Like many things, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the experience of going to the movies.
But President and CEO of The Marcus Corporation, Greg Marcus, says many of those changes were already in the works well before the pandemic came around.
“You don’t compete against biology, you have to listen and work within the constraints that you’ve been given,” Marcus said during WTMJ 2021.
Marcus says one of the major things that’s helped Marcus Theaters continue to serve guests is the availability to order tickets and concessions on an app.
“Some people might be totally fine going to the box office, others might say no. So you buy tickets on the app,”
Marcus said. “You don’t want to stand in line for concessions, okay great! Order your concessions on the app. We now have that ability.”
Marcus says putting in work to develop the app before the pandemic hit gave the Marcus Corporation the ability to provide a service that customers need now more than ever.
“We’ve been working on ordering on an app for a long time. It really had noting to do with biology, it was mainly about the tight labor markets and the ability to service people. If they were able to do the ordering themselves, it takes down some of the service components.”
Marcus says change is nothing new in the movie business and that he believes there will always be a market for movie-goers.
“It used to be that was the only form of entertainment, going to the movies,” Marcus said. “And then TV came along and had a much longer lasting impact. The business, it recovered, it changed, and 85 years later we’re still doing it.”