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Booze and the cinema
posted by
Michael Furlinger
on
March 28, 2008 at 7:35 am
More and more theaters are using alcohol as a way of luring the adult crowd back into theaters.
Movie theater owners from California to Massachusetts are increasingly giving patrons the option of sipping a beer or a glass of wine with an expanding array of snacks.
About 150 first-run theaters serving alcohol have opened within the past three years, bringing the total of such establishments from 14 in 1997 to more than 400 today, says Patrick Corcoran, director of media and research for the National Association of Theatre Owners.
The full story is in USA Today.
Comments (17)
Unfortunately, alcohol is not the incentive that will get me back into the movie theaters. What WILL do it is when theaters begin to enforce a very strict policy against talking and cell phone usage (this includes scrolling and text messaging) during the movie. It is the average moviegoer’s rudeness and inconsideration that has driven me away from the movie theater experience!
ohhhh god…………….nothing is going to get you back……..There will always be something……..
Beer and wine sales has been good for the Somerville Theatre in Somerville, Mass., especially when there are live shows.
LIM – You make a great nagging wife.
LIM – I don’t know if this would get, Loves movies – hate going! back to the movies, but this would get me back.
CLASS
It all can be summed up in that one word
Comfortable Seats
Seat rows that are wide apart
Seat that are staggered so no one is directly in front of you
Perfect projection
Perfect stereo sound
Scope pictures with the screen widened with the masking pulled from the sides none of this droping masking from the top crap
No ads on the screen, I can get that on TV at home
No comercials, I can get that on the radio at home and in the the car, that’s why I listen to National Public Radio
A nice pleasent clean theater
Not a shoebox
No sticky floors
Nicely decoerated
Perhaps just elegant lush red drapes on all the walls
Guess what, no movie screen!
A large curtain at the front of the theater with a good curve to it to give a hint of the big curved screen behind it.
A big curved screen, from wall to wall, ceiling to floor
The curtain would be lit by a row of recessed ceiling spotlights.
A clock, with probably a green neon ring to light it, it would be to the side (so no one would have to keep looking at their dam cell phones for the time)
If it was possible, play music from the soundtrack of the movie (the CD programed in such a way that it’s timed that the movies theme plays just before the movie starts) if no soundtrack is available play music from famous classic movies.
The house lights would dim
The curtain lights would start to dim
The water fall curtain would start to rise
A cartoon would play
One prevue of that theaters next movie would play
A short film on manners would show about cell phones, talking, no kicking the seats ahead of you, taking noisy kids out etc.
The curtain drops and the curtain lights come on
If they need to, the masking and lens change
The curtains rise,the curtain lights dim and “JENESEN THEATERS PROUDLY PRESENTS” with a fanfare all happen at the same time
The movie begins
(sometimes a movie has it’s own previews, this is something that would have to be worked out)
The curtains would not close till the last credits had shown (in other words when the movie was over)
The curtain lights then would come up
The house lights would then come up
The GUEST should never see a blank screen
No one would start to clean the theater till the last guest had left
After the last GUEST has left, the theater would really be lit and cleaned and a mop should be handy to clean up any coke spills
To me that’s what what we had at one time and need today-CLASS!
Did I forget anything?
Anything you want to add?
“I don’t sell tickets to movies. I sell tickets to theaters.” Marcus Loew 1870-1927
I know some theaters like that……But i would bet your not willing to pay for that….
LMHG……..you need a good stiff drink……
BOB when was the last time you went to the movies?
View link
i love it, but when i go to cinema delux 18 i drink in the parking lot instead of paying $6 for a beer.
No wonder we need a site called Cinema Treasures WITH ALL YOU LOYAL MOVIE GOERS
Loves Movies…I agree about the text messaging. I wear glasses and when I have a dozen people below me opening their cell phones to text every 5 minutes it blinds me in the dark. I cannot enjoy the film. I talked to the manager of our theater and asked them to try to ask kindly that people not do this. I was there recently and they seem to be getting through to the teenagers (worst offenders) and others that just have to do this. I noticed they would go out in the hall and do it…I was having a hard time following the film with this blinding light in my face. This is not asking too much…it is just common courtesy and respect for your fellow movie goer.
LOYALTY??? Loyalty, LIM, like anything else in life has to be earned. When the moviegoing experience becomes the unpleasant experience that it has, how does that warrant my loyalty?
David, I once had an entire family of people scrolling their brightly-lit cell phones at the same time! When I asked one of them to stop, this creep had the nerve to look at me like I was the crazy one!
Alcohol works great in British cinemas because it is a boozier culture than the U.S. The bar makes it easier for mom to get dad out of the house.
I think it is less effective in the U.S. as a draw.
Loyalty….yes…….. Not every theater is as you say….Find the one that is better than the rest….We have people come to our theater just for the theater .They dont care often what we are playing..
What city are you in love movies?
Sounds good to me. But people have always smuggled their booze or beer in any,why do people always ask for a cup of ice and get mad because they have to pay for the cup?
My son worked in a cinema in Arlington,Texas {Dallas} that served drinks and one night a drunk attacked him in the lobby.Thank goodness staff was there to help Sean,But the Drunk went to jail and believe or not,Sean and another theatre employee WERE FIRED,BOOZE doesn’t belong in Theatres. I dealt with it constantly on Midnight shows in the 70’s and early 80’s.