Estimate the annual revenue of a single movie theater.

I'll pick a 10-screen multiplex in a suburb. Revenue is tickets plus food and drink. I'll get tickets from seats, showings and how full the rooms are. Ten screens at about 150 seats each is 1,500 seats. Each screen fits 4 showings a day. That's 6,000 seats on offer each day. From Monday to Thursday I'll say 10% are filled. That's 600 tickets a day, or 2,400 over four days. From Friday to Sunday I'll say 30%, which is 1,800 a day, or 5,400 over three days. So a week is 7,800 tickets, and 52 weeks is about 400,000 tickets a year. At $12 a ticket that's $4.8 million. For food and drink, I'll say half of the audience buys something and spends about $12 on popcorn and a soda. That's $6 per ticket sold, or $2.4 million. Together that's $7.2 million a year. I think that's a fair number for a theater.

A single theater could be a one-screen art house or a 20-screen complex, so I'll pick a 10-screen multiplex in a suburb. Revenue is tickets plus food and drink. I'll get tickets from seats, showings and how full the rooms are. Ten screens at about 150 seats each is 1,500 seats. A film runs about two hours and the room needs cleaning, so between noon and midnight each screen fits 4 showings a day. That's 6,000 seats on offer each day. Most of them stay empty. From Monday to Thursday I'll say 10% are filled, because people are at work or school. That's 600 tickets a day, or 2,400 over four days. From Friday to Sunday I'll say 30%, which is 1,800 a day, or 5,400 over three days. So a week is 7,800 tickets, and 52 weeks is about 400,000 tickets a year. At $12 a ticket, which blends evening prices with cheaper matinees and kids, that's $4.8 million. For food and drink, I'll say half of the audience buys something and spends about $12 on popcorn and a soda. That's $6 per ticket sold, or $2.4 million. Together that's $7.2 million a year. Let me test it from the town's side. If this theater draws from about 100,000 people, 400,000 tickets is four visits a year for each of them. That's high for an average that includes people who never go. So I'd lean to the lower half of a range of $5 million to $8 million and call it about $6 million. The fill rates are what I trust least. I've also left out screen advertising and party rentals, which are small.