Movie theaters? DOOMED?

[Yoda]

Theaters suck.

As others have said, other people are loud, obnoxious, rude, etc... The actual theaters are sometimes filthy. Half the time when I leave the theater my foot will stick on every step I take.

The concessions are overpriced... I bite the bullet sometimes and buy them regardless of that fact, but then what do I get? Cold stale popcorn. WTF? You're going to charge me 5 dollars for a medium sized bag of fucking popcorn, which is ridiculously cheap to make, and not even give me a fresh hot bag? My god, at least fast food tosses out old fries and pumps out a steady supply of fresh ones.

As for the screen size, sure it's nice, but all but the very best theaters have worse picture quality than my 50 inch HDTV, especially when it comes to black level. Most theaters have shitty sound, I can get better audio out of my $120 DTS system than I would get at my local theaters. The only drawbacks are that I can't turn up the volume as loud as I'd like for a 'real' movie experience (courtesy to the neighbors ya see), and my place isn't air conditioned. If San Diego real estate ever plummets enough to where I can afford my own little fortress of solitude, I'd build a home theater that would make ever going out to the movies again truly pointless.

But no, I'm not going to pay $200, or even $50 dollars. Maybe $50 would appeal to large families who have to pay per head at the movie theater... but for everyone else it's excessive. The concept of delaying home movie releases and lowering prices is a good one, as far as maximizing theater revenue, but that would sabotage DVD/Blu-ray revenue, and might be a net loss for studios.

 

[Skywalker]

The only way I'd choose watching a new movie at home over watching a new movie in the theaters is if Sony foots the bill for my top-of-the-line home theater system.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Well I'm not big on BO but I rent DVDs from Netflix for an average price of $1.50 and for that savings, why fret if it comes six months late? At any given time, I'm happy with the stuff that was a new release six months ago. It's new to me.

There's only two reasons I go to movies in theaters:

1. Social experience; someone else wants to go.

2. Must be seen on the big screen. Up, Wall*E, Star Trek.

Star Trek also counts for the very rare 3. movies I can't wait six months for.

 

[Amaris]

$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.

Sounds like a cool theater. Our local theater is not like that.

Although, they are quite clean and the crowds are generally well behaved.

J.

 

[FordSVT]

Every time I read one of these threads it makes me glad that I don't live in a major American city. I've been to movie complexes all over Canada and I've never had the nightmare experiences with inconsiderate assholes and shitty movie theatres that Americans seem to have on a regular basis.

If someone started yelling at the screen at a movie here the entire audience would look a them like their head just fell off.

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

Nope. I like going to the cinema.

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

<3 Alamo Draft House...

 

[Nerdius Maximus]

$200? Horseshit. A select few people would be willing to pay such a price. You can rent in-theater movies at hotels for like, 15 bucks. I would imagine it would be the same at home, some type of on-demand thing. If not, and they really did cost 200 bucks, movie theater attendance would not be threatened in the slightest.

 

[Capt. Vulcan]

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.

Maybe for international releases but for domestic releases it would make a pretty big difference. Magical hackers don't just break in to movie studio's and steal movies. There have only been a handful of movies that were put online before theatrical release, and in the cases of the two biggest examples the special effects weren't even finished on them. A vast majority of dvd quality bootlegs come from when the movie goes in to the wild, when the studio starts putting the movie out there for pay per view and whatnot, which like clockwork comes a month or two before the dvd is released. Generally the later the dvd release the later the bootleg gets out there.

In russia the bootleg problem got so bad they hatched the brilliant plan of releasing american dvd's over there before they released in the states. Which had the totally unexpected drawback of meaning dvd quality bootlegs were making their way back to the united states even earlier.

 

[darthraidr]

so the problem is circular... studios are losing money at the BO. because movies make less at the BO, the studio releases the dvd sooner. theaters still need to make a profit, so they up prices across the board (and scale back certain services). high prices, and a dvd release on the near horizon result in people not going to the movies. and back to step one...

so now the ticket price is high, the service is bad, the dvd will be released in a few months, the consumer will chose to wait for the cheaper dvd release.

so now you tell the consumer, "guess what, the dvd you thought would be out in a few months, is coming out in a year." the consumer has a choice to make, wait a year, head out to the theater, or not see it... same options if the dvd were released in 3 months, however in this scenario, i believe the scale has now tipped in favor of "theater."

this is how vhs releases worked. there wasn't a fast turn around.

moving dvd releases, or downloads up to a same day theater release will kill the theater industry save for IMAX and (for now) 3-D.

 

[LeahBoBo]

Are you crazy? Why would I spend $50 to see a movie at home?

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

Movie theaters serve an important social function. They are good first date places. They give a way for established couples to go some place simple, but have the experience of getting out. They provide an atmosphere you can't get at home. It is like going to a concert. You know the music quality won't be as good as your CD at home, but you are going for the event. Sometimes my girlfriend and I like to stay in and watch a movie, sometimes we like to go on a date and see one in the theaters. People will always choose both.

 

[Yoda]

Movie theaters serve an important social function. They are good first date places. They give a way for established couples to go some place simple, but have the experience of getting out. They provide an atmosphere you can't get at home. It is like going to a concert. You know the music quality won't be as good as your CD at home, but you are going for the event. Sometimes my girlfriend and I like to stay in and watch a movie, sometimes we like to go on a date and see one in the theaters. People will always choose both.

I think society could weather the loss. And I think first dates would be bettered by shifting away from sitting in the dark, not talking, and paying attention to something other than the person you're on a date with

 

[Nerdius Maximus]

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.

I was talking to a black guy at work about a girl yelling at the screen. "Was she black?" He asked.
"Yeah," I confirmed.
He nodded, then proceeded to explain that this invariably happens when two or more black women go to the movies, and that it's always going to be the ugliest one making the most noise.

In this particular instance, my wife had gotten up, gone over to them and told them to shut the fuck up. They stared at her all bug-eyed for the rest of the movie, but they shut the fuck up!
That's one of the things I love about my wife. She will confront anyone, anywhere, when the situation calls for it.

 

[Michael_One]

I can believe someone at Sony thinks $200 pay per view new movies will succeed. These are the same people who think Betamax failed because it had no exclusive content, not because Sony is run by anal retentive control freaks.

Think about it, if you were shopping for a VCR in the early 80's there was... VHS, which every other company made so competition drove prices down, and Beta, which was more expensive plus the tapes were only made by Sony and thus were more expensive too. A quick trip to the video rental place ( there used to be one in every mini mall ) showed lots and lots of VHS movies and relatively few Beta ones.

Fast forward to underperforming formats like miniDisc and Memory Stick and yeah, I can see Sony execs thinking expensive pay per view is the wave of the future. Blu ray worked but Sony shared in its deveopment and wasn't the sole inventor.

That episode with the rootkits on Sony CDs... and Sony's rootkit deinstaller put a 'dial home' trojan on your computer... I already told you these people are control freaks.

Skystalker's comment about having Sony pay for home theater is spot on, the average home video setup is nowhere near capable of displaying what modern entertainment technology can deliver. I could easily afford a first rate setup but don't have one; my priorities are elsewhere.

 

[Harvey]

Well, Beta was the superior format, but talk about mismanaged. And that doesn't approach the ludicrous piles of money they're losing on every Playstation 3 console to prop up the Blu-Ray market.

 

[shivkala]

Funny, because, overall, movie theater attendance is up this year, despite the economy:

From the NYT:

Suddenly it seems as if everyone is going to the movies, with ticket sales this year up 17.5 percent, to $1.7 billion, according to Media by Numbers, a box-office tracking company. And it is not just because ticket prices are higher. Attendance has also jumped, by nearly 16 percent. If that pace continues through the year, it would amount to the biggest box-office surge in at least two decades.

LA Times[/URL] does say summer movie attendance was down, but:

Thanks to strong early months (Fox's "Taken," Universal's "Fast & Furious" and Sony's "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" among the breakouts), 2009 revenue is still up more than 7% from a year ago, while attendance has improved more than 3%. But with DVD sales collapsing (down 13.5% in the first half of the year) and production and marketing costs hardly falling, Hollywood will need the rest of the year to do at least as well as the summer -- if not better -- to keep its business healthy.

Note that the article states that DVD sales are down and that Sony came in second to last for total summer performance.

From WENY:

“People are not going on big trips to amusement parks or anything anymore,” Davis said. “ They’re looking for little quick getaways and movies seem to be the best option.”
Davis tells us this isn't the case just in Wellsboro either.
It’s a nationwide trend.
Unlike many other entertainment outlets, movie theaters haven't really been affected by the recession.

So, with movie attendance up in 2009 and DVD sales down, what would make anyone think an expensive plan to have first-run movies in your home would make sense?

And, yes, while I may have to deal with a crying baby or talkative group, most of my movie experiences are rather pleasant, with the audience adding to the enjoyment of the film, not detracting from it.

 

[BalokINACTIVE]

Basically, in terms of picture and sound, the gap between the "home experience" and the "theater experience" has narrow dramatically over the last decade.

It is a very similar situation to what happened to the video game industry in the 1990s. I don't know about you, but as a child of the '80s I have fond memories of the video arcade. For a few bucks in quarters I could pilot a spaceship, drive a race car or shoot the bad guys. And even though we had an Atari at home, it wasn't the same as the games at the arcade.

But as that Atari turned into a Nintento, then a Sega Genesis, then a Playstation, the gap between the gaming experience at home and at the arcade narrowed further and further and then disappeared entirely, and with it the prominence of video arcades.

It will take a long, long time for that to happen to cinemas, if for no other reason than most people can't fit a 60 foot screen in their home. But what is already happening is people go out to the movies less and less, and watch more films at home. And the movies people do go to are often the big "event" films such as The Dark Knight, Star Trek & Harry Potter.

So you get a smaller and smaller revenue pie, divided up amongst fewer and fewer blockbuster films.

As for theaters themselves they will undergo the same squeeze that has affected many traditional retailers, the extremes of the spectrum survive (or even thrive) while the middle of the road stores lose business. On one side, Walmart, Target, Costco and online retailers with low prices and overhead continue to grow, while traditional department stores have a shrinking customer base.

One the other side are speciality boutique stores that cater to people with disposable income who are willing to pay a premium not just for merchandise but for the shopping experience a boutique store can give.

The same thing is happening to movie theaters. Your average urban or suburban multiplex will get worse and worse as theater owners try to cut overhead and make a profit. These theaters will primarily be patronized by lower income people and kids who want to screw around.

At the same time you will see more and more upscale movie theaters who cater to a small market who want a better cinema experience and are willing to pay for it. If anyone else out there lives in Los Angeles, I'm talking about a theater like the Arclight. First class picture and sound quality, clean comfortable seats, reserved seating, no pre-show advertising (just a few trailers), higher quality food and snacks and ushers in the theater throughout the show who will enforce a "silence is golden" policy if necessary. A great environment for moviegoing, but the prices are a little higher. That will be a dealbreaker for some, but not for others. Especially if people are going to the cinema fewer and fewer times per year, there will be those who want to have a first class experience when they do go.

Basically, high end cinema-going will become a niche market, just as live theater (which was the mass entertainment of it's day) has become.

Sorry to write so much about this, but as a life-long moviegoer, this subject is one I have great interest in.

 

[Yoda]

At the same time you will see more and more upscale movie theaters who cater to a small market who want a better cinema experience and are willing to pay for it. If anyone else out there lives in Los Angeles, I'm talking about a theater like the Arclight. First class picture and sound quality, clean comfortable seats, reserved seating, no pre-show advertising (just a few trailers), higher quality food and snacks and ushers in the theater throughout the show who will enforce a "silence is golden" policy if necessary. A great environment for moviegoing, but the prices are a little higher. That will be a dealbreaker for some, but not for others. Especially if people are going to the cinema fewer and fewer times per year, there will be those who want to have a first class experience when they do go.

I'd be all for a classy theater like that. None of the ones I've frequented in San Diego fit the bill though

 

[Harvey]

Funny, because, overall, movie theater attendance is up this year, despite the economy...

Movie theatre attendance usually goes up in the face of a bad economy. It's (relative to other forms of leisure) cheap entertainment and close enough to most people's homes that it's not a long drive away.