Surprise! Expanding Programmes and Inspiring Audiences with Sneak Screenings • Arthouse Cinema Hub

A lot of careful thought goes into programming an arthouse venue, but sometimes audiences can surprise us – like when they turn up in droves to the cinema without even knowing the title beforehand. Surprise screenings (or “sneak screenings”), have long been established in multiplexes, and are becoming more widespread across the independent sector. For audiences worn out by choice fatigue and the endless scrolling of streaming services, surprise screenings are an opportunity to surrender to the unexpected.

The Berlin-based Yorck Kino Group have been successfully running sneak screening across their chain of arthouse cinemas for twenty years, and recently introduced an additional “Classic Sneak” focused on repertory titles. We talked to Daniel Denzin, Yorck Kino Program Manager, to find out how to successfully establish and run a surprise screening programme.

Sneak screenings are easy to run and they often help to establish a regular cinema habit with audiences. Usually, the set-up is simple. Trailers are followed by a short introduction welcoming the audience to the cinema. The film then starts, with attendees only finding out what title they’re seeing once the title card appears.

At Yorck Kino, the audience are encouraged to participate in a post-screening survey to say what they thought of the film. This provides feedback for both the cinema and the distributor, but it also helps establish a more personal relationship with regular cinemagoers. Allowing the audience to share opinions and suggest future titles, helps create a reciprocal relationship. Denzin says staff often include a few of the more entertaining comments from the previous sneak screening surveys in their introductions at the Yorck Kino events, which again helps to establish an ongoing relationship with cinemagoers.

The nature of surprise screenings means that targeted marketing of individual titles isn’t possible. At Yorck Kino, a reduced ticket price for sneak screenings is one motivator for audiences. Fear of Missing Out can also be a great marketing tool and a key motivation for audience loyalty. “We’ve been running the sneak screenings in one cinema for about 20 years,” says Denzin. “We have many people who come regularly and bring their friends, so it’s sold out nearly all the time.”

As well as running a preview programme, in which new titles are screened, for the past two years Yorck Kino also been running “classic sneak”, through which a wide range of repertory titles – from The 400 Blows to Sexy Beast – are programmed. “At the beginning I was against the idea, because classics are normally pretty well attended anyway,” says Denzin. “If you show Back to the Future or Jaws, people always come. I thought they wouldn’t come if they didn’t know the title, but it’s sold out every time and people are having fun even if they don’t enjoy the movie. I think it’s better you don’t know the title, because otherwise you might talk yourself out of it, thinking ‘well that’s available to stream.’” Instead, Denzin says audience loyalty for the classic sneak is strong. “I think if you know the title there’s more of a sense that you could just watch it somewhere else. We have a lot of FOMO people who come every time because they are afraid they will miss a big movie.”

For Yorck Kino, more obscure films, rather than well-worn “classic classics,” tend to do best in this slot. “Afterwards, people tell us how much they liked the movie, and we’re also asking people if they’ve ever seen the film before. Often, at least 80% haven’t. When we showed Mike Leigh’s Secrets and Lies, around 93% of people attending hadn’t seen the movie before, but they really enjoyed it, so that was an interesting dynamic.”

For classic sneaks, which tend to be booked through big catalogues such as Park Circus, there usually isn’t a need to clear a surprise screening any differently than for a usual booking. Previews of new releases require more of a conversation with the distributor, but now that sneak preview screenings have become common practice, getting permission is rarely an issue. Distributors even sometimes approach Yorck Kino directly now requesting sneak slots for their new releases. “Distributors are usually happy, especially if we do a survey afterwards, and you can give them feedback,” says Denzin. “In Germany, there are many smaller distributors, and with the sneak spot they get lots of information. They know what the reaction is and how it’s going down with audiences. They're actually pretty happy, especially the small distributors, with being placed in sneak spots.”

New sneak titles are chosen based on release date and distributor relationships, and are usually placed in a slot a few days before the official release date to capitalise on word of mouth. Repertory slots offer more flexibility. At Yorck Kino, several team members contribute to a big list of possible titles for classic slots, and the choice of what to screen when can be fairly random. Summer slots work best with shorter films, as audiences are reluctant to sit in a cinema for long in hot weather, and of course it often makes sense to programme seasonal films around Christmas. Nevertheless, repertory slots also allow for more creativity than new releases, which are tied to the distribution calendar. For example, a recent pick for Yorck Kino classic was Mira Nair’s The Namesake, selected to tie in with the New York Mayoral Race, where Nair’s son, Zohran Mamdani was up for election.

Surprise slots don’t allow viewers to prepare themselves in advance for more challenging titles, or to decide for themselves if there is specific content they want to avoid. For that reason, it might be best to avoid films with certain triggers, such a sexual assault or extreme violence. Whether or not to screen horror is also a question – and probably depends on the nature of the film (whether it’s a crossover arthouse title for instance) and how well audiences generally respond to horror at your venue.

At Yorck Kino, audience reactions tend to be split evenly regardless of title choice, and while more well-known titles might elicit a stronger initial reaction, audiences can often be surprising. “Normally when they find out what the film is there’s a lot of reaction, but feedback afterwards is nearly always 50/50,” says Denzin. “You can’t make everyone happy, but the good thing about sneak previews is you can share movies with people which they would never normally watch in cinemas. One of the sneak preview slots we have has a lot of young people. Those people would not normally have gone to watch a film like [recent French release] How To Make a Killing in the cinema, but the general consensus was that the film was funny, they enjoyed it. Both the classic and regular slots are really a chance to introduce people to titles they wouldn’t normally see.”

Another surprise with the repertory slot, has been how well comedies play with audiences. “It’s important not only to see arthouse film as dramatic movies, we have to be happy sometimes!” says Denzin. “The screenings we’ve had of films like Moonstruck, What’s Up Doc, The Apartment and To Be or Not To Be were really something the whole crowd still remembers.

Header image: Sneak Preview Programme © York Kinogruppe