How many care if the Theaters close permently?

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I could be happy without them. They charge way too much for the low end service, provided by min wage employee teenagers whom couldn't give a f$%k about your experience.

The entire setup is a cash grab.

Like the last Star Wars movie for example, you could get an R2D2 plastic popcorn bucket.... only $60, and no that didn't include the $9 extra for the popcorn. They even had plush dolls and 3d glasses, all at 300% markup of getting the same from a Disney store outlet.

And yes they added recliner seats... which is great until you use your phones flashlight feature to see that nope, they didn't wipe down the previous users grease and sweat and spills, prob don't even clean the seats until end of the day, again being done by min wage teenage employees.

Also its happened 3 times where I bought tickets in advance and arrived to see someone in my seat, whom also bought in advance... they sold us the same seat.

The best though is all the asshole moms that bring their 3,4,5,7,9 and 11 year olds and let them run a muck while using social media or texting girlfriends on their phone throughout the whole movie.
 
Severed said:
I could be happy without them. They charge way too much for the low end service, provided by min wage employee teenagers whom couldn't give a f$%k about your experience.

The entire setup is a cash grab.

Like the last Star Wars movie for example, you could get an R2D2 plastic popcorn bucket.... only $60, and no that didn't include the $9 extra for the popcorn. They even had plush dolls and 3d glasses, all at 300% markup of getting the same from a Disney store outlet.
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And that is why you failed, young Jedi, foolish are they who succumb to the Dark Side. Strong in the Dark Side Disney is.

And yes they added recliner seats... which is great until you use your phones flashlight feature to see that nope, they didn't wipe down the previous users grease and sweat and spills, prob don't even clean the seats until end of the day, again being done by min wage teenage employees.

Also its happened 3 times where I bought tickets in advance and arrived to see someone in my seat, whom also bought in advance... they sold us the same seat.

The best though is all the asshole moms that bring their 3,4,5,7,9 and 11 year olds and let them run a muck while using social media or texting girlfriends on their phone throughout the whole movie.
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Do they happen to wear the Karen mop top for a haircut? Because then thou are't truly f***ed.

The point remains though, without theaters, there aren't going to be any major movies. You can't make movies like The Avengers or James Bond and run them on the watch them at home for $20 business model. Cause Wonder Woman 1984 and Black Widow were ready to go before corona hit us. And Warner and Disney desperately need the cash. And yet they aren't releasing these movies for $20 to watch them at home. It's like the music industry. Without CD/LP sales in the numbers that used to be before piracy made music cheap the business model cannot be sustained. A few bands can still charge insane amounts for concert tickets and merch to make up for it, but the vast majority struggle to make a decent living. As they say, if you like your favorite band, support them by buying their music, similarly if you want the big blockbuster movies you have to go to the theater. Otherwise you'll wonder the same about movies as happened to music. Where did all the good rock music go?
 
How much money from ticket sales ends up going to the company that releases the movie? Do they also get any cut of concessions? How much do they spend on marketing?

IOW, how much do they need to charge to get equivalent net income? If movies are showcased on FireTV, Netflix, etc. maybe marketing costs go down.

With on-demand there is also the opportunity to upsell bonus material, merchandise, etc. They can also do prerelease sales so you get your branded goodies by release time. And surely they’ll squeeze some extra money out of some folks for things like early viewing, viewing party packages, etc.

I bet that the content producers are all working on exactly these kinds of things. Movie theaters have been dying a slow death for years so the writing has been on the wall for a long time.
 
I have a 75” 4K TV and a Dolby Atmos surround sound system. I’m a TV guy for sure.
That being said I do like to go see movies now and then but I’d be fine watching them at home.
 
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hippietim said:
How much money from ticket sales ends up going to the company that releases the movie? Do they also get any cut of concessions? How much do they spend on marketing?
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From what I've heard on the Fandom Menace almost all of the gross of the opening week goes to the studio, that's why so much emphasis gets placed on opening week. After that the percentage of the theaters goes up. Concessions is all for the theaters, that's where they get most of their money. Marketing is usually as much as the movie cost to make. So, $250 mil to make, add $250 if not more for marketing. And as time goes on the cut of the theaters goes up and the studio goes down. So in theory you could make a billion, like Rise of Palpatine did, and still barely make a profit. And that's excluding that Disney paid 4 billion for the Star Wars IP and still hasn't made that money back. And as time goes on the amount of money they need to make to make that investment back goes up due to interest costs. As the accountants argue that a 4 billion investment that has to make a return has to earn 4 billion plus interest from having potentially been deposited in a bank collecting interest for that time period.

IOW, how much do they need to charge to get equivalent net income? If movies are showcased on FireTV, Netflix, etc. maybe marketing costs go down.
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Well, I reckon if you eliminate the theaters any promo material that gets displayed in those theaters can be eliminated. But I doubt that was the lionshare of the budget. You still have to pay the critics on every shill media site and magazine to write you a favorable review. You still have to hire a Russian troll farm to favorably review bomb sites like IMDB and Rotten Tomatos. You still have to run ads in all the magazines, websites, TV shows, ship your actors around the world to be put on display and answer the same questions in every country. Basically everything still has to be done that had to be done before, except the stuff that was on display in theaters.

With on-demand there is also the opportunity to upsell bonus material, merchandise, etc. They can also do prerelease sales so you get your branded goodies by release time. And surely they’ll squeeze some extra money out of some folks for things like early viewing, viewing party packages, etc.
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But what if word gets out that your movie is going to suck? That could seriously tank your prerelease sales. And the internet is full of rumors. Basically the whole plot of Rise of Palpatine leaked out months in advance.

I bet that the content producers are all working on exactly these kinds of things. Movie theaters have been dying a slow death for years so the writing has been on the wall for a long time.
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Except the content producers were more busy fighting the culture war and influencing the election. I'm not trying to get political here, so apologies if it gets perceived as such, but the Trump election of 2016 hit Hollywood hard. And they went crazy since then with Orange Man Bad. That is why they were 100% focused on making sure Trump does not get reelected instead of focusing on their own business and the long term sustainability of their business model. Thankfully, with the flops of Terminator, Charlie's Angels and Birds of Prey it was finally sinking into Hollywood that maybe audiences weren't interested in their politics. And then corona happened, which showed how vulnerable they were. But any work to address this problem have been derailed by poor Mr. Floyd getting killed, so its back to politics again, lest they get cancelled by angry Twitter mobs.
Tl:dr they were focused on the wrong issues. And so far all the various streaming services are barely making any money.
 
plexi59 said:
It's a real problem for me. The only way I can get myself to do cardio is if I watch a movie or a good TV show while I'm on my stationary bike. And by now I've watched all of them, some more than once.
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I watch YouTube rock and metal vids when O do my bike. And of course I found that niche of metal bands fronted by talented and attractive women, so that gives me even more incentive. :cool:
 
That's even more of a rare commodity than good movies though. Besides, wife might not approve.
 
Interesting report here on how studios get their money:

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/093015/how-exactly-do-movies-make-money.asp

They claim a take of 60% of US box office in the opening week and declining over time, but I've read elsewhere that the high opening % is no longer the standard practice.

Personally, I love going to the movies. I did it a lot when I lived in Northern California. My company had a deal with the local theatres that we'd get free entry to a movie each Saturday morning, on condition that we sat through the credits at the end. The habit stuck and I always do that now.

On moving back to England, the first movie I went to see was The Force Awakens. While all the trailers and ads were playing, a guy next to me was on his phone. I waited until the movie proper started then asked him to switch it off. He threatened to punch me!
 
I saw Midway at the cinema when it came out and it was amazing on the big screen. The combination of screen size and audio was phenomenal for a film like that. I don't want them to close. It's fun having a night out at the movies.
 
hippietim said:
How much money from ticket sales ends up going to the company that releases the movie? Do they also get any cut of concessions? How much do they spend on marketing?

IOW, how much do they need to charge to get equivalent net income? If movies are showcased on FireTV, Netflix, etc. maybe marketing costs go down.

With on-demand there is also the opportunity to upsell bonus material, merchandise, etc. They can also do prerelease sales so you get your branded goodies by release time. And surely they’ll squeeze some extra money out of some folks for things like early viewing, viewing party packages, etc.

I bet that the content producers are all working on exactly these kinds of things. Movie theaters have been dying a slow death for years so the writing has been on the wall for a long time.
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How it used to work, was that the theater/chain would negotiate a number of weeks the movie ran where the studio basically got 100% of the ticket sales. Theater only makes money on concessions. So back in the day, a hit comes out, like The Matrix. So maybe the first 6 weeks it's out, the studios rake it in. If the movie plays for 10 weeks, then the theater would make something on tickets. The thing is, when is the last time you saw a movie stay in the theater a long time. This isn't the 80s where E.T. might be at the mall for six months. They hammer so many movies out, and people have the attention of a fruit fly, so there are probably few cases where people even go multiple times anymore. I mean, I can think of a lot of movies growing up that I saw multiple times at the theater.

I'm sure by now the studios figured out how to get greedier still, and the above no longer applies.

There was a company, can't think of the name off the top of my head, but they basically sold this really expensive system for your home theater. This was aimed at the people that have those $50k+ home theaters set up in their houses. Anyway, it was designed to be very secure, but the idea was that you got movies released the same day they hit the theaters. The movies were really expensive though. It wasn't a $20 rental. Probably a couple of zeros off. But the people buying this stuff aren't really the ones that care about a trivial fee like that. No idea if it took off.

It was Prima Cinema. $35k for the player, which was tied to your biometrics, and $500 for a movie. Looking just now, it looks like the company is going through a "restructuring." I'm guessing the studios are trying to figure out what to do with nobody able to go to the theaters, so their partnership contracts all went to shit.
 
[QUOTE="FractalAudio, post: 1948496, member: 7762"

I personally hate going to the movie theater but my wife likes it. I prefer to watch movies at home where I can pause it when I need to take a leak.
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I prefer to watch movies while not wearing pants. They tend to frown on that in the theaters.
 
steadystate said:
The only way I'd prefer a theater to home is if I were the only person in the theater. Some enjoy the communal experience. I detest the talking, wrapper crackling, chewing, lip smacking, coughing, sneezing, restlessness, cell phone glow, crying, and overwhelming perfume/cologne smell of the people around me. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a movie in a theater without distraction. Probably Herbie the Love Bug in 1968.
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I don't watch movies often in theaters, but when I do, I wait a few weeks after they're released before going to see them. If you hit a weekday (or late weekend) showing of pretty much any blockbuster three weeks after the initial release, the crowd will be virtually non-existent. Most of the movies I've seen in the past 6-7 years had maybe a dozen people in the theater with me.
 
TG3K said:
I don't watch movies often in theaters, but when I do, I wait a few weeks after they're released before going to see them. If you hit a weekday (or late weekend) showing of pretty much any blockbuster three weeks after the initial release, the crowd will be virtually non-existent. Most of the movies I've seen in the past 6-7 years had maybe a dozen people in the theater with me.
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Yes, watch movies in theaters smart if you don't like it to be full of idiots. If you hate sitting in a theater full of idiots and go in the opening week who is the idiot?
 
electronpirate said:
I will always go to theaters. The experience is not replicable at home.
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Agreed, with the caveat that, given unlimited cash, I'd likely never step foot in a theater again. There are definitely films that deserve/merit the theater experience (your Nolans, 70mm, shot on IMAXs, shot by Deakins, etc.). There are also those that don't. I am a huge theater fan for the experience and the capital "R" Romance of it. But I can do without the generally obnoxious theatergoers and the price gouging.

The positives of the experience are replicable at home though (save the fun of actually "going out"). It just costs $$$$. A serious home theater can objectively beat a commercial theater on the technicals, hands down.

For a fun trip into that world, have a poke around the AVS Forums (I recommend this thread to start: https://www.avsforum.com/forum/92-community-news-polls/2544881-ht-month-hahn-theater.html). The guys on this forum give us all here a run for our money on passion and detail.

Though that linked theater build was well over $1 million (😳) you can absolutely destroy a commerical theater from a sound isolation, projector fL rating, and speaker tuning standpoint for much less.
 
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No disagreement that you can have a better overall experience at a home. I've been to several places with friends that have elaborate setups that make or enhance the experience with improved sound, a more comfortable environment, and undoubtably more comfortable chairs!

But there is an 'comfort food' thing that I have with going to a theater, buying heart attack popcorn and an over-syruped soda, picking a decent seat without gum or a sticky floor, enduring the ads that now play, 18 minutes of previews (sort of like a warm up band), and finally, the feature.

It's still magic to me.

R
 
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electronpirate said:
No disagreement that you can have a better overall experience at a home. I've been to several places with friends that have elaborate setups that make or enhance the experience with improved sound, a more comfortable environment, and undoubtably more comfortable chairs!

But there is an 'comfort food' thing that I have with going to a theater, buying heart attack popcorn and an over-syruped sodo, picking a decent seat without gum or a sticky floor, enduring the ads that now play, 18 minutes of previews (sort of like a warm up band), and finally, the feature.

It's still magic to me.

R
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Absolutely. I actually set the Plex server that runs all of our films to play a randomly selected big chain theater intro pre-roll file and an upcoming trailer before the movie every time you hit play on one 😅
The wife rolls her eyes every time, but I love it!
 
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