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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
[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).
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
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've gone maybe three or four times in the past year and a half
"Hollywood, I wish I knew how to quit you..."
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!
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.
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??
Box Office sales dropped.
What happened to DVD sales?
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
- 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
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
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.
>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.
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.
Please. This sentence is hypocritical and trollish. Brokeback Mountain is a good movie with a good script.
Actually it isn't hypocritical or trollish. It's just worded horribly.
Gay Cowboys and Pimps == Movies about topics that most people don't really give a shit about. Don't believe me, look at the ticket sales. BBM may have had great writing, and even been a great movie (i don't know, haven't seen it) but very few people cared about the topic.
As far as the bad writing, do I really need to throw down examples? There are way too many to name.
My point is clear, if Hollywood wants to make more money they can do one of two things:
1) Make movies about things people care about. Even if it's not the greatest writing/acting/directing, people will see movies about things they are interested in.
or
2) Make movies with good writing. good acting and so on. There is more to movies than special effects
But if they want to maximize their profits, they can combine 1 & 2.
Can I get an eye poke?
Dog House Forum
stop making movies about gay cowboys and pimps
Comming soon to a theater near you
He's a gay cowboy.
He's a new york pimp.
While each on their own personal vendetta to solve a string of theater realted murders, this unlikely pair team up... with wacky consequences.
BACKROAD SHAFT
Staring Heath Ledger and Samuel L. Jackson
Directed by Ang Lee
(I feel a decline in my karma).
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?
"Under 2 got in free."
If you took someone under the age of two to a feature length movie, then I hate you.
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
The only movie i've looked forward to seeing lately is V for Vendetta and thats becuase its by the W brothers
You mean brother and sister?
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
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
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.
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
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 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.
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.
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.
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
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
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."
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.
And by "agree with him totally" you really mean "get the gays and the blacks out of movies!"
Because you know, there were no movies made this year without gay cowboys or pimps.
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
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?
Yeah, and if you include paying the prostitute for a threesome after the flick, then a movie costs over $500 canadian!!!! Can you believe it!!!
XML causes global warming.
Pixar didn't release anything to theaters in 2005. Of course revenue is down.
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.
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.
- 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.
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.
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
I'm not an amnesiac CIA agent, but I still enjoyed the Bourne Identity. What's your point? You have to be one of the characters in a movie to enjoy it??
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.
Why a tranquilizer gun? A Silenced .223 round through the back of the head from the projectionist windows would be far more effective!
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.
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)
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
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.
...
Serenity was by the same guy who made Firefly, not the other way around.
And how can you be a slashdot reader and not have ever heard of Firefly?
Mind->boggles;
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.
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
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.