Movie theaters? DOOMED?

[Lookingglassman]

They need to get rid of the movie theater in my hometown. There is only one and the owner picks and chooses what movies he will show. District 9 - NOPE! Angels and Demons - NOPE! That Beyonce movie where her husband is cheating on her - NOPE!

He shows MOST movies that come out, but he does censor things he dont like.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I love go to movie theaters. Period!

I don't. I hate theaters. They're noisy, crowded, and everything is too damned expensive. Why should I pay $10 to see a movie once, when I can wait a bit and pay only $20 to *own* that same movie? Just because the screen is bigger?

Like I said, it takes something really big - like ST XI - where I absolutely cannot wait, for me to get into a theater at all.

 

[Trekker4747]

For many movies the theater experience just cannot be matched. Going to see this Summer's Star Trek, for example, wouldn't have been nearly the same if I did it at home with my buddy.

Some movies just need a theater experience, others, perhaps not so much.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

See, that's the thing. The concept of a 'theater experience' is universally negative to me. All that phrase means to me is tickets and concessions that cost too much, patrons who won't shut the fuck up, crying babies, 30+ minutes of previews, trash-laden screen areas, that type of thing. I don't care if the screen is bigger, that's drowned out by all the negatives.

 

[Supreme Admiral]

I love go to movie theaters. Period!

I don't. I hate theaters. They're noisy, crowded, and everything is too damned expensive. Why should I pay $10 to see a movie once, when I can wait a bit and pay only $20 to *own* that same movie? Just because the screen is bigger?

Like I said, it takes something really big - like ST XI - where I absolutely cannot wait, for me to get into a theater at all.

That's understandable. You have your reason why you're hating theaters so much.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I know a lot of people who are frustrated with the high prices of going to first run theaters. This $50-$200 price point will change nothing for them. I know a lot of other people who don't go to theaters because they're too busy with their kids. They will not be able to afford this $50-$200 price point. However, I know a bunch of other people who see movies at the theater because it gives them a quick, easy excuse to get out of the house. Now, I can see a day in the not too distant future where the theatrical release & the DVD release will be near-simultaneous. But $50 for a new release will totally price themselves out of the market. You might get a scant few insanely hardcore fans to pay that but there aren't many of those. And if studios thought you could make real money off those people, the new Star Trek movie would have been a U.S.S. Titan film rather than recasting Kirk & Spock.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

See, that's the thing. The concept of a 'theater experience' is universally negative to me. All that phrase means to me is tickets and concessions that cost too much, patrons who won't shut the fuck up, crying babies, 30+ minutes of previews, trash-laden screen areas, that type of thing.

I hear these horror stories a lot on the internet. What the hell is wrong with all of the theaters you go to?! Do you live in feral jungles or something? I rarely have these problems you discuss.

It helps that I rarely buy theater concessions. I usually just ate when I go to the theater. Besides, around here theaters don't give a shit any more if you bring in your own food.

I don't mind the previews. I hated it when theaters around here preceeded every movie with several car & soda commercials. But they've stopped that. And I like watching coming attractions (except at the discount theater where they just show the same 3 previews over & over).

As for crying children, that's rarely an issue. But then, I've noticed that, in Arizona, kids movies don't perform as well theatrically as they do nationwide.

I rarely have a problem with people talking during the movie either. (The last time I did, it was actually kinda funny. There was this guy at an opening night screening of Iron Man. Every time Iron Man did anything in the movie, the guy would scream out, "Yeah! Iron MAN!" When they mentioned S.H.I.E.L.D. at the end, the guy had a total freak out and ran out of the theater screaming.)

 

[Trekker4747]

See, that's the thing. The concept of a 'theater experience' is universally negative to me. All that phrase means to me is tickets and concessions that cost too much, patrons who won't shut the fuck up, crying babies, 30+ minutes of previews, trash-laden screen areas, that type of thing. I don't care if the screen is bigger, that's drowned out by all the negatives.

I can't say that overall that's my "theater experience" - by which I mean seeing the movie on a 100-foot wide screen.

 

[Tulin]

A friend of mine who just happens to work for Sony told me that he believes, with in 10 years, many first run movies, and I mean big movies, will be available in your own home. The push for this is coming from a growing public weary of spending big bucks for movies, and then having to contend with babies

I LOVE that that is the first thing you mention.

I LOATHE fucking screaming babies in the cinema. The morons that bring them should be locked all night in a room with twenty of the little fuckers and see how they like it.

fighting, or the one thing I hate, talking to the people on the screen as IF they can hear you..I hate that!!!...

WTF?!?!

What if that all about?!?

I don't know where you go to the movies but that shit does NOT happen here in Australia. Actually, the only time it DID happen to me was when I saw ROTS at Universal City Walk in LA and this big fat black woman kept ACTUALLY yelling at the screen. I recently saw a stand up comedian make fun of that and I thought, "He must have been there that night, too!"

 

[darthraidr]

i love the panicked studios and theaters trying to figure out what to do to solve their money issues... it's simple, delay the dvd release for a year, and lower ticket prices.

if tickets were $5, i'd probably see a movie every weekend... when they were $7.50, i saw a movie almost every weekend...

but now, dvds are released a few months later and cost about the same amount as 2 tickets to the movie. it's a much better value to just wait and buy or rent it.

 

[The Evil Dead]

For me, movie theaters are the definitive way of seeing a film. I am lucky because my hometown of Toronto has a true love of film - obviously, since we're home to one of the world's largest public film festivals! If a film is made sooner or later, no matter how big or small it is, it will get a release in Toronto (99.9% of the time anyway...) and the crowds here often add to the experience, they cheer, applaud, ooh and aah at all the right moments, very rarely do I have any experiences with other people that ruin the movie for me and I see a movie in a theater on a weekly basis.

As far as concessions go, I'll pay a lot for the occasional tray of nachos but normally I just bring in my own water bottle and some candy I grab at a nearby drugstore. Big deal, you don't want to over pay for popcorn? Then live without friggin' popcorn.

At this point I rarely ever watch a film initially on DVD, partially because I will pause it, I'll get distracted, etc...And that's just not the way to experience a film, I want to watch it in one straight shot with no interruptions but I'm just too fidgety to do that at home. But in a movie theater that's it, I'm in for the 2 hour ride, no ifs, ands or buts. I love goin' to the movies and hope the day where my only option is to watch it on a TV never comes.

One of my fondest memories of 2009 was seeing the new Star Trek film opening night and the cheers, the gasps and applause at every little twist and turn that this crowd of 400 people gave the film...I wouldn't trade that experience of that, of feeding off the energy of hundreds of people loving a movie, for seeing it on a couch in my basement in a million years.

 

[Tulin]

i love the panicked studios and theaters trying to figure out what to do to solve their money issues... it's simple, delay the dvd release for a year

WTF?!?!

How does THAT solve things?

All that means is more pirates will get ahold of copies somehow and desperately waiting viewers will get it sooner. Like it or not, we are in an instant gratification society now and people want their shit NOW.

Nope - my answer would be simultaneous day release at the cinema AND on DVD. There will ALWAYS be people that actually WANT to go out and watch a movie on the big screen - and for films like ST or LOTR, WHO WOULDN'T?!?!

They can then leave the cinema, go to a shop in the complex and BUY the DVD to take home. For same day release you up the price to say $40 and those babies will be FLYING out the door.

Buyers are happy(having the ULTIMATE souvenir of the film they just saw and loved)and pirates have no leg to stand on.

Even though I don't smoke marijuana and loathe drug culture, it is the same concept of legalizing it. Make it available at the local corner store and INSTANTLY the illegal drug trade and all the seedy shit that comes with it disappears.


Maybe I should look at a career in politics or something......

 

[Sheep]

Why am I not surprised your friend works for Sony, who seem to have completely lost sight of their consumers and insist on charging insane prices for their products? I'm looking at you, PSP Go and launch PS3.

Very, very few people will pay $200 a pop to see a new release movie at home. The most they'd get away with is maybe $30 for a new release, and even that would be pushing it for many considering you can get the DVD/BD to watch as many times as you want for the same price or less just a few months later.

Sony can try this, but that model would last less than a year before being canned due to poor response.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

fighting, or the one thing I hate, talking to the people on the screen as IF they can hear you..I hate that!!!...

WTF?!?!

What if that all about?!?

I don't know where you go to the movies but that shit does NOT happen here in Australia. Actually, the only time it DID happen to me was when I saw ROTS at Universal City Walk in LA and this big fat black woman kept ACTUALLY yelling at the screen. I recently saw a stand up comedian make fun of that and I thought, "He must have been there that night, too!"

It seems to have become a prominent African-American stereotype. (There's even a MADtv sketch about it where, for Black History Month, they celebrate the first black man to yell at the movie screen.) Much as I hate stereotypes, this is one that does seem to occasionally be reinforced in my personal experience, particularly when my friends & I saw The Strangers. That's the loudest movie I've ever seen.

 

[Mr Light]

Going out to the movie theater is the only thing I get to do for fun! It's not nearly as exciting to watch it at home. Of course I don't have horrible experiences at the theater, I go at the first showing when there's hardly anyone there.

 

[Amaris]

For many movies the theater experience just cannot be matched. Going to see this Summer's Star Trek, for example, wouldn't have been nearly the same if I did it at home with my buddy.

Some movies just need a theater experience, others, perhaps not so much.

My sentiments exactly.

I had to see Trek XI on the big screen. The BIG screen with surround sound immersion, and lots of people laughing when I laugh, gasping when I gasp, and this whole level of fellowship that I feel when I'm in that darkened theater with my friends and we're having fun. Plus, Star Trek XI was my first truly positive Star Trek movie theater experience.

J.

 

[shapeshifter]

$200???!!! NFW! Another thing, what if the movie sucks in your opinon, can you get a refund? Our theater gives refunds with no questions asked as long as you walk out before the films ending.

The crowds at our local cinema are cool enough, nothing we cannot handle. Any concessions bought anywhere at the same mall as the theater is allowed in so that isn't a problem either.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Yes, over here we have stickey floors, seats that have probably never been steam cleaned, people talking, kids playing handheld games (why they fuck let them take that shit to the THEATER?!), high prices, and some crowding, but in the end this is really all a results of two things:

1. The theater management not giving enough of a shit to do anything, which we really can't do anything about unless we try to be the manager, but the second thing...

2. Is something we can do something about: showings. If you guys and gals could keep your fucking pants on and just wait a week or two and go to a day showing (if possible) and you'll find open seat areas, less people and people who generally stay quiet.



Sure, many movies don't deserve a theater experience, but I still recall, say, seeing "Signs" is a big, well-kept theater, with high quality surround-sound speaker systems that are much better than a standard theater sound system. The sound was so clear and pronounced that when the father was in the cornfield with the flashlight, I could hear the breeze blowing threw the crops, and the sound moving all around me in the theater (something lacking from the other two times I watched it in regular theaters).

Or the experience of watching and sharing laughs with fellow Browncoats during "Serenity" (a group who were all well behaved, by the way...).

 

[paudemge]

They seem to have been predicting the demise of movie theaters for quite some time. I don't really go to them very often but for 'big' movies they still seem very busy especially on the weekends or holidays.

There is no way a $200 price point would work, I could see maybe $50. That would be in line with major ppv events now. But I doubt it would have much impact on theater going.

 

[Sephiroth]

Or, how for Sony to commit suicide in oneeasy lesson