Tami Treutlein
Member Profile
How has Cinema United membership been impactful to you and/or your business?The legislative advocacy that Cinema United does on a daily basis and keeping track of the those changes is huge to the bottom line. I really enjoy the SOTI webinars to get industry updates more than once a year at CinemaCon.
The local theater in our town was closing down for the third time. We decided to put a bid in to win the location and create a community service project to keep this Main Street staple. Local theater operators in Buffalo helped us get set up with booking movies and background knowledge. That was in October 2013. We attended CinemaCon that following April and quickly worked on making this location from one screen into three. From there we fell in love with the industry and the Spotlight Brand was born.
Picking just one thing that is my favorite thing about the industry is so hard to do. My favorite thing is different day to day. Seeing a employee work their first job at Spotlight and grow in maturity and knowledge over time is so rewarding. I can’t help but smile when you see people on their first dates at the theater, or a group that comes in together that makes this a monthly check in to spend the day together sparked by the need to see a new movie that is out and catch up on each other’s lives. I love the excitement of the young child on their first trip to the movie who ooo’s and aww’s over every new thing they see – the posters, the candy offered, the cool character that comes in the kids popcorn pack.
Yes! When we bought our first theater and opened on Thanksgiving weekend, the movie we played was Frozen. There was, at that time, a stage below the movie screen. Our kids (ages 4, 6, 8 & 10 at the time) spent hours laying on that stage staring up at the huge screen, watching Frozen over and over. It was a tipping point for them to love the movie industry.
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The industry continues to amaze me in its ability to storytell and to create these pictures that suck you into the lives of these characters, historical and fictional, that you care about so much, to the core of your being. You leave forever changed as those lights slowly come up bringing out of darkness.
While it’s an industry of ups and downs, it can be very rewarding. Like embarking on any business you have to do your research and have a solid business plan before you venture forward. Talk to other theater owners, we’d be glad to help you succeed.
