Help me evaluate this business idea

[Punker]

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The target market for the theater would be foreigners, both residents and visitors. Most foreign residents of Vientiane are involved in embassies and relief organizations and would probably be more “cultured” than an average citizen of their country. Most visitors are backpacker types and again, if you’ve made it to Laos, you’re probably more interested in seeing Casablanca than Transformers. There are also many visitors who find the city boring and would welcome a cheap night at the movies.

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While I can't speak for Laos specifically, I have spent extended times in Costa Rica and South Korea, and in both places, the vast majority of foreigners I have met want to "experience a bit of home" and see the standard movies, not art house stuff. I'd question this part of your business premise based on my experience.

[cianosheehan]

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The target market for the theater would be foreigners, both residents and visitors. Most foreign residents of Vientiane are involved in embassies and relief organizations and would probably be more “cultured” than an average citizen of their country. Most visitors are backpacker types and again, if you’ve made it to Laos, you’re probably more interested in seeing Casablanca than Transformers. There are also many visitors who find the city boring and would welcome a cheap night at the movies.

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While I can't speak for Laos specifically, I have spent extended times in Costa Rica and South Korea, and in both places, the vast majority of foreigners I have met want to "experience a bit of home" and see the standard movies, not art house stuff. I'd question this part of your business premise based on my experience.

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I think it'd be ok because you can spend some time messing around with different types of movies and get a feel for what goes down the best. Even talking with the customers in the first few weeks asking them what types of movies they'd like to see would give you a really good idea.

This may be stretching it, but you could have on your site a 'submit a movie you wanna see' kinda thing, or, put 5 titles up and ppl on the site can vote for which one they want to see next.

Or, you could have classic movies every Monday night, action every Friday, big budget on Saturdays etc etc.

I'd also show your own trailer at the start of each movie...ie, before each movie starts you roll out the trailer for tomorrow nights movie, then maybe at the end too. And put up a poster on the door so people can see what tomorrow nights movie is on their way out too.

Have you thought about providing food? Just thinking that people may be pretty hungry after watching a 2 hour flick. If they have food on their mind and cant get it there, your gonna miss out on drinks bought after the show.

[WhoIam]

Re: food, other than snacks, I would probably just outsource it to the nearest local restaurant. There are no shortages of restaurants anywhere in the city and this way I wouldn't have to deal with a kitchen, a cook, etc. I would have my own plates and cutlery.

[HoldingFolding]

I own a pub in Japan. We run movie nights on Mondays (the slowest night of the week); it will bring in a few extra customers but nothing worth building your bar around. In my experience live bands & sports events (say the upcoming rugby world cup) bring in far bigger crowds.

If I was providing a bar for expats/backpackers I'd go for the tried & trusted English or Irish pub with the requisite cuisine (easy to store & cook on demand). I did a quick google & Vientiane may be the only capital city on the planet without an English/Irish pub so that niche may yet be avaialble.

Good luck whatever you decide to do.

[WhoIam]

There's at least one English pub operating and another one set to open in the next week or two. No Irish pub, though. This is something to think about. The great thing about Irish pubs is that they're always overpriced for the market, yet they remain very popular. This would require a lot more money since I would need a prime location to attract tourists, but the payoff could be huge. I think my job satisfaction would be lower, though. There's something soulless about the generic Irish pub and I think it could be almost like running a McDonald's. OK, it wouldn't be that bad, but I think you can see where I'm coming from.

[HP]

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Wow, this is a good idea. Having a bar with a back room that showed a movie (or two) every night would have all the advantages of a bar without many of the disadvantages the standalone theater would have. It would certainly be a lot more profitable. I would probably operate it like a club with a cover charge that included a drink or two. The back room could also be potentially used for live music. Wow, this is giving me a lot to think about. Free beer for life if I get this thing off the ground and you make it to Laos.

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I was in a bar in Cuzco, Peru, that was like this (called "Uptown"). I thought it was pretty awesome

By day they set up a bunch of couches and chairs in a theatre like fashion, and drew a curtain across a smallish part of the bar to get a nice quaint theatre feel. They had an ok projector and sound system. At night they simply drew back the curtain and made everything bar/club like. They had free salsa lessons at like 8pm or something, then later in the night it was a regular club

It was pretty awesome walking in at lunch time, ordering a burger and chips, and picking my own movie to watch in the mini theatre

[NewTeaBag]

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Wow, this is a good idea. Having a bar with a back room that showed a movie (or two) every night would have all the advantages of a bar without many of the disadvantages the standalone theater would have. It would certainly be a lot more profitable. I would probably operate it like a club with a cover charge that included a drink or two. The back room could also be potentially used for live music. Wow, this is giving me a lot to think about. Free beer for life if I get this thing off the ground and you make it to Laos.

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I was in a bar in Cuzco, Peru, that was like this (called "Uptown"). I thought it was pretty awesome

By day they set up a bunch of couches and chairs in a theatre like fashion, and drew a curtain across a smallish part of the bar to get a nice quaint theatre feel. They had an ok projector and sound system. At night they simply drew back the curtain and made everything bar/club like. They had free salsa lessons at like 8pm or something, then later in the night it was a regular club

It was pretty awesome walking in at lunch time, ordering a burger and chips, and picking my own movie to watch in the mini theatre

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Hey WhOIam. This just reminded me of that karaoke place we went to in Phuket.
Howzabout a Lao version of that with a main bar/lounge area but with the private rooms for an extra charge for private "on demand" films?

[WhoIam]

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Hey WhOIam. This just reminded me of that karaoke place we went to in Phuket.
Howzabout a Lao version of that with a main bar/lounge area but with the private rooms for an extra charge for private "on demand" films?

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The only way I could see this being profitable would be if they were "private adult entertainment booths" or places to bang hookers, neither of which I would touch even it were legal.

They have these already (minus the bar part), but they're mostly for people who don't have a VCD or DVD player. I think my target market would rather just buy the DVD for $1 or 2 and watch it at home. In film studies, there's a number of explanations why people like watching movies in theaters, ranging from "attending a movie is a secular ritual" to "the picture is bigger and the sound is better, dumbass," but most people prefer watching a movie on a big screen with others to watching it by themselves. It just seems like it would be weird to go to a bar with two of your friends in order to watch a movie on a small screen and pay bar prices for booze.

[NewTeaBag]

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Hey WhOIam. This just reminded me of that karaoke place we went to in Phuket.
Howzabout a Lao version of that with a main bar/lounge area but with the private rooms for an extra charge for private "on demand" films?

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The only way I could see this being profitable would be if they were "private adult entertainment booths" or places to bang hookers, neither of which I would touch even it were legal.

They have these already (minus the bar part), but they're mostly for people who don't have a VCD or DVD player. I think my target market would rather just buy the DVD for $1 or 2 and watch it at home. In film studies, there's a number of explanations why people like watching movies in theaters, ranging from "attending a movie is a secular ritual" to "the picture is bigger and the sound is better, dumbass," but most people prefer watching a movie on a big screen with others to watching it by themselves. It just seems like it would be weird to go to a bar with two of your friends in order to watch a movie on a small screen and pay bar prices for booze.

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Fair enuff. Just throwin out ideas soz your biz will work soz I can come stay with the Lao "Cinema King" someday. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]