How would you bring people back to theatres?

[Tritonman]

Eliminate the movie theaters all together. turn them into dinner and a movie with much better ambience and coziness. Make it so you can eat a nice meal while enjoying the movie at a comfortable table.

Then have the movie industry team up with cable companies to release new movies on demand. You would be able to view anything in the theater at home on demand. The price would be slighly higher than the theater since you arent paying a per person price. But it would be worth it imo to be able to instantly see what would be in the theater from my home eating my own popcorn and drinking my own soda with my pause button

 

[j_garcia]

And alot of you might be to young to remember when you went to the movies,it was always 2 movies and a cartoon.

I do It was great to actually see two movies and sometimes a cartoon for a few bucks. It was a good way for the parents to get the kids out of the house for a long time They could bring back the short cartoon too, that would be cool.

 

[Bryce_H]

I agree with most of the points here. Cell phones, ticket prices, and ADS!!! are my biggest frustrations. Frankly we only go on rare occasions now, since I finished the dedicated HT in the basement. Last movies seen in the theater were Episode III, Charlies and the Chocolete Factory (IMAX) and Harry Potter (IMAX). Will go see Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe over the holidays. We usually wait till they come out on video, put in our queue with netflix, have a bunch of friends over for a potluck dinner, and then head to the Home Theater.

Cost of home theater - a lot
Cost of Netflix - $18.95/month
Cost of pot luck dinner - minimal
Cost of dinnner and a movie with 4-6 friends with no cell phones, ads, etc. and comfortable seats, great picture, and sound - PRICELESS!!!

 

[macersl]

1. Overpriced: If the movie is good, I wished I could have seen it at home on my better theater. If it's bad, I get ticked that I spent so much. The amount I pay is about the same as a month of Netflix. The money paid-to-enjoyment ratio is so far off.

2. I am 6'4" and it just not comfortable to sit in those seats for that long.

3. Going to the bathroom is frustrating. No pause.

4. Is it me or have people's manners gone to s**t?

The only time I go is if I can't wait to see a movie or my wife begs me to go. I dream of the day movies get released on video the same time as in the theaters.

 

[majorloser]

Movies are released to DVD so fast now days, why bother going? Unless you need an excuse to get out of house for "date night".

 

[hifiman]

4. Is it me or have people's manners gone to s**t?

I think that's it in a nutshell. Of all the things that I think is wrong with movies and theaters these days the one that really ticks me off centers on people and their manners. I could go on and on as to the reasons for this development, but I'll restrain myself.

 

[WmAx]

well, I used to play in a band and we practiced at 125dB's (Checked with SPL meter).

In king kong there was parts where I remembered that loudness. The movie itself isn't that loud, but the dynamic peaks are.

SheepStar

Okay, so you meant occasional peaks(as opposed to constant average) of 110dB . Thank you for the clarification.

-Chris

 

[masak_aer]

Theater?

I agree with Gellor...good points. I want to share my theater-going experience when i was in Jakarta, Indonesia. The theaters i've been to are mid to upperscale in price. You may not even know that there's even a country with that name. Anyway, here how they run the the theater:
1. Nice big seats (the arm-rests are twice as big).
2. No funny smell, in fact it smells good.
3. No dirty floors
4. THX sound is standard.
5. Screen is huge....(some theaters here, in MD-VA-DC have screens only big enough to cover my windows).
6. Seats are numbered (no asking: "hey, those seats taken?", some people say "yes" only to put their purses or jacket in). I find this very convenient for me, you get your number. You pick your seats (they'll show the seating-chart to you) which means the sooner you buy tickets, the more options you have. They sometimes put the seating chart available on the ticket window so if you think you don't like the seats available, just find another theater.
7. Previews are shorter, very very few commercials.

May be theaters here can learn from there.

 

[furrycute]

2 tiers, up scale and mass market.

Charge $15/person for the up scale theaters, charge $5/person for the mass market theaters.

Isn't there some kind of shielding you can use to block out all cell phone signals?

 

[Audioholics]

Take a cue from your local church service - add a reliable, professional childcare/babysitting service (with a subtle LED number display within view so you can be alerted if your child has a problem requiring your immediate attention).

Adding a dinner option (where they feed your kids as well) or an extended sitting service to allw you to get dinner at a "partner" restaurant would be an additional bonus, but is not required for this to work.

IMHO this would quickly revitalize the industry more than ANY other potential change.

 

[shokhead]

I think that's it in a nutshell. Of all the things that I think is wrong with movies and theaters these days the one that really ticks me off centers on people and their manners. I could go on and on as to the reasons for this development, but I'll restrain myself.

You mean bring a baby or small children into an R rated movie and they cry and do what board kids do bothers you? I suppose the guy behind you thats not interested in the movie and talks through it or the lady next to you thats seen it and you here her say whats going to happen through the whole movie bothers you also? Maybe you should invest in a good HT? Opps,we do. The theaters can have all those rude people because they are screwing up the movie experence. I still remember going to the show and it was DEAD SILENCE and darker to.

 

[hifiman]

You mean bring a baby or small children into an R rated movie and they cry and do what board kids do bothers you? I suppose the guy behind you thats not interested in the movie and talks through it or the lady next to you thats seen it and you here her say whats going to happen through the whole movie bothers you also?

My Sister-in-Law and her family recently went to a movie and found out afterwards that each person experienced each one of those examples from someone sitting behind them, including a man who snored through the movie and peridically waking up to yell at his kids to be quiet in the theater. The best part was a woman and her 4-year-old. The kid and the mother kept being a nuisance throughout the entire movie. My Sister-in-Law finally turned around to say something (which means this must have been excessive since she loves kids and gives them lots of leeway in behavior) to the mother. The mother simply said, "This is the way 4-year-olds behave." Duh! that's why you keep them out of the theater for anything but the latest Disney or Pixar release.

 

[Sheep]

Or, they could supply some gas so you can gas the noisey kids to sleep

SheepStar

 

[xboxweasel]

I hate opening nights. If you aren't there 2 hours in advance you get the worst seat in the house. Front left corner. It makes them look reallllllly tall.

For the cost of a ticket, and the junk food they offer, I'd rather wait until the movie comes out and buy it on DVD. Nowadays the quality of DVDs has improved a lot. Especially since a lot of people are putting some thought into their HTs.

I am spoiled with my HT. I refuse to watch movies at someone else's house. Many of my friends are verbally jealous. It's a little saddening, but I bought it because I wanted to have it. Not to show off. I gladly invite them over for pizza and a movie. It's fun.

Theater ticket prices have dropped here not that long ago (about 1 year ago now). I was rather surprised when I found out. For $20CDN I can get 2 adult tickets. It used to be more like $30CDN. But I no longer go as much as I used to. Too many headaches. Bad seating, worse parking, they turned up the volume in theaters past my comfort level, people talk to much, cell phones and pagers should be confiscated and subjected to EMP.

 

[hifiman]

Or, they could supply some gas so you can gas the noisey kids to sleep

SheepStar

I really like that idea. Maybe Costco will sell this so I can get the big economy pack.

 

[BMXTRIX]

There is nothing that will reverse the trend.

Ticket prices go up, food prices go up, the experience really remains close to the same, but more distractions are now there...

Cel phones, commercials, movies not starting at listed times, etc.

Throw in very expensive, and often very poor quality food...

The flip side is that since the 70s and 80s we find many homes with 40+ inch televisions and often mini-surround systems that are decent in quality. Nothing like a good system, but considering the cost savings to view at home, average joe consumer is perfectly happy.

Then, for a lot of people, they step up their system a bit and pretty much equal, or excede most theaters in quality.

Now, we have HD discs coming down the line. At $30.00 for a HD movie and a HD disc player you will have video quality that will rival almost all theaters and with the trend towards 1080p televisions, we may see a lot of homes with systems that are just better.

Solution?

Bring ticket prices down to 4 bucks - 2 bucks for matinees. Charge half as much for food. Ban cell phones. Increase the price of DVDs to $80.00. Wait a minimum of 12 months to release any DVD. Only release DVDs with analog stereo audio, include dust and other noise on the DVD. Force people to rewind DVDs. Get rid of all movie rental shops. Eliminate the Internet and video games and other forms of entertainment that may distract people from the latest movies.

In simple terms, there is no way to drive more teens back to the theaters, especially at current prices. There is no reason for families to go to the movies because it's way cheaper to wait a few months and watch at home, and many home systems nearly equal - or far surpass - all but the best theaters.

 

[goodman]

The decline has been going on for decades. Remember, the movie palaces of old? It's too late to revive the theater business. The genie is out of the bottle, the horse is gone from the stable, the train has left the station, the atom has been split. Unless some sensational new technology comes along that is unavailable at home, theaters will never return to their former glory.

 

[Rob Babcock]

I don't know how to "bring the masses back" to the theater. Mostly they've never left; gates have been a little down, but it's not like people aren't going at all. With the weather and high energy prices, couple with a dicey economy and other concerns, some aren't able to afford to see as many movies as they would in better times. I agree with the previous poster, rude people will get ruder, the cell phone problem will get worse, and a certain percentage of people will still use the theater as cheap daycare.

My own strategy is two-fold: for A-list, top-tier flicks I wait til they've been out for two weeks or so, then take in a late-night weekday showing at my local Century. Anything else I see at the cheap theater ($2 matinee, all others $3). The Century has good sound, great screens and stadium seating and is a great place to see a movie (provided you go when it's not busy, which I do). The local bargain place has crappy seats, sticky floors and screens with runs in them, but a couple of the theaters are decent, and even the soda is only $1.50 for a large. It's a good way to see something I wouldn't normally risk the money on.

 

[MacManNM]

How you ask?

1. Sell beer
2. Get better seats
3. lower popcorn and drink prices
4. Better sound systems ( the last 3 movies I went to sounded terrible, and they were in THX theaters to boot!)

 

[hifiman]

Here's a spinoff

Personally, I don't go to the movies often. In fact the only time I will go is when there is a movie that is a must-see, social necessity. I'm talking about those movies that absolutely everyone has seen and is talking about. Movies that permeate into just about every media outlet and make us feel like we're less of a person if we don't go see them. So I'll go see the latest Harry Potter movie, the latest George Lucas Star Wars incarnation, and the occasional Sideways surprise. But overall movies just continue to suck more than ever. Case-in-point. I just rented Mr. and Mrs. Smith. What a joke of a movie that is completely representative of Hollywood's trend these past several years. I'm tired of over-the-top characters in which the only thing more macho than the men are the women. It seems just about every movie is full of characters who are full of themselves, speed, and a propensity to acheive the completely absurd. It used to be that movies had cool action scenes that at least gave the illusion they could really happen. Now action scenes are created with no ties to reality to compete with video games in an attempt to appeal to our short (and getting shorter) attention-span youth.

So overall, how many movies are made on the level I addressed at the beginning of my rant? How many movies have come out in the last year that weren't sequels and created that social requirement that demanded we see them or face riducule? In my opinion, not many. And in my opinion this number decreases every year. Hollywood has jumped on the music industry's bandwagon and insists profits are down due to pirated copies. I think profits are down due to the abundance of crap shown in dumpy theaters with rude people.