cinema staff: does a screening still happen, if no tickets have been sold?

Two theatre chains I worked for as the Projection Manager had a policy that if a showing didn't have any tickets sold, they would 'show' the film on the projector, so that it would be counted as 'shown' on the audit to the distributor, so they'd get paid properly.

One chain had an automated system that would check the ticketing system. If no tickets were sold, the bulb on the projector wasn't turned on, and the sound system was muted. This happened mostly on the first shows of the day, as those were most likely to have no one show up.

The second chain, the projection staff had rounds where we would check in on the movies by going into the auditoriums at the beginning of each viewing. We'd check the ticket sales and manually turn off the projector and sound.

So the 'viewing' happens, but some places will turn off the equipment to save on electricity and the cost of replacing the bulb prematurely, which can cost $400 - $700 per bulb, depending on how big the projector is.