[QuickTidal]

So I've seen people have this conversation and I'm wondering what everyone's feelings are about it.

I will state up front that I was pre-COVID a massive movie-goer. Have been since I was a youngster, and in fact while movie-going doesn't produce the same feelings it had when I was a kid (movies before VHS and whatnot and even after were a HUGE deal; I think we've lost that), I still went all the time, as did my wife.

That said, I now have ZERO interest in sitting in a movie theatre again. Not this year, nor going forward.

I feel like the shift in theatres and movies on the big screen is happening and while COVID is the catalyst, that this was coming for a long time. Streaming and digital changed the game. Iv'e been able to rent a few first run movies and watch them at home, on our own TV and Sound System, with our own snacks (read: not overpriced), and no interruptions ect. This is something that people talked about before COVID hit, but I think it's become more ubiquitous now...that in this era of technology the ONLY thing that movie theatres now bring is that the screen is big, and you might not have the sound system to really sell a movie that depends on big, bombastic sound.

That's all movie theatres hold as a bonus, and to get it I need to deal with talkers, testers, irritating people, and a hefty price tag for snacks and tickets. Filthy seats, sticky floors, ect.

If you said to me that I had to watch all the next MCU movies at home for the same ticket price...I would pay it in a heartbeat over the theatre. I would not have likely said that in 2019. MCU movies were 100% "we're going to see this in theatres" movies for me.

Warner Brothers is banking on this shift to get subs to HBO MAX in the current year, to the tune of losing some bigger directors who are mad at them like Nolan and Villenueve.

But things DO change, and directors need to accept that...but like every other big paradigm shift...they will need to be dragged kicking and screaming. CDs gave way to digital and then streaming, books gave way to ebooks, physical games gave way to digital. First run movies will likely be no different.

The question is: Is COVID the last straw that shoves it forward, or will it be years before that happens.

Something interesting I learned recently...while kids will watch Netflix, or D+...nine times out of ten they watch YouTube instead...and I don't think my nieces and nephews of the TV watching age EVER watch regular cable TV...they either stream or they watch YT clips. It's a fundamentally different scene, and I'm interested to see how Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha (yes that's what my kids generation are called, born in the 2010s) just embrace the home systems and reject the movie theatres.

EDIT: I also feel like streamers like Netflix have upped their game a bit recently on that front. I especially liked THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND, and while I didn't like THE MIDNIGHT SKY, the ambition is VERY filmi, EXTRACTION Was cool, AVA was cool, MANK was EXCELLENT, So was OLD GUARD, and even fluffy stuff like ENOLA HOLMES was fun.

What is everyone elses thoughts on this?

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 26 January 2021 - 02:51 PM

[amphibian]

I think the calculus is different for those who have children of a certain age (needing a babysitter). If you want to go see a movie that isn't appropriate for that kid, you need to schedule a babysitter, then go out and see the movie, maybe eat dinner etc. A movie theater trip turns into a $140 endeavor. That better be a movie you really want to see.

If you're someone who doesn't have kids in that range, it's a bit easier and cheaper to go to a theater. However, the dirt factor and the shitty seating means that it's not particularly enjoyable to be there unless the movie is fantastic.

I think the Alamo Drafthouse model with the tables, the food, the reserved seats etc is the future of theaters. However, it also means they can't really run a movie that won't pack the diminished house seating. That limits what movies get made, even though there's streaming platforms for other movies to be made.

I guess what I see as the tension here is "how do I encourage the production of movies that aren't Disneyfied tentpole movies?"

I have also dropped my movie watching time majorly because my wife kinda doesn't like to watch them (length of time to focus being her chief complaint). So I'm watching less movies, only occasionally going out to see them (pre pandemic), avoiding most of the Disneyfied movies, and trying to see what interests me which isn't necessarily a whole lot.

[Macros]

Theaters were dying anyway.
Covid was the final nail.

Overly expensive, massively so. A new theatre opened in my home town a few years ago, they ran movies non stop, staggered times and tried everything, filling a studio just was not going to happen.


Putting on my old man get off my lawn trousers, I used to be able to go to the cinema, with a date, get us snacks for about £10. Basically triple that now. And no wages haven't tripled in the intervening years, so fuck greedy ass hollywood and it's $20m a movie actors.

I laugh at all these movies breaking box office records, of course they fucking do, you need to take out a bank loan to set your ass down in the cinema.

Give me surround sound and some Popcorn, I have a small projector already

[worry]

I don't know what will happen, but interestingly enough, AMC Theatres just announced yesterday that they've staved off bankruptcy through a combination of investors and debt. So somebody has optimism about the company's future (or something more cynical I don't understand is happening). But on a personal note, I'm with you QT on not being interested in entering a theater myself for a long while.

[Cause]

I used to to the movies in South Africa a lot but in South Africa the ticket is maybe 4 dollars and the popcorn and drinks were another 4. The cinemas were clean, the seats. Comfortable and it was a great activity to do with friends. In high school I practically went once a week and as I got older I still went once or twice a month.


In the us with prices being 15 dollars or more just for the ticket I feel robbed. Only movie I have seen since I moved to the us was star wars on New Years 2019/2020.

It’s the social aspect I miss. I also have to say watching ww84 at home was not a great experience. It’s a bad movie but I got bored and starting playing on my phone. In a cinema I wouldn’t have done that. Now maybe that’s partially my fault because I don’t have a great home cinema set up and I was just lying in bed.

I think the other factor though is with covid the hype machine on movies is also basically asleep. The big fulls are all being pushed back, I’m not seeing trailers and I don’t feel like I’m missing the cinema right at all.

[Morgoth]

In Norway we don't need to buy snacks at the theater, but many do simply for the convenience of not having to stop by a store on the way. So even though the price is roughly $15 here too (which is absurd, our salaries are so much higher than the US median!), we can bring a store bought soda and some candy for much less than the US cost.

[Cause]

Your not supposed to bring outside snacks to the cinema in South Africa either but you can and it’s kinda tradition to Sneak in some chocolate or something. You can’t get away with drinks or popcorn though.

I must say I was surprised by the cinema quality in the USA, I went once in any in 2019 as I said and once in Phoenix when I visited back in 2018. The cinemas were smaller than I expected and actually of lesser quality than I had back in SA, that plus the price. I thought the USA would have the best screen projectors, the best seats, the biggest cinemas etc. was surprised and disappointed. In ny I went to a smaller cinema in Brooklyn, I know there was a much bigger/fancier cinema in Manhattan but never saw it, in Phoenix they have proper malls so can’t explain that one.

[amphibian]

It's hard to upgrade cinemas in the middle of really big cities. The construction costs are so high.

It's also hard for a small theater to put the money into a state of the art sound and projection system.

So the best movie theaters are mostly the newly constructed ones in suburbs of big cities and the one or two top of the line ones in big cities. They have the space, the money, and the will to stay fresh.

[Malankazooie]

For big special effects blockbusters I would drive, about 30 miles, to the theater that had all the leading tech in screen and sound. Also used to enjoy going to the little art house theaters that showed indy films. I saw the movie Birdman at one of them. I don't see the small art house lasting, hope I'm wrong. The big chains with all the cutting edge tech probably will stay around, as long as the tech is enough to differentiate themselves enough from home experience. I can see the implementation somehow of new services or something social incorporated that redefines our current idea of what going out to see a movie encompasses.

[D'rek]

Somehow they made 3D a thing for years. I don't think they'll have any trouble marketing their way into getting people back into theatres.

[Cause]

Never understood that either. I preferred non 3D when the option was available. 3D movies looked dark and I found for most movies, 5 min into them and you stopped noticing anything was special.

I found 3D TVs were awesome, the boundary of the tv made the 3D effect more obvious and Nintendo 3ds as well but I found most movies just did some post processing or something and it was very weak.

Which I always thought was disappointing. When you put the time into 3D it can be asterisms. The adds for the cinema technology where things came out of the screen were mind blowing. Just adding some depth to people talking in a room was pointless.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Before the pandemic, I noticed moving virtual reality pods at a local mall. Theaters could develop in that direction, though obviously it's a major change. Lots of space inside for it though. Basically they'd need to out-compete home VR or home 3D TV's based on features and pricing (for occasional use).

Another potential direction is experiential 3D light-sound shows that people can walk through, etc.

Or theaters could play up the interactive element, Rocky Horror Picture show style things.

But it's also very possible that people will desire to go to the theater to be in large crowds again. I don't really care (if anything it's a minor negative for me, except as a method of desensitizing myself), but some people claim to like it (remember an article by a psychologist going on about how it's a natural trait for most people, of course presenting nothing resembling statistically valid evidence... also was kind enough to say that 'people' naturally feel uncomfortable at small experimental shows, which I like, because the crowds aren't large enough).

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 27 January 2021 - 07:02 PM

[QuickTidal]

Cause, on 27 January 2021 - 06:31 PM, said:

3D movies looked dark and I found for most movies, 5 min into them and you stopped noticing anything was special.

This would be only on the 3D films that weren't shot in 3D with cameras to facilitate that. They were (for lack of a better word) converted/upsampled instead, and the main drawback to doing this was the darkened shots.

3D films that were intended to be 3D and were shot with the best cameras for that intent...like AVATAR, still look utterly stunning to this day and looked clean and crisp in the format and if you forgot you were watching them in 3D that was good because that's the intent. When the 3D craze began to take off again (I say again, because it was a craze in then 80's too) a whole slew of movies that were already in the can or already being shot were "converted" after the fact by greedy studios looking to cash in. The biggest examples of this upsampling/darkening 3D I can think of were CLASH OF THE TITANS, the FRIGHT NIGHT remake, and that Burton Wonderland flick. And they all looked TERRIBLE.

Azath Vitr (D, on 27 January 2021 - 06:59 PM, said:

Before the pandemic, I noticed moving virtual reality pods at a local mall. Theaters could develop in that direction, though obviously it's a major change. Lots of space inside for it though. Basically they'd need to out-compete home VR or home 3D TV's based on features and pricing (for occasional use).

Another potential direction is experiential 3D light-sound shows that people can walk through, etc.

Or theaters could play up the interactive element, Rocky Horror Picture show style things.

But it's also very possible that people will desire to go to the theater to be in large crowds again.

I don't see any of that working to be honest.

And as to your last point, I think a whole slew of things will disappear under the "you don't need to be that close to that many people, or touch them" post-COVID world...like I think Buffets are DONE for example...and I fee like unless theatres have something REALLY special to offer, they may go the way of the same.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 27 January 2021 - 07:07 PM

[Malankazooie]

With ML, VR & AR tech hitting the transformative/disruption stage, I can see that influencing entertainment across the entire spectrum, including the movie theater experience. How that manifests is yet to be determined.

I will say i derive some schadenfreude when I read stories about Tom Cruise going HAM on crew during production. Warranted and support him on that, but also makes me grin knowing Mr. Cruise realizes much is on the line to finish the project while the industry is going through significant change. I think his passion in that outburst demonstrates that.

[Macros]

Wow wow wow

If buffets are going to bite the bullet how will strip clubs survive?

[Malankazooie]

Buffets only will be available now in the champagne room where the lap dances happen. Platinum experience package. Includes coronavirus test before you enter (anal swab option only).

[Macros]

Unlucky Apt