2010 Stats, Part 1: San Francisco

I've been chomping at the bit for three years to start posting year-end analysis for 2010, but I've always delayed under the belief that I should first finish with the reviews. Well phooey, I'm doing it anyway.

Inspired by my recent review of the Clay Theatre (and discovering that it showed just 20 movies in 2010, contrasted to the nearby Vogue's 69), this first analysis will look at the theater and circuit patterns in San Francisco. Why should I criticize the Clay for showing so few titles, when really it was collaborating with four other Landmark theaters to bring film to the San Francisco community. How does the Landmark network stack up against its competitors?

Note: I collected showtime data on 331 days in 2010 (~90% of the year). As this is an incomplete picture, all subsequent numbers are estimates only. IMDB was my source for daily showtimes. I'm not sure by what process IMDB receives its data, but some theaters reported inconsistently, e.g., they only reported Friday/Saturday showtimes, which would underrepresent their numbers below, or they didn't list the correct title, selecting an older title of the same thing, which would overrepresent the number of unique movies shown.

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Theater Overview

I tracked 25 San Francisco venues in 2010, totaling 1,153 different movies, shown a total of 103,968 times.

Circuit	Theater Name	Screens	Note
AMC	AMC Loews Metreon 16	16
AMC	AMC Van Ness 14	14
Cinemark	Century San Francisco Centre 9	9
Cinemark	CinéArts @ Empire	3
Landmark	Embarcadero Center Cinema	5	Closed 2013 for renovation.
Landmark	Opera Plaza Cinema	4
Landmark	Lumiere Theatre	3	Closed 2012.
Landmark	Bridge Theatre	1	Closed 2012. Review forthcoming.
Landmark	Clay Theatre	1
Lee Neighborhood Theatres	Presidio Theatre	4
Lee Neighborhood Theatres	4 Star	2
Lee Neighborhood Theatres	Marina Theatre	2	Review forthcoming.
Peerless Entertainment	Vogue Theatre	1	Now run by CinemaSF.
Regal	United Artists Stonestown	2	Review forthcoming.
Sundance Cinemas	Sundance Kabuki	8
Independent	Balboa Theater	2	Now run by CinemaSF.
Independent	Roxie Theater	2
Independent	Alliance Francaise	1
Independent	Castro Theatre	1
Independent	Oddball Films	1
Independent	Red Vic Movie House	1	Closed 2011.
Independent	San Francisco Museum of Modern Art	1	Closed 2013 for renovation.
Independent	Victoria Theatre	1
Independent	VIZ Cinema	1
Independent	Yerba Buena Center for the Arts	1

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Screens per Circuit

Nationally, the circuits with the most screens are Regal (6,729), AMC (4,612), and Cinemark (3,842). Landmark is a mere 16th, with 224 screens. In San Francisco, it's a different story. AMC still dominates the screen count with its two theaters, but Landmark is in second, above Cinemark and Regal.

Rank	Circuit	Theaters	Screens
1	AMC	2	30
2	Landmark	5	14
3	Cinemark	2	12
4	Sundance	1	8
4	Lee Neighborhood Theatres	3	8
6	Regal	2	2
7	Peerless Entertainment	1	1
	Independent	10	12
	TOTAL	25	87

Using Cinema Treasures as my rough barometer, San Francisco has hosted 151 theaters with a total of 222 screens, meaning 17% of its theaters and 39% of its screens were still in operation in 2010.

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Movies per Theater Screen

There exists a wide spectrum for how each theater programs its screens. The Castro absolutely dominates, showing 299 movies on its single screen. That number blows my mind; what an incredible cultural asset to the city. I should also note that most of the data I'm missing is from January, when I was only collecting data on Fridays. For mainstream theaters, Friday showings are usually indicative of the next week's offerings, and so their movie counts are fairly accurate; the Castro, however, usually shows several different films per day, and so is probably more under-reported here than are most theaters.

VIZ Cinema, specializing in foreign animated features, comes in a surprise second.

Rank	Circuit	Theater	Movies	Screens	Movies Per Screen
1	Independent	Castro Theatre	299	1	299.0
2	Independent	VIZ Cinema	106	1	106.0
3	Independent	Red Vic Movie House	97	1	97.0
4	Independent	Roxie Theater	147	2	73.5
5	Peerless Entertainment	Vogue Theatre	69	1	69.0
6	Independent	Yerba Buena Center for the Arts	30	1	30.0
7	Independent	Balboa Theater	54	2	27.0
8	Landmark	Bridge Theatre	23	1	23.0
9	Lee Neighborhood Theatres	4 Star	41	2	20.5
10	Regal	United Artists Stonestown	38	2	19.0
11	Independent	Alliance Francaise	18	1	18.0
12	Landmark	Lumiere Theatre	52	3	17.3
13	Landmark	Embarcadero Center Cinema	79	5	15.8
14	Lee Neighborhood Theatres	Marina Theatre	31	2	15.5
15	Lee Neighborhood Theatres	Presidio Theatre	61	4	15.3
16	Sundance Cinemas	Sundance Kabuki	117	8	14.6
17	Cinemark	CinéArts @ Empire	43	3	14.3
18	Landmark	Clay Theatre	13	1	13.0
19	Cinemark	Century San Francisco Centre 9	99	9	11.0
19	Independent	San Francisco Museum of Modern Art	11	1	11.0
21	Landmark	Opera Plaza Cinema	38	4	9.5
22	AMC	AMC Loews Metreon 16	124	16	7.8
23	AMC	AMC Van Ness 14	73	14	5.2
24	Independent	Victoria Theatre	3	1	3.0
24	Independent	Oddball Films	3	1	3.0

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Movies per Circuit Screen

If we compress the data by circuit, clumping together all the independents, we start to get a picture of how highly each circuit values variety. (Peerless, Regal, and Sundance are outliers in that they are part of a larger regional or national circuit, yet they each have but a single theater in San Francisco.) Although the Independent cluster is buoyed by the Castro's staggering numbers, they would still clock in at 38 movies per screen even without the Castro.

Rank	Circuit	Movies	Screens	Movies per Screen
1	Peerless Entertainment	69	1	69.0
2	Independent	768	12	64.0
3	Regal	38	2	19
4	Lee Neighborhood Theatres	133	8	16.6
5	Landmark	205	14	14.6
5	Sundance	117	8	14.6
7	Cinemark	142	12	11.8
8	AMC	197	30	6.6
	TOTAL	1,153*	87	13.3

*Doesn't sum the column, to avoid double counting movies exhibited by multiple circuits.

Regal surprises me; nationally, it's a mainstream circuit, but in San Francisco it shows independent film, and at a higher per-screen rate than does Landmark. Landmark bests the other two dominant circuits, Cinemark and AMC.

AMC, though last in movies per screen, is third (just behind Landmark and the Castro) for number of unique movies shown.

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Unique Movies per Circuit

Treating each independent as its own circuit, how many movies did each circuit show that were unique to that circuit (i.e., no other circuit showed that movie)?

Rank	Circuit	Unique Movies	Theaters
1	Castro Theatre	268
2	Roxie Theater	128
3	Landmark	116	Bridge Theatre, Clay Theatre, Embarcadero Center, Lumiere Theatre, Opera Plaza Cinema
4	VIZ Cinema	102
5	AMC	62	AMC Loews Metreon, AMC Van Ness 14
6	Red Vic Movie House	56
7	Peerless Entertainment	37	Vogue Theatre
8	Yerba Buena Center for the Arts	29
9	Cinemark	28	Century San Francisco Centre 9, CinéArts @ Empire
10	Alliance Francaise	18
11	Lee Neighborhood Theatres	16	4 Star, Marina Theatre, Presidio Theatre
12	Sundance Cinemas	12	Sundance Kabuki
13	San Francisco Museum of Modern Art	11
14	Regal	10	United Artists Stonestown
15	Balboa Theater	9
16	Victoria Theatre	3
17	Oddball Films	2

This answers my original question, showing that although the Clay might not be showing very many different movies, it is part of a circuit that showed more than a hundred movies that noone else did.

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Showings per Theater Screen

Continuing from the previous section, it's not that AMC isn't exhibiting a variety of movies, it's just that they are spreading them out over many screens, and they are maxing out those screens, keeping the reels spinning all day long. This gives viewers more flexibility in terms of when they can watch those movies, either by time of day or day of week.

Rank	Circuit	Theater	Showings	Screens	Showings per Screen
1	AMC	AMC Van Ness 14	21,540	14	1,539
2	AMC	AMC Loews Metreon 16	23,062	16	1,441
3	Independent	Balboa Theater	2,834	2	1,417
4	Cinemark	Century San Francisco Centre 9	12,621	9	1,402
5	Landmark	Embarcadero Center Cinema	6,763	5	1,353
6	Lee Neighborhood Theatres	4 Star	2,488	2	1,244
7	Lee Neighborhood Theatres	Marina Theatre	2,475	2	1,238
8	Regal	United Artists Stonestown	2,457	2	1,229
9	Peerless Entertainment	Vogue Theatre	1,197	1	1,197
10	Sundance Cinemas	Sundance Kabuki	9,243	8	1,155
11	Cinemark	CinéArts @ Empire	3,276	3	1,092
12	Lee Neighborhood Theatres	Presidio Theatre	4,076	4	1,019
13	Landmark	Bridge Theatre	1,017	1	1,017
14	Landmark	Opera Plaza Cinema	4,058	4	1,015
15	Landmark	Lumiere Theatre	2,645	3	882
16	Landmark	Clay Theatre	865	1	865
17	Independent	Castro Theatre	855	1	855
18	Independent	Red Vic Movie House	769	1	769
19	Independent	Roxie Theater	1,114	2	557
20	Independent	VIZ Cinema	517	1	517
21	Independent	Yerba Buena Center for the Arts	37	1	37
22	Independent	San Francisco Museum of Modern Art	27	1	27
23	Independent	Alliance Francaise	26	1	26
24	Independent	Victoria Theatre	3	1	3
24	Independent	Oddball Films	3	1	3

AMC leads this category, averaging 1,539 showings per screen over the year. That's 4.6 showings per screen per day.

The Balboa sneaks in with the big dogs, keeping the projection booth hot more than any other theater of comparable size.

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Days per Movie per Theater

I'm valuing variety (more movies are better) and flexibility (more showings are better). But what about longevity? The typical movie goer will only visit the theater a few times a year; they don't care that the Castro shows 299 different movies throughout the year, because they are looking at just one or two Friday nights in particular. And for a filmgoer who wants to see a specific movie, but doesn't have flexibility in when they can go, it doesn't matter if the theater shows the movie a hundred times during the one week they're away camping. (Extraordinary Measures was an extreme example of this: both the Van Ness 14 and San Francisco Centre 9 debuted the movie with 5-8 showings per day. Fifteen days later, it was gone from both theaters, from San Francisco, and from the entire Bay Area.)

So another ideal is to hold over a movie for a long period of time. If the movie is worth seeing, filmgoers will have maximum opportunity to find a convenient time to see it. How many days does each theater retain a typical title?

Rank	Theater	Days (Mean)	Days (Median)	Longest Held (Days - Title)
1	AMC Loews Metreon 16	23.7	21	114 - Inception
1	AMC Van Ness 14	21.9	21	78 - The Social Network
3	Sundance Kabuki	20.4	17	75 - Crazy Heart
4	Marina Theatre	18.8	16	46 - The Social Network
5	Century San Francisco Centre 9	18.4	15	82 - Alice in Wonderland
6	United Artists Stonestown	16.7	14	75 - The Kids Are All Right
6	Presidio Theatre	15.6	14	62 - The Town
6	CinéArts @ Empire	14.0	14	41 - Inception
6	Clay Theatre	16.0	14	36 - Please Give
10	Balboa Theater	13.6	13	80 - Remembering Playland At The Beach
10	Opera Plaza Cinema	14.6	13	78 - The Hurt Locker
10	Embarcadero Center Cinema	18.5	13	62 - The Ghost Writer
13	4 Star	11.1	10	38 - Get Him to the Greek
14	Lumiere Theatre	11.4	8	45 - Flickan som lekte med elden (The Girl Who Played With Fire)
15	Bridge Theatre	10.6	7	57 - The Kids Are All Right
16	VIZ Cinema	3.3	2	16 - The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
16	Red Vic Movie House	2.3	2	8 - Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo
17	Roxie Theater	4.2	1	103 - Exit Through the Gift Shop
17	Vogue Theatre	5.6	1	33 - The Social Network
17	Castro Theatre	1.4	1	25 - Alice in Wonderland
17	San Francisco Museum of Modern Art	2.4	1	16 - Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol
17	Alliance Francaise	1.3	1	6 - L'armee du crime (Army of Crime)
17	Yerba Buena Center for the Arts	1.2	1	4 - Trash Humpers
17	Oddball Films	1.0	1	1 - [various]
17	Victoria Theatre	1.0	1	1 - [various]

Not only does AMC show many different titles per year, but they also hold them over the longest. Both AMC theaters retain a typical title for three weeks. The Metreon also has the record for retaining a movie the longest, giving filmgoers almost four months to come see the excellent Inception.

Small multi-screen theaters have the same flexibility as the larger theaters; the Balboa was able to dedicate one of its two screens to Remembering Playland at the Beach for more than two months, while the other screen rotated in new movies every two weeks. Single-screen theaters, in contrast, have to choose between variety and longevity. The Castro exhibited Alice in Wonderland for nearly a month, but most of its movies disappear after but a single night.

I had criticized the Clay for showing only a third as many movies on its single screen as did the Vogue. The above table makes it appear that the Vogue was cycling movies in and out every day, while the Clay retained each movie for two weeks. Whereas the Castro really does churn through movies that quickly, the Vogue's numbers are being thrown off by its few festivals.

In the below chart, I exclude all movies that were shown only a single time at the theater. This reduces the Castro from 299 movies to just 18, while the AMC theaters remain relatively unscathed. Now the Vogue and Clay are closer together, with only a day separating their typical movie time. This doesn't exactly come out in the Clay's favor, though, as the two charts demonstrate that the Vogue is able to match the Clay for longevity, yet still squeeze in triple the variety.

Rank	Theater	Days (Mean)	Days (Median)	Unique Movies
1	AMC Loews Metreon 16	26.8	22.0	126
1	AMC Van Ness 14	24.7	22.0	152
3	Century San Francisco Centre 9	21.2	21.0	90
4	Marina Theatre	19.3	19.0	33
5	Sundance Kabuki	20.6	17.0	116
5	CinéArts @ Empire	17.2	17.0	57
7	San Francisco Museum of Modern Art	16.0	16.0	1
8	Embarcadero Center Cinema	21.1	14.0	69
8	United Artists Stonestown	17.2	14.0	37
8	Clay Theatre	16.0	14.0	20
8	Presidio Theatre	15.8	14.0	74
8	Balboa Theater	14.9	14.0	54
13	Opera Plaza Cinema	15.3	13.0	91
13	Vogue Theatre	12.3	13.0	28
15	Bridge Theatre	13.2	11.0	25
15	4 Star	11.9	11.0	73
17	Lumiere Theatre	11.9	10.0	87
18	Roxie Theater	7.8	6.0	75
18	Alliance Francaise	6.0	6.0	1
20	Castro Theatre	7.2	5.0	18
21	VIZ Cinema	4.8	3.0	65
22	Red Vic Movie House	2.6	2.0	109
22	Yerba Buena Center for the Arts	2.4	2.0	5
24	Oddball Films			0
24	Victoria Theatre			0

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Visits per Theater

You can click through to my reviews to determine which of these theaters is my favorite. But what isn't represented by the narrow scope of this blog is how much I have favored various theaters since moving to the Bay Area in 1995. The below table identifies how many times (as of writing this post) I've visited each San Francisco theater, including a few that were closed long before I began this blog. These numbers are underreported for visits prior to 2003 when I began more rigorously retaining my ticket stubs.

Rank	Theater	Visits	Note
1	Sundance Kabuki	31
2	AMC Van Ness 14	23
3	Coronet Theatre	12	Closed 2005.
4	Embarcadero Center Cinema	7	Closed 2013 for renovation.
5	Century San Francisco Centre 9	5
5	Presidio Theatre	5
5	UA Galaxy	5	Closed 2005.
8	AMC Loews Metreon 16	4
8	Opera Plaza Cinema	4
8	Regency I & II	4	Closed 1998.
11	Bridge Theatre	3	Closed 2012.
11	Castro Theatre	3
11	Lumiere Theatre	3	Closed 2012.
14	Alexandria Theatre	2	Closed 2004.
14	Alhambra	2	Closed sometime after 1996.
14	Balboa Theater	2
14	CinéArts @ Empire	2
14	Clay Theatre	2
14	San Francisco Museum of Modern Art	2	Closed 2013 for renovation.
14	United Artists Stonestown	2
21	Marina Theatre	1
21	Red Vic Movie House	1	Closed 2011.
21	Roxie Theater	1
21	Victoria Theatre	1
21	Vogue Theatre	1
21	Yerba Buena Center for the Arts	1
27	4 Star	0
27	Alliance Francaise	0
27	Oddball Films	0
27	VIZ Cinema	0

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Closing Comments

I doubt I'll dive this deep on any other single city in the Bay Area, because no other Bay Area city offers this much variety. I might do some regional comparison (e.g., East Bay vs. South Bay), but these are more arbitrary in how I draw the boundary, and will undoubtably favor the more urban areas. But you can look forward to more analyses like this, as I have a long list of interesting ways to slice the data.