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I’ve been itching to see a movie in a theater recently but nothing that’s playing interests me.
Have you checked your local non-chain theatres?
Maybe you just don’t like movies? I’ve seen tons of films theatrically this year, almost none of them mainstream blockbusters.
I haven’t been to see a movie in a theater since 2019, and at this rate I don’t think I would even go if it was free.
How about the fact that there’s a massive oligopoly in the industry? How about one studio basically steamrolling the industry with one franchise in the 2010s which alienated movie goers? How about movie-going being expensive AF?
Nah, it’s the fault of the casual moviegoer. Of course.
Last movie I went to (like 2-3 years ago), there was a lady on her phone with the brightness turned all the way up nearly the entire time.
No thanks.
Rude people have always been around the moviegoing “experience”.
Then cellphones and social media popped up, making things geometrically worse.
Then in order to not inconvenience the mindless assholes inside their theaters, they managed to run the real movie lovers out of their establishments.Then somehow, incredibly, the pandemic made things even worse! Like something about being alone with their hollow lives for a year or two, broke something in the hollow psyche of those already mindless, rude hordes.
There was one time in 2007 that blew my mind in a movie theater, they were screening a limited engagement of No Country For Old Men before general release, so everyone who was there, was there for the love of cinema.
There is no music soundtrack in that movie, it has long stretches of silence, and in each of those scenes, in this packed large old movie house, I swear you could hear a pin drop.
My god… what an exceptional movie experience that night was, I’d never experienced anything quite like it, before or since.
In 2019 a friend and I got subscriptions to Regal and began going to a movie a week. Most days we’d plan something, but sometimes we’d just show up and pick something. (We blindly picked Underwater, and what a great surprise. Also decided to see the Tom Hanks Mr. Rogers film and proceed to ugly cry all over myself.)
Then COVID.
The last movie I saw in theaters as a subscriber was Bad Boys for Life. I tried to go see Dune 1. I drove 30m, bought popcorn and a slushee, and waited… But the video file was corrupted. They said they had to redownload it before the next show, so they canceled the showing and gave everyone a free ticket. I never bothered using it. I just went home and watched it for free on HBO Max.
I love theaters, both as nostalgia and just to have the experience. But man, “paying extra to go out of your way” is a difficult sell.
Bring lower prices and quality media back and I’ll think about it
Anything except lower ticket prices right?
Ticket prices are really not that much more expensive than it was like 25 years ago when you count for inflation.
Problem is that wages haven’t really gone up to match inflation… so it seems like a lot more. Same with everything else.
Wow, you’re right! Me and my friends saw Red Dawn, first showing in town, for $2.50. That’s $7.75 now.
Having a hard time finding matinees ATM, but standard times are $11-$12, do $7-$8 would make sense.
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This is the same problem as the videogame industry - a handful of the biggest players are pumping too much money into each movie to be profitable. They are counting on a blockbuster franchise to expand on with a string out series of sequels that never achieve the same level of success as the first one.
The only difference between movies and videogames is indie game devs are able to show the market is still there but no one wants the product of big hype. Movies don’t have that. There was a time when a streaming service would buy some indie movie but now each one is making their own movies and the potential for new, original ideas is stagnating.
Took my kid to see Moana 2 yesterday. Medium popcorn was $11.50. WTF…
Distribution rights keep going up and the movie theaters pass those costs on to you in the form of concession prices. Blame the studios.
Yeah, movie theaters barely make money from actually playing movies. It’s another reason why selling alcohol started getting more popular at movie theaters.
True, with assigned seating and online sales I don’t look at the movie board.
The sale is made before I enter the building, but the same is true of fast food these days - maybe they need to redefine “casual”.
Boutique theaters would probably exist for a while. I mean, watching Avatar on a laptop is not the same. Stage show isn’t dead.
Tbf i thought wicked was pretty great-
Hollywood does not respect the audience, movie theater is a bad service.
Why would working person pay either of these parasites?
Yarr ;)
Regal just closed the 13 screen theater closest to me, not sure what’s going to happen to it now. :(
But given my last experience there was bad enough that I walked out and went somewhere else after waiting 15 minutes in a non-moving ticket line that they insisted on running through their concession counter… Yeah, nothing of value was lost.