them happen.
There is comfort in taking a drive at night, maybe even in your PJs, windows down, letting the night air in, then rolling into a corner of a lot, leaning your seat back, and settling into a movie.
The drive-in theater is making a comeback, and for good reason. With the last two years of Covid-19 and social distancing, many Americans have felt starved for getting out of the house while remaining relatively safe. Our cars are an extension of our home. Why not get out of the house and catch a flick?
Demand for the drive-in experience is up. There are currently 10 drive-in theaters around the state of Florida with another 21 proposed. Drive-in theaters have traditionally been cash-only for tickets and concessions. But with rising costs of land and changes in the film industry concerning licensing and distribution potentially lowering the overall profits of the rebounding drive-in, there are new requirements for digital ticketing systems.
Learn how to bring the drive-in experience to more guests while boosting sales at your drive-in theater by using an Eventbrite alternative, below.
A Fistful of Dollars?
Drive-in theaters have come a long way since Richard Hollingshead of Camden, N.J., put a projector on the top of his car and hung sheets from trees in the 1930s. Cars became indispensable in the 1950s, and the drive-in boomed. Warm, temperate nights made drive-in theaters a summer staple. Another staple of the drive-in was a manager handling cash as viewers paid by the carload.
This previous peak may have passed, but the use of cash at the gate seemingly stuck around—until now.
Cash can be a lot to keep up with, and carrying large amounts of it can present a host of problems. Modern society demands the option to pay without cash. No one likes a traffic jam, especially when the aim is to relax in front of the silver screen. Top these issues off with major film studios requiring better tracking of film views in our modern, streaming age, and hosts must adapt and modernize their technology. An Eventbrite alternative can solve these issues and bring a host of other benefits.
Modernizing Nostalgia
Your customers come in all stripes. The older customer reliving their childhood, younger customers looking for novelty in the retro, the couple adapting to circumstances by seeking safety in the comfort of their own car. The reasons for attendance may have changed, but the commonality of what they are all seeking has not—a pleasant experience.
How will you best provide this experience when the cost of giving it has gone up?
Land
Hosting a drive-in requires land, and a pretty good bit of it. Real estate prices have skyrocketed over the last two years, and they don’t seem to be slowing down. This means that leases and taxes on land have climbed as well.
Film Rights
Film distributors charge theaters to license movies based on ticket sales. Recently, many film distribution companies required electronic sales so they can accurately record sales and revenue. These fees eat up the vast majority of profits for drive-in theaters.
These rising costs necessitate a lower per-ticket cost for theaters. Eventbrite’s Professional package charges you nearly double the amount of an Eventbrite alternative. Apps like Eventbrite gobble up profits and drive up the per-ticket price for your showings while leaving out a host of benefits that an Eventbrite alternative offers.
Eventbrite alternatives offer lower fees and these better features:
- Square payments
- Square card reader support
- Stripe payments
- Instant payout
- Custom service fees
Why pay additional fees for less benefit? You want cars lined up to attend your events, and you shouldn’t have to pass along higher fees to attendees in exchange for less flexibility.
With an Eventbrite alternative, you could pay far less from each ticket sale. For example, with SimpleTix you get all of the benefits of apps like Eventbrite, and more, while only paying $.79 plus 2% of the total ticket price. This Eventbrite alternative offers a flat-rate fee for each ticket. There are no set-up fees, hidden fees, or costs—it’s completely free to use, and you get to charge what you want for tickets.
Your choice of an Eventbrite alternative could save you considerable money in additional fees while offering a streamlined event experience to your customers. This gives your customer an overall better experience and puts more money back into your theater. It also improves the chance of bringing back repeat customers and potential future profits to your screenings.
Are you offering special pricing for early birds, seniors, kids, military, or first responders? An Eventbrite alternative like SimpleTix automatically adjusts the ticket price to the discounted rate. Apps like Eventbrite lack this automatic adjustment. Your customers’ fees could be static while the price was reduced, charging either you or your customer an outsized 3.5% fee for a lower ticket price.
Beat the Line
An Eventbrite alternative keeps the paper tickets away. Your guests will be able to purchase tickets online in advance, giving you a better idea of upcoming attendance and helping you determine your staffing levels. You will be able to keep the line of cars moving by scanning tickets from their app, shortening the time your guests have to wait to slide into their reserved spot. This smooth process will allow for both quicker entry and exit, and will give you additional time to prepare for the next show.
Concessions
Food and drink are not only necessary to placate hungry viewers, offering concessions to your guests completes their drive-in experience and offers you the opportunity to boost your bottom line. What goes better with a movie than popcorn? More cash in your pocket.
With less margin on ticket sales, concessions provide the bulk of a drive-in theater’s profit. To stay in the black, a drive-in theater has to sell a lot of snacks and drinks. And more tickets mean more concessions. An alternative to Eventbrite lets you sell and redeem concessions online and through the app. SimpleTix doesn’t charge fees for concessions.
With each online purchase, you gain a potential return customer. Use the information they provide you as an opportunity to re-engage. Send out a newsletter with the times of your next showings. You can even send out surveys to ticket purchasers asking what type of movies they’d like to see at the theater next. This is important because having the right mix of movies is a big part of attracting the maximum number of customers.
A changing industry and a return to the nostalgia of the past bring new challenges and new ways to confront old challenges. Keep more of your margin on ticket and concession sales, and allow more guests to enjoy the novelty and necessity of the drive-in experience. Don’t let your ticket sales software offer you less benefit while charging higher fees. Fees should be simple and never undermine your ability to profit from your screening. Know that these fees are unnecessary, and choose an Eventbrite alternative to keep your fees clear and your pricing structure flexible. Let the modern technology of an Eventbrite alternative like SimpleTix revolutionize your drive-in business.
SimpleTix has offered an affordable, premium event ticketing platform that outperforms Eventbrite and similar apps for over 12 years. Compared to the competition, SimpleTix offers better options at a better price point. To learn more, call us at +1 (855) 550-3670 or email us here.
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