Movie attendance dips to 16-year low

I'll say a poor slate of films. Everyone always complaints about people talking in the theater....that's nothing new. People have been able to watch it at home for years....nothing new.
But making a movie that inspires people to go to the theater......well that's becoming rarer.
Sequels are one thing. Remaking films from 20 years ago make people uninterested.....This is just my take on this.

 

Good article by Roger Ebert on this news:

http://www.rogerebert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111228/COMMENTARY/111229973/

 

it all boils down to ticket prices...if movies were affordable the theaters would be full...IMO.

 

I wouldn't go to movies in theatres if they were free. Reason #3.

 

Why pay $10 extra for 3-d when the projectionist doesnt even have a clue how to project it correctly!

 

I read about this in my local newspaper today. Not surprising at all.

 

I just went to see The Artist today with a couple of friends, and was kind of stunned by the ticket prices on display at the Arclight in Sherman Oaks (about 20 miles northeast of downtown LA):

$11.75 for a basic ticket
$14.75 ($3 more) on Friday and Saturday night
$3.00 extra for 3D.

That means a movie could cost $17.75 per person on certain nights! That's pretty rough, especially in this economy.

I gotta say, if you've got a family of four and an average income, you start adding in popcorn, cokes, gas, parking, and all that stuff... this could be an expensive evening.

I would add to Ebert's complaints the fact that "regular" theaters are also upping the number of commercials they're showing prior to the movies, which is incredibly offensive to me. 3 or 4 commercials, I can barely stand; the other day, we sat through upwards of 20 commercials, for everything from cola to sneakers to fast-food to cars, and it really bugged me. Trailers are fine; commercials with Jennifer Lopez trying to sell me a Fiat 500, no.

 

Gee, I hope this doesn't lead to Producers taking a pay cut...

 

That is why I usually go to matinees during the day (usually Saturday or Sunday) and I sneak in my own snacks and drinks.

Also, those commercials are a pain in the butt. I've been jokingly saying to people that before you know it, the movies will start having commercials within the movie (like on TV) or at the least have an intermission of nothing but commercials and then resume the movie. (I hope it will never come to that!)

 

As mentioned elsewhere I went to the cinema 3 times this year. One of those was only because it was a free screening. A few years back (6-7) it was every other weekend!

It's too expensive and the cinemas are usually filthy. Ours is 11 years old and needs a refit. It's about £8 for a standard ticket so matches with Vidiot's $12.

With films coming out on DVD 3-4 months after the cinema run its just so much easier and cheaper to get the DVD from the library for £2.

£16+ for a noisy, dirty stressful experience or £2 for a private screening that I can drink beer throughout and not have to shout at kids to be quiet.

 

I think I've been three times this year (Thor, HP8, Inbetweeners Movie, MI4). There's been a few films that I felt like seeing but then decided to wait for the BD instead, like The Hangover Part II, Attack the Block, The Adjustment Bureau, Source Code, X-Men: First Class and Captain America: The First Avenger.

I'm quite fortunate that my local cinema is great (it was the first in the UK to have 4k digital projectors) and fairly cheap (student discount) but films just rarely appeal to me that much that I want to see them in the cinema. There's a lot of big films coming out next year though so that may change (The Hobbit 1, 007, Spider-Man, The Avengers, Batman 3, MIB 3).

 

I think I went to the cinema twice this year. I just don't enjoy the experience anymore with home theater being so much more convenient. I can pop a blu-ray or even a standard def DVD into my Oppo and it has a good chance of looking and sounding better than what is projected at the local multiplexes. Also, there wasn't much that appealed to me to get me to go. I'm sure there are good movies out there somewhere, but they aren't happening in mainstream Hollywood anymore. Not in my opinion.

 

ebert's article is right on.

wild horse couldn't drag us to a theater. we haven't been for at least 3 years, and the last time we went the people behind us had a bag of doritos! imagine what that sounded like.

 

It's very unlikely to be the economy alone. An economic downturn affects household expenditures of course, but not all in the same way. The Hershey Company for example had its best year at the height of the recent recession -- when times are tough, buying your children a candy bar may be the best way to show a little love. Likewise, a trip to the movie theater might take the place of a more expensive outing, even if movies are now more and more expensive. The alternatives -- a ballgame, for example -- are far more expensive.

I agree with those above who focus on the shrinking disparity between the home-viewing experience and the theater-going experience. It used to be that going to a theater was head and shoulders above watching at home. Theaters had huge screens, and were run by people who knew what they were doing, while at home you had, at best, VHS on a 23" 4:3 TV. Now theaters generally are tiny, with a projectionist who is incompetent and/or doesn't care (to focus it properly, put enough light behind it, dim the lights in the house, etc.), filled with pigs and clowns texting or perhaps even taking calls on their cell phones -- while watching at home, with HDTV's and Blu-ray, and the huge selection available via stream, has become outstanding.

I went to several films at our local film festivals this year -- that's easy, because at least half of what I saw might never make it to domestic home-video release. But IIRC I went to the theater once this entire year for an ordinary release (for "Captain America," which I enjoyed with my dad).

 

A friend who's a commercial real estate agent predicts the end of movie houses fairly soon. He says the technology's changing too fast and re-fitting too expensive for any operator not blessed with a steady stream of middle to upper-middle class teenagers.

They've become gas station/convenience stores that only make money off the snacks you buy while filling up on goods sold at cost. If your crowd can't afford $20 of snacks to go with their $20 of tickets, you've got problems.

 

is the DVD/blu-ray business destined to go the way of the CD, as more and more people will download their own movies and put them on a DVD-R?

 

One or two movies a year for me - at most.

Yeah, the prices seem a bit steep. However, for something I really wanted to see, I'd pay the asking price IF:

I could include the whole family for that one charge
I could do it sitting in my family room

This has already been mentioned, but we are heading there shortly. At some point, new releases WILL be able to be seen at home the day they are out. The only question is, how much will Hollywood be trying to charge for that privilege?

I'm a bit nostalgic, so I don't want to see the theaters go by the wayside. But theaters today aren't what I had back when I was growing up - so I guess the sentimental side of me can deal with it.

Until the day of in-home viewing arrives, I'm content to wait for them to appear on Netflix or Vudu (gives me more time to listen to music anyhow!).

 

I don't know anyone that burns downloaded films onto DVD-R(W)s. They just watch them on their laptops (sometimes plugged into a TV).

 

I rarely go anymore. It used to be one of our favorite things to do on the weekend, but now...

My reasons:

1) Price - I can't justify dropping $22 on something I can watch for $1 from the Red Box three months later. Not in this economy. I can take the $20 I saved and do something more worthwhile with it (read: buy Pet Sounds for the 18th time).

2) Cinema experience - too many people with blinking gadgets getting on my nerves. People talking out loud freely like they are in their own home. Nobody respects the rights of others anymore. My experience seeing (or attempting to see) Inception was the straw that broke the camel's back.

3) Film selection - in many cases, movies I was actually interested in seeing weren't even playing at my local Cinema. Regal is too busy showing Chipmunks on 5 screens to squeeze in artsy things like "Bubba Ho-Tep", "Everything Must Go" and "The Beaver".

 

People texting. I simply can't deal with it. I think it is worse than talking. The theaters need an usher to enforce this. Although the usher will probably get stabbed if he says anything. I have pretty much stopped going to movies, and if I go it will be at noon on a Saturday. I went to an indie art film and three people were texting in front of me constantly. Don't forget low light projection to save on the bulbs. Once more people learn how to play downloaded files on their big screen TVs...watch out Hollywood. Half the movie theaters will be gone in the next 5 years...guaranteed.

 

They have a projectionist? Lucky!

One might think the movie biz liked to minimize their involvement, along with things like art and heart. The result was another person not making good wages, with less money to blow on things like paying big ticket prices for often uninspired flicks at often less attractive movie theaters. Nah. Gotta be something else. People just don't want to attend and pay as much or more than ever, that's it. All the years of employers keeping or cutting most people's earnings down and selling quality short could never come around to impact business earnings...

 

We're very lucky when it comes to movie theaters in our small city (is 800,000 people small? kinda is compared to the LA area where I grew up) . We've got a very small (2 theater, 16 screens total) locally-owned movie theater company. There are also huge chain megaplexes here (formerly owned by "Showcase" now "Rave") that are not nearly as pleasant.

At the local Baxter theater prices for shows before 5 pm are about $8. I think a box of junior mints is $2.50. About the same for a small popcorn. They'll cheerfully get you a little cup of ice water if you want it. The theaters are clean, and they don't show any ads before the films. They are decorated with old movie posters, including one of The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad signed by Ray Harryhausen when he visited 15 years ago or so. The quality of the projection is relatively good. They have midnight showings of classic films, many of which are chosen by patrons. Their regular movies are a mix of first run Hollywood films and art house films.

The Rave megaplex is a lot more expensive, less clean, endless ads before the movies, etc. I just don't like going there much anymore. But they are the only IMAX in town.

It's true though that when I miss a movie I can wait till it comes out on blu-ray. I figure if it's $15 or less that's the same price as going to even our local low cost theater. And if I don't like the film I can just sell it to the used bookstore for a couple of bucks.

Without the Baxter I'd be doing that a lot more often.

I think there is something of a quality problem when it comes to many theater chains in this country. And with the good option of staying home and watching a blu-ray available, I think the chains need to shape up or some of them may have trouble staying in business....

http://www.village8.com/history.htm

BAXTER AVENUE FILMWORKS
In September of 1996, the Baxter Avenue Theatres had it's eagerly anticipated opening. Located in the heart of the Highland neighborhood in Louisville, KY., Baxter is far from a typical multiplex. The Theatre offers first-run, foreign, and independent fare. Baxter Avenue Theatres offers you a choice of eight wall to wall screen auditoriums with seating capacities from 147 to 237. Features include state-of-the-art projection equipment and Dolby Digital surround sound. Baxter's most show-stopping assets, though, are its aesthetic allure, including a multimedia video wall above the concession stand, lighted moving sculptures, and vintage posters throughout. Hand-painted murals by local artists adorn walls in the concourse and in each theater. Each mural celebrates a director that has made a valuable contribution to film.

 

Brokeback Mountain was the first movie that was ruined for me by texting. A girl sat to my right and held her phone down towards the floor so as not to annoy anyone (except for me and the person to her right) with her inability to let go for two hours. The next one wasn't a texting issue. All through the first half hour of Atonement with James McEvoy and Keira Knightley, the woman behind me just blabbed away, then pulled a "How dare you?" when I told her to shut up 27 minutes in (yes, I was counting).

My last theatrical movie was a couple of months later, at our local Israeli film festival, at which the rug cleaning chemicals were just too strong. Got a migraine, but also a refund.

I just don't go anymore, nor to concerts or plays. I don't understand why anyone who complains about the experience continues to go to any live events. It's no fun feeling that annoyed for 2 hours.