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Struggling Movie Exhibitors Beg Studios For More Movies - and Not Just Blockbusters (yahoo.com) 120

Posted by EditorDavid from the screens-time dept.
Movie exhibitors still face "serious risks," the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday: Attendance was on the decline even before the pandemic shuttered theaters, thanks to changing consumer habits and competition for people's time and money from other entertainment options. The industry has demonstrated an over-reliance on Imax-friendly studio action tent poles, when theater chains need a deep and diverse roster of movies in order to thrive... It remains to be seen whether the global box office will ever get back to the $40 billion-plus days of 2019 and earlier years. A clearer picture will emerge in 2025 when the writers' and actors' strikes are further in the past. But overall, there's a strong case that moviegoing has proved to be relatively sturdy despite persistent difficulties.
Which brings us to this year's CinemaCon convention, where multiplex operators heard from Hollywood studios teasing upcoming blockbusters like Joker: Folie à Deux, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Transformers One, and Deadpool & Wolverine. Exhibitors pleaded with the major studios to release more films of varying budgets on the big screen, while studios made the case that their upcoming slates are robust enough to keep them in business... Box office revenue in the U.S. and Canada is expected to total about $8.5 billion, which is down from $9 billion in 2023 and a far cry from the pre-pandemic yearly tallies that nearly reached $12 billion... Though a fuller release schedule is expected for 2025, talk of budget cuts, greater industry consolidation and corporate mergers has forced exhibitors to prepare for the possibility of a near future with fewer studios making fewer movies....

As the domestic film business has been thrown into turmoil in recent years, Japanese cinema and faith-based content have been two of movie theaters' saving graces. Industry leaders kicked off CinemaCon on Tuesday by singing the praises of Sony-owned anime distributor Crunchyroll's hits — including the latest "Demon Slayer" installment. Mitchel Berger, senior vice president of global commerce at Crunchyroll, said Tuesday that the global anime business generated $14 billion a decade ago and is projected to generate $37 billion next year. "Anime is red hot right now," Berger said. "Fans have known about it for years, but now everyone else is catching up and recognizing that it's a cultural, economic force to be reckoned with.... " Another type of product buoying the exhibition industry right now is faith-based programming, shepherded in large part by "Sound of Freedom" distributor Angel Studios...

Theater owners urged studio executives at CinemaCon to put more films in theaters — and not just big-budget tent poles timed for summer movie season and holiday weekends... "Whenever we have a [blockbuster] film — whether it be 'Barbie' or 'Super Mario' ... records are set," added Bill Barstow, co-founder of ACX Cinemas in Nebraska. "But we just don't have enough of them."
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Struggling Movie Exhibitors Beg Studios For More Movies - and Not Just Blockbusters More

Struggling Movie Exhibitors Beg Studios For More Movies - and Not Just Blockbusters

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  • Competition, lol (Score:4, Insightful)

    by NFN_NLN ( 633283 ) on Sunday April 14, 2024 @06:07PM (#64394080)

    > and competition for people's time and money

    No greater competition than taxes and inflation.

    • Re:Competition, lol (Score:4, Informative)

      by rally2xs ( 1093023 ) on Sunday April 14, 2024 @06:33PM (#64394120)

      Yeah, it's expensive to go to the movies IF you get refreshments (almost $25 total), but the ticket is only about $10, and $5 on Tuesdays.

      Yes, there needs to be more content, but there needs to be more quality. Just saw 2 in a row that were very unsatisfying, "Civil War" and "Arcadian". Both the stories were really flawed, the 1st boring and the 2nd just not making a lot of sense.

      The 2nd was like "A Quiet Place" with unknown monsters that come out at night and try to eat you. Nick Cage and on-screen offspring barricade themselves in the house every night, but don't seem to have a plan to get things back to normal. The monsters are not Godzilla, because they can be hurt and killed, where firearms do a good job, but there aren't that many firearms in the movie. The NRA said a couple years ago we have 450 million guns in American society, so where are they? I mean, guns are really durable, and people living in rural settings are famous for having multiples.

      But do survivors decide to go hunting and do it to extinction? Or have any other plan for normalcy? Nope. Unsatifying.

      There's a predominance of horror flicks maybe because "anything goes," there are no rules, but good quality enjoyable movies are I think more scarce than they used to be, and movies in general are more scarce than they used to be. Saw "True Grit", the remake, last Wednesday in the local theater, with the theater owner trying to give us some moving lights on the screen other than the current "already seen it" stuff to give me a reason to come back and spend more money. It worked with me, but there were not a lot of folks in the theater, not like Fathom Events putting on "Casablanca" and the place was packed.

      And there's more foreign films too. Theaters are hurting for content. No question.

      • Yeah, it's expensive to go to the movies IF you get refreshments (almost $25 total), but the ticket is only about $10, and $5 on Tuesdays.

        True, refreshments are expensive and when you actually look into it you'll understand why.

        The studios will take nearly all of the admission ticket prices for "first run" films, one guy I talked to at my local art house cinema was that it was north of 80% to 90% depending on the film and the amount of weeks they wanted you to run it for. So if the theatre charges $10, they'd have maybe $0.80 to $0.90 in "profit". It costs quite a lot to run a theatre, especially if you have a multiplex, which means they ha

  • When I was a kid (Score:4, Interesting)

    by RitchCraft ( 6454710 ) on Sunday April 14, 2024 @06:21PM (#64394108)

    When I was a kid back in the 70's and 80's going to the theater was a great experience. Fast forward 40 years and it's dismal. The few times I took my own kids they didn't like it. It's expensive, the ads last FOREVER, and the comfort level could never achieve sitting at home in front of the big screen (with the ability to PAUSE). I don't plan on ever going to a theater again, and I know my kids (and their friends) think it's old school and stupid.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Jhon ( 241832 )

      "... the ads last FOREVER..."

      If by "ads" you mean movie trailers then I gotta say *I* like that part of the "theater" experience. I look forward to it, arrive before show time and get annoyed when people chit-chat or turn their phone in to a "glow worm" during the trailers.

      That said, much of the crap hitting theaters would qualify as straight to video quality about 20 years ago. I have no idea why that stuff gets screen time today. I find myself hitting vintage theaters more today to see films from acros

      • Re:When I was a kid (Score:5, Informative)

        by newcastlejon ( 1483695 ) on Sunday April 14, 2024 @08:46PM (#64394362)

        If by "ads" you mean movie trailers then I gotta say *I* like that part of the "theater" experience. I look forward to it, arrive before show time and get annoyed when people chit-chat or turn their phone in to a "glow worm" during the trailers.

        You must have a good cinema. Over here if the film start time is given as 6pm there will be adverts - not film trailers, adverts for products, one of which will be for Coke or Pepsi - for 15 minutes, maybe 5 minutes of adverts for the cinema that I'm literally fucking sitting in, then about 10 minutes of trailers. The film won't actually start until 6:30.

        If you have reserved seating you can safely turn up twenty minutes after the posted start time, but even then you have to worry about some dickhead deciding that your seat is better than the cheap one they bought.

        Going to the cinema just isn't what it was. The only mercy is that the idea of cheering at what happens onscreen hasn't taken hold here yet, much less applauding at the end, which is just plain silly.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Jhon ( 241832 )

          "Over here if the film start time is given as 6pm there will be adverts"

          If the "showtime" is 6pm here and you show up 15 mins early you'll get 15 mins of adverts off a digital projector and some silly "movie quiz" bits. When the main projector starts and the lights go out at show time we get about 4 or 5 more ads (with much higher production value) that last about a total of 10 mins max (usually about 5 mins) and one of them is for the concession stand and one specifically for Fanta Sodas (ugh). This incl

      • That said, much of the crap hitting theaters would qualify as straight to video quality about 20 years ago. I have no idea why that stuff gets screen time today.

        And back in the 40s & 50s today's 'movies' would have been "B movies" ... if they were lucky.

        Worse case ... many of today's movies might have been released in the 40s & 50s by 2nd rate movie studios & their distributors.

      • All ads, trailers and other BULLSHIT should display BEFORE the posted movie start time, not after.

        If the movie time is listed at 8:00, the movie should start at 8:00. If you want to watch all that other bullshit, get there early.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mjwx ( 966435 )

        "... the ads last FOREVER..."

        If by "ads" you mean movie trailers

        No, by ads he means advertisements, they've cut down the previews time so they can show even more ads.

    • Not sure I agree with this. The 80s, at least, seemed to be when all the small-screen multiplexes started to take over. I'd pay for a movie, pay too much for some popcorn and a pop, then from where I was able to find a seat the screen didn't seem significantly larger than the big Zenith TV we had at home.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jonwil ( 467024 )

      There is no home theater setup on the planet that can come close to the picture and sound quality of a good digital cinema setup (even with a 4K Blu-Ray disk).

      I regularly go to Cineplex here in Brisbane, Australia (its a local company with no relationship to the North American business using that name) and not only does it have cheap tickets and cheap food (my last movie ticket cost me less than the normal menu price of a Big Mac at the nearby Golden Arches) but they have high-end Barco laser projectors and

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Jerrry ( 43027 )

        There is no home theater setup on the planet that can come close to the picture and sound quality of a good digital cinema setup (even with a 4K Blu-Ray disk).

        I disagree. My setup, which consists of a laser 4K projector, 12' screen, Dolby Atmos A/V receiver, and 9.2 surround sound with excellent speakers in a room specially designed as a theater room with acoustic treatments and complete light control. This easily beats the setups at all the local theaters. Their digital projectors are only 2K and their sound systems are typically crap.

      • > no home theater setup on the planet that can come close to the picture sound quality of a good digital cinema setup

        For video a good home theater setup is MORE than "good enough" especially with OLED and true blacks. I also GREATLY prefer my plasma to film but YMMV.

        Let me know when I can:

        * adjust brightness / contrast,
        * control the volume,
        * adjust treble/base,
        * adjust an individual channel's loudness, or
        * turn on/off CC

        when at the movies because for every 1 advantage the cinema has the home theater has

    • It had been a long time since I went to a theater, but when Dune 2 came out, I decided to take my family.

      Fucking 45 minutes of ads. Literally. I had no idea it had gotten that bad.

      No wonder my family were the the only ones in the theater and the rest of the seats were empty. Granted, we went out on a Thursday night, but still...

    • The ads aren't a problem ... many theaters have assigned seating. Just go 10 min after starting time. Being forced to unplug, tune out, and just watch the movie through without checking the little dopamine pod (I mean phone) every 5 seconds is a feature, not a bug.

  • If I were to fix the theatre experience (Score:5, Interesting)

    by t0qer ( 230538 ) on Sunday April 14, 2024 @06:31PM (#64394116) Homepage Journal
    I'd make it more like Asian karaoke rooms. Give me a setup I can't afford at home, but not nearly the cost of a full theatre setup. Like a screen that's 32:9 superwide. Studio monitor speakers setup for surround. Have lots of rooms on hand that can accomidate 4-6 people, and fewer rooms for larger parties. To prevent shennanigans, all rooms have CCTV cameras. Give me a touch screen to order food or whatever. Flat price per 2 hour block, watch whatever I want. New stuff, old stuff, etc. Take it a bit beyond movies though. Earlier I said model it after karaoke rooms, so add karaoke. Add video games. It's been a long time since I've been to the theatre and seen it packed to the point people were sitting on the steps (Jurrasic Park comes to mind) but those days are over. People can get a passable quality at home, without all the annoyance. So cater to that, cater to the fact that people no longer want to be in a huge auditorium with strangers doing strange things.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dynamo ( 6127 )

      You should actually start this business. Or someone else will.

    • What's wrong with Shenanagins? This is in fact what makes karaoke rooms so popular ;-)

    • copy rights rules will stop your idea!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by t0qer ( 230538 )
        I'm not talking about pirating content, to the contrary, work like a regular theatre would and give the studios their cut.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dargaud ( 518470 )
      They talk about Anime, but there are other solutions too: foreign movies. The US has always been *very* closed off to foreign productions. When there's a big success overseas, they usually do a shitty remake instead of showing the better original. There are plenty of good movies with the usual culprits like France or Italy (Rapito, C'è ancora domani...), and Bollywood may be an acquired taste but you can't deny its success. And lately I've been watching more movies from Germany or Scandinavia (anything

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      I don't think it would offer enough over the home cinema experience. Large TVs are cheap now, and even Atmos capable sound systems aren't super expensive. They might not be top of the line OLED and multi-speaker systems, but most consumers don't really care that much.

      It's going to take a lot to convince people to pay so much extra for a cinema/karaoke booth experience.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by skam240 ( 789197 )

      Hey maybe this can take the place of Karaoke night at my local bars. Nothing like showing up at a nice pub to have drinks and talk with friends only to discover it's karaoke night and we all have the endure drunk sorority girls sing horrible renditions of I Love Rock and Roll on overly loud sound systems.

    • That works in Asia because people don't have room at home. They could have the big TV but they'd have nowhere to put it. They could also have the karaoke equipment but they also have neighbors they don't want to shit on. In the USA nobody cares if they are shitty to their neighbors, and we have room for a big TV if we have a place to live at all.

      • In the USA nobody cares if they are shitty to their neighbors, and we have room for a big TV if we have a place to live at all.

        That's why many of us in the US REALLY LIKE having our single family homes and don't have to share walls with neighbors, neither imposting on them with noise, nor having to put up with theirs.

        I didn't spend my life since just before my teens building my stereo / AV system over the years, to NOT exercise its decibel range from time to time.

        Since I'm not in an apartment, I don't ha

        • When my neighbor turns up his stereo it shakes my whole house. Unfortunately I live in a town that does not have a noise ordinance, so unless I can prove he's doing it just to be a shit, it's totally legal for him to be an inconsiderate asshole.

        • This is one reason why I want to leave the US ... I want to live in a crowded, communal culture where neighbors tend to randomly drop by to chat or ask if you have a food item. The US is a low trust culture of loneliness.

          • This is one reason why I want to leave the US ... I want to live in a crowded, communal culture where neighbors tend to randomly drop by to chat or ask if you have a food item.

            Err...I don't know where you got that this is not a thing where I live...?

            I know and enjoy my neighbors, we talk while we're out walking our dogs, or riding bikes in the neighborhood, or go to the neighborhood pool.

            We just don't share walls, we're all single family dwellings.

            You don't have to share a wall to be neighborly...not s

            • 10 to 1, you live in a neighborhood that's only locally walkable and bikeable. I want to live in a more communal culture that also has non-local walkability and even public transit.
      • Really depends ... apartments in NYC, Boston, and DC tend to actually be smaller than in comparable cities outside the US.
    • What's wrong with shenanigans? Part of the fun of a movie is sucking face with whomever you came with. The world needs more love and PDA, not less.

    • The problem is even simpler than this. People can't get there without a car. Anime is flourishing because the people attending got there by train or by walking

  • That explains this comment (Score:4, Informative)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Sunday April 14, 2024 @06:35PM (#64394122)

    Last week, the CEO of AMC Theaters said [hollywoodreporter.com],

    “Personally, I think it’s inconceivable that AMC would have to restructure like Regal Cinemas did and file for Chapter 11. One of the things I’m very proud of is that going into the pandemic, AMC was in very strong position. We are the biggest and best movie theater chain in the world. Somehow all of us on this planet got handed COVID as something to deal with. And the movie theater industry has been hit quite hard by COVID, and it’s been slow to recover. And the labor strikes were a double whammy. We are already at the four-year mark since COVID shut theaters in March of 2020. And the box office is still not yet back to where it was before,”

    Which means, based on this story, they are definitely filing for Chapter 11 in the near future. Their stock is at $2.66/share [marketwatch.com] after all the meme stock frenzy and down 94% in the past year. They can talk all they want about money in the bank, but if they're asking for more, and better, movies, that only means their finances aren't as rosy as they claim.

    • They can talk all they want about money in the bank, but if they're asking for more, and better, movies, that only means their finances aren't as rosy as they claim.

      They are a movie theater chain, people only come to their theaters to see movies - they can't branch out into another business model, what would they do?

      Wanting product to show us not a sign of a weak balance sheet, it is a sign that they depend on the movie studios to get people in their theaters!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by clambake ( 37702 )

      inconceivable

      "You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means." ... is a line from one of the most beloved movies of all time, a movie which would NEVER be made today because it's not a blockbuster so nobody would greenlight it. Movies, as an entertainment medium, are dying and nearly dead. In twenty years, there won't be anymore quotable quotes from beloved movies. There will be no more beloved movies at all. The silver screen has tarnished to a black void.

  • Reruns (Score:5, Interesting)

    by i_ate_god ( 899684 ) on Sunday April 14, 2024 @06:38PM (#64394130)

    Why not make it easier to do reruns of movies?

    I've gone to the movie theater for one of two reasons: it was an IMAX-worthy film (eg Dune and Bladerunner), or it was some kind of fan service (eg: several episodes of the restored ST: TNG series). Well, since an IMAX worthy film is maybe a once a year thing for me, why not have more fan service?

    I've never seen the original Matrix in theaters. I'd happily pay for a ticket and a bag of overpriced popcorn to be able to do it.

    • I've gone to the movie theater for one of two reasons: it was an IMAX-worthy film (eg Dune and Bladerunner), or it was some kind of fan service (eg: several episodes of the restored ST: TNG series). Well, since an IMAX worthy film is maybe a once a year thing for me, why not have more fan service?

      I can easily wait for most films to come out on either Amazon or network TV these days.
      I think the last two films I saw at a (real) IMAX theater were Gravity and Interstellar, at the Virginia Air and Space Center.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kokuyo ( 549451 )

      I would tend to agree with you.

      The wife and I only go to the movies to have something to do to get out of the house on the occasions where the kids are with grandparents.

      Mix it up, you know? By no means do we long to go to a cinema.

      Watching old movies with other people that like them as much as we do would be a way better experience than having to sit next to people I have nothing in common with, including culture.

      When I spent three months in Toronto, I went to local theaters several times. To me as a 17 ye

    • Why not make it easier to do reruns of movies?

      The people who own the movies need scarcity in order to drive you to the next movie that they release. They would rather accept $0 over $2 if it means they can sell their next movie at $10.

      (random numbers pulled from rectum for illustrative purposes)

      • The people who own the movies need scarcity in order to drive you to the next movie that they release. They would rather accept $0 over $2 if it means they can sell their next movie at $10.

        Which is a terrible bizness model. It's not like their 9-digit blockbusters actually make money from the get-go. Any movie needs to make 3 times what they put in to make it profitable, which is why Godzilla Minus One has been remarkable.

        It is easier and more profitable to produce movies with modest 8-digit budgets and break the 3-times profitability mark than make a film with a budget larger than a small country's GDP and expect it to make almost a billion upon its release.

        One thing that drives producer

    • I've never seen the original Matrix in theaters. I'd happily pay for a ticket and a bag of overpriced popcorn to be able to do it.

      Not sure where you can request films to be screened at the local "art house" cinema (Apollo Cinema [apollocinema.ca]) and if enough people show interest, and the licensing costs aren't prohibitive ('cause they gotta make a profit too), they'll add it to the rotation. I've seen tonnes of old stuff I'd never seen on the big screen first run, and stuff that I'd only seen on the big screen as a kid and wanted to share with my nieces / nephew.

      If you have a local art house cinema check in with them, there's a good chance they'll

    • Why not make it easier to do reruns of movies?

      Thank you!

      I would love to re-watch Dune on the big screen before watching Dune II, or say, the Star Wars original trilogy, or some other older and newer classics - Lost in Translation, The Godfather, Princess Mononoke, The Pelican Brief, Godzilla Minus One (in Black & White), Despicable Me.

      I would pay a ticket for any and all of them over paying a ticket to watch Shitzilla vs Mega-Ass-Monkey or Fast & Furious XCIX.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      Why not make it easier to do reruns of movies?

      I've gone to the movie theater for one of two reasons: it was an IMAX-worthy film (eg Dune and Bladerunner), or it was some kind of fan service (eg: several episodes of the restored ST: TNG series). Well, since an IMAX worthy film is maybe a once a year thing for me, why not have more fan service?

      I've never seen the original Matrix in theaters. I'd happily pay for a ticket and a bag of overpriced popcorn to be able to do it.

      Also more indie and foreign films. The problem isn't the availability of content but the insane rules that commercial cinemas are beholden to. That's why they need to beg major studios for more content than just replaying old films or getting films from other distributors. Their contract literally prevents them from using other distributors by saying "if you buy from anyone else, we wont sell to you any more".

  • Art vs Profit (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Kiyooka ( 738862 ) on Sunday April 14, 2024 @06:50PM (#64394146)

    A diverse and healthy movie scene is what's great for the theatre community, both exhibitors and movie lovers. I suspect economies of scale and consolidation of studios has resulted in larger scale productions, which tend to lean "safe" to protect investments (clearly that's a generalization, but there is definitely a growing sense of "meh" whenever a new movie comes out).

    People want to be taken for a journey with an original and engaging story, not just more franchise installments. "Joker: Folie à Deux, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Transformers One, and Deadpool & Wolverine" All of those are sequels/franchise movies. It feels like movies as ART is dead and it's all sequels/entertainment. Basically, movies have turned into explody novellas.

  • How to get business (Score:5, Insightful)

    by registrations_suck ( 1075251 ) on Sunday April 14, 2024 @06:51PM (#64394148)

    1). Crackdown on audience assholes. Kick out anyone on their phone or talking during the movie.

    2). Price your food more reasonably.

    3). Turn the volume the fuck down.

    4). Start the movie at the time listed, not after 30 minutes of commercials and other bullshit.

    5). Have a fucking intermission halfway through the movie.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dfm3 ( 830843 )

      5). Have a fucking intermission halfway through the movie.

      Well people already use the back row for making out, but if you give them an intermission would they do that in the theater??

      • Hand stuff in your teens, mouth stuff in your 20s. If you go further or are older you should be in a different kind of theatre.

        • People in their 30s and older shouldn't kiss in public? The US is a cold, cold, cold place. If anything, the US needs more public expressions of love, fewer outbursts of insanity, rage, and senseless violence. Squeeze a boob, not a trigger.

          • You think by 'mouth stuff' I meant kissing? Maybe you thought 'hand stuff' meant a friendly handshake?

      • I don't care what they do, as long as they're quiet and not on their god damned phone.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jonwil ( 467024 )

      The theater I normally go to (and all the others I have been to in Australia) have signs saying "no phones" and "no talking" (the one I normally go to actually runs a thing on the screen before the movies telling everyone about it) and I don't experience problems.

      Why don't theaters in the US do the same? Put some signs up in the lobby saying "no using phones or talking loudly during the movie, we reserve the right to kick out people who break the rules" and kick people out who cause problems.

      • Re:How to get business (Score:5, Insightful)

        by registrations_suck ( 1075251 ) on Monday April 15, 2024 @12:35AM (#64394678)

        They put that message on the big fucking screen before the movie. Practically begging people NOT to be assholes. Totally ineffective.

        The assholes just need to be tased and dragged out of the theater by their hair, like the motherfuckers they are. No warnings. No bullshit. Once the movie starts, if your fucking cell phone lights up or you open your fucking mouth and sound comes out of it, TASED AND DRAGGED OUT!!!

        • For some movies, this would actually improve the experience, the action in the audience room would be more entertaining than that on the screen.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by skam240 ( 789197 )

          Sucks you have problems with this in your theaters. Granted I don't go to Friday night movie showings but I haven't had a cell problem in theaters since well before COVID though.

          • I try to go at off times.

            I went to see First Omen (it sucked, don't bother) for the Sunday 730pm showing. I was one of 3 people in the theater. It was nice.

      • Or just put a Faraday cage/signal jammer in the auditorium and cut off the signal altogether :)

    • They should have lockers for phones or just line the plaster in the room with TEMPEST mesh.

  • No point anymore... for me, anyway... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Petersko ( 564140 ) on Sunday April 14, 2024 @07:04PM (#64394178)

    The last two movies I saw in the theatre were poor experiences for me, thanks to... people. People should understand that even if your ringer is off, a multitude of glowing small rectangles in the darkness is a problem. That an audible text notification is also in poor taste. That shutting the fuck up is good form.

    Given that I will not ever again spend so much as one thin dime on comic book franchise movies, the modern theatre experience holds little value for me. My home setup is terrific, and the popcorn is better. Movies are worse. People are worse. Prices are nuts. I cannot think of a single reason why I would ever go to a theatre again.

    • >> My home setup is terrific, and the popcorn is better.

      Its pretty darn cheap these days to get a nice large TV and watch all kinds of streaming movies in comfort at your house/apartment.

      The main reason to go to a theater is that you want to see the movie as soon as it comes out. I think the problem for the theaters is that there are only a certain number of blockbuster movies that press that button for people. Otherwise you can be patient and wait a few months to be able see it at home where there ar

      • Otherwise you can be patient and wait a few months to be able see it at home where there are all the things you like.

        "a few months"? I remember a decade ago when Hop took literally a year to go from theaters to DVD sell-through, and then another month after that to get to Redbox.

  • You need the 4DX stuff to make it worthwhile (Score:4, Insightful)

    by LindleyF ( 9395567 ) on Sunday April 14, 2024 @07:11PM (#64394190)
    Or a competitor. Moving seats, wind and mist, etc. Immersion is the key.
  • The only reason they haven't is that there's a law against it. So yeah you're not going to get anything but a handful of high profit blockbusters out of the studios. Especially with how weak and he trust law enforcement is right now. There's damn few cops walking that beat and the judges they're collared criminals go in front of are corrupt as hell...
  • Last movie I went to was Top Gun: Maverick. All the movies these days are politically correct, no REAL humor, part 4,5,6 movies, reboots etc. Bring back the good ole days of movies like the original James Bond type movies, Blazing Saddles etc. Oh! But they are racist, sexist bla bla bla bla.
    • Just to be clear, Top Gun: Maverick is politically correct. See this thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/topgu... [reddit.com]

      I would also note they only vaguely described "the enemy," rather than making it country-specific (this increased its international appeal since no country *cough* China, was labeled the enemy). It is no doubt a more politically-correct movie than they made 35 years ago.

  • This is just like cable tv but they don't get it.
    You're goddamn right movie going is on the down trend. You know why? Becuase I'm a reasonable person and I can't justify spending $45-$50 to sit on my ass for 2 hours and eat popcorn.

    I know what popcorn costs.
    I know what soda costs.
    Stop ripping me off and I'll probably visit you more often.

  • Or, OK, make those, but don't fund, make and distribute ONLY green-screen stuff that's loud and colorful and goes boom and we have to save _the whole world_ - NO WAIT, _the whole universe_ AGAIN this week.

  • In New Zealand ticket prices have gone through the roof. If they put them back down to $8 or $10 I'd go back again. I'd love to go but I just can't afford it.

  • Perhaps bring old genres back? (Score:3)

    by ctilsie242 ( 4841247 ) on Sunday April 14, 2024 @11:21PM (#64394580)

    We have the FX, and what we don't have in actors, we have in AMV or AI generated video. What we need are epic fantasy movies, with new IP. I am not talking about reboots or sequels. We don't need another Krull, Legend, Gor, The Last Unicorn, or Beastmaster. What we need are new fantasy stuff, with new IP, good ol' swords and sorcery, with villains with zero redemption arcs. Not another Darth Vader, but someone or something that is just plain evil, and nobody will shed a tear once it gets stomped out of the plane of existence. We have had decades of everything is gray, but what people want to see (from my experience as a DM) is black and white. Good triumphing over evil. A group of misfits finding a way to turn the evil one inside-out.

    If we get movies, even campy ones, that would be something that people would be interested in. Not another comic book film, not another remake, sequel, or reboot, but completely new IP, even if it is crappy. Of course, this may not be a 100% thing, but it would at least bring people back to the theaters.

    • Well, Tarzan has been done to death, but there's another rip-roaring adventure series Burroughs wrote that takes place on Barsoom [wikipedia.org], his version of Mars, along with several different races of aliens, including giant Green Martians with four arms, and a set of four novels and a novelette that take place on Amtor [wikipedia.org] AKA Venus. Lots of room for great movies with stories that are new to today's audiences without needing the slightest bit of originality from the screenwriters.

      • Barsoom comes to mind. Doc Savage is another.

        Hell, want to see people pack the theaters? Do the Lensmen, or just do the simple concept of the idea.

        These movies could even be done in an anime style if studios don't want to spend the money for the big named actors, and done right, they will still get roaring ticket sales.

        • There's been a live action Doc Savage movie that mixed several of the early stories into one. The audience laughed at some of the incidents such as having Doc's arm muscles bulge so much when he's pulling a bullet out of the side of a safe that they split the seams of his jacket, even though that's straight out of the book. There was also an anime version of The Lensman made by a Japanese animator who neither understood the material nor had proper permission to make or release it. And yes, they deserve t

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by voss ( 52565 )

      You mean like a Frieren movie? Apothecary Diaries movie? New inventive stories and IP exist they just exist in Anime.

  • Hollywood has been spending exorbitant amounts of money to bamboozle people into watching the dogshit it produces. That's finally catching up with them as streaming services get saturated and theaters struggle because nothing Hollywood produces is worth the money theaters and streaming services are charging. Kanopy and mubi are the only streaming services worth subscribing to--and Kanopy is paid by your tax dollars, if your local library buys into it. It's oddly related to McDonald's falling sales. The shit ain't worth upwards of $10.
  • Most movies are regurgitated crap, so they can use AI to make some non-expensive movie scripts. It really seems that's where they were going with these discussions.

  • Make great movies and people will show! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    They want to bring Gender ideology, preach inclusion and other agendas to the big screen and expect people to pay for it. I think this is where lots of movies from Disney and others have gone wrong, some may take the bait at home but not in the big screens. Don't get me wrong, I want equality as much as the next guy, but when you want to completely change the characters races, genders to fit your ideals instead of making a new movie, you sure are pushing an agenda. Add characters that play into the plot an

  • Cinemas essentially killed themselves in the early 2000s, at least over here in Europe. There used to be local cinemas everywhere, with one or at most 2 main halls and 2-4 small ones. The main hall or halls showed the Hollywood blockbuster of the month and the smaller ones the other movies, the ones that didn't fill the main hall.

    Then all of those local cinemas started disappearing and were replaced with the massive cinemas we have today, with 10+ main halls and no small ones (or "small" ones the size that

  • 1) Sporting events- I would happily pay $15 a ticket to watch an NFL or Major league baseball game on the giant screen with other fans in air conditioned comfort instead of 100 degree heat in the summer, movie theater snack prices are still better than stadium prices as opposed to a loud sports bar with 8 other games playing. You could have limited commercials in between innings and no talking heads.
    2) Variable pricing- A movie that is meh at $15 becomes a why not at $5, Which would also encourage lower b

    • Sporting events could be a killer. It would be like a stadium experience if done right, just with the difference that you can actually sit right there on the sideline for the ticket price of a place in the nosebleeds.

      I doubt, though, that any of the sport franchises would be happy about that idea.

  • More movies won't fix anything (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Monday April 15, 2024 @05:55AM (#64395038)

    There is a very simple reason people don't go to the movies anymore, and it sure isn't that there are no movies to go to. It's not that everyone has already seen everything. Else your rooms would be packed. It's a mix of the experience, the price and the fact that there are simply and plainly better alternatives.

    First, the experience. Why didn't DVDs and BluRays cause that much of a decline? Because the experience was almost the same shitty one. First, sit through a slew of warnings and other bullshit (in the cinema it's "turn your fucking phone off", on the BluRay it's "the FBI will kick down your door if you as much as try to copy our crap"), then a slew of ads and "upcoming" movies, which was arguably even worse on BluRay because then you saw ads for movies you already know were garbage, to sully your upcoming experience, and eventually, finally, after what is usually enough time to make the soda go flat, the movie starts.

    Which is also the moment you should put your earplugs in so you can still hear something when you're done with the movie. Seriously, people, why do cinemas have to blast you with 100dB? Anyone knows?

    The floor is sticky and you hope it's only the floor because the seat feels strange, too. This is usually also when you start hoping that it's only spilled soda and not some other ... substance you're standing in. And potentially sitting on.

    No later than when the first dialogue happens, not only the volume goes down to 10dB, that's also when that idiot next to you starts yakking at his phone. He does this mostly to get someone to tell him to cut it out, which he will take as an invitation to ruin that person's experience fully. And of course no staff will bother to interfere because that guy looks like he could mean trouble, which is also why he was talking in the first place, to cause some. He's not here for the movie, he's here to be an asshole.

    And you get this wonderful experience for the low, low price of 20 bucks for the ticket, another 20 bucks for a bag of popcorn and a soda, 10 for the parking and a good chance of another 200-300 for the smashed window in your car because someone thought there might be something valuable in your glove compartment.

    And you think more movies are going to fix this?

  • It's the audiences who changed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) on Monday April 15, 2024 @06:59AM (#64395096) Journal

    Watching a movie on the big screen with a bunch of civilized strangers was kinda cool.

    Watching a movie anywhere with a significant percentage of obnoxious jerks sucks.

  • These days one can get at home a great experience of watching a movie, without any of the nuisances and costs concomitant to going to the movie theater: movie theaters will have to offer something much more significant than deafening sound - which, at any rate, for many of us is a minus - if many of us are going to be enticed to set foot in movie theaters again.
    • Large screen and lack of ability to stop the movie to interact with your little dopamine slab. Hell, the should make new theaters as Faraday cages; embed mesh in the plaster.

  • As there are so many wonderful books out there just begging for a motion picture treatment, Hollywood will oblige by... releasing more pointless, vapid remakes.

  • 1. Cut the costs of movie theaters to run the movies, so that they don't have to charge $10 and $20 for popcorn to pay the employees.

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