Phone-Friendly Movie Theaters For Millennials Could Be Reality Soon (variety.com)

An anonymous reader writes: AMC Entertainment realizes Millennials' increasingly growing love for and reliance on smartphones for things, which is why it says it is open to the idea of phone-friendly movie theaters. "When you tell a 22-year-old to turn off the phone, don't ruin the movie, they hear 'please cut off your left arm above the elbow,'" Adam Aron, AMC Entertainment CEO tells Variety. "You can't tell a 22-year-old to turn off their cellphone. That's not how they live their life." Aron believes that AMC needs "to reshape our product in some concrete ways so that millennials go to movie theaters with the same degree of intensity as baby boomers went to movie theaters throughout their lives." AMC also realizes that if it allows people to use cellphones in theater, and text and talk to their friends, this might disturb the fellow citizen who just want to watch the god-damn movie in peace. He says the company is "going to have to figure out a way to do it that doesn't disturb today's audiences. [...] That's one possibility. What may be more likely is we take specific auditoriums and make them more texting-friendly."

Comments

Two Things I Want

[sehlat]

1. Broadcast the soundtrack to the phone so you can wear earphones and not be bothered by idiots who aren't watching the movie.

2. Broadcast subtitles to VR glasses on the same phone with the focus distance == screen distance. One of the main reasons I don't go to movies is hearing problems. With current technology, subtitle focus distance and screen distance are literally yards apart.

They are addressing the wrong problem

[Justt Some Guy]

Rather then bring them into a theater, why not just put up a screen in their snack bar/cafe/restaurant and let them have the option of using headphones on their cell-phone to hear the the soundtrack delivered by a local Wi-Fi stream? Maybe Lay-z-Boy type seating with a snack table in front of you, too.

That way they can talk to whoever on the phone during the movie without disturbing anyone else.

Hell, they could offer them a golden multi showing super-ticket so the restaurant does not need to be cleared out. They can watch a marathon if they want, as long as they keep eating snacks and ordering more $20 sodas. Can you say Lord of the Rings/Hobbit/Star Wars/Star Trek marathons, anyone?

They can sell more top shelf items, such as real pizza to order, burgers and fries, salads, etc, not just the crap they sell now. They make their actual profit from the food they sell anyway, might was well cater to folks who like to splurge while enjoying the latest first run movies,

Re:Dear Adam.

[DarkOx]

Remember those - the people who paid off their crippling student debts and have disposable income?

Here is a little demographic note for you:

Nielsen takes a look at annual moviegoer trends as awards season continues. According to Nielsen NRGâ(TM)s (National Research Groupâ(TM)s) 2012 American Moviegoing report, 70 percent of Americans ages 12 and older reported seeing one or more movies at a theater in the last 12 months, which is in line with moviegoing in the year prior. The demographic makeup of the moviegoing audience has remained relatively consistent over the last couple of years, but the proportion of younger moviegoers (12-24) and oldest moviegoers (65-74) has grown gradually at the expense of middle-aged moviegoers (25-54).

So the long store short is that, you are not growth portion of the market. middle aged people also don't have more disposable income than college kids. Probably because most them that have kids are using their disposable income to send them to either college or the movies :-P.

So even though you and I might not like it, business savvy theater owners will cater to their audience which happens to be 22 years who won't turn off their phones.