Movie Theaters Are Just Now Figuring Out That They Need To Be More Responsive To Demand?
from the slow-pokes dept
It's been clear for quite some time that the movie theater industry don't know what business they're in with all the complaining about how they can't compete with the growing competition from home theaters and DVDs. For years, plenty of people have been pointing out that it's actually quite easy for the theaters to compete if they just recognized that they're not selling "movies" but the social experience of going out to the movies. Instead, they've made the experience increasingly bad for theatergoers, so they actually feel even more compelled to stay at home and spend their money on the competition. While some theater owners have started to figure this out, many are still falling behind. Theater owner Marcus Loew once famously said: "We sell tickets to theaters, not movies." Yet those who have followed him in the industry (including the chain that once bore his name) seem to have forgotten that very fact. In fact, it's almost amazing to find out that theaters are just now starting to think about more actively responding to demand by using digital distribution systems that not only allow them to boot out bad movies after just a few showings, but also bring in more independent films for special showings for smaller audiences. Being able to better target more markets is a huge step up -- but it's something that the theaters should have started preparing for a decade ago, rather than today.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Excellent Point
Or maybe not. Who knows.
Here's to hoping.
J. Marcus Xavier
The Silent Universe Podcast
Very Small Doses
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Or, it could make things worse
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Copyleft movies
Perhaps they'd make hay while the sun shone.
Eventually, once they'd shown all the free movies there were to show, they'd realise they could do with more.
Perhaps then they'd commission the producers of copyleft movies to produce more?
Perhaps all such enlightened cinemas would then club together to collectively fund new copyleft movies?
Perhaps.
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A decade?
Since high-resolution digital projection and delivery systems are now getting to the point where they're affordable and practical, it's hard to see how they could have "prepared" for this ten years ago.
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The key to successful theatres will be...
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Re: The key to successful theatres will be...
The bar I frequent used to be a theater but they kept two of the screens. It's great for Sundays during football season, and they show a lot of pay-per-views. On slow nights, they plug the DVD player in and watch pretty much whatever anyone brings in. For a while they had "Madden Mondays" playing 360 up there. Engadget posted two weeks ago about an outfit called Cinegames in Spain that holds LAN parties in theaters. Like I said, it's a start, hopefully it'll keep going.
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Tickets to the theatre and not the movie?
Why this hasn't caught on with the bigger chains beats me. I find myself going to see movies I know are crap because I know that the cough seating and a lot of beer will balance it out.
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Movie Theatres
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cell phones, crying babies and agressive teens
Thanks but no thanks, I'll stick with bit torrent and foreign films which the RIAA/MPAA thugs will not care if I watch.
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Ushers
With digital distribution, the use of the B movie + intermission w/ cartoons/sketches/shorts as appropriate to the feature followed by the feature film would possibly increase theatre attendance.
One specific advantage of digital distribution would be that local cinemas could show films which had already had thier day in the majors, but which would still get pople out to see it if shown on the big screen in a good atmosphere for a few nights. Sending out film was expensive, but nowadys, the theatres could download films via cable or ADSL2+ quite happily. If the connection in use in Shoreditch becomes more common (2Gbps) they would need no physical distribution at all.
To reduce piracy, the companies could use some strange format which would require complex corrdection software,but which can be easily built into the hardware of a projector unit. THis might be difficult, but it would be possible.
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Grown-up cinema
It's the best cineme I've ever been to. I hope it's the future.
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renovate the place
Note I am advocating the legal way of blocking phone calls. Until jamming is allowed, it shouldn't be used. But nothing prevents places from using materials designed to block the signal in the first place. I would go to such a theater.
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Re: The key to successful theaters will be...
All this talk of "just in time" changing of content is unfortunately ignorant of the market dynamics. Contracts are signed between studios and chains that require a certain amount of guaranteed play dates. Next, the marketing mix for movies is still an on-line off-line mix, with print advertising still reigning as a POWERFUL force in movie making decisions among consumers. Its a minimum of 2 weeks in advance to change the schedule at many chains. A theater can't change its listing on movietickets.com or fandago.com on the fly.
While chains are getting more sophisticated from a management information system, the booking departments at chains are made up of only a few people who work regular business hours. There isn't some NORAD like control room with people monitoring minute by minute revenue.
And finally, pushing "alternative content" is something for the equipment manufacturers. It has been tried and has failed more often than not. Want to see a concert - you go to a concert. Want to see a play - you go to a play. Want to see a movie - you go to a movie. Rarely do people want to gather to see another category of entertainment on a big screen. (I know there are exceptions - but championship wrestling will ultimately not pay off the fibre line media storage and DLP projection system).
It's all about the experience -
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I stopped complaining about the expensive food and drinks years ago and just quit buying them.........just like I've quit going to the movie theaters. I don't really understand why anyone would want to go to a movie theater.
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How are theaters losing money
Granted, most of the $10 ticket price goes back to the studios, but theaters still charge $5 and $6 for popcorn, $3 for sodas, and $2 for a box of M&M's.
Plus, these theaters are getting ad revenue by showing the same BMW commercial that I *literally* saw on "Home Improvement" on TBS the night before! I can understand how ad revenue supports free channels (even though TBS is a channel only available through a paid cable service), but why are theaters becoming "ad-supported" as they raise the price of tickets, food, and drink?
Commercials are NOT "pre-movie entertainment" like cartoons once were.
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The Horror, the HORROR!
We are now bombarded with 15 fifteen minutes of advertisements that begin at the time listed for the movie, so if you come in early you get even more of them. Add to it the various anti piracy messages.
Then there are the cel phone ring tones, that will consistently detonate throughout the captivity.
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http://kongshometheatre.com/
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