by Judith Rubin

To see how museums with giant-screen theaters are coping in the recession, we spoke to representatives of three facilities in the U.S., one on the east coast, one in the Midwest, and one on the west coast. All are leveraging the power of good marketing strategies, in-house resources, and synergies between their mix of media and exhibits. Giant-screen theaters are integral to that, but there are also indications that museums are re-assessing their theaters in light of changing technology, content opportunities and attendance numbers.

The Gateway Arch

St. Louis, MO, is feeling the pinch. Bus service has been reduced. The state is working to maximize its eligibility for federal stimulus funds. Monsanto, one of the region’s major employers, is laying off workers. As a tourist destination, however, the picture is a little different. Economic conditions have been favorable to the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial on St. Louis’ riverfront, as people seek more affordable travel destinations. The iconic Gateway Arch is the symbol of the city and its number one tourist attraction, in addition to being one of the most recognizable structures in the country. More tourists traveling to St. Louis automatically means more traffic to the Gateway Arch, a destination easily reached by car and public transit. 

The Jefferson Expansion Memorial is a national park located on the St. Louis riverfront at the Missouri/Illinois border (the city of East St. Louis, across the river, is in Illinois). In addition to the Arch, the property includes the Museum of Westward Expansion, the Historic Old Courthouse, and two theaters, including a giant-screen theater. Metro, the regional transit agency, operates the tram that visitors ride for the spectacular view from atop the Arch. Other activities available to visitors include riverboat tours, bike rentals, and helicopter tours. Across the river, under Illinois jurisdiction, is the brand new River Overlook platform.

“We are up, and we have been up every month this year — in both visitor numbers and revenue — except for May when we were flat,” says Justin Struttmann, director of operations. “Just looking at tram counts we were up more than 6% for the first five months of 2009 compared to the same period last year. I think what’s happening is a lot of people are visiting St. Louis because of the value that can be achieved here.” He cited a June 12 article in the St. Louis Business Journal reporting that other area tourist attractions, including the zoo and the history museum, are also seeing attendance increases. 

According to the Business Journal, the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission (CVC) has spent $1.2 million on its summer advertising campaign (slightly more than it spent last year) to pitch the metro area as an ideal destination during the recession. The CVC is targeting potential visitors who live within a 250-mile radius, an area that includes Indianapolis, Chicago, and Memphis. The American Automobile Association likewise indicates that vacationers continue to opt for shorter trips and “staycations.” AAA forecast that the number of people expected to travel 50 miles or more from home over the Fourth of July weekend would be down nearly 2% from the same period last year. 

“If St. Louis is doing well, we’re going to be doing well,” says Struttmann, who began as a tour guide at the Arch in 1997 at age 16, and has been director of operations since 2005. Leveraging the situation is a matter of providing guests with the best possible experience and value so that the increased traffic will pay future dividends in good word-of-mouth exposure from satisfied customers. Struttmann thinks that St. Louis’s star will continue to rise as the recession spurs its rediscovery, and that that will add up to business events as well as tourists. “Companies can see that holding their events here will cost less and be good for their image. It’s not just affordable once you get here — it is also quite affordable to get here. And quite a few Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in St. Louis. We’re trying to serve as many people as we can and provide as much value as we can, so when the economy does rebound we will be top of mind.”

All surplus revenue goes to support the park and financing its capital projects, one of which is the Odyssey Theater, a 225-seat theater equipped in 1993 with a World Odyssey 15/70 film projection system. It is currently showing National Geographic’s Lewis & Clark: The Great Journey West, which has been found to work well for local school groups as well as tourists. Other films that have performed well at the Odyssey include Grand Canyon and The Great American West, which has been their best performing title overall. The venue’s destination status dictates the choice of film. Says Struttmann, “If it doesn’t match their preconception of our location they just don’t buy it. For instance, we tried booking Alaska: Spirit of the Wild, and tying it in with other programming, but our visitors just don’t understand Alaska at the Arch in the Midwest. We sometimes offer two films, but one always tends to do much better than the other.” They make a point not to book the same titles as the IMAX Dome theater at the St. Louis Science Center, less than five miles (eight kilometers) away.

Struttmann reports about 650,000 visitors to the park for the first five months of 2009, with about 272,000 trips to the top of the Arch and 30,000 to the Odyssey Theater. He says the theater numbers are “right on par with last year; however compared to historical highs, that is really low.” Attendance at both theaters (the second shows a 16mm documentary about the making of the Arch) has been going down over the years. “Both theaters are kind of running their course,” says Struttmann, who indicated that some kind of change could be likely in the future, especially when the facility has paid off its current bond in 2013 and is ready to undertake a new capital improvement. “Do we even need two theaters?” he questions. There is also talk of rebranding.

The Franklin Institute

While the Gateway Arch looks to summertime for a natural surge in business, Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute must work harder to keep numbers up in the hot months. “School groups are huge for us, but now we have hit summer, the school kids are on break and the museum is less crowded during the day. So in the summer, we try to do extra things to bring in people, and one of the things is IMAX DMR films,” says Paul Budmen, theater technical coordinator. “There’s still nothing better than 70mm film going through a projector,” he says, noting that the museum works to distinguish its 70-foot, Tuttleman IMAX Dome Theater from other IMAX venues in the metro area by emphasizing screen size, image clarity, and the immersiveness of the experience. (There are four multiplex IMAX theaters in the suburbs of Philadelphia: three new digital IMAX screens, and a six-year-old SR theater.) 

The museum maximizes its power to attract visitors by identifying the biggest magnet and building a package around it — whether a blockbuster traveling exhibit such as “Body Worlds,” a 3D digital movie such as Up (booked and doing well as of this writing), or a giant-screen DMR film. Hollywood films in the Tuttleman play an ever larger role in attracting visitors and revenue to the museum. Harry Potter, The Dark Knight, and Star Trek are among those that have done particularly well. The booking of “Star Trek: The Exhibition” (closing in Sept.) overlapped with the movie release and the Franklin was allowed to run the film past the two-week window given to most other theaters. 

In addition to the 20-year-old Tuttleman, the Franklin Institute has two state-of-the-art digital theaters and these also help drive traffic: the Fels Planetarium, equipped with a Sky-Skan infiniti fulldome system and the Franklin Theater with a Dolby 3D system and Blu-ray capability.

Programming in the Tuttleman IMAX shifts from educational to general interest at 3 pm. The Franklin is well situated to serve general audiences, in the busy Center City cluster of cultural institutions including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Rodin Museum and the future new home of the Barnes Foundation. It is convenient to public transit and on the tourist trolley loop. “We used to only run 9 to 5, closing after the school groups left. But in the last few years we’ve taken the initiative to bring in the traveling exhibits and bring in visitors after 5 pm,” explains Budmen. “Union overtime costs are significant to keep the museum running in the evening, so if staff is already going to be here to support extended hours for an exhibit, the theater can overlap with them. When we had ‘Body Worlds,’ we showed The Human Body and stayed open until 8 pm. When we got our first Harry Potter film, we were staying open until midnight.” 

The transition necessitated an internal cultural shift, but the strategy has answered well for the Franklin in the current economic climate. “Obviously the museum is being hit by the recession,” says Budmen, who has been with the Franklin four years. “Having the theaters and night/weekend programming helps us cope with the downturn,” says Budmen. “The museum and its board are strongly mission driven, but they also see that DMR films are a way to raise revenue and bring people in.”

Other institutions in the area are banking on the power of blockbuster exhibits to keep their economic engines running and profiles high. The Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Cezanne exhibit, which closed May 31, reportedly drew some 134,000 visitors from 39 states and a dozen countries. It is following up with a heavily marketed exhibit of Delacroix. On July 1, the art museum instituted a $2 admission price hike, citing the economy. According to Kat Stein, the Franklin Institute’s director of PR and communications, as the largest museum in Pennsylvania, the Franklin draws about a million visitors a year and is  “still tracking fairly well, above expectations. The exhibits as well as the film properties provide touch points to remind visitors of the museum’s permanent offerings.”

In a May 12 story in the Philadelphia Business Journal, Meryl Levitz, CEO of Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp., spoke of “frugal fatigue” and the corporation’s marketing campaign designed to help people feel okay about taking a vacation. The campaign targets families with children, affluent travelers, gay and lesbian travelers, festival- and event-goers, weekend-getaway seekers, loyal and return visitors, and African-Americans. The Tourism Marketing Corp. is also specifically promoting the “Galileo, the Medici and the Age of Astronomy” exhibition currently at the Franklin.

Things have recently been a little more complicated at the Franklin due to turnover. The museum hired a new senior VP of programs, marketing and business development — Troy Collins — and a new theater director, Kathryn Chapman, formerly at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, started on July 6 (see item in The Biz on page 5). 

But at least this venerable institution has a brick-and-mortar home. In August 2008, Philly’s Civil War Museum ended its lease and left its longtime Pine Street location, in anticipation of moving to the First Bank Building at 3rd and Chestnut in the historic district. But it lost the new lease and is now in limbo because the state, amid budget concerns, reneged on a $10 million funding pledge.

The California Science Center

A touch of Hollywood has been good for the Franklin Institute, but how are things for a museum in the vicinity of Hollywood itself? 

California is a swirling epicenter of economic woe these days, with headline-making budget shortfalls, job losses, and crashing real estate values, so it is no surprise that its museums are also taking a hit. Tourist activity has declined overall, as fear of the swine flu eroded the number of overseas visitors arriving at LAX this spring. The brightest spot for Los Angeles tourism has been the sudden surge of visitors in the wake of Michael Jackson’s death. But even “staycationers” don’t seem to be spending freely.

Not surprisingly, the California Science Center, in L.A.’s Exposition Park cultural center, experienced a sizable dip in school group business this year. In anticipation of a slowdown, the institution had already tightened its belt through reduced expenditures, heavier reliance on in-house marketing resources, partnerships with other area institutions, and promotion of the Exposition Park campus — which includes the California African-American Museum, the Natural History Museum of L.A. County, the Rose Garden, and the Los Angeles Swimming Stadium — as a multifaceted, affordable, family day out.

“It came later than we thought it would,” says Joe DeAmicis, VP of marketing at the Science Center. “January and February were okay. In early March, for some reason, that’s when it clicked, and school groups dropped off 15 to 20%. We were kind of expecting it, and there was not much we felt we could do to turn it around. School budgets get cut and field trips get axed. We didn’t think deep discounts, special promotions, or marketing would help — we’d just have to ride it out.”

To help ride it out, the museum has been conserving on expenses, and instead of booking a new film in its seven-story, 15/70 IMAX 3D theater in June, as has been customary, they continued with the existing titles, Wild Ocean 3D and Under the Sea 3D. “I’m saving by not paying for a new print and also on the marketing budget,” explains DeAmicis. “Ad budgets have always been skimpy here — in L.A., your ad money doesn’t go that far. Our basic advertising plan for a new film has been to frontload the money to push the opening, and then wait to see how well the film does. If I think it has long legs, I see what else I can do. The ad maintenance schedule can extend up to three months after the film opens. This time we cut it off after about eight weeks. Our advertising purchases are basically print — we can’t afford radio or TV.” He cited the LA Weekly as a particularly good buy in terms of price and market penetration. 

Like the Franklin Institute, the California Science Center works to differentiate its theater from other IMAX-branded theaters in the market. The museum’s Web site bills it as “more than just an IMAX theater.” Says DeAmicis, “With the largest screen in L.A., from a competitive standpoint ours is the premium IMAX venue. We are also pushing the value proposition that the science center exhibits are free. You can spend a half day or day of fun, see these great exhibits, see an IMAX movie at a very reasonable price: we haven’t raised prices in three years. We are promoting this through public relations efforts, our newsletter, and our Web site, to the membership and youth groups, and to our database of 45,000 people we have collected over the past ten years.”
In-house promotions and partnership with the Convention and Visitors Bureau are part of the strategy. “Slides in the theater reinforce the message that we are a good value, and the C&VB lists us as one of the top cost-effective things to do in L.A.” 

A monthly newsletter, including a coupon for theater admission ($2 off for adults, $1 off for children), has done well and is part of a strategy to attract repeat visitors. “We emphasize what is new in the science center in terms of exhibits to give them another reason to come down, and remind them that it is free and a great day with your family,” says DeAmicis. “We layer in messages about Exposition Park, the Rose Garden, or the African-American Museum having something good. In this economy, people aren’t going to spend as much to go out of town, so they look around them for something to do on their days off. All the entities here try to position Exposition Park as a destination.”

The Science Center will be experimenting with more diverse programming and partnerships in the fall. The museum will open an exhibit on race, and is discussing developing programs and promotions with the African-American Museum and also the Skirball Cultural Center, which is some 30 minutes’ drive away. “We’re excited about building a bigger programmatic umbrella,” says DeAmicis, “and we are looking at possible IMAX titles that would fit in with this cultural-scientific programming. We’ve signed on for Across the Sea of Time, which we’ve never played before, and we’re looking at another title we think would fit well. It is a bit of a departure for us so I’m excited to see how it turns out.”

Part 2 of this series, looking at the effect of the recession on international theaters, will appear in the September issue of LF Examiner.

Judith Rubin is vice president of editorial for Blooloop.com and a freelance journalist and publicist with extensive experience in the LF industry. She can be reached at rubin.judith@gmail.com.


"First published in LF Examiner, Summer 2009. (C) 2009 by Cinergetics, LLC. www.LFexaminer.com"


See also:
USA Pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010 will be green inside and out
World Expos: USA Pavilion Groundbreaking in Shanghai
World Expos: From One Expo to the Next, Transfer of Knowledge is Tricky to Achieve
World Expos: US Congress Favors USA Pavilion at Shanghai
Good prognosis for US pavilion at Shanghai 2010
Spain’s Expo Zaragoza 2008: A Guide to the Best Pavilions and Shows