Going to a movie theater can be a pretty bad experience these days.
High prices for tickets even during matinees
Numbered seats requiring buying tickets online hours in advance (which I don’t have a problem with), but then being forced to pay 25%-40% more for “convenience fees” on top of the ticket price
Other patrons unable to put their phones down so there’s bright white lights every 10 to 15 minutes during the show.
People talking loudly during the movie
Way WAY too many Commercials!!! I saw a movie in an AMC theater for the first time in probably a year. I arrived early to meet someone. We took our seats 15 minutes before showtime and they are playing endless commercials at full blast volume so had to yell at each other to be heard (the two of us where the only ones in the theater). The “start time” of the movie arrived. The lights dim and…MORE COMMERCIALS! Another ten minutes straight of JUST commercials back to back. Finally, the add for the theater itself, the cultural indicator that the previews are about to begin. NOPE! MORE COMMERCIALS! 7 more minutes of them. THEN FINALLY a movie preview, okay. Preview fades out, 3 more commercials! Repeat this cycle of one preview with 2 to 3 commercials until finally the AMC Nicole Kidman theater promo comes up, so now the move? Nope! One more commercial for coca cola! Then the movie begins.
The good movie theater experience is dead for me, but I’ve learned that AMC is the worst.
This is certainly a part of the problem. The other side of the coin is “why bother when it’s going to be streaming”. It’s a perfect storm of a terrible experience in cinemas and easy access to streaming in the comfort of your own home. At home I have a perfect view on my big screen TV, can control the lighting, the temperature, the food, and the audience. Cinemas feel like they’re in a death spiral - they make less money so they pump in even more ads and increase fees making the experience worse, which puts off even more punters, so they make even less money.
Hollywood is largely to blame as the article mentions briefly - the 90 day exclusive window for cinemas to show films created an incentive for people to go out and see them, made the cinemas and the studios lots of money, and made movies “special” - they were an event like going to the theatre or going out for dinner. Now going to the cinema feels more like an event such as catching dysentery.
Since the pandemic, the studios have devalued their own product. If you want to see a movie, you just have to wait a couple of weeks and it’ll be available to rent to stream from home. It costs less to rent a movie than go out to the cinema with a much better experience, and Hollywood gets a smaller cut of that. But lots of people don’t even bother with that - for the vast majority of movies you might as well wait until it ends up on a streaming service like Netflix, where Hollywood makes even less.
If Hollywood wants to save itself, it should listen to the cinema chains and extend the exclusive period back to 45 days (or even 90). If you want your product to be premium, it needs to be a premium experience.
I just never go to movie theaters anymore, it’s expensive, too loud, pricy, way too many ads, overstimulating and did I mention how costly it is yet? Seriously why is everything like 7 times* the price of what it is outside of the theater?
They’re in a death spiral. The ticket prices are largely controlled by the movie distributors not the theaters with a significant chunk of the profit from ticket sales going to the distributor. This isn’t new, been that way for decades. In response the theaters figured they could charge more for concessions to make up their profit. With people not seeing movies much anymore the theaters raised concession prices to ridiculous levels to try to make up the difference. Their latest bid is cramming obscene numbers of commercials in before the movie plays because they get to keep all that money as well. The increased prices, tons of ads, and the too loud environment cause even fewer people to want to go to the theaters, which in turn causes them to raise rates and add more ads. They’re circling the drain at this point because not only are they discouraging people from attending but we’re also in an economic downturn where everyone is cutting back on whatever discretionary spending they possibly can
Plus most movies hit your house 2 months after hit theaters hell some while still in theaters. And you can rent it for 20 bucks cheaper then the theaters and I can fucking pause it and have my own snacks. Fuck the theaters.
Alamo Drafthouse solves issues with 3-5. Also you can buy advance tickets at the box office and skip the convenience fees. So basically you’re left with “high prices for matinees”. I don’t know if you consider $10 high or not but that’s their price.
Basically it’s the experience of which chain you go to. It’s not that cinema is dead, just that places like AMC and Regal don’t give a fuck anymore.
Going to a movie theater can be a pretty bad experience these days.
The good movie theater experience is dead for me, but I’ve learned that AMC is the worst.
This is certainly a part of the problem. The other side of the coin is “why bother when it’s going to be streaming”. It’s a perfect storm of a terrible experience in cinemas and easy access to streaming in the comfort of your own home. At home I have a perfect view on my big screen TV, can control the lighting, the temperature, the food, and the audience. Cinemas feel like they’re in a death spiral - they make less money so they pump in even more ads and increase fees making the experience worse, which puts off even more punters, so they make even less money.
Hollywood is largely to blame as the article mentions briefly - the 90 day exclusive window for cinemas to show films created an incentive for people to go out and see them, made the cinemas and the studios lots of money, and made movies “special” - they were an event like going to the theatre or going out for dinner. Now going to the cinema feels more like an event such as catching dysentery.
Since the pandemic, the studios have devalued their own product. If you want to see a movie, you just have to wait a couple of weeks and it’ll be available to rent to stream from home. It costs less to rent a movie than go out to the cinema with a much better experience, and Hollywood gets a smaller cut of that. But lots of people don’t even bother with that - for the vast majority of movies you might as well wait until it ends up on a streaming service like Netflix, where Hollywood makes even less.
If Hollywood wants to save itself, it should listen to the cinema chains and extend the exclusive period back to 45 days (or even 90). If you want your product to be premium, it needs to be a premium experience.
I just never go to movie theaters anymore, it’s expensive, too loud, pricy, way too many ads, overstimulating and did I mention how costly it is yet? Seriously why is everything like 7 times* the price of what it is outside of the theater?
*minimum
They’re in a death spiral. The ticket prices are largely controlled by the movie distributors not the theaters with a significant chunk of the profit from ticket sales going to the distributor. This isn’t new, been that way for decades. In response the theaters figured they could charge more for concessions to make up their profit. With people not seeing movies much anymore the theaters raised concession prices to ridiculous levels to try to make up the difference. Their latest bid is cramming obscene numbers of commercials in before the movie plays because they get to keep all that money as well. The increased prices, tons of ads, and the too loud environment cause even fewer people to want to go to the theaters, which in turn causes them to raise rates and add more ads. They’re circling the drain at this point because not only are they discouraging people from attending but we’re also in an economic downturn where everyone is cutting back on whatever discretionary spending they possibly can
Plus most movies hit your house 2 months after hit theaters hell some while still in theaters. And you can rent it for 20 bucks cheaper then the theaters and I can fucking pause it and have my own snacks. Fuck the theaters.
Also, in the US you might get shot
Alamo Drafthouse solves issues with 3-5. Also you can buy advance tickets at the box office and skip the convenience fees. So basically you’re left with “high prices for matinees”. I don’t know if you consider $10 high or not but that’s their price.
Basically it’s the experience of which chain you go to. It’s not that cinema is dead, just that places like AMC and Regal don’t give a fuck anymore.
Amc put in the email that the show time is not when movie starts. Says 30 to 45 minutes of commercials afterwards. I was like what the fuck.
And home theater systems are much cheaper than they have ever been. You can get a massive TV and sound system for under $1000 at this point.