Although I was in the theatre business for a long time, few movies grab my interest anymore, and I seldom go. The last time I went was the summer of 2008 when I took my grandson to see “Indiana Jones. I get passes to theatres from work occasionally, and I use them even less occasionally.
Yesterday I took my six year old grandson to the movies. Thankfully, I used my passes, because the adult price was $9.50! The kid price was $6.00. I went to the snack bar, and no prices were shown on the very nice digital menu board that showed what products were offered in living color and animation. I saw one large popcorn, and two medium drinks offered, and ordered it. It came to $17.50!!!!!!
It has been fifteen years since I last ran a theatre, but this is ABSOLUTELY ridiculous! I certainly can understand high concession prices because the film companies get the lion’s share of the ticket sales, but $17.50 for one large popcorn and two medium drinks is a bit over the line!
We got into the auditorium with our concession about 20 minutes early, and were inundated with commercials we see on TV every day being run on the screen with a cheap digital projector. At showtime, the digital diatribe stopped, and a bunch of previews hit the screen. The xenon bulb in the projector was bad and flickered incessantly throughout the show.
My grandson needed to go to the restroom, so I escorted him there, and there was a bunch of gumball machines with candy in them in the lobby near the restroom door. When he came out, I put in FIFTY CENTS, and got FOUR Cherry Sours. I used to sell Cherry Sours for 50 cents a bag in my theatre’s concession stand, and THAT was twice as much as the stores sold them for!
My grandson did like the movie, but I was too shocked and broke to think about much else!
The business I loved for nearly 30 years has gotten out of hand. I for one do not like stadium seating, digital sound, digital projection, or shoebox sized auditoriums, and I certainly don’t want to pay for that crap with the best part of a $20 dollar bill at the concession stand for a popcorn and a couple of Cokes!
I, and my grandson would have enjoyed that movie just as much in a nice large auditorium with mono sound on a big screen that is CURTAINED before the show, instead of commercials run before showtime. Maybe if all the unneeded extras were eliminated, a new xenon bulb would have been in order, and we could have seen a flicker free show
I agree with most of the above, but what ever happened to showmanship? I grew up in a small town and both of our local movie houses had interesting looking auditoriums and beautifully lit curtains that covered the screen. At showtime the pre-show music faded, the lights slowly dimmed, and the curtains parted as the MGM lion growled or the Columbia lady held high her torch. These were such magical places to visit that the movie was just the icing on cake. Why they even had ushers patrolling the auditoriums to keep order and to help patrons get to and from their seats in the dark.
When I enter a megaplex now, I look around me and wonder how theatres have degenerated into what they’ve become: lots of big boring rooms (albeit with stadium seating) facing a big screen displaying big boring ads. There’s no longer any magic and there’s certainly no sense of anticipation wondering what those non-existing curtains will reveal when the lights finally dim.
I think we need to do what they did in the 1950’s. Give them a screen so large that when they walk in the theatre they go WOW. With home TV sets getting bigger and bigger its time for huge curved screens again and big auditoriums even with a plex.
Jay, one of the first steps to saving the movie theater experience is for all theaters to enforce a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to the use of cell phone, blackberrys, or any other kind of distractive or disruptive device, as well as the traditional talking and other forms of noise-making. If you want to talk on the phone or jerk off with your electronic playmate, then stay home where you belong!!!
One cannot enjoy the movie theater experience when so many people around you are persistently inconsiderate. I end up staying home just to avoid the irritation. Going to the movies ends up becoming a chore rather than a pleasure.
I disagree that the movie theater will go away. But their survival depends on offering an experience that people cannot get at home. Digital Projection is here to stay. But I think the public needs to be educated that projection from a 4K cinema projector is not the same quality as a home or commercial unit found in a living room or lecture hall. DVD video does not look very good when the screen is 40 feet wide. People need to be encouraged to get out of the house for their entertainment. I don’t know all the answers. Do theater operators resort to contests and giveaways? Can we mix music or live entertainment with a night at the movies? Has the distribution system from Hollywood gotten out of control? I’m most concerned abut the independent theater operators. Every effort must be made to make the consumer regularly choose the theater.
I have, for quite some time, predicting the end of the movie theater in general within the next fifty years, if not sooner. Frankly, this would be fine with me because the overall movie theater experience has sank just over the past decade with the advent of cell phones and the unreasonably high ticket and concession prices.
I would hope that maybe we would still keep revival theaters around to continue to get a flavor for what it was like to see classic films on the screen.
Yes this will absolutely kill the theaters. Since they are already converting theaters from film to digital “video” projection this is turning the theaters into replicas of your living room. No need to even go to a theater anymore.
The latest in a spate of articles that predict an impending shift in the industry of seismic proportion. Perhaps most disturbing is Kim Master’s comment that the only theatres likely to survive are those that have been “upgraded” to digital and “give you that better experience”. Oh really, better than what?
Although I was in the theatre business for a long time, few movies grab my interest anymore, and I seldom go. The last time I went was the summer of 2008 when I took my grandson to see “Indiana Jones. I get passes to theatres from work occasionally, and I use them even less occasionally.
Yesterday I took my six year old grandson to the movies. Thankfully, I used my passes, because the adult price was $9.50! The kid price was $6.00. I went to the snack bar, and no prices were shown on the very nice digital menu board that showed what products were offered in living color and animation. I saw one large popcorn, and two medium drinks offered, and ordered it. It came to $17.50!!!!!!
It has been fifteen years since I last ran a theatre, but this is ABSOLUTELY ridiculous! I certainly can understand high concession prices because the film companies get the lion’s share of the ticket sales, but $17.50 for one large popcorn and two medium drinks is a bit over the line!
We got into the auditorium with our concession about 20 minutes early, and were inundated with commercials we see on TV every day being run on the screen with a cheap digital projector. At showtime, the digital diatribe stopped, and a bunch of previews hit the screen. The xenon bulb in the projector was bad and flickered incessantly throughout the show.
My grandson needed to go to the restroom, so I escorted him there, and there was a bunch of gumball machines with candy in them in the lobby near the restroom door. When he came out, I put in FIFTY CENTS, and got FOUR Cherry Sours. I used to sell Cherry Sours for 50 cents a bag in my theatre’s concession stand, and THAT was twice as much as the stores sold them for!
My grandson did like the movie, but I was too shocked and broke to think about much else!
The business I loved for nearly 30 years has gotten out of hand. I for one do not like stadium seating, digital sound, digital projection, or shoebox sized auditoriums, and I certainly don’t want to pay for that crap with the best part of a $20 dollar bill at the concession stand for a popcorn and a couple of Cokes!
I, and my grandson would have enjoyed that movie just as much in a nice large auditorium with mono sound on a big screen that is CURTAINED before the show, instead of commercials run before showtime. Maybe if all the unneeded extras were eliminated, a new xenon bulb would have been in order, and we could have seen a flicker free show
I agree with most of the above, but what ever happened to showmanship? I grew up in a small town and both of our local movie houses had interesting looking auditoriums and beautifully lit curtains that covered the screen. At showtime the pre-show music faded, the lights slowly dimmed, and the curtains parted as the MGM lion growled or the Columbia lady held high her torch. These were such magical places to visit that the movie was just the icing on cake. Why they even had ushers patrolling the auditoriums to keep order and to help patrons get to and from their seats in the dark.
When I enter a megaplex now, I look around me and wonder how theatres have degenerated into what they’ve become: lots of big boring rooms (albeit with stadium seating) facing a big screen displaying big boring ads. There’s no longer any magic and there’s certainly no sense of anticipation wondering what those non-existing curtains will reveal when the lights finally dim.
I think we need to do what they did in the 1950’s. Give them a screen so large that when they walk in the theatre they go WOW. With home TV sets getting bigger and bigger its time for huge curved screens again and big auditoriums even with a plex.
Jay, one of the first steps to saving the movie theater experience is for all theaters to enforce a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to the use of cell phone, blackberrys, or any other kind of distractive or disruptive device, as well as the traditional talking and other forms of noise-making. If you want to talk on the phone or jerk off with your electronic playmate, then stay home where you belong!!!
One cannot enjoy the movie theater experience when so many people around you are persistently inconsiderate. I end up staying home just to avoid the irritation. Going to the movies ends up becoming a chore rather than a pleasure.
I disagree that the movie theater will go away. But their survival depends on offering an experience that people cannot get at home. Digital Projection is here to stay. But I think the public needs to be educated that projection from a 4K cinema projector is not the same quality as a home or commercial unit found in a living room or lecture hall. DVD video does not look very good when the screen is 40 feet wide. People need to be encouraged to get out of the house for their entertainment. I don’t know all the answers. Do theater operators resort to contests and giveaways? Can we mix music or live entertainment with a night at the movies? Has the distribution system from Hollywood gotten out of control? I’m most concerned abut the independent theater operators. Every effort must be made to make the consumer regularly choose the theater.
I have, for quite some time, predicting the end of the movie theater in general within the next fifty years, if not sooner. Frankly, this would be fine with me because the overall movie theater experience has sank just over the past decade with the advent of cell phones and the unreasonably high ticket and concession prices.
I would hope that maybe we would still keep revival theaters around to continue to get a flavor for what it was like to see classic films on the screen.
Yes this will absolutely kill the theaters. Since they are already converting theaters from film to digital “video” projection this is turning the theaters into replicas of your living room. No need to even go to a theater anymore.
The latest in a spate of articles that predict an impending shift in the industry of seismic proportion. Perhaps most disturbing is Kim Master’s comment that the only theatres likely to survive are those that have been “upgraded” to digital and “give you that better experience”. Oh really, better than what?