I need help with projecting sales figures

[brad]

Ok, we have come across an issue with a film company, that will be filming on our street during September- October.

They plan on building a facade over our building and several other buildings on our street. Their shooting dates overlap our opening weekend. And hopefully their teardown of the facade will happen very soon after.

We are trying to get an estimate of how many people would go thru the event over a 4 day period from Oct. 1- Oct. 4. We are factoring in every detail to try to make an accurate guess.

Here's what I have so far:
Our square footage will be right around 10,000 sq.ft.
Our advertising market has just over 550,000 people.
Between the different radio stations that we are on- the average listener will hear our ad between 4 and 7 times per day. The combined audience between the radio stations is 45,000 people/day.
We will have radio ads for the whole month of September, every single day to hype up the event for opening weekend.
This will also interfere with our media night, which would've had approx. 400 attendees from news stations, radio stations, and print media sources.

We just finalized a deal with a large hospital/cancer treatment center... the first Sunday we are open, all ticket sales will go directly to them. And we anticipated over 1,000 patrons on that night alone.

And since we are in a brand new market to us, we have no previous seasons to look back on.

I know this doesnt cover every single avenue, but with all of the seasoned haunters on here, I was hoping that someone could reveal their experience in this type of market, and with what we have.

We were anticipating around 3,000 to 4,000 people on opening weekend, especially with the hospital donation night.

Does this sound fairly accurate? If not, what would be a lttle more realistic?

[zachary]

PLEASE EVERYONE! This is very important matter to us. PM one of us the information, not $ amounts but just people ran through event. This is so frustrating that we may not even be open after 8 months of work into the project. I have worked to damn hard on this to get shafted by hollywood!

[shawnc]

An excellent negotiating tactic: Tell them you don't want to be reimbursed, you want to open. Tell them it'll be OK; you'll just have people line up around the corner and walk up to the haunt so you won't be in their way.

Seriously, some people get in the way of movie productions just so they will pay them off to go away. There is nothing unreasonable about your business having very real impacts from this. And they are in it to make money, which makes them a business. What puts one business above another?

Ask for the moon and negotiate down if you have to, but if you start too low and they plan to negotiate you have already lost any advantage or hope of profit.

[HauntPhReAk]

I think you should do your best to open anyway. Losing the media night could cost you 1000s of potential customers. You have to figure those in, not just the loss of the customers you expect Oct. 1-4.

If at all possible, continue with your media night plans and open as scheduled. The filming around you seems like it could bring in more people. Take advantage of it if at all possible.

If not possible, then definitely make them pay for your expected loss of customers Oct. 1-4 and all of those that will be lost as a result of losing your media night, which will add several 1000 more.

[zachary]

Good advise guys but we need numbers on paper! So we have an idea of how many people they have to compensate us for! This is our first year in a market this large, 300,000 in the immediate(60 mile) area is what the radio station told me. Our ads should reach 70,000 of them directly.

[HauntPhReAk]

Do you have any other pro haunts in your area, and if so, can you find out what their numbers are like?

Also, I suggest you find a professional haunt that has an accountant or "numbers person" you can hire for a reasonable price to do the paperwork for you. If it comes from an accountant, it will be more "official." It would be helpful if this person is from your area but that's not a necessity.

I'm very sorry, but I don't have the answers you want. Hopefully, somebody else here will see this and will have just what you need or will know who to direct you to. I wish I could be more helpful, but there are lots of good people reading this.

[Fear Unfathomed]

i hate hollywood. always have. always will. thats why i moved out of CA.
i hope this all works out for you Brad!!

[MeyerPointManor]

Are you guys trying to find out how much money the film company will owe you for those lost days? If so, why don't you wait until the seasons over. Then you can 'do the math' with the attendance data and find out what the average attendance was per day. Then Multiply that by 4 (4 days lost by film company) and you will have a estimation of the number of guests that you lost over that 4 day period. Of course this wont be the exact number, but you will have evidence to support your claim. In this kind of situation they will want to see proof.

[brad]

That's a very good idea MeyerPoint.

I dont know if it will work though for us. The film company wants this deal done within a few days.

Also (and this really pisses me off!!!).... the facade that they build will be permanent. And it's supposed to look like its in LA. That kills every bit of advertising for us!!! Our print ads, and our website has pics of the front of our building. It was a big part of the aura of this year.

And now, we have to redo the looks of our website, and print ads.

[shredman]

THAT SUCKS!!!!! sounds like it is time for a petition. I just have one question, with this being your building for the time, shouldn't it be your choice whether or not they put this freakin facade over currently YOUR building.

[lerandell]

THAT SUCKS!!!!! sounds like it is time for a petition. I just have one question, with this being your building for the time, shouldn't it be your choice whether or not they put this freakin facade over currently YOUR building.

thats what I was thinking. It sounds like your landlord got greedy. Was the space leased or donated?
As far as estimating the number of visitors, im going to watch this thread to see if I can pick up some pointers. I am always way off on our estimates.

[zachary]

oh the space is leased, and the owners are more furius about this than us. They have not even been contacted yet. We have a meeting with the film company on thursday with the owners to sit down and discuss numbers etc. That is why we are needing opening weekend estimates!

[shawnc]

oh the space is leased, and the owners are more furius about this than us. They have not even been contacted yet. We have a meeting with the film company on thursday with the owners to sit down and discuss numbers etc. That is why we are needing opening weekend estimates!

What? If the owners don't approve no one is building a new permanent facade, even if he has Spielberg as a last name.

[zachary]

no one with numbers? really?

[shredman]

I would say it is better to project lower than you have guessed, unless you are getting money or something for all those people. Ok, i would say 5 to 7 hundred on the opening night, in the first four days, 5000 maybe a little more.