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Posted

on last night's oscars there were several digs at the public at large about the loss of 1000 screens over the past couple of years

this was the starter kit:

not that the academy will ever read this, but a surl discussion of this topic will be interesting

why is the public cinema endangered?

- the #1 reason I dislike the public cinema is the assault on my retinas and eardrums for 15, 20 sometimes 25 minutes showing previews for films I WILL NOT PATRONIZE in any format

- #2: the price of concessions is assrape; 2 hfcs sodas and a popcorn is now $25 bringing the total expenditure to $50; and i hate hfcs; if theater owners can't make money on your film without $10 sodas then maybe the art houses and alamos of the world are the only theaters that should remain in business

- #3: you want us to patronize your best work, but it's not available; the brutalist was released on the coasts on december 20th to make your oscar deadline, nationally on january 24th and has made $10m in 5 weeks; i had never heard of it before last night; today in north texas, with 8 million residents, the brutalist is showing at 410pm at the mockingbird angelika and at 440pm at the grapevine mills amc; houston: 2 screens, 3 showings, austin, belton & el paso round out the cities where the brutalist is showing less than 10 times today in a state of 28 million people

- #4: the shopping mall was a 20th century construct overtaken by the digital age; while b&m retains it's foothold in certain segments, the advent of 82" in-home theater for the masses has already made large-screen projection obsolete for theatrical art (captain america is not theatrical art)

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Posted

82" screen. I watch movies with VR headset and get the feeling of being in a theater with a hundred foot screen. Fuck going to a theater.

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Posted
4 minutes ago, Deej said:

82" screen. I watch movies with VR headset and get the feeling of being in a theater with a hundred foot screen. Fuck going to a theater.

I’m the opposite. If I have time to watch a movie at home there’s an 80% chance I nap through it. I enjoy theaters. 

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Posted

I love going to the movies.  There were showings of all the nominees in my podunk amc between Nov and now except for the netflix movie and maybe I'm Still Here.  It really doesn't take much effort to track what the contenders are and when they're being released.

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Posted

If it's a long movie, I prefer it at the house, so I can break it up.  That being said, I watched Oppenheimer by myself at the theater last year and loved it.  Wife recently asked me to go see the Brutalist, and I said fuck no.  It's gotta be compelling history or a damn good epic story for me to do that.

Wife goes to a movie about 3X per month.  It's what she likes to do for a getaway/ escapism, and I support it bigtime, just not for me.

I don't like other people.  Sorry, but fuck your jabbering.  Fuck your popping your knee repeatedly during the movie.  Just fuck that experience in general.

If it's a comic book/ fun story like LOTR, I'm cool with kids being kids.  I'm good with that.  Adults need to STFU.

Don't tell me I need to watch more shit at the theater until you can beat my experience for the $ at my house.

Posted

We live through Houston summers every year, live near a cozy, clean Cinemark with a polite staff and cheap tickets. Plenty of before or after movie dining options, and we still never go. 
 

We lived in the Heights for 10 years without a local cinema, and then Covid. I was we just lost the habit.

It takes a QT or DV movie to get me to theater. 

Posted

Love going to the movies, I worked at one in high school and just enjoy the experience. Prices are crazy for concessions but it doesn’t bother me that much for a night out to see a really good movie. If I watch it at home I am definitely distracted watching 

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Posted
18 minutes ago, UTGrad98 said:

Lower the fucking prices on everything from tickets to popcorn and I'll think about it. 

I pay $8 a ticket or $6 for a matinee.  Concessions are expensive but you don't have to buy it I guess.

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Posted

I grew up a serious movie lover, and many summers in the 60’s my mom would get me at lunch. Drop me at the theater (single screen old movie houses) and then pick me up at 5-6. Did that about once a week.  My wife and I used to enjoy late night showings until ability 15 years ago.  Part of that is me being in the electronics biz and having a THX system, other us simply old age. I like subtitles as today’s sound work sucks, I like a pause button, I hate the shit other folks do.  Why bring your infant or toddler to a grower up movie?  Why are you playing angry Birds?  Why are you talking on your fucking phone?  Fuck it. 

Posted

I don’t like watching stuff with subtitles unless I really need them to understand. If I know the language, I turn them off. I have ADHD, so subtitles just mess me up—I read instead of watching, and by the time I look up, the scene already changed. I used to love going to the movies, but now I’ve got two toddlers, so that’s not happening any time soon. 

Posted
Lower the fucking prices on everything from tickets to popcorn and I'll think about it. 

Entertainment is more expensive than it used to be. That’s not specific to movie theaters.
Posted (edited)

At home I have multiple 4k displays and audio options for days. I control the snacks, the environment, and the rest of the viewing audience. Why the hell would I leave?

The theater experience, of sitting in a filthy seat with shitty overpriced garbage snacks, is obsolete. Painfully so.

Things like the Alamo Drafthouse make a shit ton more sense. Give me a reason to leave the house. Nobody likes Jujubes. No one ever did. Theater popcorn is ass. I don't need a fuckin' sugary bubble soda 72 oz in size.

Your industry's failure to innovate, combined with greedy price-gouging, does not constitute a moral failing on the audience's part.

 

Edited by Rimbo
Posted
4 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

- the #1 reason I dislike the public cinema is the assault on my retinas and eardrums for 15, 20 sometimes 25 minutes showing previews for films I WILL NOT PATRONIZE in any format

This is my biggest issue. I make an effort to take my 7 year old to the movies. I want him to enjoy that experience and continue it as he gets older.  But the goddamn film starts 20-30 minutes after the scheduled time and it's such a buzzkill. 

 

Posted

I have a fairly substantial theater room in my home but I still love the movies. 
While some of your complaints are valid some are really not. Theaters don’t make money on tickets so of course they are charging for concessions. They can’t all have a full service kitchen and frankly sometimes that experience can be extremely distracting.

Also the 99% of viewers that are watching on an 82” screen at home have terrible PQ and nothing close to resembling the quality of large screen projection.

Complaining about previews seems strange but to each their own.

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Posted

iI didn't watch the Oscars and I didn't see whatever stupid effort they tried to use to appeal to me. What... am I supposed to feel romantic about squeezing into a metal seat with God-only-knows what parasites while my feet stick to the floor and stingy operators turn down the bulbs to make the screen too dark while cranking up the volume of the sound system to ear-splitting levels while I snack on the absolute worst garbage barely fit to be fed to humans while Robots vs Alien Menace 15, the sequel to Robots vs Alien Menace 14, takes up 90 minutes of my life that I'll never fucking get back?

You want me to feel like that's some fuckin' romantic moment?

The last time, the absolute last time, that I was in a theater and remembered enjoying the experience because I was in a theater was watching the heat-seeking proton torpedo blow up Christopher Plummer's cloaked Bird of Prey on opening night of Star Trek VI, because Plummer absolutely nailed the villain role and we all cheered to see him blow up.

And I guess going to see Episode I at Mann's at midnight in Westwood was pretty cool, because of all the cosplayers. But that's the absolute last time.

Just now, hobbes2702 said:

While some of your complaints are valid some are really not. Theaters don’t make money on tickets so of course they are charging for concessions. They can’t all have a full service kitchen and frankly sometimes that experience can be extremely distracting.

I fail to see why that is the audience's problem.

If the business model cannot support a superior experience, then it deserves to die.

Posted
1 minute ago, hobbes2702 said:

Complaining about previews seems strange but to each their own.

Why is it strange? Most people don't want to see them. They went to the movies to -- get this -- watch a movie. Not to watch ads. They reduce the quality of the experience. And you could do that back when the best home video experience one could get was a well-rented VHS tape. But now? Why should audiences pay more for a worse experience?

Posted (edited)
5 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

iI didn't watch the Oscars and I didn't see whatever stupid effort they tried to use to appeal to me. What... am I supposed to feel romantic about squeezing into a metal seat with God-only-knows what parasites while my feet stick to the floor and stingy operators turn down the bulbs to make the screen too dark while cranking up the volume of the sound system to ear-splitting levels while I snack on the absolute worst garbage barely fit to be fed to humans while Robots vs Alien Menace 15, the sequel to Robots vs Alien Menace 14, takes up 90 minutes of my life that I'll never fucking get back?

You want me to feel like that's some fuckin' romantic moment?

The last time, the absolute last time, that I was in a theater and remembered enjoying the experience because I was in a theater was watching the heat-seeking proton torpedo blow up Christopher Plummer's cloaked Bird of Prey on opening night of Star Trek VI, because Plummer absolutely nailed the villain role and we all cheered to see him blow up.

And I guess going to see Episode I at Mann's at midnight in Westwood was pretty cool, because of all the cosplayers. But that's the absolute last time.

I fail to see why that is the audience's problem.

If the business model cannot support a superior experience, then it deserves to die.

I never said it was the audiences problem. Although your complaints are incredibly strange. What kind of shitty movie theaters are you attending that they are like a 70s porn theater?

2 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

Why is it strange? Most people don't want to see them. They went to the movies to -- get this -- watch a movie. Not to watch ads. They reduce the quality of the experience. And you could do that back when the best home video experience one could get was a well-rented VHS tape. But now? Why should audiences pay more for a worse experience?

You seem old.

Also I would wager outside of a handful of posters on this board, no one has audio or video that comes anywhere close to their local cinema. So in that way the theater experience is much better. Again, to each their own I guess.

Edited by hobbes2702
Posted

I'm an audio guy, and I would put my 7.4.6 system against any theater. Everything is designed and calibrated for the 10" area where my ears reside. There is no way the sweet spot would be better in a massive commercial theater. I've also put $30k-ish in while buying on Ebay or getting huge discounts from dealers. So MSRP would've cost a lot more. And I wanted it to look beautiful, and not just sound that way. Then there's the years and hundreds of hours of experience calibrating and tweaking everything. 

Pair that with 100% control over temperature, every setting, start time,  break time, no fucking loud kids, etc... And I haven't been to a theater in 15 years. 

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Posted
1 minute ago, totallynotabuttpirate said:

I'm an audio guy, and I would put my 7.4.6 system against any theater. Everything is designed and calibrated for the 10" area where my ears reside. There is no way the sweet spot would be better in a massive commercial theater. I've also put $30k-ish in while buying on Ebay or getting huge discounts from dealers. So MSRP would've cost a lot more. And I wanted it to look beautiful, and not just sound that way. Then there's the years and hundreds of hours of experience calibrating and tweaking everything. 

Pair that with 100% control over temperature, every setting, start time,  break time, no fucking loud kids, etc... And I haven't been to a theater in 15 years. 

Deets on the gear. Come post in the A/V thread.

Posted
17 minutes ago, hobbes2702 said:

Complaining about previews seems strange but to each their own.

They have 20-30 minutes of commercials/trailers before kid's movies. It's hard enough to keep them in their seats for the full movie running time. 

Also, trailers generally suck now. Awful editing and "creative" decisions that overload your senses for 120 seconds. Brainless bullshit. 

 

 

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Posted
3 hours ago, WBT said:

I pay $8 a ticket or $6 for a matinee.  Concessions are expensive but you don't have to buy it I guess.

Or just bring them in from HEB like everybody else.  I'm sorry my kid's $1.25 box of Hot Tamales or Junior Mints is not as pricey as the theater's $5.50 box of Hot Tamales or Junior Mints, but if the theater dies because I won't pay $5 for a smaller box of candy than I can get for $1.25 at HEB...

Posted

I hate the costs, but we have these on our calendar for this year.

  • Snow White later this month (it's a maybe, my daughter isn't into the classics that much)
  • Minecraft movie in April
  • Pink Floyd at Pompeii concert in April on IMAX
  • Last Tom Cruise Mission Impossible in May, preferably on IMAX
  • Elio (Pixar) in June (this is a maybe, my kids are busy in June)
  • How to Train Your Dragon in June (this is a maybe, my kids are busy in June)
  • F1 if it's IMAX (it's a maybe, I like Pitt and like the concept)
  • Superman in July
  • Fantastic Four in July
  • Tron in October (if it's IMAX) (I'll do this one solo if I have to)
  • Wicked 2 in November. (Probably my wife and daughter, but not me and son)
  • Zootopia in November
  • Avatar in December (if it's IMAX)

Ones in red are pretty much going to happen.

Posted
1 hour ago, hobbes2702 said:

no one has audio or video that comes anywhere close to their local cinema

lol

you seem poor

I have at least 3 systems in my tiny bungalow that beat the typical movie theater

and I can use the bass amp as a subwoofer. BOOOOOOM

Posted
1 hour ago, Rimbo said:

stingy operators turn down the bulbs to make the screen too dark while cranking up the volume of the sound system to ear-splitting levels

Clearly the post of an expert in the field. 

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