AEinhorn wrote:
What goes in to selecting guests? How much of it is based around the guest's appearance fee? Is there any chance of ever bringing in guests again, or is it simply not economically feasible based on the draw from guests not being enough to offset fees?
This is another aspect of the event that's grown more complicated. Simply put, having 700 seats makes it MUCH easier to book a guest. 300 seats? Less so. Hell, even the 350 we once had a Studio 35 were enough to offset the costs of bringing in Bruce Campbell (2002) and George Romero (2003.) Both of them were fairly affordable, but expensive enough to make us have to crunch the numbers.
And much like modern Hollywood films, guests now tend to mainly fall into two categories: very expensive and dirt cheap. There's variance, but it's on a case by case basis.
Our top financial priority is to pay for our costs (film rentals, programs and fliers, etc.) and to make the theater some cash. Extra money after that is nice, but in the right situation it's negotiable. Example: Bruce and I have LONG wanted to bring in David Cronenberg as a guest. He'd probably command a decent appearance fee, etc., but we're confident that (at least for one year) we could raise ticket prices to offset the additional financial outlay. Because hey, who wouldn't want to see Cronenberg regale us with stories? But as with any guest, we're beholden to their schedule. And for several years in a row, Cronenberg hit a purple patch in his career and was working or promoting his new films in the fall.
On the other hand is a near miss of a guest from a few years back. In 2011, we had confirmed a cult movie star to attend. He's someone who many genre fans would recognize, although he's not really known to a mass audience. And then we found out that his original appearance fee was $10,000. He knocked it down to $5,500, but that was also before travel, lodging and expenses. Now, it we were in L.A. or New York, we could safely make that bet. But trying to potentially sell $50 tickets to a Columbus audience that probably wouldn't know who the hell we were promoting (and by Columbus audience I mean those who aren't the hardcore faithful) was too much of a risk for us. It was sad, because this person is known for giving far-ranging, wildly eccentric yet highly literate Q+A's, and the audience would've loved him. But we weren't ready to totally lose out shirt.
And that brings up something that we're always aware of. I started attending these events when I was 16. We're always trying to keep the ticket price at least somewhat affordable for younger attendees (and new blood), especially in these tough economic times. But that's limited us somewhat in who we can book.
Another factor is the boom in Horror Conventions. We often have people asking us why we can't just book the people they see at HorrorHound or other weekend genre events. The difference is that those cons can accommodate thousands of people, and can sometime defer appearance fees by allowing the guests to charge for autographs. As a much smaller event, we're limited in what we can do. And even for a smaller guest, we have to be wary of how many people will attend. In 2009, we loved having Stuart Gordon back at the Horror Marathon. He's a true gentlemen, one of the best film people we've ever met. And he wasn't prohibitively expensive. And yet, after the event we joked that Stuart was the only one who made any money off of the Marathon. A big part of this was attendance: we were convinced that bringing back the 24-Hour format, a kickass lineup and Stuart in person would ensure a sell-out. And yet, we labored to sell tickets. We still recovered our costs, but it was disappointing.
But hey, we haven't given up and hopefully with out new relationship with the theater, we'll be able to pursue more guests.