People Don't Like Going To The Movies Any More
from the where-does-the-blame-lie? dept
The movie industry has been on this crusade lately, with MPAA head going on and on saying that the reason people aren't going to the movies is because they're at home downloading movies. However, most people recognize that's unlikely to be the leading cause of problems for the industry. Instead, it's that movies are now competing with a lot of other entertainment options and the experience of going out to the movies isn't very much fun any more. The theaters all seem crowded. You have to sit through what seems like half an hour of commercials. The prices just keep getting higher. And, of course, you have to deal with rude and annoying people in the theater who seem to have no problem annoying everyone else. So, is it really any surprise at all that a whopping 73% of people surveyed say they prefer watching movies at home? Is it any wonder that so many in the industry are scared to death of DVDs being released at the same time as the movie itself? The theater industry (not the movie industry as a whole) is facing something of a crisis -- but it has nothing to do with people downloading, and everything to do with theater owners inability to recognize that going to the movies is a social experience, and working on ways to make that social experience a lot more enjoyable. Theater owners in China realized this, and saw their box office take shoot up to record levels. Theaters in the UK are starting to recognize this and are adding extra incentives to go out to the theater. If the movie industry would stop rushing to blame downloading and look at the advantages they offer while minimizing a lot of the things that annoy people, perhaps they wouldn't be having so many problems these days. Of course, rather than do that, they're trying to become even more hated while begging Congress to come up with ways to protect their business model.
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reminds me of a Yogi Berra-ism
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Re: reminds me of a Yogi Berra-ism
P.S.FUCK U
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Re: Re: reminds me of a Yogi Berra-ism
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Re: The movie theater sales might be buzzing back
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Just went to a place that should be a model for ev
Things like the ipod have shown that people will be willing to pay for the quality if the experience is right. Charge like $25 a ticket to ensure that you keep the riff-raff out, and to compensate for the lower number of seats. Don't tack on too much of a premium for things like candy or popcorn. I talked to the manager briefly after the show, and like 95% of the time, their shows are completely sold out, even on weekday afternoons, and they don't even have to lower the cost for the matinee showings. Again, we see that if the people who run these kinds of businesses want to keep their customers happy then they need to stop worrying about every little penny and start looking at the big picture. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to buy out the struggling movie theater in my town...
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No Subject Given
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Re: your post
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It's not downloading... it's the theater
American theater managers need to climb out of their ivory towers and look around. Enhance the experience. Make it for adults, we want quiet and peace. Not a disney ride.
As for DVDs coming out same time as the Film - PLEASE! You're not going to lose revenue because consumers like me don't go to the theater anyway! I'll pay the $14 to check it out on DVD if I can't wait for PPV.
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Re: It's not downloading... it's the theater
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The Competition
At home:
62" widescreen / front row center
5.1 sound tuned to the environment
comfortable chair/couch/beanbag/etc
Cheap & GOOD food / drinks (hey alcohol!)
Friends & family in the crowd
a biggy ..the PAUSE button.
So other than seeing the movie the day/week/month it comes out ... I want to go to the theater .. why ?
The Theater business has a LOT to figure out. On the positive side, all the land the own is worth money even if the business isn't.
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Re: The Competition
Personally, I am anxious to see what kind of idea the theaters come up with to try to entice me back in.
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Re: The Competition
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Um no...try all the time
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Re: Um no...try all the time
If drive-ins were common (and if the movies they showed were good) I'd go to the movies all the time.
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Re: Um no...try all the time
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The Supersized American
I still like going to the theater, because the social experience isn't matched by watching a film on my 55" TV with 6.1 stereo.
The ultimate theater experience for me was 10 years ago watching Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory in my university theater. I finally "got" why that movie was so great. When you get an entire theater singing along to the oompa loompas you just want to experience it more.
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I prefer a great theater over home theater
I used to enjoy going to the cineplex's. I really like the balcony seating. But I can't remember the last time I saw a movie that didn't have, a) a baby crying, b) people talking back to the movie, or c) people talking on their cell phones.
If the theaters don't do anything about this, good riddance, I'd rather watch it at home.
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social experience
I mean lets be honest...
- do you talk to each other during the movie?
- do you meet and mingle with strangers?
- do you interact with the rest of the audience during the movie?
So how is a movie social?
I can understand about meeting a group of friends...but as a poster stated above...there's nothing wrong with 5-6 friends gathering at one's home if you have a good setup (and most people are getting there) and you get to miss out on the NEGATIVE social experience:
- people talking loud during the movie
- people interacting with YOU for the express purpose of pissing you off during the movie (and finding it funny...this would include thrown food, laser pointers and the like)
- people interacting with people not even in the theater (there's always some asshat who needs to make a phone call or switch ring tones during the show).
Add to this the outrageous prices for admission and movie food. What's the point???
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Re: social experience
And moviegoing is a social experience. No you don't talk during the movie (if you have manners, that is) but you go together so you have someone to share the experience with. I'm 42 and I can count on two hands the number of times I've gone to a movie alone, and nearly all of those were when I was in the military. One time in the last fifteen years I've gone to a movie alone and it was while my wife was out of town and it was a movie she didn't want to see.
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Re: Re: social experience
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Re: your post
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No Subject Given
Why should I spend a premium to watch commercials? Shouldn't that drive the ticket price down instead of increasing it? It just proved to me how greedy the whole industry really is.
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Re: your post
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Re: No Subject Given
Trailers to new movies?
Supporting/Advertising local/New businesses, these commercials are also potential sponsors of the film industry and without their money and support there may not be a future for Complex Cinemas.
Lets face it adverts don't really run that long. Not to mention it gives you the chance to get comfortable, turn your phone off/on silent and that last minute pee opportunity before the movie starts.
Ticket prices have relatively remained the same, with regards to the candy bar I agree that the prices are high however this is how the cinema makes their money. You have to understand that like any business there are royalty, strata and licensing fees.
You either want the cinema experience or you don't, its not for every one but you cant sit there and call it greed when they are trying to survive and uphold contracts and agreements.
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spoiled hollywood
Desperate theaters houses might think about the Rocky Horror picture show and Broadway to see where business might be recovered.
Hollywood should back off broadband and copying issue. They are only going to make matters worse by drawing attention to it. There message to consumers should not be preaching morality (not something we want to hear from Hollywood). Instead they need to concentrate on making people feel 'cheap'.
Who is really proud to admit they are watching a reproduction? Who really feels that something you made (copied) yourself is as good as something you went out and bought from a mass merchant?
As with everything, price point is the real issue at hand. Theaters are pricing ‘first-run’ Hollywood out of the market for a tight budgeted working class.
I do not expect broadband to pose that great of a threat for another ten years. The quality of highly compressed content is not that great and still holds no comparison to renting a DVD.
Who would think so many could be so wealthy from story telling. They are very privileged indeed.
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Re: spoiled hollywood
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Re: spoiled hollywood
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rude moviegoers
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Re: rude moviegoers
If it had been 6pm for "Chicken Little" hey, no problem. But a rated "R" movie starting at 11pm on a school night seemed safe. The blob behind me had her 4 kids, oldest maybe 9. They kicked the back of the seat, threw popcorn and never shut up. Finally one of the kids told the other "shut up, dummy. I can't hear". Unfortunately my mouth was moving faster than my brain and I heard myself agree with him. It then added "could you also please quit kicking my seat?" The blob-mother came completely unglued. She started yelling at me that I needed to have tolerance and that I should "go have some kids" (I have 2, both grown and they never got away with behaviour like that). I told her she seemed to be doing fine for both of us in the breeding department, she needed to teach them respect for other people and that it wouldn't hurt if she learned some herself. She kept screeching until the manager eventually came and escorted her and the brats out. I was given a free pass to a movie that I will use tonight....to see Harry Potter with a friend (It's her birthday). I haven't seen a movie at the theatre since Dark Water.
When hubby put in the state of the art home theatre system last summer I balked at the expense. He included a real movie popcorn maker for me (I'm easy to please) but I still didn't like the price. Now I use it more than he does. No sticky floor, we can watch cuddled up together instead of being herded in like cattle, the pets can join us and we don't have to worry about rude people.
It's heaven!
The movie industry is in trouble because of their own greed. Like every other industry, customer service is at the bottom of their list.
P.S.
For future reference, you were lucky not to be arrested for assault. Never put your hands on someone.
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re:
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Why I don't go to moveis anymore.
JMHO
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Movies...waste of time and money
I can get into the movies for less than $11..not too bad. Then i hit the concession stand...one, drink, nachos and maybe some candy later and it goodbye another $20. Then its time to find a seat, small seats, extrememly cold theatres and the incessant rantings of teenage girls on their cell phones all through the movie.
Hollywood is saying attendance is down due to pirating movies off the WWW. What a crock, people arnt going to the movies as its become too damn expensive, annoying and pain! I would (and do) much rather wait for the DVD, go home to my nice warm home, lay out on my couch, turn on my home theater and watch the movie on my 65"HDTV....or i can take my family spend $100, get crummy service, stale nachos, flat soda and candy thats priced like platinum!...take your pick..wake up Hollywood and take control of the movie theatres...and ,maybe we'll come back
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theatres suck
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HOLLYWOOD MOVIES SUCK
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theaters in China and UK
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Cinema in Singapore
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Why Don't People Go To The Movies Anymore
Make something that doesn't resemble a cheap Hallmark movie of the week or HBO special - something with real actors (not teens and twenty-somethings with firm bodies but precious little else to offer in the way of solid acting); something that is not merely a glorified television or comic book serial translated into an expensive overblown and weak premise, effects laden garbage; something morally uplifting instead of gutless and postmodernist-plagued depressing; something that has a subplot (today's movies are almost universally a one premise deal with few to nil secondary characters one can root for); something that IS NOT A REMAKE (simply because its cheaper to revisit your archive rather than invest in a writer to actually pen something fresh and refreshing with a twist); something that IS NOT simply a reconstitution of reality (thanks, but if I want reality I can look out my window for free); something that has a little style to it (aside: fast paced editing that makes me want to toss my cookies IS NOT style - merely a masking of the fact that as a cinematographer, director or editor - you have NONE); something that is not based solely on your market research (because, let's face it...your stats have not been helpful to you of late), and finally; something that you charge a fair price for (you know, where the average man can actually afford to take his wife, son and daughter and his best friend out for the night and not have to work six hours at a minimum wage job simply to pay for the price of general admission (to say nothing of popcorn, drinks et al)...do all this, and perhaps many of us who are currently staying away in droves would return. But I have to tell you - as a once eager audience member who now stays home - I'm not going to shell out my hard earned cash for a boring, depressing overblown and predigested bit of nonsense about "Friends with Money."
I have friends with money who would lend me some if they thought I'd go back to the movies. But honestly, I wouldn't waste their cash any more than I would my own. I think every director, cinematographer, writer and actor today should be forced to attend a six week 30s and 40s film festival to relearn their craft. Those flicks are as popular as ever - some more so. Why?
Because they have style. They have class.
They have stars...not just a bunch of common (lower than common, perhaps) and thoroughly misguided celebrities who think themselves the greatest thing since sliced bread, but are actually just lucky schmucks with over inflated bank account and not enough brain power between the lot of them to recognize that scientology is a cult written by a hack sci-fi writer who couldn't find religion if his life depended on it! In a nutshell then, that's why I don't go to the movies. They're crap!
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When are theaters going to do something?
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Re: your post
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I don't go to the movies anymore...
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Here we go.
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it's call knowing were your going
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Hmmm...
....that all made sense in my brain.
Oh and to the writer of this article. You never said what the China and UK theatres offered that made the experience more enjoyable.
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Re: Hmmm...
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Moving Going
Just consider why "The Passion of the Christ" done so well and you will understand why todays trashy movies are not worth watching at home ... and especially at the movie theater.
Society would be better off if they all shut down.
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Do not go to the movies!
Beacues:
1.cell phoneson on and off!
2.peopel tell when the move is on.
3.there is gem on the seats!
SO DO NOT GO TO THE MOVIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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what
BITCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Movies, then and now
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movies suck!
I don't think that's an excuse for the movie industry, especially since video games have many of the same problems, but they manage to turn out some excellent products periodically. And by the way comics today suck, too, but music has gotten better, in my opinion.
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digital streaming or downloads are the future,sorry for the dvd rentasl shops,they havent moved with technoligy now thgey are facing the same thing.
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movies are shit nowadays
i do not even buy movies there all crap especially comedy there the same joke over and over and they were never very funny jokes to start with i cant wait for hollywood to fail. people should stop wasting there money of this type of garbage and go out and get in shape were a fat ass nation here in america and going to the movies an feeding your face is not helping!
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I don´t anymore
I wish all movie theaters crash and burn.
! =)
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Re: I don´t anymore
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$12.50 for a movie?
Actually, I miss going to the movies. I like to get out of the house, but I don't like to spend a lot of money unless I can justify it. A $12 movie ticket equates to one hour at work and I just can't justify the expense for something that will probably be an unpleasant experience when your bladder starts straining halfway through your $4 soda (can we please bring back intermission for long movies?). It's cheaper and easier to rent movies and watch them at home where you don't have to deal with the hassles of coordinating showtimes, other peoples' kids and price gouging. Netflix has revolutionized the way we watch movies and the movie theaters have a lot of catching up to do.
And Hollywood, stop blaming illegal downloads for the decline in ticket sales. I think you know what the problem is, as enough people have expressed dissent. If college kids want to watch movies on their laptops, let them. Everyone else is using Netflix.
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Re: $12.50 for a movie?
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Movie Theater Goers on the Decline
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why movies are not worth watching nowadays
I miss originality. I miss heroes and heroins being strong, daring, confident and not taking crap from anybody. Not whiny and weak not like nowaday characters.
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