Navigation trail

• Home page
• Types of jobs
• Leisure, sport and tourism
• Cinema manager: Job description and activities

Cinema manager: Job description and activities

Job description

A cinema manager is responsible for the efficient day-to-day control of all cinema activities. The role incorporates a variety of areas including customer satisfaction and safety, human resources (HR) responsibilities, training staff and marketing initiatives to ensure optimum profit. Other tasks include liaising with local press and websites to promote film premieres and cinema times.

Managers of smaller cinemas may also host private and/or group screenings for clients. Independent cinemas may promote art and educational films; an independent cinema manager will be looking to offer a wide variety of films, including art house films, to reach sales targets.

Typical work activities

Cinema managers, like many other managers in the leisure industry, are responsible for promoting effective visitor services, whilst ensuring business objectives are achieved. Typical work activities include:

• achieving audience and sales targets;
• ensuring audience satisfaction;
• advertising and promoting films;
• handling press and public relations (PR);
• managing promotions within the cinema;
• budgeting, cash handling and stock control;
• developing an understanding of the local market, including customer expectations;
• liaising with film societies and other groups within the industry;
• preparing reports, statistics, forecasts and financial accounts;
• complying with licensing and health and safety regulations;
• recruiting, training and supervising large numbers of part-time staff to work as a team;
• marketing the cinema within a local and/or national arena;
• organising duty rotas and wage payments.

Cinema managers may also be responsible for hiring out the venue for business, training or leisure purposes. Managers may also arrange special events, including showing films of a particular genre or theme. Additionally, those based in large cinema chains may be involved in hosting premieres, which involves:

• handling media enquiries;
• promoting the event to a national audience, via press and industry magazines;
• hosting celebrity visits.

Smaller independent or community cinemas often get involved in local events and festivals. Such venues may require the cinema manager to do work that, in larger cinemas, would be done by other members of staff. This includes activities such as:

• front of house;
• box office work;
• maintaining the upkeep of auditoria;
• bar and confectionery work;
• dealing with customer and telephone enquiries;
• distributing pre-booked tickets.

In rural areas, there are a number of mobile cinemas where films are shown in a village hall. These may be planned centrally by arts centres or specialist cinemas and involve developing the provision and assisting local people in running their own film shows. This work comes under the supervision of the cinema manager or a film development officer.

AGCAS

Written by Liz Hagger, AGCAS

Last updated:

March 2009

© Copyright AGCAS & Graduate Prospects Ltd | Disclaimer