I doubt that movie theaters will actually go away, for the simple reason that a big chunk of the physical infrastructure is less than 20 years old - there was an enormous theater-building binge in the 00s - and there’s usually no compelling alternate use for that real estate - it’s not like retail is booming, either. So you might as keep the theater running, even if revenues are way down. Expect a lot of run-down theaters in a decade if the audiences don’t come back, though.
Theaters are still great for the whole social gathering, dinner and a move night out piece. The problem is we just can’t do that right now. We should be able to support them, B&M businesses, and also, you know, escape for a bit.
It’s a hugely stressful time. Imagine hospitals being able to show modern movies too, just to lift spirits without being slammed with performance fee.
I would love to see more of this in general. A hospitalized child shouldn’t have to get a special wish granted to see the movie their friends are seeing. I don’t think an arrangement for healthcare would threaten theater revenue.
We’re fortunate that this virus doesn’t seem to be especially bad for the young. but any kid in a hospital has to feel it. Heck my nephew who is not sick at all asks me when I cough while on the phone with my sister is i have the corona virus.
It’s hard keep calm about these things, and the kids are totally feeling. I say let’s get the money to the theaters, the creators… and prop them up where we can. Also, release the movies. We could all use some new material to get our minds away from things and then spend time talking about that.
Regal Cinema just announced all of their theaters are closed until further notice. According to wikipedia, they have 543 locations.
I honestly don’t think so. Here’s some cheap TVs at Best Buy (USA).
All of these are 55" 4K TVs which support HDR for under $400 US. That’s an enormous screen that’s probably pretty decent. Sure, it’s no $3,000 US OLED TV, but they will all be way better value than the 13% of the cost they represent there.
I think in the last few years the value of low end TVs has basically exploded, and the size of TVs has exploded as well. Price is no longer a factor in TV size and actually very small TVs that are good, something less than 40", actually go up in price again. The average consumer doesn’t need some $10k custom home theater investment like the good old days to watch films and television content in a very acceptable way closer to an actual cinema than ever before.
Haven’t been to a movie theater since 2012. High prices, idiot gimmicks (all those 3D showings…), and assigned seating killed movie theaters if you ask me. It doesn’t help that it’s been a comparatively bleak period for movie quality.
Wha? Assigned seating is a HUGE plus for me. I will not go to a theater that doesn’t have it.
Back when we used to go to the movies it was usually a somewhat spontaneous affair, we certainly weren’t planning it meaningfully in advance. Turning it into a more structured outing resulted in us doing other things instead.
But honestly, most of it’s just a painful dearth of things we actually wanted to see, especially in non-3D showings.
Yeah, assigned seating requires you to commit to time, place, and number of seats you need at a movie theater way in advance. Extremely irritating to get to a theater 20 minutes early and have to take a shitty seat in an empty theater.
I go to movies all the time (often more than once a week), but I will only go to the earliest show on a Saturday or Sunday morning because I can count on them being pretty empty, even for new event movies.
I see that. But for us plan-aheaders, assigned seating is great. That and buying beer at the theater make going to the movies an enjoyable experience for me. Me and the family do it a couple of times a month.
I would go to the movies more often, but my kids don’t really care about them at all. And they definitely don’t care about movie theaters.
I mean with three small children going to the theater either involves a babysitter, or 5 tickets.
If Onward had this deal, $20 to watch right now? I’d do it. Where going to the theater to see it was unlikely even without the virus.
And yeah @Enidigm is right. Most people have decent or better TVs at home. In all honestly I would suspect that younger people who have TVs have better ones on average than older people, simply because price/ quality is so much better these days.
Even for just my wife and I we did AMC’s movie pass. So we were paying $40 a month to see 2-3 movies a month. We actually cancelled it earlier in the month due to the virus but I could see us paying the same amount to watch a new movie right in our home.
Assigned seating is the reason I go opening weekends again.
Agreed. I love it. We buy online and like knowing we have seats waiting for us. I refuse to buy if all that’s available is first row. Reserved seats are great. And the theaters that have the lounge chair seating are even better. Kick up the footrest and enjoy the show. Some even have heated seats.
Will this kill the movie theaters? I doubt it. It may kill some of the companies that run them, but someone will step in and scoop up the buildings and restart them once the virus passes. People like to get out of the house and movies are a dating destination. People still want to find a love interest. The idea of a guy inviting a girl over to his house to watch a movie on a first date is probably a non-starter for a lot of women.
Assigned seating finally won me over when AMC switched all their theaters to assigned seating, instead of charging extra for it. They used to be twice the price or something, so a normal $6 would be $12 at the assigned seating theater, and all the good seats would be gone already, so I viewed it as vastly inferior non-assigned seating. But once they switched all the theaters, it solved that problem. First, the cost was the same, $6, and secondly, since all the theaters had it now, odds were that you could buy a ticket right before you went, and you could still find a good seat using assigned seating.
That I can see, but I never went to opening weekends to begin with because a packed movie theater is one of the levels of my own personal hell. Assigned seating isn’t going to help that.
I think the divide here is between people that were already willing to put up with a crowded theater, who see this as a benefit, and those of us that were always aiming for an empty showing to begin with and don’t like being forced to pre-plan.
I just hated buying my advance ticket and then getting a crappy seat because one teen was standing inline for like 20 people. Now my seat is guaranteed. If i don’t get a good seat, I just pick another time or date. It never mattered to me how crowded it was unless I wanted snacks… and then it was just 20 minutes early sort of thing.
I do notice the older groups sometimes don’t show-up until the previews are almost done. Me… i want the previews. It’s part of the experience and tell me what new movies to look forward to.
I want the theater experience to remain, and it feels like these local storefronts are not the reason the tickets are so much. Everything I’ve seen says they get their money from concessions… and now they’re going to be screwed over this. I hope they get some sort of help to get them through a year or… two.
Or maybe they should get a cut based on locale.
I have a theater ritual. It involves arriving no later than five minutes before the previews start, 15 is preferable. I had a great friend in college who was, shall we say, temporally challenged. Late to everything. It’s not like he tried to arrive to things on time, he just didn’t give a shit. After a few close calls with him at movies, I just decided no more, and never went to another one with him again.
If I was late to a movie and it looked like I wasn’t going to be there for the previews, much less the start of the movie itself, I just would turn around and not go.
It’s a thing.