Are Movie theaters extinct? by ncbrowncoat

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Are Movie theaters extinct?

POSTED BY: NCBROWNCOAT
UPDATED: Monday, January 16, 2006 12:51
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Sunday, January 15, 2006 7:10 PM

Just saw this article on the Fox news site about the movie biz and the decline in box office. Odd it comes out the day before the Golden Globes http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,181722,00.html

It seems that the first weekend of release is what's important to the studios, then the DVD sales, pay per view, and TV etc. and at least one director (Steven Sodebergh)is releasing his latest movie and the DVD of the movie on the same day and Disney thought about selling DVDs of Chicken Little in the theater lobby.

Looks like us Browncoats are doing the right thing in focusing on the DVD's etc. in order to get a sequel.

What are your thoughts on this and how it would effect a BDS?

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Sunday, January 15, 2006 7:30 PM

CHINDI

I do NOT think movie theaters are obsolete but I think movie making bean counters who think they know what the public want,,,sre or should be..

Look at your local theaters.. all showing the exact (or nearly exact) same line up of films all starting at about the same time... no varying the films with some old films or art house films, no staggering the start time so if you are running too late for theater A you could still catch the film at theater X

they live and die on that first weekend or two.. how ridiculous! We have lives. We might be out of town that first weekend- or on vacation.. god forbif the film might linger for 3 weeks so we have a chance to catch the thing!

It is NOT the price of movies.. it is not even the ludicrous concession stand (cus you do NOT have to buy that shite) it is the lack of respect for the film goers and the constant catering to the 13 year old boy syndrome... puleese...

Will ppl stay home more with their giant home theaters and a beer? Maybe.. but nothing beats seeing a great movie on a big screen (with good sound) larger than life.. with an audience.. it is a shared and very human experience...

I see nearly everything in the theater.. I love that experience. Maybe I am a dinosaur.. but I think the movie houses will survive and thebean counters will evolve or die and good movies will come back..

chindi

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Sunday, January 15, 2006 7:36 PM

CARTOON

I personally think all films are better in a theatre -- even old, black & white movies (I saw "Citizen Kane" in the movies during it's 50th anniversary run, and even though I'd seen it countless times on TV, seeing it on the bigscreen was like seeing it for the first time.)

I believe that all films lose something on TV, but particularly action films. (I couldn't initially understand why "Star Wars" sucked on TV when it was first released on tape in the mid-1980's. Now, the reason is obvious.)

Why someone wouldn't want to see an action film on the big screen is beyond my reasoning.

I also think that DVD's and the quick release of rights to TV (with the advent of cable TV in the 1970's) spelled the demise of the long theatre runs. Prior to cable TV, movies would be in theatres (coming back again and again) for years.
As a matter-of-fact, "Gone With The Wind" waited over 35 years in a theatre before it was ever shown on TV. I saw some of the early Bond films on the big screen in the late 60's, years after their initial release.

Now days, a film is in a theatre on Friday, on DVD by Tuesday, then on TV by Friday (OK, I'm exaggerating slightly, but you get the gist).

"We gotta go to a crappy town where I'm a hero."

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Sunday, January 15, 2006 8:56 PM

RACOONBOY

Im think that chicken little thing is good, they should do that with all movies, so people can go see the movie and if they like it they can buy it, movie theaters should sell dvds too, or movies should come out on dvd very shortly after they do at cinemas.

thats my 2.4 cents.

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Sunday, January 15, 2006 9:56 PM

CLAUDIUS

They better not be extinct I work in a movie theater! I figure that the real problem is the movies themselves are no longer worth the effort to get people out from in front of the TV and into the theater. The reason why box office tickets goes up higher and higher and the concessions are ridiculous is that nobody goes to the movies.
This past summer was astonishing, even with the buzz on Star Wars there were very few people going to the movies, because pretty much every movie wasn't worth the celluloid.
People Go to the big pictures, but often I notice that a theater is rarely sold out, maybe a little more than half full.
Films just have to be worth the price of the ticket, and I don't mean that they should be comprimised for this, Crash and Munich are very good movies that were/be rather popular at the moment, Star Wars and Harry Potter aside.

anyhoo that's my two cents

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Monday, January 16, 2006 1:18 AM

ZOID

Fellow Browncoats:

Everything I could say about moviegoing has already been said -- and better -- by the Pythons in this excerpt from their 1983 film, "The Meaning of Life":

Quote:
THE END
OF THE FILM

Lady Presenter: [briskly] Well, that's the End of the Film, now here's the Meaning of Life.

[An envelope is handed to her. She opens it in a
business-like way.]

Thank you Brigitte. [She reads.]... Well, it's nothing special. Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.

...And finally, here are some completely gratuitous pictures of penises to annoy the censors and to hopefully spark some sort of controversy which it seems is the only way these days to get the jaded video-sated public off their fucking arses and back in the sodding cinema.

Family entertainment bollocks! What they want is filth, people doing things to each other with chainsaws during tupperware parties, babysitters being stabbed with knitting needles by gay presidential candidates, vigilante groups strangling chickens, armed bands of theatre critics exterminating mutant goats - where's the fun in pictures?

Oh well, there we are - here's the theme music. Goodnight.

I, like many others I suspect, watch trailers on TV to figure out whether to rent on DVD or wait until it comes out on a movie channel. Watch it in a theater? Only on very rare and special occasions. It's too bloody expensive to even go see a matinee with my family of 4 (c. $40.00 US).

The alternative is to wait 'til it becomes available for rental for $3.99 for 5 nights and watch it on the 60" with theater surround and any food and drink we like, pausing the flick for bathroom breaks, if needs be. If I like the film and think it has "repeat viewability", I purchase it.

I am with you though, on the opinion that seeing a movie (like Serenity, LotR, Kong, etc.) in a theater is a different, better experience. But who among the married-with-children set can afford it?

Armed and Critically (but only of mutant goats),

zoid
_________________________________________________

"I aim to misbehave." -Capt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity, a.k.a. 'the BDBOF'

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Monday, January 16, 2006 4:52 AM

NCBROWNCOAT

I happen to agree with most of the thoughts here. In general, the movie theater is reserved for the big movies (like the BDM) that require a big, big screen and an appreciative audience.

This is mostly because of the price, quality of the movies (don't want to waste $20 on something I can buy in a couple of months for about the same price and get to see it multiple times or better yet rent for even less.) and the lack of a big TV. That will be fixed when the prices of a decent-30-36 inch LCD become reasonable..

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Monday, January 16, 2006 6:10 AM

CARTOON

Quote:
Originally posted by Claudius:
People Go to the big pictures, but often I notice that a theater is rarely sold out, maybe a little more than half full.

I think the multiplex is the reason for this -- at least here in USA, where multiplexes seem to be the norm.

Before the advent of the multiplex (about 30 years ago in my neck of the woods), only one theatre in each town had a film. So, when "Star Wars" came out, there was 500 people standing in line for each showing for a month.

Now, when a big film comes out (at least in my county, which has 3 multiplexes within 10 miles), it's shown in all 3 theatres, and each theatre has it on 2 or 3 screens. That's another reason why they don't sell out, and why a big movie lasts 3 weeks instead of 3 or 4 months (like they used to when I was younger).

"This must be what going mad is like."

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Monday, January 16, 2006 12:08 PM

LADYSHELLEY

I think I can count the number of films I saw in 2005 in a theater on both hands (and not run out of fingers)

Let's see ...

Umm, seven.

This doesn't include multiple viewing of some, like the BDM. I went to a theater and watched seven different films over the course of the year. Price isn't as much a factor as the sheer dreck that is produced and the added insult of sitting through 20+ minutes of advertising before getting to the previews.

We do have a very good TV and an excellent sound system, so as far as picture and sound, we miss nothing by noth seeing a film in a theater.

Lady Shelley
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.redhawke.org

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Monday, January 16, 2006 12:30 PM

ZOID

cartoon wrote:

Quote:
...Now, when a big film comes out (at least in my county, which has 3 multiplexes within 10 miles), it's shown in all 3 theatres, and each theatre has it on 2 or 3 screens. That's another reason why they don't sell out, and why a big movie lasts 3 weeks instead of 3 or 4 months (like they used to when I was younger).

I'll go you one better. When the original Star Wars premiered in the 70's, I queued up at the Galleria in Houston with my girlfriend for 3 hours to buy tickets (no such thing as Ticket Master, etc.), and then waited an additional 2 hours in the line to get into the theatre to actually see the movie. The Galleria was a 4 screen 'plex' at the time; there was no such thing as a 10-, 16- or 20-screen multiplex in any of the cities I regularly visited at that time.

I saw Star Wars 16 times in the theatre over the next couple of years. It was always playing somewhere.

But, there was no such thing as VCRs at that time. For the first couple of years that VCRs were available to those that could afford them, there were no movie rentals or VHS movies for sale. People got them to record television shows. You had to have loads of cash to afford a rig that you could transfer home movies to tape, or - ulp! - to afford an actual video camera.

We also had a thing called 'records': Vinyl disks that would store upwards of 40 minutes of music. I tell my kids that and they think I'm so quaintly antiquated, superannuated. "Really, Daddy? Have you ever seen a real dinosaur?" To which I reply, "Yes. I shave him every morning."

So here's the real demise of the theatre, as the Pythons noted above: We had no choice but to go to the theatre to see a movie, back in the dark ages of the 1970's. Now, folks can simply wait until it comes out on DVD, decide whether to rent or buy it, or wait another 2 months until it comes out on a movie channel and then DVR and burn to dual-layer recordable disk. There's simply no reason why someone would go to a theatre 16 times to see a movie, any more, unless of course they're crazy-assed Browncoats.

The solution? Eliminate the middle man. A studio or group of studios will eventually get around to creating a direct-to-market product distribution scheme. Meaning, they will purchase theatres, run their own films, sell refreshments at near-cost (say, for the same price you could pick them up at a convenience store, c. $2.50 total for a large coke and a popcorn), and moreover cut ticket prices back to about $3.50 per. What they lose in profit per ticket, they will recoup in volume. When Joe Schmoe can go see a movie with popcorn and a coke for c. $6 per viewing, per family member (or sigOther), he'll start going to the movies more often, and he'll see that movie he really loves 16 times in the theatre.

...Because it is better to see movies on a giant screen, than it is on a 60" at home. People want that experience, and they will pay a reasonable price for it. Repeat sales and better volume across the entire range of products (e.g., the studio's movie catalog) will provide the profits.

And before anyone goes there, studios aren't getting $3.50 per ticket in the theatres now. Most of it goes to the theatre owners, as does the exorbitant refreshment costs. So, cut out the middle man, and movie theatres can once again flourish. Whoever implements this plan first probably corners the market and drives everybody else out of business. The moviegoers will flock to that business model...

Respectfully,

zoid

P.S.
MTV first aired in August 1981. Before that, there were no music videos. You heard it on the radio, or saw it live in a club, or at a concert. Musicians had to be able to actually play instruments and sing (and put on a performance that captivated a live audience). Believe it or not. Any wonder why I despise "American Idolatry"? It's the worst of everything: Musicians that aren't musicians, in a 'reality' show that stiffs actual actors out of a venue for their art. It's a sin, I tell ya'.
_________________________________________________

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe... All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die." -Roy Batty, Blade Runner

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Monday, January 16, 2006 12:51 PM

CARTOON

Yes, ma'am. I was there, too. Long lines at the theatre. No one yappin' on cell phones. Double features for $1.00. Space-aged meals (TV dinners) which you could actually cook in only 45 minutes (in the oven -- as their were no microwaves). Music actually had a melody (you could hum or whistle it). Russians were threatenin' to nuke us every day at two o'clock.

I miss the good ole' days.

Well, some parts of the good ole' days.

I remember standing in line to see "You Only Live Twice", which wrapped around the block, and interlocked with a line going in the opposite direction to a theatre on another street. Don't remember what was at that other theatre.

"I'm no good with words. Don't use 'em much, myself."

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