Jump to content

Are Movie Theaters days numbered?


Rick L

Recommended Posts

Here in the US unless you're in a major city where the union is still active, most of the projectionists are high school aged kids and the last thing they care about is whether the film is framed properly or even in focus. That is the shocking and tragic irony of the whole hollywood studio multiplex monopoly. Studios put all this time and energy and millions of dollars into these productions secure these deals with all the major theater chains who then give the print to a 16 year old kid who scratches it up during the buildup and by the end of the first week it looks like hell. Lousy projection will completely undermine any movie no matter how amazing it is. One would assume that studios would pay more attention to the issue and insist that theater chains use union projectionists.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here in the US unless you're in a major city where the union is still active, most of the projectionists are high school aged kids and the last thing they care about is whether the film is framed properly or even in focus. That is the shocking and tragic irony of the whole hollywood studio multiplex monopoly. Studios put all this time and energy and millions of dollars into these productions secure these deals with all the major theater chains who then give the print to a 16 year old kid who scratches it up during the buildup and by the end of the first week it looks like hell. Lousy projection will completely undermine any movie no matter how amazing it is. One would assume that studios would pay more attention to the issue and insist that theater chains use union projectionists.

 

That's messed up, a worthy gripe.

 

 

 

So it looks like the general consensus is movie theaters will continue to breed providing there's enough teenagers willing to throw their money to the wind and grandparents that give their grandchildren everything they cry about.

 

And as long as the income is enough to turn the projector on and have fresh kernels on hand, then the show will continue.

 

And although many movies are just repackaged, because of the influx of new generations, to them it's new.

 

It is very clear though the movie going experience needs to be re-invented. But maybe it's not the theaters per say, but the movies themselves.

 

Thanks for all your input,

feel free to add more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Movie theaters aren't going to die. They will have to change form a little bit though. I think they could get very clever about their "product," and may well have to. I'm a single 35 year old guy with a decent job and going to the movies is an easy choice. Sit in the front, let it take up your full field of vision, feel the rumble, try not to be disturbed by the living room manners of other people, chomp some popcorn, watch the credits, discuss with a friend. Done. But I talk to people with families and going to the movies is an affair - a family of 4 spends $35 on tickets and $35 again on concessions. $70 isn't bad for a family outing, but not something you can do out of hand. That's what theaters need to contend with. If they got clever about making a trip to the cinema an easy choice for a weekend afternoon they could rake it in. I also think they need to differentiate themselves from the living room not just in terms of the A/V experience, but the "going" experience. Bring back ushers to make the rude people shut up without me having to run out and miss 3 minutes of the movie to find a manager. Pressure the FCC to allow cell phone jamming in theaters.

 

The theaters I see doing well right now are Studio Movie Grill in Dallas, where you can take a date, order decent food, have a beer, and not be overrun by over-casual viewers; and the smaller indie houses that have midnight movies and specialty viewings. Covering a niche is always a good thing.

 

By the way, I went to Grauman's Chinese Theater yesterday for the first time - it reminded me of everything the cinema experience should be. It was just beautiful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As Keith has mentioned, the movie going experience is just that, an experience. While the home experience is getting better and better, you can't get that "special" feeling about yourself unless you go out to do something.

 

 

My experience is that more often than not, the movie going "experience" is a bad one. Unless I visit the local art house theater, I'm missing most of the movie by being completely taken out of the show and annoyed by the person three rows back commentating as if they were a member of the cast of Mystery Theater 3000. When did people become comfortable with talking in a theater in their normal speaking voice!?!?

 

I can remember the movie going experience being a great one... when I went to see Aliens when I was thirteen. Since then content, for the most part, has been too lackluster and the company has been just plain rude. The combination of Blu-ray and plasma along with the comfort and convenience of home is a very, very powerful combination. Maybe I'm just too irritable :angry:????

Link to comment
Share on other sites

During the last depression the studios fought the introduction of color claiming that the economic environment could not support such a lavish format.

 

Box office takings had been dwindling thorughout the 1920s, because of the spread of radio! But then cinema hit back with talkies - a much more dramatic enhancement than colour, which was in its very very early days then.

 

Although the technology for talkies had been around for years in various ways, it took the box office success of The Jazz Singer to get all the studios on the bandwagon.

 

In some towns, live theatre went dark almost overnight in the rush to the new films with talking and singing (there had been music with films for a long time of course).

 

But did live theatre die in the long term? I don't think so!

 

By the way, I think the figures show that box office receipts were hit badly at the very start of the great depression. Had cinema not been in the middle of the sound "boom" things could have been a lot worse.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member
Although the technology for talkies had been around for years in various ways, it took the box office success of The Jazz Singer to get all the studios on the bandwagon.

Ironically, the original concept of sound-on-film was to give all theatre patrons access to the elaborate orchestral accompaniment normally only available to big city cinemas, as an alternative to somebody playing the piano or organ! Live dialogue recording was considered impractical.

 

As it was, The Jazz Singer was really a pretty ordinary silent film with a few 10 minute Vitaphone inserts.

Vitaphone had already been around for a few years, but more as a Vaudeville attraction.

There were no AC-Powered amplifiers then, so part of the package was a huge box of rechargeable batteries and a technician to maintain them. Vitaphone segments could only last 10 minutes, the playing time of a 10" 33RPM disc. Setting up all the discs for The Jazz Singer must have been a nerve-wracking task.

I have a copy of the 1930 Science Fiction talkie "Just imagine", and it's amazing how well the sound holds up even today. They certainly came a long way in just a few years!

 

 

Ironically, while the rise of radio broadcasting caused a decline in cinema attendance in the 1920s, it was advances in vacuum tube and microphone technology originally developed for broadcasting dance bands and the like that enabled the meteoric rise of "talkies" in the 1930s.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Something that was becoming more popular in and around Wellington which I haven't really seen around London (there probably is, I just haven't looked) was the number of smaller cafe cinemas (1-3 screens, 30-50 seats per screen) dotted around the city which seemed to be very popular for the 40s plus audience out to see a Friday night movie as they were generally better maintained than the multiplexes, you could get a cup of coffee or glass of wine, you sat on comfy 2-seaters, you had decent legroom and you'd very rarely see anyone under-30 around. The movies on show tended to be of the independent-kind rather than the Hollywood blockbusters - but they did play both.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

We’ve had several movie theaters/bars open here in the past couple years. The isles are literally one long bar, but with fairly comfortable rolling swivel chairs, not barstools and they serve drinks and bar food throughout the movie.

 

If you’re seeing a silly comedy or whatever it can be fun, but the weekend is sort of the opposite of what you’re talking about. The theaters are packed to the brim with drunken, screaming, college folks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We’ve had several movie theaters/bars open here in the past couple years. The isles are literally one long bar, but with fairly comfortable rolling swivel chairs, not barstools and they serve drinks and bar food throughout the movie.

 

If you’re seeing a silly comedy or whatever it can be fun, but the weekend is sort of the opposite of what you’re talking about. The theaters are packed to the brim with drunken, screaming, college folks.

What a cool idea!! :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
Guest Patrick Nuse

Movie theaters aren't going to die. They will have to change form a little bit though. I think they could get very clever about their "product," and may well have to. I'm a single 35 year old guy with a decent job and going to the movies is an easy choice. Sit in the front, let it take up your full field of vision, feel the rumble, try not to be disturbed by the living room manners of other people, chomp some popcorn, watch the credits, discuss with a friend. Done. But I talk to people with families and going to the movies is an affair - a family of 4 spends $35 on tickets and $35 again on concessions. $70 isn't bad for a family outing, but not something you can do out of hand. That's what theaters need to contend with. If they got clever about making a trip to the cinema an easy choice for a weekend afternoon they could rake it in. I also think they need to differentiate themselves from the living room not just in terms of the A/V experience, but the "going" experience. Bring back ushers to make the rude people shut up without me having to run out and miss 3 minutes of the movie to find a manager. Pressure the FCC to allow cell phone jamming in theaters.

 

The theaters I see doing well right now are Studio Movie Grill in Dallas, where you can take a date, order decent food, have a beer, and not be overrun by over-casual viewers; and the smaller indie houses that have midnight movies and specialty viewings. Covering a niche is always a good thing.

 

By the way, I went to Grauman's Chinese Theater yesterday for the first time - it reminded me of everything the cinema experience should be. It was just beautiful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Patrick Nuse

Cell phones!!! I hope theaters come up with some way to tame teens opening their freaking cell phones every 2 minutes. That is something we should not have to put up with when paying for a movie theater experience.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't see theatres going anywhere. There isn't really any reason recently (other than maybe HD and 3D TVs) that would cause people to stay at home.

 

- Theatres have the best sound, huge screen, and best projection (usually film).

 

- It's always fun to go out and see a movie with friends or on a date.

 

- Nothing beats the experience of sitting in a big dark room with a bunch of other people. There's just a different feeling when watching something with a large audience; especially when the film is scary or funny, you can hear the reactions of other people. And if it's a sad film or a dramatic film you can just feel the mood in the room.

 

Watching a movie at home will never match that stuff.

 

Oh, and the increased popularity of 3D and IMAX (and who knows what else they will come up with in the future) has actually made going to the theatre more popular than ever.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't see theatres going anywhere. There isn't really any reason recently (other than maybe HD and 3D TVs) that would cause people to stay at home.

 

- Theatres have the best sound, huge screen, and best projection (usually film).

 

- It's always fun to go out and see a movie with friends or on a date.

 

- Nothing beats the experience of sitting in a big dark room with a bunch of other people. There's just a different feeling when watching something with a large audience; especially when the film is scary or funny, you can hear the reactions of other people. And if it's a sad film or a dramatic film you can just feel the mood in the room.

 

Watching a movie at home will never match that stuff.

 

Oh, and the increased popularity of 3D and IMAX (and who knows what else they will come up with in the future) will probably keep people going to the theatre for much longer.

Edited by David McDonald
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Box office sales are down because recent films are terrible, not because people don't enjoy going to the theater. Picture and sound technology (both digital and film) are the best they've ever been, making the theater experience more enjoyable than ever. But I can count the truly excellent films of the past 10-15 years on one hand. Films are truly swill nowadays. Really awful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

I stay away from actual production exactly for this reason. Posters are already ugly to death. Actresses and actors are engaged by considerations I will never be able to understand. Bruno Ganz for instance, a man from my country, has no mimic. We have to see his slam face in CUs as if we were dumb. They pour prizes over him. I disregard him, such a weak actor. Louis de Funès, save me, your face is at least alive! What a generation is making films? Potatoe brains like Arthur Cohn, James Cameron, Woody Allen, Jean-Luc Godard. Most boring people. So I go and watch Billy Wilder, François Truffaut, Marcel Carné, Mario Monicelli. Totò!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Potatoe brains like Arthur Cohn, James Cameron, Woody Allen, Jean-Luc Godard. Most boring people. So I go and watch Billy Wilder, François Truffaut, Marcel Carné, Mario Monicelli. Totò!

 

I happened to catch Wilder's "One Two Three" recently, a massive disappointment. Of course, I was fifty years younger when I thought it was funny. Silly warmed over vaudeville, no suspension of disbelief. I'll have to think twice before taking another look at "Annie Hall"....

 

 

 

 

 

-- J.S.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...