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Movies Losing Popularity at Box Office
andyring writes "Without the slightest mention of piracy, the MPAA said box-office revenues declined by 8 percent last year. About 40 percent of the decline came from the U.S. Now if only they'd realize that the decline is from movies sucking more than my shop vac." It's been a while since a film warranted spending the money to watch it in a room full of strangers.
Really. There's jibes all over in the press about it. Most of the films in the past year I spent my money on were at a place like this.
Why?
Because I've seen it all before, now they're re-doing it all and nothing surprises me. Then I go to the Del Mar or The Nick and see something
- See a story which is either deeply thoughtful or genuinely entertaining.
- I have no idea where the story is going.
- See really good acting.
- See a production done so well I forget for a moment I'm actually watching it on a screen.
- Suprising. Innocent Voices, that was an eye opener. Amelie, that was a charmer. Run Lola Run, that was just cool.
Steve Martin in the recent remake of The Pink Panther is a prime example. I already have some idea where jokes are going, long before the punch. The acting isn't anywhere near as good as the first (Sellers may have been an ass, but he could act comedy.) Honestly. Steve Martin (The Spanish Prisoner) and Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda) are really capable of great acting, but this was pretty weak.I'm a real flim buff. You can tell. I take my own popcorn salt, rather than risk they'll have table salt shakers from SYSCO.
Hey, get that guys post! i want to create a movie based upon it! car chases! beautiful women! huge fireball explosions! sophomoric humor! It'll be great!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
No shit there is a decline in profits, the movies have sucked royally recently. I used to watch a movie once a week and I wasn't even that picky. I've seen my share of shitty movies, but this past year and a half or so I haven't been tempted to go see a movie. I've gone maybe three or four times in the past year and a half because I just wasnt interested in anything. My friends talked me into going . . .
Here's a thought Hollywood, stop making movies about gay cowboys and pimps. Get real writers and try making a quality movie or at the very least a movie about topics that people give a shit about. While you're at it, try removing the commercials in the beginning and lower the price of a movie to under ten dollars. What you lose from price you'll make up for in volume.
Can I get an eye poke?
Dog House Forum
[sarcasm] Ticket prices rising, movie quality decreasing = fewer ticket sales. Go figure [/sarcasm]
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
I think two of the people speaking were trying to convince the audience to go see movies in theatres, "There is nothing like being part of the a community and watching a great film on the giant silver screen" or whatever. This made me a little sick. I rarely see movies in theatres these days because the other viewers are often inconsiderate (mainly by being loud and obnoxious), the tickets are expensive, and the theatres are often of poor quality (dirty, bad sound, poor projection, etc.). For the price of sending two people to the theatre, you can buy the freakin' DVD in a few months (I'm very thankfully for the quicker DVD release turn around these days).
More people getting fined for downloading movies. They will just blame it on torrents, p2p, and so on.
FTFA: "We are exploring new ways to reach more people using innovative methods of communication and distribution."
I'm sure they are, but their big problem is that we already explored all that five years ago. Time to catch up, Hollywood, and fast!
And yes, I'll agree with the submitter's remarks - most movies nowadays are pure shite, little more than CGI thrown everywhere to try to cover a pathetic script. Oh, and don't forget the half-hour of commercials before the movie, too. And they always seem to start the commercials at the published start time. So you arrive half an hour late, trying to skip the commercials, and *this* movie was the one with only 15 minutes of crap in front of it.
I wait for the DVD nowadays. Cheaper, too.
-paul
Pistol caliber is like religion: everyone has their favourite, and theirs is the only right choice.
With the sale of home theaters on the rise I think that can also attribute to some of the loss. Many people I know who buy a home theater say they now have no reason to go the theater. I just got mine and I always ask why go out?
i agree
even after me and mine boy-fiancies watching B. B. Mountain more then 10 times..
PS: it is getting 5PM and I am in no mood to RTFA.
everyone downmodding this post will be prosecuted for reading my post without first buying a license!!!
Na, they'll blame piracy because its cheaper than producing decent movies and furthers their political agenda.
Besides, you really think the movie ever takes personal responsibly for its failings?
The only movie i've looked forward to seeing lately is V for Vendetta and thats becuase its by the W brothers
Come on, it's in the first sentence of the article. 40 percent of the 23 billion dollars in total sales was in the US, not 40 percent of the decline.
A misleading summary, here on slashdot, I'm as shocked as the rest of you...
WIth the (relatively) cheap High quality components available to set up your own home theatre, what benefit does a cinema offer compared to your own home theatre?
There comes a sense of self-achievement in setting up your own home theatre, and no matter how tight-ass you are when you set it up, you still love it like you love your own child. Sure, you sometimes get humbled by other people who have set up more expensive home theatres that sound better and have a bigger screen, but when it comes down to it, why would you prefer to pay $x PER PERSON for something that you can soon hire from a movie store for half the cost of 1 person's ticket, and screen it for as many people you can fit in your house, as many times as you want while you have the movie hired out?!
Pop-corn is cheaper, the seats are comfortable, you can leave your mobile phone on, you dont have to get pissed off at someone else leaving their mobile phone on, and you dont have a Texan woman trying to sue you for assault for simply asking them to be quiet!
----- Concentrate on promoting more than demoting.
All the good plots have already been explored - everything else is just variations on a theme. Someone suggested "Somewhere In Time" (Christopher Reeves) and from what is posted on imdb.com it looks pretty decent. Wish I could get Turner Classic Movies without having to pay for 90 other channels I have NO interest in.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
I can't remember the last time I went to the theater to see a movie. It doesn't have so much to do with movies sucking (which most do) as it does with comfort and convenience. Why should I pay between $7 and $12 to watch a movie, with a bunch of people I don't know, where I have no control over the environment? Instead, I can rent the movie for $3 or less or grab it from the cable (either on demand or DVR). Furthermore, I can pause the movie to get up and use the bathroom, I don't pay $15 for soda, popcorn, and a candy bar, and the picture and sound quality is terrific.
With the quality of home theater equipment and the huge selection of things available at the video store or on cable/satelite I really see no reason to go anywhere else.
Well, lets see here, $10 per ticket where I live, they can piss off. No wonder ticket sales are down.
Click Click Bloody Click PANCAKES!
i mean why shell out ten bucks on a crappy movie, when you can watch the same at home (netflix)
sarchasm
Movie quality might be a factor in lower box office collections, but easy, cheap availability of DVDs is too.
"It's been a while since a film warranted spending the money to watch it in a room full of strangers."
...
If dropping a ten-spot and spending 3hrs in a theater to see King Kong on the big screen doesn't appeal to you then you are beyond hope.
But I can understand your fear of seeing 'Brokeback Mountain' with others around. I mean with a name like CowboyKneel
OTOH, whether it's 6% or 8% doesn't make all that much difference in the end -- this is something like the fifth year running that movie sales have dropped...
The universe is a figment of its own imagination.
Slightly off topic, but still about movies sucking and blowing (thus not sucking). I expected the Oscars to be ruled by holllywood films that sucked, but were in all popular theatres. I was shocked to see the Oscar committee doesn't exist to promote movies. Most of the movies in there from what I heard were lower budget indie-type movies then multi-hundred million hollywood movies. Now if only Theatre's will follow this trend.....
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
In a movie theater, no matter where I sit, the loudest person in the theater always ends up sitting next to me. You'd think with my "I've killed already tonight, and you're next" countenance, people would stay away, but I seem to attract the crazies.
Prime examples:
In that crappy Sky Captain movie, when the flying ships dive straight into the water, this guy next to me starts shouting "THAT DEFIES THE LAWS OF PHYSICS!!"
In that crappy Manchurian Candidate remake, some dumb bitch sits down right next to me, babbling through the whole movie. When Meryl Streep goes into a long speech, this woman starts shouting "MERYL STREEP AT HER BEST!!"
During Batman Begins, some fat ass was munching down bag after bag of chips right next to me. He'd finish a bad, then extend his hand out and drop the bag on the floor, and go for another. Then he'd start belching, or fall asleep and snore really loud.
What the hell is it with these people?? Can't they see that I want to watch my crappy movies in peace??
I just spent 40 bucks to take my SO and her/our kids to the movies. Just in movie tickets.
Let's be clear here; That was two adults and two children. Under 2 got in free.
Then, she spent another 20 on popcorn and soda.
The ticket costs are what's killing them. Movie quality aside ( that seems to be a second thought now a days to both the people going to the movies as well as those making them ), I won't be going to the movies again this year because I've already spent what I feel is reasonable for the year.
Snack costs will do in the individual theaters.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Box Office sales dropped.
What happened to DVD sales?
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
So I'm supposed to believe that the reason both the music and movie business experienced big drops in profitability at the same time as mass piracy in both fields became practical, is that both art form went through an unprecedented quality drop at the same time? And it has nothing to do with piracy?
That seems like quite a big coincidence, doesn't it? Unlikely so, even?
- Kids go to matinees. Being in the same theaters as a bunch of rug rats suck.
- Evening shows cost $9 (or more). Have to get a keg o'Icee, another $4.
- Have to go with daughter or girlfriend, and pay for their move and stuff. Another $13-$18. Total so far, around $30.
- Netflix costs less than $20/month and the food is a lot cheaper, and I can drink beer or tequila instead of an Icee.
Just because I can afford $30/week to go to a movie, doesn't mean I want to pay it.I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
It costs me close to $70.00 by the time I'm done with paying for:
*Babysitting
*Parking
*Ticket
*Crap to eat
It costs me approx. $15.00 for a DVD.
To add to that my home theater looks and sounds great, the seats are more comfortable, we can pee when we want, and the drinks are a hell of a lot cheaper. We haven't been to a theater in over three years now when before the munchkin we used to go at least once a month. Sure, there was the initial investment in the home theater, but we're past breaking even on that now.
As Roger Ebert pointed out, the "Box Office Slump" is an myth. 2005 Box Office sales only appear down when compared to 2004, because 2004 saw the release of "The Passion of the Christ", which brought thousands of customers who otherwise do not visit the movie theaters.
The fact is, 2005 was the second or third best year for film revenue in history.
--
N
People that use the internet to read reviews hurts bad movies or instant messaging from the movie theatre.
......
DVDs and home theatres are legitimate alternative to theatres.
Have you seen the new LCOS systems ? Projection HDTV is getting better and better.
With BlueRay now , watch out
You also spent 20-30 minutes before the movie being subjected to advertising you couldn't skip, mute or otherwise avoid.
Quality Hosting e3 Servers
Honestly, the last time I think I felt A Part of a Community was when Superman (with one with Christopher Reeve) came out. Star Wars:ANH also was like that. Wherever you went, people talked about it, it wasn't just being in the theater with your jaw hanging open and half-chewed popcorn rolling off your tongue onto your lap as the Millenium Falcon went into Hyperspace. It was wherever you went, for weeks afterwards, that everyone was talking about it and you were in the party, no invitation necessary.
Can't say I've seen anything really like it, maybe Titanic came close, but films don't Wow(!) people like they once did. Probably because they're just too predictable.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Make a decent film, with an original plot and good dialogue, that doesn't rely on special effects to sell itself, and people will want to see it.
What do I see in my local cinema's listings? The Shaggy Dog. The Pink Panther. Big Momma's House 2. Lassie. Remakes and sequels of crap films that shouldn't have been made in the first place. No-one people are giving up in disgust.
-- Even if a god did exist, why the fsck should I worship it?
I can't say the same for any movie since. Usually, you are not missing much on the little screen. Why is that, I wonder?
Also, if you also consider that CGI simply did not exist when 2001 was produced, you can appreciate the film even more!
Hell, I even like the old Dr. Who series. Seems the level of use of CGI is inversely proportional to story quality these days. There are a few exceptions, but darn few, as I can count them on one hand.
CGI is simply not impressive anymore, considering what you see in the average videogame these days, and that's in real time. When all the chips are down, nothing beats a good story and a gripping plot. Nothing. Perhaps MPAA will finnaly catch a clue. If not, perhaps they will go bankrupt.
We'll see the rise of the independent films with streaming video distribution. Now with fibre to the last mile a reality, it's only a matter of time, folks.
Ruby Neural Evolution of Augmenting Topologies
According to the film critics Ebert and Roeper, it's their opinion that there was a bump in attendance over the last few years for movies like The Lord of Rings and Spider-Man/2 where fans would see the films mutiple times. Let's face it, there were some real block busters that came out in recent years like the LOTR trilogy, Spider-Man 2, Shrek 2, The Passion of the Christ, Finding Nemo, Stealth, The Dukes of Hazzard, etc. The Passion of the Christ alone made something $360 million dollars. The only real block busters this year seem to be Superman Returns and X3, so expect more tearful news from the movies studios around the same time next year.
There are just going to be some years were attendance exceeds normal growth due to the popularity of certain movies.
I've actually watched more good movies in theaters this past year or two than I have since maybe 1997-9. Very few of them were among the top boxoffice takers. And I watch more independent studio releases on cable and recordings.
My cable bill has sure gone up a lot, though. Especially including my broadband Internet connection.
--
make install -not war
I'd like to see them put together a nice plot of home-theater system sales vs. box-office sales. It doesn't cost me eight bucks for a bag of popcorn and a coke. My popcorn isn't stale. There's nobody talking during the show. My feet don't stick to the floor. I can pause the movie whenever I want.
I have been to the theater a lot less since I got my 52" TV + surround sound.
Yeah, it's the intarweb movie pirates dropping box office sales.... riiight.
include $sig;
1;
My wife would agree with you about the theater and big screen, except:
a: Last movie we saw on a big screen, the sound was crappy
and
b: At $10/ticket, it costs thirty dollars for our family to go out. That doesn't
include having to be at the theater in time for the show, gasoline, having to sit through
twenty minutes of advertising for crappy movies (trailers), and having to put up with rude,
noisy, inconsiderate fellow viewers.
Or haven't you heard about the Texas incident where a woman who gently tapped a cell-phone talker
on her shoulder to ask her to quiet down/shut up ended up in court charged with assault?
>spending the money to watch it in a room full of strangers.
spending the money to watch it in a room full of assholes.
The government which is strong enough to protect you from everything is strong enough to take everything from you.
...Because (no particular order):
...and of course, so many movies suck blatant ass these days that I can't possibly justify it.
- Really expensive! (Ticket are $9.25 for adults! Are you kidding me?)
- Really expensive snacks ($4 for a Coke? Fuck You Cineplex!)
- Standing in a painfully long line to be gouged for your ticket.
- Standing in a painfully long line to be gouged for snacks.
- The arsehole that won't turn his cell-phone off until he "remembers" when it rings at the most tense moment in the movie.
- The other arsehole whose phone is on vibrate, but who answers and talks as he walks out of the theatre.
- Spoiled suburban brats dropped off at the theatre instead of the hiring a babysitter who throw things, talk, and generally distract from the picture.
- That unidentifiable sticky substance on the floor that could be spilled Coke... Or any number of other unpleasant alternatives, each indistinguishable from the next in the dark.
Who did what now?
I watched 50-100 movies a year in theaters in the early-mid 90s. It seemed like there was something watchable almost every week. Not "good" but watchable.
Now, if I can watch CSI reruns, Modern Marvels, and Mythbusters, why would I drive 30 minutes to hunt for a parking space and then go wait in line to:
Thanks, but I'll wait for V for Vendetta and Thank You for Smoking and hope for the best. And watch L&O and CSI in the meanwhile.
And to put a finer point on it, the fact that I see about 5 movies a year nowadays has nothing to do with pirated video and almost nothing to do with DVDs. The stuff I watch on DVDs is generally not something that shows up in a theater.
(This post reflects solely the opinion of its author).
/.'ers, IMHO, can no longer claim mediocrity as a reason for diminished ticket sales. Let's face it, the new media theater is in the home.
This was a great film year, the best in recent memory.
Munich, Brokeback Mountain, King Kong, Syriana, Capote, Good Night and Good Luck, Walk the Line, Batman Begins, the Squid and the Whale?
I know I'm missing a few too.
I mean, please! I was hard pressed to pick just five of those for the Best Picture nomination. I was even more hard pressed to pick the winner out of the five that did get nominated(although I can tell you one thing: I would not have picked Crash).
$85 at the bar. Just in beer. Cheap, lousy, low-quality Pennsylvania beer. You know, I could get an equal volume of higher quality suds for 1/5th the price if I stayed at home... but, uhm, I'd be at home.
If those were the only variables over the time span, you might be correct. First, critics in general agree that both *have* gone through a serious drop in quality. Second, other things compound the problem. For movies, one has the advent of Netflix and DVD sales cannibalizing movie revenue. More people are waiting for the DVD since they'll want to keep it and the audio/video quality is high. For music, they're comparing sales to the mid/late 90s when people were still replacing tape/vinyl collections. Third, in both fields execs are focusing increasingly on big budget "safe" bets as opposed to a variety of smaller budget attempts. The result is a bunch of "safe" products that do OK but not great. Finally, for movies, the increasing budgets are quickly pricing their tickets out of the casual date market - it's no longer something people will do once a weekend.
So there's a lot going on here. You can't just find two variables that happen to have a correlation and assume causality.
That seems like quite a big coincidence, doesn't it? Unlikely so, even?
I once read a study that showed a 0.9 correlation between National league batting averages and the GNP of Sweden for a few years. That best illustrates my point. If you have enough variables, two of them are guaranteed to be correlated for a while.
It's been a while since a film warranted spending the money to watch it in a room full of strangers...
... who all forget to turn off their cellphones, or want to show off their new supercool laser pointer. I swear, if I ever find an asshole ruining the movie with his laser, I'll tear his head off and shit in his neck!
(slightly irritated)
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
The main reason nobody's going to the movies: they've found other ways to entertain themselves. There's DVDs of course (I have a two-year backlog in my NetFlix queue!), and TV. But I think people are just generally branching out more. Book clubs are popular, and museum attendance is at all-time high. Hey, lots of folks are amusing themselves by creating their own content, in the form of blogs, podcasts, and now video podcasts. How can Hollywood compete with that?
I've completely had it with Hollywood. I haven't seen a truly geat, unique, innovative movie in ages. And every time I see they are remaking a great movie, I want to puke. It pisses me off to no end and I go out of my way to boycott. In fact, I don't know what is worse: a re-hashed tired plot, a "trendy" remake of a classic, or some insipid waste of film made for the lowest common denominator of intelligence (to use a term loosly).
The fact that those greedy fucks put commercials in front of a movie that I paid $10+ to see makes me even more angry.
How many times must I rent a DVD (I don't go to theatres because of the rant above) and be dissatisfied by a cheeze-ball "hollywood" ending.
Okay. I need to stop writing now. I'm getting frustrated and feeling a need to kill again...
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/ and http://www.imdb.org/ are your friends.
Once you tally it all up it's about $20 a person to go to a 2 hour movie. These days the theaters are filled with idiots on cells and unruly, obnoxious children (from ages .5 to 75 years old).
If a theater in my area crafted a set of rules of conduct and enforced them (i.e. frog marched violators roughly out the door) they'd start to get my business again.
Until then I'm going to wait until it hits DVD and watch it at home.
The Slashdot editors are nice enough to post a non-story about movie theaters/revenues/profits/etc. so that we can rant about prices of tickes/snacks/parking/etc. and brag about the components in our home theaters and you have to come along and screw it all up by presenting facts. Where to you get off buddy? Now what the hell am I gonna rant about? Did you see the front page? There aren't any articles about how Linux isn't ready for the desktop. There are any columns about Windows out performing Linux in a recent benchmark.
From now on just keep your facts to yourself.
BTW, mod parent up. Sounds like he hit the nail on the head
MG
I think it's a problem when people are wary about hanging out with strangers. It makes for a more fragmented, xenophobic society. If everybody tries to avoid interacting with strangers, the only people out and about will be crazy, homeless, or vagrant -- in other words, it will create a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
So, overall, Malco and the other big chains can kiss my big fat ass if they think I'm going to a theater. My house has comfortable seats, great booze, big screen picture and house-shaking sound. All for a 3 dollar Netflix rental.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
At least we have a good community out here for supporting worthwhile films!
It's been a while since a film warranted spending the money to watch it in a room full of strangers.
There has been a few films that I wanted to see, but I didn't. I simply cannot enjoy a film when people are talking on their phones all the way through the film. I really wanted to see a movie last weekend, so I broke down and went to see that Bruce Willis/Mos Def thing. Before the movie started, two people were talking on their phone. By the time the movie was half over, three others had decided it was a good time to talk - one complaining loudly that the movie was too loud for her to hear her phone. Until they allow immediate capital punishment for talking on a cell phone in the movie, I just can't go. Also - it is *not* OK to check your cell phone for messages either. The phone lights up and distracts everyone else. Imagine if someone kept turning a flashlight on and off in the movie - it is the same thing.
The previous comment is purposely vague and generalized, but all of the facts are completely true.
I personally believe that the most recent development in home theater equipment is what makes people stay at home instead of going to the movies.
Think about it:
- HDTV has surfaced for real. - Large TV sets and projectors with much better image quality are here. - DVD prices are pretty much staying where they are. - Going to the movies is becoming more and more expensive. - Spending money on a home theater is widely acceptable and considered a high status item.
The main reason I don't go to the movies is because I already have a good system at home. I prefer to sit there by myself, with my friends or with my girlfriend rather than sitting next to a fat guy who devours chips throughout the whole movie. And besides, it's actually cheaper to buy a DVD.
In ten years, when HDTV is passé and when people are used to super quality at 100 inch screens or more, who will actually go to the movies?
Last but not least, movies have kinda sucked lately. There's been a few good ones of course, but to me, quality is down. It would be interesting to see how the movie ratings have developed on IMDB during the past five years. Does anyone have stats on that?
Full Tilt
I can't wait for indoor movies to go the way of outdoor movies. Actually when I think about it, I enjoy the atmosphere of outdoor movies a whole lot better than that of indoor.
Some time around the Oscars someone (Haggis, Spielberg?) commented that the days of $200 million movies were over. He speculated that in the future movies would cost no more than $15 million to make. I did some googling but couldn't find the quote.
So, the economics of movies is changing. The other thing is that technology keeps getting better and cheaper. At some point, according to Moore's law, we'll all have the power on our desktops to totally make a movie as easily as we can write a bad novel. Lots more movies will get made and distributed on the internet. Some of them (according to the monkeys and typewriters theory) will be good. It is sort of happening now. It is common to find a bunch of people gathered around someone's computer looking at the latest cool animation that someone has found on the net. So, guess what, things are changing and they are no where near finished changing.
It's been a while since a film warranted spending the money to watch it in a room full of strangers.
Since when did whether or not a room was filled with strangers have anything to do with whether or not you watched a movie? Weirdo.
My page.
For me, while the lack of decent picture shows is a factor, shitty theater experience weighs more then a bad film. For me, it's always been the total experience of watching a film in a decent size room with a decent size screen. When all these megaplexes have to offer are screens that are not that much bigger than a big screen TV packed into broom closets, why should I pony up $10 plus?
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
... you still have to eat something at home. Oh wait, I forgot about this.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
But if it has been about two gay Space Marines and their relationship while they were also fighting off the Bug-Eyed Monsters invading from 60 Ophiuchi B, I would've totally been there.
Lets look at some of the high dollar movies:
If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
I just paid to see Ultravoilet.
Big mistake...
ender-iii
"All the good plots have already been explored - everything else is just variations on a theme."
Yup. That's open source for you.
Anybody see that part in the Academy Awards where the made a little mention/montage about how it's worth seeing movies at the cinema? Anybody else think that was really pathetic? I had decided I had enough last fall. I went with a group of ~15 fellow adults to watch Harry Potter IV. Yes, it's a "children's themed" movie, but it was rated PG-13. Now, is that really the movie you want to take your 3 year-old to? We collectively spent ~$150 at the theater that day and ended up relatively miserable sitting in front of some retard family who just had to take their spoiled retard kids to a fairly dark and violent movie. Honestly, I tend to favor personal responsibility over an excess of rules and regulations, but this just really pissed me off. The fact that many movies suck, along with the obvious downturn in the movie-going experience is clearly at fault for declining revenues. What, do I have to go watch 3 movies with my 1 purchased ticket to feel like I got my money's worth?
Hollywood dumps a lot of money into special effects. I think to increase the theater going audience, they have to introduce more hi-tech innovations to make the movie going experience more appealing. The IMax experience is really a joy to watch. How about 3-D glasses the audience can put on to watch the movie?
If they want to revive the industry, they have to give their audience something different than what they can get at home. I like going out to watch a movie, but I go on 1/2-off night. And one theater - with not as good sound always has tickets for $4 in my city. Go there all the time for that. Its cheaper than renting!
Piracy may have some tiny, tiny role in the decline, but there are so many more important factors:
- Ticket prices going up
- Movie quality and originality going down
- Annoying "pre-show" ads in most theatres
- Misleading "start times" in most theatres
- Increasing affordability of decent home theater setups
- Netflix, et al
- The MPAA's increasing demonization of their customers ("I don't want to give money to *those* bastards")
At this point, I can take my girlfriend to see a movie and spend $30 for the two of us for one movie that we'll probably be disappointed in, or I can spend that same $30 on a 5-at-a-time plan from Netflix and watch maybe 10 classic and/or good movies in a month. The choice just isn't that hard: one crappy movie a month loaded with ads, or 10 good ones on a decent home theater setup.
Seeing as how all of the elements continuing to the trend are show no signs of slowing, I'd be surprised if it doesn't continue for the next several years.
-b
If I wanted a sig I would have filled in that stupid box.
True Story:
I go to the Carmike in Statesboro (35 mile drive) to watch I,Robot. Some assholes bring their 2? 3? year old kid with them and sit directly in front of me. By the time I realized this kid was going to make noise the whole time, there were no empty seats left. The kid starts making a racket as soon as the movie starts and never shuts up. She even started singing! People all over were staring at the kid instead of the screen, waiting for the parents to start acting like parents.
You ignorant fucktards who bring small, noisy, untamed children to adult movies and don't keep them quiet are fucking assholes. What the hell is wrong with you people?
"Oh Jesus Christ!", I yell, as I get up to find the manager. I let the manager know what's going on and he goes in and stands against a wall for about five minutes, watching them. Miraculously, they keep the kid's yap shut the whole time, so the manager sees no reason to ask them to leave. "Fine. You want to run a daycare center instead of a movie theater, that's fine. Give me my money back."
Next day, I go to a smaller theater in Vidalia (25 mile drive) to watch it. So many people are lined up outside that it takes 20 minutes to get everyone in the door (they don't let you in without a ticket + they don't start selling tickets until 5 minutes before show time + only one ticket seller). Graciously, they hold off starting the movie until everyone is in (they did that for Star Wars III too).
Fifteen minutes into the movie, THE PROJECTOR EATS THE FUCKING FILM! They handed out refunds and sent everyone home. GRRRRRRR.........
The next day, I drove all the damn way to Savannah (80+ miles), crammed into an overstuffed theater and FINALLY watched the movie.
This is why I don't watch movies on the big screen anymore. Unless it is something that I HAVE TO SEE RIGHT FRIGGIN NOW, I wait for the DVD. And I RENT that DVD, I don't buy it. Or I buy it used from the video store. So Hollywood loses every opportunity at having my money.
Only on
The movie experience just plain SUCKS nowadays, rude movie goers who refuse to turn off their cell phones, talkers, problem children, over priced concessions and just plain uninteresting movies etc, etc, etc..... The last movie I went to was Too Wong Fu and the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Now I just wait for the movie to come out on DVD and watch it in scaled high def on the living room PC.
"I bow to no man" - Riddick
For me, not only has the quality of movies been found lacking, but my standards have been raised a bit on the types of movies I will see in the theatre. In order to justify the cost, it has to be a movie I think I will REALLY like that's subject matter is something I think will really matter to me. "V for Vendetta" will probably be the first movie I see in the theatre since "Serenity" because of it's subject matter.
The nail in the coffin though (as it were), is the Netflix and Blockbuster DVDs by mail services. I never have to get off my excellent *ss other then to go to the mailbox. And with Blockbuster at least, I can "save" movies that are just coming to theaters so I can watch them later when they come out on DVD. So, when I see a preview for something I might like...I just jump on blockbuster.com and save it. Sure I don't get to see it till a couple months later when it hits DVD...but I don't care as very rarely does a movie come along thats actually worth seeing in the theatre anymore. Unlike the live action epics of yesteryear (eg Ben Hur), CGI probably looks BETTER on my home TV set then the theatre screen.
I also wonder: If you take $revenue[$year], divide it by $average_cost_of_ticket[$year], and multiply that by ($us_population[$year] / $us_population[2005]), do you get a steady downward curve as $year increases?
It's because the executives of the movie companies are just really expensive accountants, not business leaders. So they won't take risks. And also - because these companies seem to have more law talent than creative talent.
When your this big, you don't have to be good. (about big companys)
Every single time this subject comes up, someone tells us that it is about the obnoxious other people in the cinema and how crappy the cinema experience is because of it and every single time these people get modded up even though they are talking about a pretty much non-existant problem that almost noone seems to care about but them and some people on Slashdot.
You have all heard the stories about people answering mobile phones during the film and actually talking loud for fifteen minutes.
It has hardly every happened to me, and I have literally gone to the cinema thousands of times. I am not alone either. It has never impacted on the movie experience of any of my movie-crazy friends.
I'd say much less than 1% of movie goers are seriously bothered about this problem on a regular basis, so there is very little chance of this actually causing this decline.
The fact is that 8% decline in one year is absolutely no statistical basis for claiming the movie industry is in general decline. It may very well be, but the 8% decline proves absolutely nothing. It might just be a slow year.
Looking at the oscar winners, and remembering the films I watched this year I'd say this year was definetely a slow year. I personally loved King Kong, but it does not seem to have had the massive appeal the studio hoped for.
It is not however some terminal decline, and all the great films of all time were not made in the 60s and 70s. It annoys me when people claim this, as they obviously has not followed film in the last 15 years in any detail.
With a nice large wide screen, 5.1 surround (or better) and a couple of lazy boys, why go out?
Unplug the phone, turn off the lights, crack a beer a you get a better experience.
Just, make sure everyone takes a leak first. Nothing ruins a movie more than a pause to pee.
ender-iii
... movies have always sucked. You who hate what hollywood pumps out these days are just nostalgic for the kind of stuff you saw when you were young. When you watch the old stuff again you think, wow, the old stuff is good. It isn't really! You are just seeing it through rose-colored-stained-glass-windows. You know there are kids these days that love what hollywood puts out and they will think movies suck when they grow up. The truth is, it all sucks and it always has.
Meh.
I quite buying CDs around 2000. I was sick and tired of the outrageous prices that they were charging.
In 1996, I started on my DVD collection. Back then, I could get DVDs for $9-10. Of course, at that time, A movie for 2 of us was about 10. Now, it is about 30, while the DVD can be had for 15-20. So, with a nice TV and Stereo, I get to watch from home with a bottle of wine, a gal, and in the end, I own the movie. Basically, the movie is overpriced for what it is delivering.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
The people behind the refreshments counter at my local cinema have at last given up their charade.
They're now required to wear masks and stripy sweaters.
I was floored when the MPAA president tried promoting moving theater attendance during Sunday's awards by espousing the virtues of viewing a movie with a group of strangers brought together by a common cause (is watching a movie really a cause?). Does he really believe his own crap? When was the last time he even saw a movie with the general public instead of in a plush private theater ahead of its general release date? I, for one, am not a big fan of paying a fortune to fight with strangers for a decent seat only to have to put up with chatter and cell phones throughout the film. I'm certainly not building mashed potato cinemas at the dinner table along with thousands of others who will find themselves also drawn to this mysterious force bringing us all together to watch some hollywood shovelware.
1. Produce a _good_ film.
2. Price tickets _fairly_.
3. ????
4. Profit!
Considering better then theater results in average livingrooms, it's a real pity opening night does not include pay-for-view. There are a few where we could make a night of it plus taking for granted that I'd be spending 35 plus, distributors could probably save me a litttle money.
I love this quote:
"A nationwide survey conducted by Nielsen Entertainment/NRG in August of 2005 indicated that 81% of moviegoers who saw at least one movie in 2005 believed the experience was a good investment of their time and money, versus 15% who preferred to watch the movie on DVD and 4% who said they should have not seen the movie at all. "
I would have never expected 81% of people are happy with their movie going experience, and only 15% preferred DVD...
You may find my appearance and demeanor foolish, but it is you who plays the fool.
$15 DVD
$0.50 for the DVD player*
$0.50 for the surround sound*
$5 for the 60" TV*
$3 Popcorn
$5 snacks
$1 drinks
$2 for the gasoline to get the DVD, popcorn, snacks and drinks
$20 for the pizza + tip
$1.50 for the electricity*
$30 for the mortgage of your house*
$2 for the sofa*
$3 for the heat*
$0.25 for using the toilet*
$0.5 waste management fee*
$5 for the illegal immigrant to clean your house
$94.25 for a night infront of your TV.
Come to our cinema... and save your money!
Sincerely,
your local cinema owner
* Hidden costs for the movie evening. Calculated by qualified consultants from Accenture, formerly known as Arthur Andersen LLP.
Will hopefully shift to Indie films and a resurgence towards bookreading again. Books are just far more entertaining and Indies are far more original. The movie industry should feel ashamed if they even bother to mention piracy. When a trip for two is now $19.00 or $20.00 and popcorn and two sodas are an extra $10.00, thirty bucks makes one feel robbed when you realize that you spent all of that money. I could buy the DVD on sale, buy a box of popcorn and a six pack and barely break $20.00. They're the ones robbing us. Especially for those poor souls like me who spent money to see Ultraviolet. :)
I wasn't even alive when Episode IV came out, but after going to the Serenity Premier in Santa Cruz, I can safely say I haven't been cheated out of that kind of experience. We got a posse together, went in full costume (I was one of those "Hands of Blue" guys), expecting to be part of a very small group of fanatics in a big empty theatre. Ha. The line of Browncoats stretched down three blocks, 2/3 of the people in it were in costume as well. It was pretty incredible being part of that, and besides I thought the movie was pretty damn good. Every now and then some movie comes out of left field, just when you're starting to despair, and gives you hope that it's not over yet. These days they certainly stand out more, what with the mindless crud they're competing with.
Well, the movie makers out there in CA need to realize something. Sequels upons sequels do not guarantee money. The think the best movie I saw last year was Wedding Crashers, but thats it. The best movie of the last 3 years... Return of the King, not even made in this country. Hollywood needs to come up with BETTER more exciting stories like movies of old that can capivate an audience... Movies like say... First Contact, Back to The Future... Saving Private Ryan Lord of the Rings etc.. These movies they put out that have no real stories, give people no connection to characters no real significance... They need to stop.
My advice: Fire all your executives, writers etc who come up with nothing worthwhile and hire people with fresh new and exciting ideas. Something that might say.... Interest Us?!
-- Josh
"Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me!" - Pete Conrad
You made my day, that was just fucking priceless.
The only things they trust is something that has already worked in the past. They take one success and try to copy it in some way. They believe this will guarantee a return on investment. It's all a part of the same entertainment industry formula that has been going on since it was 'incorporated.' "Originality" is either too expensive or too risky. (possibly both) So even if they had really good stuff available for them to produce, they might not do it!
I find this situation unsurprising and all to predictable. You can't industrialize and formulate entertainment because it's an art. The results are obvious. New music sucks. New movies suck. The reviews and awards demonstrate it on a regular basis. I pray for the day that the crusty old asses who are making the decisions will retire.
I've been a Lifetime Member of Cinema Seattle, which puts on America's largest film festival, for years now, been to Cannes, Vancouver BC, Santa Barbara, Venice Italy for their film festivals, and I have to say that most of the reason for people not going to see films has more to do with the overuse of formulaic films and lack of quality films than it has anything to do with piracy.
...
Heck, my brother-in-law Gil Luna is an actor. I'm just hoping the film he's shooting turns out to be good
But blaming the downturn in movie attendance on piracy is just plain wrong. It's more likely caused by any of the following:
1. increased movie ticket prices;
2. increased movie food/drink prices;
3. obsessive security making it less fun;
4. too many bleeding cell phones that should be hammered into small bits; or
5. the decisions by movie theater chains to be unoriginal.
Now, saying that, it's not like there are no good films, I've seen quite a few, but recently I've been very uninterested in the films I see playing locally, and I see more than a hundred films most years. Given me more free time, I admit, but it's not piracy.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I live in Toronto and two tickets, one pop and one bag of popcorn costs at best $35.
Did you include paying the babysitter, if the movie is PG-13 or R? Did you include auto fuel?
I work for universal studios. We have to support an application called Flicks. This application is essentially a film generator. You put in actors, plot ideas etc and it generates a movie and merchandising concept. Babe was a mistake, it wasnt supposed to make that much money, heads rolled, they realized millions had been lost. So they tried again, but alas Babe II: Pig in the city tanked. Doesnt matter, flicks has successfully worked on such films as American Pie and Land Before Time. If you wonder why there are a trillion law and order series, now you know.
It was a joke. I guess nobody got it.
On the whole, I'm betting post-boomers are less "social" and far more likely to be comfortably entertained at home. We're quite comfortable with our kick-ass flat-screen monitors, thanks, and our sound systems beat those our parents senseless.
We don't NEED big theatre screens. We rarely dress to go out. Our popcorn comes from the microwave, not a $4.00 carboard bucket. And if we want to be in a roomful of strangers, there are all those IRC channels to choose from ...
I thought the MPAA's pitch that "nothing beats the theatre experience" we heard at the Oscars was simply pathetic. Please don't tell me what I like, Mr. Hollywood. Let me tell you:
I want downloadable movies. I want them as soon as possible to release. I'll pay.
Oh -- and more sex, please. I'll take that over cartoonish, numbing gore and violence. But that's just me.
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
Screaming/crying/kicking brats
Cell phones and pagers
Can't smoke
Can't feel up my wife -- much...
Can't smoke (the other stuff)
The Beck's bottles make way too much noise rolling down the floor...
And people laugh at anime fans. Well, some deserve it. They have the a little higher good-to-crap ratio than Hollywood, but that's still a whole 'nother market, so picking between the best of the two gives you some nice options. Seriously, Hollywood doesn't hold a candle to Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, Haibane Renmei, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Princess Mononoke (hell, Miyazaki in general) and the like. As long as you avoid kid stuff (a big clue is the length - most better shows are usually 13 or 26 episodes long; the ones that run forever like Naruto, Bleach, Dragonball Z and such are for kids).
One of the real strengths of the genre is that it won't look perfectly real, so usually creators just focus on making it look pretty good and cool, and then devote some time to plot and characters and cinematography (is the beginning of V Hunter D: BL not one of the greatest ever?), and since it is usually cheaper to make, they can be more adventurous (this is why there is alot more sf and fantasy anime than US films, in fact all I listed above are f/sf).
Two beefs I have with movies that are a little different are: 1.) the frame rate is TOO SLOW for action movies. I heard it was about 24fps. In well-done anime where the speed is high, sction scenes are a million times better because YOU CAN SEE WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING and it isn't all one big blur. This is especially bad when combined with beef 2.) I hate this newly popular camera method of jumping between close-ups every two seconds. It's like the cameraman is a near-sighted kid with ADHD that is a slave to following motion (CS players???). Does a fight scene really have to zoom in on the hero's limb every time they move it (I'm looking at you, Bourne movies)? Combine this jumping and zooming with the slow frame rate, and the action is all a blur that sucks. And usually they are so unrealistic that it loses all the cool (like when a gun pistol has a 50 round mag and can't shoot through a door but can explode a helicopter instantly, like in The Transporter 2, or when a pistol has enough power and ammo to cut a hole in the floor like in Underworld). So even B action movies lose their only good point, the action.
At least with B anime you get a really cool setting, backdrops, characters (if shallow, I mean like original badguys), and action.
The 'Net is a waste of time, and that's exactly what's right about it. - William Gibson
It's not about the quality of the films available. The films are about as good as they've always been, to be honest. That is to say, they're shit, but they're entertaining, so I'll keep going.
It's the theater-going experience itself that has become intolerable. I'd go back to the movies in a heartbeat if I knew of a theater that had the following policies:
1) Theater owners need to hire large, hardass, bouncer-type stone cold ushers. If you talk, you're out. Cell phone? Out. Laser pointer? Out. Kick the seat in front of you? Out. Smartass who yells comments, thinking he's the next Joel Robinson or Mike Nelson? Out. If you're bothering the people around you in any way, instead of watching the film quietly or respectfully (or making out quietly, that's always cool by me), then you're out on your ass, no refund, and cry me a fucking river.
2) Theater owners must enforce the MPAA ratings. Don't let kids buy tickets for The Shaggy Dog and then sneak into Saw II. They ruin it. Check IDs at the box office, and check tickets at the door of the auditorium, and bingo, no more problem. I tried to see the Exorcist re-release 5 years ago, and it was ruined by a theater full of teenagers who were all holding tickets to see the latest g-rated insult to IQs over 50. I haven't seen a horror film in the theater since.
3) Theater owners must stop showing advertisements before a film starts for products that are not other films. People resent paying $12 to be a captive audience for 30 minutes of television commercials.
Bonus un-necessary but IT WOULD BE AWESOME policies:
4) Theater audiences must SHUT THE FUCK UP. In the last ten years or so, I've noticed a disturbing trend. Audiences seem no longer content to just laugh at the funny parts or cry at the sad parts. They now must treat a film as if someone is filming a sitcom, and they are part of the live studio audience. Here's a news flash, people: IT'S A FUCKING MOVIE. IT CAN'T HEAR YOU. Stop clapping and cheering when the Warner Brothers logo shows up at the beginning of the next Batman film. Stop applauding when Neo beats down Agent Smith. Definitely STOP GIVING THE CREDITS A STANDING OVATION. What, are you fucking retarded or something? What the hell is wrong with you people?
3) A liquor license, even just wine-beer, for R-rated evening showings after 8pm. I'd love to be able to drink a cold one while I'm watching a movie in a room full of grownups. I already have a local theater that does this with second-run films, but I'd love it if I could get this kind of service in a first-run show with a kick-ass sound system.
Even Jesus hates listening to Creed.
Somewhere around my 20s, that's when I understood that nearly all action movies suck. I had forgotten it for some time then I saw Armagedon and since that day I never forgot. Nowadays I just see non blockbuster action movies. I saw several good films this year. Crash was excellent. I am really glad it won the Oscar. History of violence was OK. Match Point was really entertaining. They have this so call Cine Art next to where I live. It is great because it is mostly an older audience, so you can watch a movie without pop-corn munching or people talking. Only bad point, they don't have arcade games, but you cannot have it all... I think the reason why most action movies suck is that it is really hard to get me on their side. I mean, if the movie is so far out, I will be turned down and will not be receptive from that moment. So if there is a super sexy babe kicking asses to monsters, all that wearing high heels in a latex suit with her boobs nearly falling out, I feel they take me for a morron, not a chance I am going to like the movie. And from the commercials I see on TV, there have been several films like this this year. It's too bad because they may have some good sci-fi scenario, but I cannot pass the kung-fu, super effects crap. But I am probably not the common case, I guess many guys probably like that kind of action. I am more interested in the story, filming, acting... You can keep your special effects (to me they still don't look as convincing as 2001 special effects)
The majority of movies also suck nowadays. There's no imagination. They are either remakes or based on some comic book (although Spiderman II was pretty good). Why remake movies? Do the producers/writers think they can make it better than the original? Prime examples of crap remakes: Pink Panther, War of the Worlds, Shaft, Starsky and Hutch, Dukes of Hazzard. The only movie I would like to see remade is Plan 9 from Outer Space. It wasn't voted "worse movie ever" for nothing.
"Happily lived Mankind in the peaceful Valley of Ignorance." -- Hendrik Willem Van Loon
It's funny how history repeats itself. Last time this happened, in the 1950s-60s, the cinemas were losing viewers to that new-fangled TV contraption, especially after it got color. So they tried all sorts of gimmicks to get people to come out to the theaters. About the only one that stayed around was widescreen, though "Sensurround" might be considered an ancestor of the multi-channel Dolby and DTS sound systems that were another advantage the theaters had over home video...until home video got them too.
I wonder what new gimmicks will come out of this new panic. Universal digital cinema, perhaps? Will Hollywood finally surrender and start releasing movies simultaneously to cable, home video, and cinema? Guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
They were Bi Shepherds!
Jeez.
If the people from the MPAA would actually pay to watch a movie in a theater they might begin to see how much of a rip-off movies have become. It's bad enough dropping $10 to see a good movie, but most of the movies that are out are not worth the cost of a rental.
Why would he have to? Every damn DVD I rent, and probably every movie on the screen, has told me I'm a dirty rotten thief. As a bonus, at home I get to stare at the dire FBI warning and at the theater I get to watch half an hour of adverts. The overwhelming industry message is that sharing is wrong, equivalent to stealing cars or snatching purses.
They've lost their minds. The message they need is that movies are fun. All the rest is just a turn off that will drive people to alternative makers of media.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I know I've been going to the theater less lately because I'm not really interested in seeing remakes of old classics--even if one of said remakes is directed by Peter Jackson. I'm also not fond of being kicked in the wallet at the snack stand when I can stock up my fridge at home and watch a movie on demand or on DVD.
I did see a few movies (Sin City, Batman Begins, Syriana, and a couple others) and enjoyed them. Most of my movie-watching has been at movie marathons at a home theater--movies that came out nearly a decade (or more) ago.
I won't go so far as to say that movie theaters are obsolete, because watching a THX-certified movie in a theater is an experience in itself, but the theaters are screwing themselves by overcharging for admission/snacks and turning what used to be a "cheap date" into an expensive venture.
hehe. to ask a girl out! its hard to get the girl to come to your place on the first date. hehe. if you pull it of it wouldn't be bad neither :p
I live very near a good quality second run cinema - the theatres are all decent quality, it's just that the films are all second run.
With time from release in theaters to release in DVD rental stores shrinking, your second-run cinema might go out of business rawther quickly.
The problem isn't the quality of movies. There are just as many good movies (And bad movies) as there have always been.
The problem for the movie industry is that there are a lot more things for people to spend money on to entertain themselves. Look at the phenomonal growth of the video game industry - that money has to come from somewhere. Some of it comes from seeing fewer movies.
paintball
Most movies made during any one year have always sucked. It's not the suckyness of the movies, it that for the price of:
- parking
- the tickets
- the $4 small bags of popcorn
- the $3 box of raisinettes
- the $5 cokes
I can buy a DVD, get a couple of pizza's delivered, open a bottle of wine (or a couple of beers), nuke a bag of popcorn and enjoy the movie on my schedule in a room with comfortable chairs that have lots of leg room, floors that aren't sticky and covered with garbage, a room without noisy assholes talking on their cell phones, stupid people constantly asking their friends "what did he say?" and "who's that?", a speaker system where the bass isn't being over driven and the center channel speakers aren't blown, a place where I don't have to sit through 15 to 30 minutes of commercials before the movie starts and if I have to get up in the middle I can pause the damn thing.
I don't go to the theater because the theater experience sucks.
In the past people went to the movies because it was an event, they looked forward to it for days or weeks ahead of time. Everyone was there to enjoy and drink-in the experience. Now we go to the movies because we don't have anything better to do.
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
Student 1: Hey man. Wouldn't it be, you know, really great and shit if we made a movie about this episode?
Student 2: Fuck yeah man. We could cast somebody famous. Like that guy.
Student 1: Yeah.
Student 2: And that other famous guy. You know, he's got like the hair.
Student 1: Yeah.
Student 2: And we could fuck with The Man by getting a South Park episode nominated for an oscar.
Student 1: Yeah. Hey, do you have any pudding. I'm starving man.
Student 3: Dude, dude, dude. Do you reckon we can make a bong out of this stuffed toy?
And that is how it happened (names have been changed to protect the guilty).
Nerd: Derogatory term typically directed at anybody with a lower Slashdot ID than you.
We will finally have a reason to plunk down $9.50 for a movie.
"Be with you, may the Force!" exclaims Yoda.
Is a "Movie" something like a video file? It wasn't defined.
Movie Ticket X2: $18.50
Popcorn X2: $15.00
Drink X2: $8.00
Used paperback copy of Fellowship of the Ring: $1.00
Proving to your teenage son that there WAS a character in LOTR called Tom Bombadil: Priceless
http://www.gutenberg.org/ Read to yourself and others.
Most Hollywood movies suck because they're driven by marketing and the hype of former success instead of creativity, and the ones that don't suck are tailor made to win Oscars and are overly preachy crap.
It's like wanting to eat beef, but the only two choices are a Big Mac or a filet where the chef sits next to you and criticizes your indelicate palate the entire time you eat it. Why not just stay home and wait until it only costs a few bucks for your entire family to watch the movie? After all, if you don't like it, you haven't wasted 10 bucks, and the entertainment industry is the group that's been at the forefront of pushing all this HD crap down our throats anyway.
Maybe it's because I live in Minnesota, but when I go to movies, the audiences are usually civil and well-behaved. Sure, most films are teh suck, but I manage to find something I want to see every 4-8 weeks. I still like the communal experience of watching a movie in the theater. I like being around other people. It's too easy to cocoon ourselves in our homes with our home theater systems. Going to a movie is still something of an event for me. But maybe I'm a huge dork.
... most of us aren't gay. So if Hollywood isn't busy redoing everything, they're making such tempting fair as a love story about gay sheep herders. Can you say NICHE MARKET? And on top of that, the only gay friend I have thought the movie was "okay". Not exactly the type of review that's going to make me go out and want to sit through an alternative lifestyle event. Go ahead and call me unenlightened or whatever, but I'm just being honest here.
There were quite a few decent looking films done this last year that I wanted to see in the theater(Jarhead, Goodnight and Goodluck, and Lion/Witch/Wardrobe), but the thing that stopped us is now I have kids and the last time I was in the theater, I had to listen to screaming kids. I sure as hell am not going to risk my one night off away from my own screaming kids to listen to someone elses in a movie theater. I'd rather spend the evening pulling out my chest hair with rusty pliers. Less pain and frustration.
The other thing is my own home theater system... Concessions are cheap, the seating is comfortable, why go to a theater?
And have theatre subscription !
In France, they can subscribe to some theatre chain (like Century, AMC, Mann) for 20euros/month. For those 25 bucks, they can watch as many movies as they want in all theatres of the chain. There is a minimum of one year subscription. And people who subscribes does not have the priority if a show is sold out. People paying the full price have the priority.
I think it is a really good idea to make people going back to theatres. And it wont hurt the sale since the subscribers never take the place of people who pays the full price. They only use available seats...
I have Netflix that sends DVD's right to my house and I've got a queue of about 30 movie just waiting to be sent to me, all for $17.99/month. I have a nice 5.1 surround sound system. I can pause and pee whenever I need to. Drink beer, wine, eat wings, pizza or whatever. I'm just waiting for the price of Plasma or LCD TV's to come down a little bit more and I'm set.
Watching movies at home these days beats the experience of a crowded theater, with people talking, cell phones going off, advertisement, etc..
Besides, very few of the movies that I see these days are worth the price of admission.
Where I live we have $3 Tuesdays for all films.
I'm too busy on Tuesdays to go, but it is nice to
see a little supply and demand in action.
Once you pointed me in the right direction I was able to google the quote.
2 .html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060306-632
"The market forces that exist today make it unrealistic to spend $200 million on a movie. Those movies can't make their money back anymore. Look at what happened with 'King Kong.'"
"It's no accident that the 'small movies' outclassed the spectaculars in this year's Academy Awards. Is that good for the business? No--it's bad for the business. But moviemaking isn't about business. It's about art! In the future, almost everything that gets shown in theaters will be indie movies."
Silent Hill (MUAHAHAHAH!)
:)
:D
Because there's nothing like watching an authentic horror film in a place where you practically can't move, and there's pure darkness surrounding you
And no, I don't care it's by Sony. I believe this movie will be worth paying the author, if we pay him well maybe we could see the sequel
Don't judge the state of an industry by one number (or even a set of numbers.)
Finally, something that can unclog my CPU fan!
Creative misinterpretation is your friend.
I heard an interesting discussion on Michael Krasny's Forum about the "auter" theory, about how directors are given credit for everything and there's this guy who is pushing a "Schreiber Theory" that advocates giving primacy to writers in credits. The comment was that if writers were given more credit in films, there'd be more creativity. Don't know if I buy it, but the podcast I linked to above is very interesting.
Currently hooked on AMP
you still have to eat something at home.
But it's not monopoly-overpriced. Buying food at Wal-Mart to eat at home is like getting at least 60% off cinema prices.
Great articles:
http://www.slate.com/id/2118819
http://www.slate.com/id/2124078
My fav:
http://www.slate.com/id/2123286
Please stop APK.. you're only hurting yourself.
I think film companies should produce shorter movies in some type of series format. Do a movie that lasts an hour or so, has a good story and actors so it doesn't require elaborate crap to compensate, and charge less for it. Have the story complete in and of itself, but leave teasers and danglers for the next one coming. Use recurring characters (maybe not gay cowboys though), and continuing plot lines, and have a new one come out once a month. Seems to me that something along those lines has the potential to keep people coming back for more, and could generate water cooler talk and all that other good stuff.
I guess I'm kinda saying put TV on the big screen. You can still have some biggies, but the serials could be the bread and butter.
Oh yeah, this idea is copyright and trademarked by me.
I went to see Chronicles of Narnia in the theater. Everything was going great until someone sat in the seat next to me. Turns out its this Chinese guy fresh off the boat. We get about half an hour into the movie and I'm liking it. But the guy next to me is not liking it. Constantly complaining about the movie while he eats pop corn with his mouth wide open. Where is the action! This sucks! Ruined the entire experience.
Ah, I recall a few cell phones going off too.
Plus, we take the bus (have a bus pass).
Trouble is that your school-age child is gone for most of the matinee period of Monday through Friday during most of the year, and the city bus service does not operate on Sundays or holidays. This leaves Saturday and summer vacation; are you happy with that?
I think that the problem is the economics of the times: the middle class is being squeezed pretty badly, in fact, it's disappearing quite rapidly. People simply do not have the cash to go to the movie theater, at least I cannot part with that kind of money. I think that a lot of segments of the economy are charging (or at least trying to) a premium for their products/services and employing contractors instead of employing full-time hires. Whatever products/services people need/enjoy the most are the ones that get the money. If companies keep employing contractors, and energy prices continue to rise, then the economy is headed for a recession/depression. From where I'm sitting, things don't look all that nice. I'd like to see things change, but that isn't going to happen anytime soon.
The story of a man... will change everything... from a decadent time... a war torn nation... love for his country... BUT it will never be the same...
blah blah
Simple fact is that movie-going is no longer a past time activity. It's becoming more and more a privilege to be entertained rather than being entertainment for the common man/woman/child/old people.
I can take the crowded theater, high price of pop corn, sticky floor, crappy seat, and the guy/gal sitting behind me talking on the phone. However what I cannot take are;
1) treated like 2nd class citizen with empty center seats for higher prices
2) double and triple gated entrances to theater seating, treating everyone like little kids sneaking into movies
3) "Piracy is illegal" message then FBI Warning right after, treating everyone like criminals or just plain ignorant
4) Remake of Remake of Remake of another Remake of the original from 1942
5) high price tickets forcing me to make a decision between films
Going to movies used to be "entertainment", a mindless fun and/or enlightment, now it's a chore, a responsibility, a time taking investment.
I used to go to movies every week, watching at least 1 or 2 movies (paying every penny), regardless of its critical acclaim from so called "experts". Now, first I have to check out box office number and reviews (watch what's worth money).
Then I have to put up with checking with 2 to 3 different ticket checkers to get into the seat. If that is not enough, now I have to put up with long public annoucements and commercials that tells me "stealing is bad" message. Ironically yet another message telling me to buy food and drink with highway robbery prices.
If insulting is the way to inform the public, then this one tops the chart. A bright red seats in the center of theater for even higher price with its own popcorn and drink stand. Even more insulting when those seats are totally empty.
Especially ironic when the movie we are watching is either about main characters being compassionate criminal, murderer, or rebel.
The movies portays breaking the rule and going against authority is cool, and movie threater chains to label movie-goers with 2nd class ignorant citizens is perfectly fine, but when the box office doesn't do well, it's not entirely because movie sucks, maybe and MAYBE people like myself don't want to be in such place. After all, if I'm going to be insulted and annoyed, I rather be insulted and annoyed at home watching the movie on cable or DVD.
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
Let's face it: Theaters simply suck. When was the last time you actually enjoyed going to a theater to watch a movie. Me? Return of the Jedi.
To make matters worse, we now have to pay ridiculous prices AND watch commercials.
F that, and F the theater owners.
Die, die, die my darling
Don't utter a single word
Die, die, die my darling
Just shut your pretty eyes
I'll be seeing you again
Yeah, I'll be seeing you, in hell
I'm sorry, but the delicious irony in responding to this joyful news with Metallica lyrics is just too tempting to ignore!
go to a theater with free parking
How much extra fuel does it take to get to such a theater?
And what about DVD sales? How come nobody mentions those?
The Article doesn't mention DVD sales because they are outside its scope. Comments do mention DVD sales and rentals as a competitor to the box office. People nowadays choose to wait for DVD more often because they don't seem to be afraid of hearing spoilers from the theatrical crowd anymore.
Indiana shoots first!!!!
well, we all know this is because of pirates...
Two reasons:
1) Netflix is a LOT more convenient than going to a theater, and a LOT less expensive.
2) Most movies have low thought content, and just aren't very much fun to watch.
I've taken a hit from the on-demand home theater crack pipe and i'm hooked. I no longer want to sit in a room with noisy people and sticky floors eating an $8.00 bucket of stale popcorn. Now I enjoy movies on-demand on my 56" DLP with my Boston Acoustics system, comfy couches, and a $1.00 bag of popcorn that isn't stale.
Why would I pay 4 to 6 times as much to sit in that hell-hole called a movie theater?
-ted
1. 45 minutes of advertising before the main feature (I want my 45 minutes back because you didnt pay for my time)
2. Cant watch any movies before 1pm because you get mom's and dad's and their screaming ankle biters to kill any punch lines.
3. you can't kill the idiot who is sitting next to you.
4. if you turn up late to compensate for number 1. you get to sit with the big screen 3 feet from you nose.
5. People with mobiles phone, dare I say any more.
6. teenagers who think its cool to scream out right in the middle of the action.
7. seats that smell like wet carpet.
8. having a movie projector thats totally stuffed ie only one channel for sound and being told thats perfectly ok to sell you a defective service and your not getting any money back.
9. seats that are as comfortable as a concrete bench.
10. finding the only showing of the movie you want is at 6am and 11pm.
I like movies. But my wife and I go to fewer and fewer each year.
Why?
Well the huge drop in our attendence this year was because every movie house around us now shows 20 minutes of video commercials before the lights dim and the trailers (usually 6) begin.
I like to sit in the theatre and talk to my wife or the people we're with. You can't do that over the damn TV being projected onto the screen. It's awful and I hate it.
Blend in people who think they can talk as if they were in their own living room, text message, talk on their cell phones, get up three or four times for more soda/popcorn/etc, and you have a truly wretched experience. I won't even MENTION kids crying and throwing things. I don't go when the high schoolers go - that's even worse.
So mostly it's Netflix and a very good widescreen TV instead of the movies.
I'm SICK and FUCKING TIRED of being endlessly marketed to. I don't need surround-sound tunes blared at me, crap on the screen. I have a mind, I like the people I go to movies with, I want to enjoy them until the lights fade and a new world unrolls on the screen.
I was thinking about watching a movie the other day. Since I didn't have anything particular in mind, I went to imdb.com to see what looked good. This is what I found about the top 10 movies.
1. Family Reunion 2.8/10 Family Comedy/Drama (Worst 100: #61)
2. 16 Blocks 6.8/10 Crime/Drama/Thriller
3. Eight Below 7.4/10 Family Adventure
4. Ultraviolet 4.0/10 Superhero/SciFi/Something
5. Aquamarine 2.0/10 Kid's Comedy
6. The Pink Panther 4.7/10 Family Comedy
7. Block Party 7.6/10 Documentary/Real Event
8. Date Movie 2.8/10 Comedy (Worst 100: #57)
9. Curious George 6.9/10 Family Comedy
10. Firewall 6.0/10 Crime/Drama/Thriller
Two of the lowest 100 rated movies ever.
I really have no desire to see any of those movies, at least not in the theater. I'm not really interested in the family/kids movies, so that rules out half of them. I'd rather watch Dave Chapelle's Block Party on video so I can skip music I might not like. I'm not going to watch a movie rated below 5, so that rules out Date Movie and Ultraviolet. That leaves Firewall (and we all know how accurate the technical aspects of THAT movie are gonna be) and 16 Blocks/The Gauntlet/Escape From NY/LA/Whatever. Yeah... pass.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
IMAX films are doing well... with people having "the big screen experience" at home, hollywood needs to start thinking larger by making more movies in the IMAX or IMAX 3d or even OMNIMAX format. otherwise, theaters will become like the buggy whip makers as home theater eats their lunch.... example tv sreen size at home 50 years ago was like what ? 19 inch or less ? now it is up to 100 inches or more sometimes. how much larger have movie screens gotten, or what other innovations have they brought out ? imax is the way to go, especially imax 3d.
A year and a half ago some friends convinced me to go see The Village with them as a group. We went to a Regal Cinemas, one of those huge multiplex deals. Anyway, we get there a little early so we can get seats together and everything. It had been a while since I'd seen a movie in the theatre, so I didn't know about "The 20" yet. The slideshow was bad enough, now they are playing 20 minutes of video (and sound) commercials before the show! Not only that, but these and the trailers are all spoilers for other things I might want to see. Trailers today give away all the good jokes and all the interesting plot twists, leaving no reason left to go see the movie. Anyway, after I suffer through that, then they play the television ads that were blown up to theatre size (although, I think they may have gotten better at this, and refilmed/remastered ads to make them work better in the theatre setting) and trailers. Finally, after 50 minutes of commercials, the movie begins. Some woman is on screen in one of those old-timey outfits and some stupid teenager shouts "She's hot" and then all the other little douchebag teens start giggling. I hate the standard teenager. This happens for a little while. Now, here comes the first scene where something interesting is about to happen and the fucking fire alarm goes off! We leave and come back 15-20 minutes later. The movie starts and we missed the whole sequence! Whatever happened we just missed out on. That was it, I got up and left. I went to the ticket counter and got my refund. The guy told me that the movie was continuing inside, but that wasn't why I was getting the money back. What a horrible, horrible experience. I will never go back to that theatre. The huge multiplexes are horrible, especially if they are in the suburbs.
Why pay $25 for a couple of tickets, popcorn and drinks when you can wait a couple of months and watch it OnDemand (or rent it) in the comfort of your own home with more comfortable seats, any food you desire and a clean restroom just a pause button away?
Amen.... every good movie that's ever been made, has been; lining up an hour of cgi and 30 minutes of dialog:
100 million.
what ever happened to make-up, and squibs, and for sake of it: minatures.
even though cgi looks great nowadays, keep it in the videogames, that's what its for. Seems like big-budget hollywood cuts too many corners and listens to polls and market strategits too much, I remember when pg-13 was invented (for Gremlins) and when "R" movies were scary.
just my $0.02
- jt
It's the new technology. It used to be that image quality and overall experience were better in movie theaters, but a modern home theater experience is vastly superior to any movie theatre experience. They should probably just go straight to a DVD release, charge $15 and use DRM to disable to movie after a couple weeks, then charge people another $15 to upgrade to a permanent license.
It's time to rethink the movies theatre experience. Movie theaters should be a more private, on demand experience, and should be tied to other forms of entertainment like arcades and restaurants.
It is simple. The movies do seem to suck more in recent years, but it is also due to netowrk television actually being worth watching now, too! Not to mention Tivo and all its spawns. I'd prefer to watch a cool show I would have otherwise missed at home as opposed to going to watch a lame cowboy movie any day!
I liked War of the Worlds. No idea why it wasnt as popular as it shouldve been. Maybe I liked it because I read the book years ago.
Lord of War, Munich, Syriana. Are these bad movies? Its just that theyre not 'blockbuster' movies like Terminator 2 and Titanic, but theyre good. Maybe they should make Terminator 4, and not make it anything like Terminator 3.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
Pixar didn't release anything to theaters in 2005. Of course revenue is down.
I know movies. Some of them look great on my Home Theater.
What is this they call a movie theater? I think I went once with my parents but can't really remember...
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
Even movies I like are so LOUD now that I get a headache while wearing ear plugs.
I don't mind audience noise related to the movie. I do mind cell phone conversations, crying babies, and teens messing around making noise unrelated to the movie.
I went to a movie about 3 months ago- there were maybe four of us in the theatre and it was super loud- I asked the manager to turn down the sound and she -refused- and gave me back my money rather than turn it down to a reasonable level.
Finally- the commercial load is absurd. I'm paying good money and if I want a decent seat I -must- sit through 15 to 20 minutes of commercials. It irritates the hell out of me. Even worse is obvious product placement. The second I see them, it breaks me out of my suspension of disbelief and pisses me off unless the movie is poking fun at product placement.
The combination of these are why my movie going has dropped from 20-30 movies a year to 3 to 4 movies a year. It's just not worth it- there is too much other entertainment to engage in vs getting pissed off at being treated so poorly by Hollywood's grasping after every last dime of revenue.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
I really despise this weak argument that if movies didn't "suck" these days, that piracy would decrease. I'm sorry, but please explain this to me:
...THEN...
a) Movies sucks
b) Since movies suck, download sucky movies for free
c) Movies start to NOT suck
d) Download cool movies for free
So what the hell, who is actually making this argument?
C'mon Hollywood, if the best and brightest idea is re-making king-kong
no wonder people just rent movies.
Think about it: I've been watching on average 8 movies a week on VHS/DVD since the early '80s. During my parents' time, folks might have seen 1 movie a week in the theatre/on TV. Yeah, the quality/originality of movies have gone down over the last 25 years. But the sheer volume of movies our generation has been exposed to must factor into the equation, either raising our expectations or dulling our senses.
You can now buy TV shows on DVD. If you get one season of a TV show thats probably 10+ hours of viewing. It takes time to watch those shows, times you aren't spending at the movies.
That and the movie going experience is terrible.
With current home entertainment systems as good as they are, who wants to go out and pay all that money to sit in a room full of strangers? Where you can't even pause the movie to go to the pisser? I love my home system, I paid money for it, and I want to enjoy it. I don't want to watch movies I have already seen on it. I wish they would release dvds at the same time as the theaters played it.
...
I believe you are looking for the venerable "independent film."
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
- really good movies, where there's no real chance that a remake will improve it (e.g. Pink Panther) and it's far more likely that a remake will be total crap
I was thinking about this: remakes are common in all fields of performance, but nowhere is it as reviled as in movies. For example, we have recordings of Leonard Bernstein conducting the Chichester Psalms; why should anyone else bother performing it? Because it's interesting to see how a different conductor and a different orchestra interpret the piece; because they can contribute something new to it. (And after all, the programs of most orchestras are almost entirely "remakes"; premieres are a small percentage of the output of most musical ensembles.) Same goes for theatre: why do we keep seeing new performances of Hamlet? Partly for the live performance aspect, but partly because 1) a number of actors want the chance to play the role themselves, and 2) audiences appreciate a different spin on an old favorite.
So why not do it in movies? Peter Jackson made "King Kong" because he thought, "I like that movie, I'd like to put my own spin on it." If someone really liked the Pink Panther and wanted to do the same thing, I have no problem with that. It could be interesting, if done well. Even if Steve Martin couldn't possibly "top" Peter Sellers, he could still be good, and do something interesting and unique.
The real problem is not that movies are remade, but that they aren't remade well. But a lot of movies aren't being made well, whether remake or not.
Just a thought.
I'm posting this up here as both an extension of the previous post, and because this otherwise won't get seen.
I haven't seen this mentioned here, but I think it's very important.
I'm 17, and have a number of friends that are in this group that many here, myself included, tend to complain about.
I remember complaining to a friend who was trying to coax me into going out with a bunch of her friends to the movies (zomg, I'm friends with girls). I proceeded to complain about many of the things mentioned here, especially the crappy picture and sound in the theaters here, and she said something that just blew me away.
"You know what your problem is? You go to the theater for the movie."
HOLY MOTHER OF--
Yeah. So my theory is this. The movie studios and the movie theaters are targetting two different groups of people as far as I can tell.
The studios want people to go in and see the movies. The tickets bring their source of revenue, and the rest isn't very important.
The theaters want the teenagers who come in, spend way too much on cheap treats, then goof off in the movie theater, making it miserable for everyone else. And the theaters don't care about me--I don't buy anything from their concessions. They really don't care if I stay home and watch it on my dad's system, because I'm not making them as much money as my friends would.
The problem is just that older people or even those who are like me and go to the movies to see the movie, are being driven out by the (IMO) inconsiderate youth who want to hang out and screw around and don't care what anyone else thinks. Because they aren't watching the movie, there's no incentive to improve the picture and sound quality in the theaters. Because they'll go anyway for the social aspect of it, there's no incentive to clean up the theater and kick out those who are making trouble, as those are the best customers!
It's a sad disconnect. Shame the theaters won't do something to attract both crowds, like showing the same movie in two theaters, one for teens and people with children, and another (perhaps even priced at a premium) for those who are like us Slashdot readers that are going for the movie itself.
Give us something we really want to see and you'll revert this "unfavourable" trend!
Check out the TV series Firefly, now available on DVD. It's by the same guy who did Serenity (many of the same actors as well), but much, much more interesting and fun to watch (for the most part). I hadn't even heard of it when it aired, and only found out about it when Serenity came out on DVD and people were talking about it in the blogosphere... Definitely worth checking out...
"I like systems, their application excepted", George Sand (French)
It will always be easy to point to specific movies and say that movies today suck. But that is a lie. There have been at least a dozen or two top notch, unique movies that even the sharpest critics rate above 8/10 or call "great movies" in each of the last 4 years.
Things were really dry prior to the huge upsurge in piracy, but just because the marketing machines are pumping crap, there's no excuse for any claim that movies today suck. That's just something people who haven't been paying attention say because it used to be blaringly true.
This is collection of my own thoughts and several I read here. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and whatnot.
So we have:
1) Passion of Christ brining out non-routine movie crowds in 2004 and the spin being that 2005 was down instead of 2004 being a spike.
2) The cost of a movie for 2 at $50-$70 versus the $15 cost of a DVD or $3.95 charge of a movie on-demand (Comcast)
3) TiVO/DVR/iTMS/DVD releases allowing television shows to grow expansive plots with each episode containing a sub-plot. Complete with film stars (and film drawing stars from television illustrates the acting and directing capability of small-screen producers).
4) The complete lack of social respect in most movie theaters vesus the availability of mass-luxury electronics including sweeping television sets and 7.1 surround sound (in living rooms with Ralph Lauren paint and Crate and Barrel furniture).
4b) This is a vicious cycle for as consumers invest in their home theaters, they invest less in movie theaters. Less investment in movie theaters leads to crappy movie theaters which are now compared with everyman mass-luxe home theater.
4c) Climate of fear leading to dislike for unknown people. Since "the world changed on 9/11", Americans on the whole (I think) have developed intense xenophobia as the mass media reinforces the alien nature of "the other" (Muslims, etc) and the mass public (I work in market research) is retreating to their familiar environs. I see it in movie theaters here in San Francisco, a rowdy ground of Asian teenagers walks in and the middle-aged white couples tense up... not in annoyance but in raw fear.
5) Copyright strangulation diminishing the public domain. Control is necessary for size and size is necessary for huge returns, however, large business is extremely efficient at optimizing processes and very poor at innovation, which is exactly what we see now. The stories are being told perfectly. When you see an update like Oceans 11, you see it retold flawlessly in technical terms and by a new generation of actors whose practice is refined for the screen. The companies have optimized translating scripts into films and they're optimized generating new scripts based on past success. However, their fear of being left out of the profit situation (and lack of trust of people, see 4c) has lead to draconian content laws that prevent new content from being developed and refined.
5) (con't). Look at the innovation in hip hop and techno with sampling and how a genre based on reprocessing old stories and integrating them with new stories has taken over the world. There is no "new" techno, there is only an evolution of previous techno. Without that feeder cycle, film is destined to choke itself.
5b) We don't have to worry about the MPAA or the RIAA, they are killing themselves.
6) Star (and agent) salaries are so high, it's hard to make a decent return on a film. We hold our idols to the same constraints we hold ourselves. A lot of my friends are making less than they did in 2000 despite working longer and harder. Star salaries-- entertainment-- is a derivative of income. Income goes down, entertainment spending goes down, consequently star salary should go down. Instead, the stars have tried to supplement their income with advertising revenue and product placement. The sum total of the situation is that our stars have gone from idols and heros to prostitutes whom live out our fantasies. This is a generalization, yes, but very apt for the state of film in 2006.
7) Just like television, instead of bigger and fewer channels there will be more, smaller expressions. As culture fragments, no longer does the same story appeal to everyone.
--
What I see in summation of this information is that overall, entertainment is not entertaining any more. It's escaping, it's indulging in emotional stimulation, it's a personal pursuit, it's a household expense.
Life is supposed to be fun and so are movies!
Much like rich girls
We read the same thing every few days. We know that something is going wrong somewhere and while all the statistics prove what many slashdotter already know we don't see an end to the trend.
At what point do we finally say, "Stick a fork in it's ass, it's dead"?
The quality could come back but, please, don't hold your breath... but I tell you what, take a look at the IMDB message boards and you'll see there really isn't a common consensus among the joe sixpacks of the world. I think Hollywood is just as bad off as you or I, they know movies sell but none of them seem to sell well enough to enough of the market to make a real impact.
I think it's going to end up like the music industry; we're going to have enough choices that there will be no real mainstream any longer, just a number of small markets that seem to do well enough if you're willing to not make the kind of money Pink Floyd did at their peak.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
This is the first movie I will be seeing in a theater since the ultra-shakey Bourne Supremacy. I have high hopes that VfV will be a fantastic piece of work awash in a sea of crap...
Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?
The theatre costs a lot of money for what you get. To get in is about 10 bucks a person. Popcorn, pop, snacks are very expensive. That means going to see a show is probably at least a 30 dollar venture for two people. You get to see about 10 minutes of previews which you may have already seen before. The sound and picture are good, but for most movies the improvement in presentation over common home theatre systems doesn't justify the price.
For me, new DVD releases are the _new_ new releases. I rent movies and watch them at home where I can pop my own popcorn and invite whoever I want and always get a good seat. No driving, no fuss, a fraction of the cost (which is smaller the more people who watch it with you).
DVD piracy may be a small factor but I think at some point people are tired of being gouged and are content to watch things at home. When times are tough (rising cost of housing, living), stuff like treating yourself to a movie at the first to get cut back.
which of these would you like to see?
brokeback mountin?
transamerica?
capote?
There is a reason why people dont watch movies. Movies are gay. literally.
In addition, while running the commercials before the movie starts, they intersperse them with trivia questions. THEY ARE THE LAMEST TRVIA QUESTIONS EVER!! It gives me a headache to read even one of those questions aimed squarely at the knuckle-dragging great unwashed masses.
It's as if they were to say: "We think that all of you are stupid, and here is something that might be too hard for you yet is important enough to take up your attention for a while. Rmember, going to the movie theatre is an incredibly important part of having a life. Don't be currupt. If you don't go to the THEATRE to watch "Crash," the best movie of all time, then you are an idiot and far beneath the holy royalness of the lowest gutter dweller in Hollywood. Enjoy the trivia, suckers!!!"
In Australia, we have Gold Class Theatres, run by Village Cinemas. They've really thought about what it is to go see a film as an adult, and it really works. Most of the time, the Gold Class sessions are full, so it is working.
You book your seat online before arriving, so you know where you're going to sit, and no queues. You can pick up your ticket from an ATM style thing out the front if you want to get it quickly, or you can go in and pick it up whilst you're ordering your goodies for the film.
You can order hot food, pizzas, cakes (including creme brulee and lemon tarts... even choc top ice creams - but adult flavors like rum n raison and dark chocolate), champagne, wine, beer, decent cafe quality coffee, coke (if you must) to be delivered to you seat during the film, which is placed on a little table between every two seats... which has an inbuilt ice bucket. As there's so few seats, the waiters do not have to lean over someone else or squeeze past hundreds of others to give you your stuff.
They have 30 or so reclining armchairs in a small theater with a smallish screen, but top notch acoustics and audio gear, usually not too loud (although Return to the King was painfully loud).
There's heaps of space between you and the next person in any direction. Even if you're laying down flat and Sideshow Bob is in front of you, you can still see the screen.
As the tickets cost $25, and the food aint cheap, it keeps the plebs and kids away for the most part. Sure I spend like $60 or $70 going out to see a film, but it's been an enjoyable experience, no brats, great food and beverages and I've felt like I got my money's worth.
So quit whining about crap theaters, and ask for your own Gold Class theaters!
Now if only they make more films like Amerlie and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and less shit like Date Movie, I'd be inclined to go to Gold Class more often.
Andrew van der Stock
Thus, the movie remake is duplication and lack of creativity, while performing something that was once performed is not copying that original performance (just because Kathleen Dupre performed Elgar's cello concerto like nobody else doens't mean that I don't want to see any other performance of it, because I'll never be able to see hers)
Once upon a time I went to see a movie at the Strand Theatre on Market Street in San Francisco, California.
I was late; the previews were just ending when I bought the ticket and went in.
In darkness, I had to quickly find a seat.
I sat down. About five minutes later, I noticed this funny gross feeling around my seat.
I reached down. The seat was SOAKING WET. And WARM.
Fearing the worst, I warily sniffed my hand. Yep. Urine.
I ended running out of that theatre and back home. I must have beaten the Boston Marathon during that run. Those pants were in the trash and I as showered in less than three minutes after I entered my apartment.
I never went back to the Strand Theatre after that.
Cleara
I wholefully agree with that movies these days lack content over SFX but there is this little voice inside of me that is telling me that maybe i'm just getting older. Movies are not made for me anymore, I'm out of the demographic. Isn't it possible that we here at ./ are plainly growing up? I'm not saying movies are great now, i don't think so but I wonder how i would have felt if i was 11 and not 31.
I remember my dad always saying (when i was growing up) that the movies these days where bad and lacked content. I'm just concerned that the same thing might be happinging to me.
Didn't George Lucas, like, totally just predict this would happen?
So, it's like he was a Jedi Director (4,5,6) who was seduced by the Dark Side (1,2,3), but then foresaw the balancing of the Force in Hollywood.
hmm...even his life sounds like a rehashed plotline...
>>
>> Come on, it's in the first sentence of the article. 40 percent of
>> the 23 billion dollars in total sales was in the US, not 40 percent
>> of the decline. -- Joe5678
>
> The sentence is not wrong. -- B3ryllium
The summary is wrong. You're going to the special hell for not RTFA:
"Hollywood movie ticket sales around the world dropped by 7.9 percent last year [...] Movie ticket receipts in North America dipped by six percent in 2005"
Seriously though, you know the MPAA is going to try using that agrument to get some kind of new legislation passed or in court against some yet to be named foe.
I read an earlier version when this first happened. The police didn't want to charge the Australian lady (who would?) and explained to the cell phone lady that they would have to jail her if she pressed charges because she had also been abusive - cursing up a storm and so forth. She still pressed charges, I think the cell phone lady is still awaiting sentencing to determine how long she will go to jail for... she actually could be fined quite a lot and put away for a few months as I remember, and it seemed likely the judge would do so.
So, I think the stupid cellphone lady will be far worse off in the end, as it should be.
A few years ago some people were talking really loudly in the seat next to my girlfriend, so she asked them really politley if they could be not talk so we could hear the movie. Well they just went all sarcastic and said to us "well the people on the other side of you are talking a bit, why don't you ask them to shut up". So I asked those people politley if they would stop talking as well (they were only talking every now and then, very softly - it hadn't bothered me), and they said sure... so then he glared at us and said something else rude I can't remember. I just cannot understand how people can be so put off by you asking them not to talk in the middle of a movie!
It actually put us off going to movies for about three years.
Sometimes I think every movie theater should have an employee with a tranqilizer gun in the back and you could covertly call in an air strike as it were if someone were being obnoxious.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I find almost every time I go to a movie at the theater nowadays, the other members of the audience annoy the crap out of me. Between the teenagers opening up the emergency exits to let their friends in free of charge, the people who don't turn off their cell phones, and the idiots that shout out obscenities, etc. I find the movie going experience to be more stressful than entertaining. The worst was about a 15 year old kid that decided to impress his hoodlum buddies by throwing a large cup worth of softdrink on the audience. Free refills, he wasn't out more than a walk to the refreshment stand.
- Long lines, waiting to buy a ticket. If it's a popular new release, multiply the crowds and waits by 5.
- Ridiculously expensive food and drink at the theater.
- Along with all of the movie trailers, we now get several minutes of product advertisements before the movies.
- People talking all around me, walking back and forth in front of me, kicking my chair behind me.
- Loud eaters around me. (I have a thing about loud eaters.. it bugs me a lot more than it should. I always end up near a very loud eater of popcorn, nachos, or something like that).
Yeah, that 'silver screen' experience is great..
I think I'll wait for the DVD release, and see it in my home theater.. with surround sound and HDTV, and a pause button.
During my college days, way back in the 1970s, I used to go to one of the local movie theaters a couple times a week. One was what we called a "repertory theater." They showed a frequently-changing bill with classic old movies interspersed with more recent films. I saw a lot of great films, and became a real movie buff. I often dragged friends along with me to see movies I really loved.
Eventually the theater changed hands. The last time I went there, the manager blocked my way to the ticket booth. I was carrying my book bag because I'd just got off work. He insisted that I was taking outside food into the theater -- something I had never done -- and refused to let me, or the friend I had with me, buy tickets. I never went back, and within a year or two, the theater was sold and converted into a restaurant. It's said that the sale included a restrictive covenant barring the new owner, or any future owner, from ever converting the building back into a theater.
I still went to movies at other theaters, but early in the '80s some theaters started interspersing commercials among the coming attractions. That practice angered me so much that, whenever a theater showed a commercial, I would shout, "Boo! No commercials!" loudly enough to be heard and understood in the projection booth. Often this would get a small round of applause. I would then go out and get my money back, and go home without seeing the movie. This became frustrating after a while. At some point in the mid-80s, I gave up. For about ten years, I never went to a movie theater.
About ten years ago, a new theater opened near here, with big screens, great sound systems, and stadium seating, and I tried again. I was very happy to see that they were not showing the commercials that had driven me out of the theaters years earlier, and I started going to movies again.
A few years ago, the commercials came back. Nobody seemed to mind except me. The last time I tried to see a movie at that theater, they were playing an endless string of commercials, interrupted only when the movie started. (Actually, the commercials, continued playing for a few seconds after the actual program started.) I haven't been back to that theater, either. It's going to make one enormous restaurant, I must say.
When all you have is an axe, everything looks like a grindstone.
Well, thanks for breaking it gently to a fellow Firefly fan :)
... score! :)
As an aside, my Firefly DVD came in handy at work today, AND I got to watch the barfight scene
I don't really want anyone to see it. At least no one of the non-nerd camp. Hollywood insiders who read slashdot can get stuffed. Movie theaters have been dying ever since cell phones came out. Decades ago, this began. The only reason we went to pay homage to the Lord of the Rings is to show Theater owners what they _could_ have had as an audience a long long time ago. Now that the financial message has been delivered, we are done with them. Kaput, finished, over. I refuse to say why, or what Hollywood's specific cultural crimes are.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419677/
There is simply no scale on which to compare this British film made on a small budget with fresh actors
to the mindless 10th rate drivel of Hollywood. Warning: This is a real film.
It's not that people are not watching movies because they suck, it's because more and more people are investing in home theatres that are capable of delivering the cinema experiance at home with added comforts, accesability and customization.
That statement isn't very original but it's also why this is not news. The digital age has many casualities but the MPAA is not one of them. The cinemas were simply used by the MPAA to push their product but they have moved on to DVD's and home entertainment as it is more lucrative and the demand is there.
Cinema tickets are slumping and it's a poor time to invest in the super-plex but Hollywood is making more money than ever with the advent of quality, affordable (more than before anyways) home theatre.
But as per usual, Hollywood is producing garbage.
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
the moviegoing experience has changed a lot in the last 15 years. People are less considerate these days. From the lazy parents to people habitually checking their cell phones in the theatre, its just too much. I think that the explosion in home theater is partly to blame. People are just contitioned to do whatever they want while the movie is on. Take calls, talk to the screen, let the kids run around.
I love going to the movies. But I choose to go to the art-house theatres near me. The crowds are more considerate and quiet.
For $20 I can rent 4 new releases on DVD and that's in australia too. I get everything that you have mentioned and more in my living room. Also the food is fraction of the cost since I can get my friends to bring food over. The seating is limited, the screen is smaller, but the accoustics are better. I'm sure the initial cost of my HT has paid itself off.
Why a tranquilizer gun? A Silenced .223 round through the back of the head from the projectionist windows would be far more effective!
I've got a big screen HDTV, progressive scan DVD, DTS surround sound... microwave popcorn and my favorite beer.
more enjoyable and cheaper at that... nuff said.
i posted it from work.
I work for one of the largest movie theatre chains in the U.S. so I'd say I have a slightly unique perspective on all this. As a manager at a theatre I get to see the numbers behind the scenes. How much money we pull in where. What our profitability is based on attendance, etc. The reason I see a sharp decline in movie going audiences is fairly simple. No it's not that Hollywood movies are boring and uninspired. It's not that people don't like that fact that rude teenagers interrupt their shows by talking on cell phones. It's just the complete loss of the movie theatre experience. Now, here me out on this. When was the last time you actually thought about going to the movies as an actual experience. Sitting in a room with the lights dimmed low so you can watch a huge picture on the screen.
There is just a big difference with the attitude people have going into the whole movie theatre idea as opposed to days gone by. I can remember when I used to get really psyched to see a movie on the screen. It's just something that can't be replicated in a home theatre. I don't care if you have a 5.1 channel surround sound system and a 42" plasma screen tv, it's just not that same. I think one of the main declines is the lack of showmanship in movie theatres(mine included). It's more of a get the people in, hope they enjoy the show, get them out, and get the next group in. There is nothing special about it anymore. I can't give specific examples of why it doesn't feel the same, it just doesn't. I'm sure the aforementioned people talking on cell phones, and the definitive lack of quality in movies contributes, but that isn't the entire thing. Movies just aren't special anymore.
I can relate one of my best movie going experiences, Kingdom of Heaven. Now most people will groan when I say that, because the movie itself wasn't particularly good. The reason the experience was so great for me, was a certain perk I have enjoyed as a manager. I got to watch the movie entirely by myself in the auditorium. Imagine 498 empty seats(this was a huge auditorium), the exact center of both the screen and the surround sound, the sound turned slightly up. Just you and the movie. It's an incredibly personal experience. It made the movie just that much better. That specialness is exactly what's missing from the movie experience nowadays. When I see a movie during normal business hours, I just feel like I'm just another person, not someone the theatre even remotely cares about.
I could go on to say that customer service has declined in general across the board and not just in the movie theatre industry, but that's another post for another story.
Maybe someone out there can come up with a solution to the problem. If so, let me know and I'll pass it along to my superiors.
In the UK a director has released a film which has been offered straight for download at the same time as it was released on TV: "The Road to Guantanamo. It was shown at the Berlin Film Festival but I guess Channel 4 (the UK arts channel) decide to buy the rights to show it here. It's an 'reconstruction/ documentary' kind of film so not mainstream pulp but it's interesting to see this method of release. I was a bit disappointed to find you actually have to *pay* to download the film from Tiscali but nevertheless it's an interesting approach, I'll wonder if we'll see more of this kind of 'parallel release' in future?
My point is, genius, that while I don't have to be a character in a movie, I tend to not watch movies that have themes I do not find interesting. 2 gay sheep herders in love is not something I find interesting. In fact, if the theme is "gay" it pretty much defaults to me not wanting to see it. I don't really want to see 2 men kiss, fondle each other, or speak love words to each other, all of which you can pretty much count on seeing in any movie that involves a gay theme. Now, you want to put two women up there, then you've got something I might find interesting.
But thank you for asking that "Insightful" question. I personally can't see how people could be so stupid as to compare sexual themes to occupational themes, and not see the difference, but hey, you are that stupid, so I congratulate you.
Since i have a student discount, i'm thankful that AMC just bought out Loews. With AMC i can see a showing for $6.75 instead of $8.75. Is it bad that I see $7 as a good price for a movie. Anyway, my friends and I didn't have much to do so we went to the theater. With out $2 discount we bought tickets for Date Movie . Now i know, this isn't going to be Oscar quality, but i felt since we had so little to do we could laugh at some totally stupid shit for a while. But seriously, what the fuck was that? I understand that the movie is going to be bad and stupid, but seriously, this was beyond belief. For those who aren't familiar, it is from the people who made Scary Movie, and basically makes fun of all the date/romantic comedies from the past short while. The first problem was, half the movie was Meet The Parents/Fockers. Second, most of the time, they didn't even change the dialogue of what was going on, they would just have a tiny twist and hope it was enough. i.e. "I have nipples (whatever his name was), can you milk me?" He then lifts his shirt up and shows he has 8 nipples. Holy shit! Alert the press, Eddie Griffin is half cat! The second problem was, there wasn't a plot. It was a bunch of changed clips, thrown together with softcore porn in the middle. There were other problems too numerous to mention, but here's the kicker. The movie was just over an hour. Thankfully, this let us out in time to sneak into 16 Blocks , which I am sorry will not get the money for our viewing. While most of this post will be lost on the fact that there are already too many comments to read, i did find a list of stuff being remade of recent and upcoming. . Yeah... it's disgusting.
VIKI, the aformentioned robot in the movie, did NOT 'sacrifice' the first law or any such thing; she even flat out states, she reinterprets the First Law to mean something closer to the Zeroth law (survival and welfare of the collective the human species, more important than individuals.) According to how her program evolved, she wasn't breaking the First law, hence she wouldn't turn into a steaming pile of positronic goo. I thought it was a pretty clever meditation on how a sufficiently advanced mind can abstract away from the literal interpretation of some set of rules, and a good explication of the evolution of the Zeroth law that Asimov postulated would happen in sufficiently advanced robot minds. It also did a good job of showing why the Zeroth law sucked so very, very much.
(This is not directed at Parent) And I for the life of me cannot figure out why 'I, Robot' the film is the geek community's favorite red-headed step-child. I liked it immensely as faithful to the spirit and tone of Asimov's works, it was beautifully rendered (as parent mentioned), decently acted, well written, and above all, entertaining. Unlike most hollywood faire passed up the opportunity to do the 'Frankenstein' remake that most of these movies take (pretty explicitly in dialogue, in fact, probably because Asimov routinely bitched about Robot Frankensteins in sci-fi). If people are going to bitch about movies, there are much better choices.
All the techniques ever used to make men moral have been themselves thoroughly immoral... (Nietzsche)
However, last year brought three movies to my neighborhood that were superb: Capote, The Constant Gardener, and Broken Flowers. Films made for grown ups, intelligent and artful, assuming a sophisticated audience and as such not so simplified that the explosions have more syllables than the dialogue.
That's exactly three times more than I went out to see in each of the previous two years. And here's the not-so-secret secret: work of this caliber is being made all the time. It's just not shown at the octoplex. You need to do a bit of work to inform yourself, you need to have courage to try out different film styles, and you need to read subtitles. If that's not for you, fine; there's always another Spiderman movie coming down the chute.
Although I love movies, I'm not worried about either the fate of Hollywood or the corporate theater chains. They pretty much don't exist for me, anyway. If the chains care to book interesting films in our area, yeah, I'll be in line. Otherwise I'm perfectly content getting brilliant cinema in the mail and popping my own popcorn.
nothing is more hetero than girl on girl!
I used to love watching movies in the big screen. Not anymore. The theaters I go to, show *45* minutes of ads before the movies begin. Gee, 45. I barely see TV nowadays for the same reason.
Maybe they should go back to making movies that actually ought to be movies, instead of trying to use an 800 square foot screen as a venue for stage plays, pop songs, slide shows, and childish ruminations on the nature of reality / consciousness / what it means to be human.
Or it's possible they just aren't filling the public's demand for novelty documentaries.
How about making going to the movies affordable again??
The last time I went to the movies, there were 5 of us and the total bill was $60 just for the tickets, and another $60 for a tub of popcorn...
Ridiculous... now I just wait for the movie to come out on Netflix...
I don't think it's just because they suck (though I agree that they are getting weaker and weaker). I know I'm not alone when I say that I have no interest in going to a theater to see a movie no matter how good it is. I wait for it to come out on video.
I've seen it posted ehre before so I won't take credit for the idea but the right people need to realize that fans demand their movies in new ways. Release a movie to video at the same time it hit the theaters and you will see a greater following. By the time it hits the shelves, I may have forgotten about it. That still is not enough to get me into a theater.
Does anybody really believe movies are getting worse?
Why doesn't Hollywood come out with some original movies, instead of remaking everything. I'd be more inclined to spend $30 for a couple hours to see a movie that I've never seen before, and not just some new special effects from the same movie I've seen a hundred times. The list of remakes and sequels released in the past couple years is probably boggling. I wouldn't even want to try and list them.
The biggest problem I see is just bad movies. I've found that Rotten Tomatoes is a good guide to the quality of new releases. Take a look most weeks and you'll see one decent movie and four bad ones in the top five releases. Considering that half of the good ones won't appeal to me based on subject matter, that means there's only one appealing movie every 2-3 weeks.
I'd like to see less of the formulaic filler clogging the theaters. Try to show more smaller or independent films. For example, I'd love to see all the short films that received Oscar nominations this year. How about showing them together in place of a regular feature?
I don't think that theaters are obsolete. Sure the popcorn is expensive, but I can choose to buy it or eat before. Cell phones are rarely a problem here in DC, at least now that most theaters have a "silence your cell phone" message before the feature starts. The experience could be improved with better food options including good coffee or beer. And during the Lord of the Rings trilogy I definitely appreciated my local theater that has Tempur-Pedic seat cushions.
For my two cents, here are my favorite movies of the past year:
AlpineR
I think you're describing "The Hostel 2: Breakfast at Redmond"
The word is both used for noun and verb. You put the flim in the camera and then flim somebody.
Here is what I did after hearing the word:
http://kimbriggs.com/songs/flim-flam.html
-KB
I meant this oneh tml
http://kimbriggs.com/songs/rastafari-private-eye.
All in all, I'd rather see the new blockbuster on the big screen, rather than some crappy pirate version..
I recently had cause to write to MyVue because of an incident with annoying kids in the cinema, whose idea of the movie-watching experience includes shouting, swearing and setting off ringtones every 5 minutes. Sadly, leathering the crap out of them is the kind of thing that appears to be frowned upon these days.
I was amused by the trailer that played before the film, you know the one, the anti-piracy "some viewers may choose to watch a pirate copy" crap, where the picture-perfect audience all sit around, arm-in-arm laughing, screaming, eating their overpriced popcorn.
Anyway, I wrote to MyVue contrasting my experience with that in the trailer and received 9 free tickets instead of the requested refund. So they missed the point entirely.
Fast forward a few days and King Kong is out - a picture crying out to be seen in the cinema. And 9 free tickets burning a hole in my pocket.
So what did I do? I waited ages for a decent dvdrip of King Kong to come out so I could watch it in the privacy of my own home, away from little bastards who think they are far more entertaining than the film. Could have used the free tickets there, but chose not to. Didn't want a film I was looking forward to ruined.
So I chose to ruin it for myself, by watching it on a 28" 4:3 CRT tube, in paltry stereo.
I'm willing to bet I still enjoyed it more there, under those conditions, than I would have at MyVue telling snot-noses not to keep setting their 'funny' ringtones off every 5 minutes.
If the Cinema chains want to get people back, they can start by cleaning up their own damn acts, and actually making it into somewhere you look forward to going.
I'm sure I'm not alone in this.
> jennifer lopez or kate hudson
jennifer lopez and kate hudson in a lesbo cowgirl movie, now your talking, they could call it
Spankbutt Mountain
coming back to a another poster's comment, it was the gay "cowboy" bit that got me. Maybe if they were gay jewish cowboys? It is like that Billy Elliot film, hardass northern lad wants to learn ballet. It is like who can come up with the most ridiculous idea for a story?
there is a 75th remake of a 1960s chick flick in every 4-screen theater across the country, and possibly two or three in a 16 to 20 screen nauseaplex.
if I want to see "the shaggy dog," I want fred mcmurray starring.
up with originals, screw the clones.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Why would I go to a movie theater and wait in line, walk on a sticky floor, and see a movie in a room with a badly calibrated sound system and scratches on the screen?
They can connect the fall in movie theater ticket sales with the rise in DVD sales (home and rentals). DVDs offer extra features, subtitles, fast forward and rewind. All for the same price as a couple of tickets to the theater (w/ popcorn). And you dont have to schedule around a DVD.
If movie theaters want to survive, they are going to have to offer much more than just the movies and a snack bar.
Some suggestions:
Card readers that you swipe to go into a movie and the bill shows up on your credit card or a bill at the end of the month.
Special screenings.
Fix the damn theaters so they look and sound PERFECT.
Merchandising or some other way of getting involvement so that people who see the movie in the theater get something more than the DVD viewers. A program, a shirt, a coupon to visit a special website forum.
New ideas in movies would be nice. Remakes are a defensive strategy which is not working well. People pay to see new ideas.
Lets face it: There are far MORE movies and far BETTER movies showing on far MORE screens then ever in the past. But movie theaters themselves may be inconvenient compared to home entertainment. I have to drive an hour to see a movie with my friends at a good theater.
You are going to have to make the theaters better than waiting for the DVD and seeing it at leisure.
Oh, please note that I am not trolling or picking a fight or anything. I'm specifically asking you because you seem to know what you're talking about.
Thanks.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
Movies are dropping revenue because...
- It costs too much, compared to the alternatives (buying the DVD).
- You have to sit through 20 minutes of commercials now.
- People are becoming more anti-social and don't want to go to a theatre.
- I have a $3000 DLP HDTV with 7.1 and all the trimmings, why go to a theatre?
- Ok, maybe piracy, but that's insignificant.
- Oh yeah, and the overall quality of movies sucks now.
- The internet reduces the time it takes to figure out the movie sucks.
Most importantly, though, none of these are changing. Maybe, just maybe, the sucky-factor might turn itself around, but every other cause shows no sign of letting up. So that means we're at the end of an era, and the studios are just going to have to adapt. It's a fact of business; one sure way to bring about the death of your product is to keep making it the same way.
Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. - John 14:6 NLT
In your example, it was good, because it was amusing. I don't mind those kind of product placements. Likewise, I don't mind catching a glimpse of a Pepsi vending machine in the background, or noticing that the protagonist is driving a BMW, because hey, he's got to drive something, and they have Pepsi machines in the real world, so why not.
What bothers me are blatant, shameless plugs that serve no other purpose. Like "iRobot," for example, when Will Smith makes a point of showing off his "vintage" Converse shoes that are totally out of place in the future world, and serve no other purpose in the plot. There's absolutely no reason for the director to devote 30 - 45 seconds to making sure the audience knows that Will Smith is wearing Converse shoes. Maybe if it came up later in the film, and they ended up saving his life (where regular, period shoes would have failed him), I could forgive it, but IIRC, they never came up again. He devoted 1/120th of the film to making sure we knew Will wore Cons, then left it at that.
That's annoying.
Like woodworking? Build your own picture frames.
/Agree ..
.. ..
With widescreen tv so cheap now
you can get big S&S at home
and no one to bug you when you light up that spliff
If a movie isn't showing at the Alamo Drafthouse, I usually don't go. You can't beat cheap tickets, no commercials, respectful patrons (no little kids screaming, no teens talking on cell phones, no jackasses throwing popcorn at you), great food and beer served during the movie, great staff, special events, quirky movies, and weekly special events. Um .. then again, if you don't live in central or south Texas, you can ignore this :-)
-ryry
Box office revenues aren't declining because Hollywood is telling stories that have been told before. After all, don't every story ever told boil down to one of something like eight possible plot lines? The problem is that Hollywood insists on telling stories that have been told before in the video medium. Remakes of old movies and TV shows, as well as far too many sequels where the plot from the first movie is recycled and tweaked for the second (or third, or fourth) movie, are par for the course these days.
Bad acting, poor writing, and a dependance on CG/special effects over plot do have an impact, it's true. And when you're making a decision about whether to go to the theater or not, prices can be prohibitive. But how can you justify spending $X to go to the movies when you've already seen the first/original King Kong/Star Wars/Jurassic Park/Psycho/Amityville Horror/Pink Panther etc. on the big screen? What's the thrill of seeing it again with slightly better film quality and special effects?
Movies become blockbuster hits the first time around primarily because the audience feels that they are watching something original. (Stories taken from books, plays, comic books, etc., while often made into movies, don't have the same "been there, done that" feel on screen because of the change in medium.) In King Kong and other films that rely heavily on special effects, when the original came to the screen, it was the first time that those exact plots had been aired, and the visual effects were spectacular for the time. For movies like Psycho that depend more on plot and acting than special effects, there was still suspense because people didn't already know all the plot twists.
Box office sales will go up, film piracy or no film piracy, when Hollywood stops investing most of its money in remakes and sequels.
I don't buy this logic. There's lots of great flicks that weren't adapted from copyrighted material and there are sucky flicks that were adapted from coyprighted material. Regardless of where the premise came from, book, short story, weird dream in the middle of the night, it's the execution of the idea, the plotting, writing, scripting, acting, direction that makes it a good film vs. a bad one. Brokeback Mountain would have been a completely different film if directed by someone other than Ang Lee, or if Heath and Jay weren't the main actors. And it was adapted from Anne Proulx's short story. Remakes, sequels can be good but not if the $ goes disproportionally into SFX, hello Lucas!
It's reached the point where I refuse to enter a theatre because they're filthy, noisy and smelly. I've got a better sound system at home. The only movies I'll go to see are ones where it's nice to have a crowd around you eg. kids enjoying a Harry Potter movie or a wide-screen epic that just isn't gonna fit on my poor old 21" Samsung. Even then, I'll wait 'til the end of a run at a budget theatre when I've got the place pretty much to myself.
Almost correct. Male mainstream America is disgusted by male homosexuality and turned on by female homosexuality. The leading audience for Slashfic is female. And you thought it was bad when a girlfreind dragged you to a traditional chick flick....
//Information does not want to be free; it wants to breed.
There's nothing like that around here. So, I have a 50" widescreen TV, and play DVDs upscaled to 720p with VLC, which bypasses region coding so I can watch imports too. I have a really nice wireless keyboard to control it, which I keep on my coffee table.
Hmmm... Pizza, wine, and a movie tonight sounds relaxing.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
Have you seen this movie trailer yet?! american dreamz
it's a parody of, you guessed it! American Idol.
Why the hell would anyone want to see a movie about a damned tv show, where people make a complete fool of themselves.
I swear... movies have gone to shit lately.
In the 70's theaters began treating people like cattle. In the 80's people in theaters began acting like cattle. The transformation is now complete. Who wants to be surrounded by (or be) MPAA livestock?
Not only do we not go to the traditional theater anymore. My family hardly even rents movies anymore. That goes for rentals at the local rental shop and the "On Demand" tripe that Cablevision offers. There just isn't any compelling content to even pay $4.95 for much less $9pp.
The last 3 movies I saw in theaters were 2 IMAX features and a screening of Monty Python and the Holy Grail at our local highbrow indy-type theater. Frankly, I wasn't that impressed by IMAX given that we paid something over $10pp for 40 minutes of movie. The Holy Grail thing was more enjoyable, a reasonable price and it really was a social event with lots of people. The way movies used to be.
Hollywood has to evolve. They have no God-given rights to turn a profit. They have to earn it like everyone else. Give me something compelling to watch in a form I can't get at home, and maybe you'll see me in the theater again.
JoAnn
You have obviously not watched Serenity, that was worth the room full of strangers. It also is the only movie i have seen in theaters in the last year.
The problem is that the movie industry wants us to equate "the movie experience" with going to see an orchestra at a concert hall (you end up paying about the same price anyway...). But when was the last time you went to hear Mozart and they assaulted you with 20 minutes of television commercials?
>I really liked the Starship Troopers movie.
:p
So did I. But you have to know how to watch this movie. I've heard the producer really HATES the book and think that vision of the future is completely moronic. The book has a very serious vision of a military future, etc (you've all seen the movie).
But if he hates that vision.... then what he did was make the movie sort of a complete mockery of the book (typical "braindead military", over-hyped army style).
The end result is something so over-the-top that most people think it's complete bull. But it is, and that's the point! If you view it as a "serious" movie, you'll sure ending up thinking it sucks big time.
I, myself, laugh myself silly every time I view it.
TCG and BF were extreme stinkers and I am not going to attempt Capote (can't stand PSH).
As to Netflix, how come no one is super pissed off at Netflix for scamming us with the promise of "unlimited" movies that turns into 3 a week if you are lucky.
I come here for the love
No! Bad geek! One of the worst first (or second) dates you can do is go to a movie. You sit in silence (if you're not an ass) for 90+ minutes next to each other. It's awkward and doesn't let you get to know the other person. If the movie is bad, it's worse because it becomes boring for your date. She will transfer this feeling to you. "He's nice and all but kinda boring". Go bowling instead.
Why a tranquilizer gun? A Silenced .223 round through the back of the head from the projectionist windows would be far more effective!
Yes, but that might get something on my popcorn, never mind the mess the poor theater guys would have to clean up. They already have it bad enough cleaning whatever vile substances end up on the floor.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Actually, I rather enjoy the first MI movie. Of course, I don't watch the exact same movie everyone else is. I make two minor changes in my mind.
1) Replace Jon Voight with Peter Graves in the role as Jim Phelps. Not that Voight isn't talented, but Graves spent almost a decade in the role.
2) Replace Henry Czerny in the role of Eugene Kittridge with Leonard Nimoy reprising his role as Paris from the original series.
Aside from a quick "s/Kittridge/Paris/g" on the script, no other dialog changes needed. Having Paris as the chief would have made the motivations for Phelps a lot more heartfelt: he's not only stuck in the same basic position he's held since the days of the cold war, his current boss is someone who used to work for him, and has been promoted over his head. Add that on top of the already stated "obsolescence" motivation, and the result has a lot more depth and versimilitude.
Unfortunately, that movie couldn't have been made in the real world. The several suitcases added to the pricetag to get Graves and Nimoy on board would have been a minor problem. Having Scientology-deranged control freak Cruise as not only the lead actor but the producer to boot makes it as plausible as Xenu; neither Graves nor Nimoy would tolerate the little chicken shit. I wonder how much of the blame for the crapfest of unoriginality that Hollywood has been lately can be laid squarely at the feet of the COS?
Still, it's easy enough to imagine what might have been while watching it that I was willing to buy the DVD. Used. In the bargain "clearance" bin. Last June.
//Information does not want to be free; it wants to breed.
Maybe it had something to do with the fact that movies cost 9 dollars now to go see, and no new movie is worth 9 dollars, period. Then you have to put up with a ton of crap while you're there (mainly other people). It is pretty surprising that they didn't mention piracy, though. The MPAA and RIAA love to blame pirates for their problems.
To expand on this, some movies are being remade for different audiences and not done well. The original Pink Panther movie wasn't made for the kiddies, but adults. Regardless of what you think of the originial plot and humor, it was made for a more mature audience than the remake.
Sellers' Clouseau was a buffoon, Martin's was a clown. Synonymous? Perhaps, but I think there's difference here.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Back when I was a classical musician I noted that a number of my friends -- even other classical musicians -- would say something like "You know, I'm just not used to sitting still through a two hour concert, doing nothing but listening to an orchestra." Indeed, as people became increasingly used to movies/television, I think a purely aural experience began to feel comparatively *thin.* When was the last time you sat down and listened to, say, a Beethoven symphony all the way through while doing absolutely nothing else? For most of us, our music is background music.
I'm curious if a similar problem is beginning to afflict movies. Most of the time these days I watch television while doing something else in the background -- eating, web surfing, reading, ironing, paying bills, yoga, etc... It's as if technology is driving us towards simultaneously engaging as many sensory channels as possible. One extremely successful local movie chain here in Austin is the Alamo Drafthouse. The Alamo removes every other row and installs tables, waiters take your orders, and you can have dinner with your meal. And beer. They serve beer. (And they don't allow babies/children.) Once you get used to eating dinner and having beer with your movie, the popcorn/coke formula similarly begins to feel thin and unsatisfying.
The Alamo also succeeds because it maintains a funky Austin vibe, with offbeat films, events like amateur film night where you can bring your own movies to show, "Mr. Sinus Theater" (like MST3K but live), and the like. It's a cultural experience that makes a typical theater feel sort of like McDonalds. I tend to think this sort of approach is the wave of the future.
In my area there are hundreds of theaters to choose from within convenient distance.
However, they're all showing the same 12 movies, none of which I have any interest in going to see.
The local video store has thousands of movies, so the chances I can find something I want to watch there is generally pretty good.
The reason the studios are having problems with this is they can't understand that the American populace is no longer so narrowly undiversified that 12 movies is be enough to interest most people.
Simple, really.
My wife and I wanted to go to a movie. There wasn't one that we wanted to see. Same this week. I would rather watch Anime I have recorded on my replay or old movies I have recorded from TMC. None of the current movies really grab me enough to want to spend the money and time to go to the theater.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I think this is part of a broader issue. People are more media savvy now. You can't get somebody to buy your crap anymore, because they're trained from a very young age to know that it's crap and all the companies want is money. The public has realized that anyone trying to sell you something, no matter how awesome it seems, is full of lies and broken promises. The big media companies have dug their own grave.
Maybe someone could take the time to compare movie ratings to revenues. Would we find that revenue is declining because movies in general suck more?
So revenues at theatres are dropping. Unless you also report the revenues generated by PPV and DVDs this isn't even worth discussion. Anyone want to bet PPV, "Movies on demand" and DVD sales went UP more than 8% last year?
Armaments, 2-9-21 And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, 'O Lord, bless this Thy hand grenade' N
I can't speak for others, but for myself and my family and friends, the ticket prices are too high. The content delivered does not justify the price, so we don't buy it. I agree with many others who exclaim that Hollywood priced itself out of the market. Same goes for the new formats (BluRay/HDDVD). Why am I going to spend thousands of dollars on a new form of the same old crap? You got me once with all my old VHS movies and then having to repurchase the same movie on DVD. I won't be tricked again. Hollywood and American automakers are the only two industries in this world that blame the consumer for not buying their product.
This is a bad thing?
i don't think poor movie ticket sales are the result of movies just being bad. there've had bad movies years before without the same drop in movie ticket sales.
competition with home entertainment might account for some, but guess what - dvd and ceedee sales are down too. piracy might account for these looses too, but even a movie pirate has to buy blank ceedees and dvds.
i think the problem is more fundamental. the economy is just not doing so well. incomes for the wealthiest people are growing, but incomes for ordinary working people are down and have not recovered. that means discretionary spending on small luxuries like the movies or music is cut back. you see the same effect across the economy. even walmart sales are stalled.
when religion is no longer the opiate of the masses, governments will resort to real opiates.
With movies like Capote, Good Night and Good Luck, and Brokeback Mountain, I'm going to have to disagree that there haven't been movies lately worth going to the theater to see. These movies are masterpieces. Honest. Not kidding.
Steve Magruder, Metro Foodist
Perhaps the best thing you can do is to rent or buy the films that interest you. Film has gone through the same eras during the past 100 years that we have. Every generation has some degree of fear and contempt for the following generation, because they do not understand it. -No value judgement here; just an observation.
I saw Revenge of the Sith on opening day at a Gold Class theatre in Bangalore, India. I had the Bombay Blues but still had a good time. I'm a big guy (193cm, 200kg) but the seats were still comfortable. Tickets were only like 500 rupees ($10 USD). Wish they had something like that here in Texas; I'd be willing to pay $50 USD a seat!
Most of the best films made are not taken from things gone into public domain, they're either original plots or from books which are not public domain. Also there are as many things going into public domain as there ever have been. People talk about Steamboat Willy, but even if that did become public domain, if they did use it to make a film, wouldn't that just be another remake, the very thing you're complaining about?
Your post is a logical fallacy. You decry Hollywood having no new ideas, and then saying that it's because they're not allowed to use public domain old ideas.
Your post is just an attempt to play to the crowd by subtly inserting an anti-copyright message so you can get a few free points from the general Slashdot anti-copyright sentiment.
You've also praised manga/anime to squeeze a few mod points from anime/manga fans, even though it has nothing to do with the article.
I salute your mastery of karma-whoring.
I thought people would see Stealth and Dukes of Hazzard in the list and realize I was kidding. I guess it really was a Stealth joke.