Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

This week at Tryon Theatre we have a second run of the record blockbuster, “Avatar: The Way of Water.” For anyone interested in reading about the film, please see last week’s column. In this week’s column, we wanted to address feedback we received from the community in our 2022 end-of-year survey. We would love to have a small discussion about what we learned, and how we plan to implement that knowledge, and hopefully bring you the best of Tryon Theatre’s potential. 

 

First, I want to briefly acknowledge the practical limit of our survey’s results. Any feedback analyzed is sourced from those members of our community who engage with such requests. We are most appreciative of this feedback, but we also wish to encourage feedback through other channels (phone, email, in-person, etc), especially if you feel the summarized content below is not reflective of your experience at Tryon Theatre. Whether it be a compliment or criticism, a matter of policy or content, we are open to hearing from you! 

 

Your feedback indicated that our newsletter, as well as internal promotion (trailers), and word of mouth were the primary ways that you all learn about our films. If anyone reading this column feels that Tryon Theatre is missing opportunities for communicating our films and events, then please let us know! We do our best to integrate ourselves with our community, but our exposure is nonetheless limited. 

 

We would love to know how we can better reach you all, as we believe that everyone can benefit from a little more time at the movies! With that in mind, one of the most important areas of feedback for us to heed is what policy or content might turn you away from our doors, rather than bring you through them. 

 

In considering what would make people attend less, it is advertising. We have long felt that part of Tryon Theatre’s charm is the isolated experience of engaging with a film while leaving the technology and commercialization of modernity behind. Based on your feedback, you all feel the exact same way! We will make sure to keep any “advertising” on-screen limited to upcoming films and the local “ads” (gift card promos, Beerfest, TRIFF, etc) that we produce in-house, as those seem to be well enjoyed, and are an extension of the same community charm that Tryon Theatre provides. 

 

In considering what would drive further attendance we had three dominant areas arise: increased offerings of repertory films, more matinee showtimes, and mutual relationships with local restaurants. 

 

On the first note, regarding repertory films, we are very open to increasing the frequency with which we offer older and classic films. We usually cannot carry a classic film for a full week, so the days to possibly carry them are the days we are otherwise closed. We certainly can and do schedule films for some of those days, but unfortunately can’t offer them as often as both you and we would like. Please let us know if there are any classic films that you all would be especially interested in seeing. We will make sure to prioritize those for the times we can! 

 

On the note of more matinees, we face similar limitations of available times, but if there were a day outside of the already offered Thursday and Sunday matinees, which would be your ideal offering? Let us know!

 

Lastly, we are very open to the idea of engagement with local restaurants, as we fully appreciate the importance of the businesses in downtown Tryon sharing customers. We are still trying to figure out the best ways to implement such mutual support, but do know that we are giving it earnest attention! 

 

Thank you for your time in engaging with us, both in the survey and in your patronage of the Tryon Theatre! We would never be here without your ongoing support!