Death of the Movie Theatre?

Something I'm in the habit of doing now is checking IMDB like daily. Anyways, it's featured article of course is the one on the box office grosses for Super 8 and how it didn't really pull in anything, especially with the names behind it and the amount of hype that was built up for it. This has become quite common with movies I've noticed (mainly because I work in a Cinema) and I can name off a lot of movies that should have done well, but simply didn't.

Now to backtrack. In 2007, a movie like Super 8 would have been enormous. People would have flocked to that in droves. The interesting thing to note I think is the recession. The year of the recession, movie cinemas did a major increase in business. Why? Simply because no one could afford big things anymore, so simple things like the movies became more appealing. However, as the year progressed and finally became 2010, people dropped off considerably. Probably mainly because people simply have to be a lot more careful with money now. Plus, pirating has finally begun to take a hold. The recession I think pushed people that normally wouldn't pirate, into doing so simply because they can't afford to go to the movies, because let's face it, movies are expensive.

So will we see the death of the movie theatre, the same way we've seen the death of the DVD?

Can't wait for Holographic Disks, they can hold up to a 500GB/1TB, they get commercial release in 2018, and are meant to replace Blu-Ray.

Yeah... random slightly Relevant Knowledge

The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Go do it.

I think we've set a new OT record

I'm just saying. Some things will never die, like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which has been a midnight theater classic for over 30 years.

But I kinda agree with what you're saying. Tough economic times and not really any appeal from going to the theater and paying exorbitant prices to see a film when you can catch it a month later and download it on the internet for free all contribute to less interest in the theater in general.

Virtually everyone I know pirates films. More people seem to pirate films than music, although they're generally the same people.
Pirating films seems ridiculous - the visual quality is awful! But some people watch pirates of films from the U.S. before it comes out here, and then have no interest in seeing the film proper.

I suppose people like me are to blame too - I very rarely go to the cinema, but sometime watch a film when it turns up on terrestrial TV. I suppose it's the way I grew up, I'm sure I'd go more often if there was a cinema down the road.

Of course, another thing is the improvement of the TV experience. With the introduction of '3D' TVs and the increase in affordability of surround sound, more of the aficionados (the ones who would go the cinema to experience a film better) may well stay home for more films.

That's a good point too Shem. I hear in the States there's this video on demand thing, so that when a movie hits theatres, it essentially hits a netflix like site as well shortly after, which is legal, but puts a major dent in the market for movies.

The problem with all of this is that movie producers do actually rely very heavily on box office revenues to make movies. Movies sort of have their own economy in a way and would be more prone to making cheaper films if the revenue just isn't coming in. For one, look at the mess MGM is in, despite them having big names like James Bond on their side.

Shem, Pirated Movie Quality, isn't bad, some people have DVD copy of the movie before it even hits the Cinema...I know that cause I have Five movies which are DVD quality, and either not in the Cinema yet, or just went in.

The problem is many people pirate movies as they see it as either a victemless crime or they think they won't ever get caught.

Vedic, I wouldn't brag. however, you are right that it is possible to get high-quality rips online. Generally though, people seem to watch films via illegal online streaming sites, which is apparently 'legal' in the sense that it is the uploaders who are seen as culpable.

Lee is right. How often do we hear people say "the film industry has plenty of money as it is". In Britain, those against the Digital Economy Act have now run out of appeals, I believe, so hopefully that'll get underway soon.

Well lately i've stoped watching as many films online, infact i haven't watched any for a few months now and i have been to the cinema alot lately but the student discount does help a bit.

That is something to note, about a year ago we started having Tuesday cheap nights, all tickets are 5.99 whereas the rest of the week the admission fee is 10.50. Tuesday now does better then Saturday and Friday which used to always be the busiest two days of the week

There'll always be peeps like me who can't afford a badass stereo system and a high quality screen. So the cinema will always live on.

And then there's the whole cinema tradition thing. Going to the cinema on a date or with a friend is kind of tradition around here, if not in the entire western world.

Thingy wrote:Going to the cinema on a date

Basically this. Taking your girlfriend to see the latest cheesybad horror flick is tradition all across America.

Darkwing wrote:That is something to note, about a year ago we started having Tuesday cheap nights, all tickets are 5.99 whereas the rest of the week the admission fee is 10.50. Tuesday now does better then Saturday and Friday which used to always be the busiest two days of the week

Well after checking the exchange rates that's expensive only IMAX 3d are roughly about 10 ca$ but I do live in the cheapest (pfft) part of the country.

Funny enough, so am I. We've had people from Ontario and whatnot come in and it's funny cause they're all like "oh my, it's so cheap here!" and we're like WTH?!

Yes, movie going indeed has been on the decline because of the recession, and pirating. (intertwined issues)

But, when I went to see the new X-Men movie at 12:05, the place was packed with college students.

My group got there 15 minutes early, and they were almost sold out.

So, it's still alive. Mostly because of that typical American date night, taking your girl to the movies.

But that's part of it though. There's very little of you're driving by and suddenly decide to watch a movie. Now it's planned like a week in advance and whatnot, so that really hurts business. And a few years ago, spontaneous movie going was very common, but not anymore. Heck, POTC4, shoulda been hordes of people going to see that. Instead, it did really kinda mediocre for a Pirates movie, cause I can remember the third one, was selling out for weeks. This one, sold out opening weekend and that was it.

Darkwing wrote:But that's part of it though. There's very little of you're driving by and suddenly decide to watch a movie. Now it's planned like a week in advance and whatnot, so that really hurts business. And a few years ago, spontaneous movie going was very common, but not anymore. Heck, POTC4, shoulda been hordes of people going to see that. Instead, it did really kinda mediocre for a Pirates movie, cause I can remember the third one, was selling out for weeks. This one, sold out opening weekend and that was it.

Here we had a horde on the local movies for an entire week... then it dissipated... a friend told me that...

Darkwing wrote:There's very little of you're driving by and suddenly decide to watch a movie.

Blame the lack of drive-ins! We used to have one here in my town, but a tornado killed it a few years ago.

I blame ticket prices mixed with bad economy mixed with the internet

@ The Black Guy

Tornado? Where do you live again? It's too bad that those things don't strike just in the Midwest like they used to.