Why are movies becoming less popular

[Calgary Flames]

Originally posted by fotze+Jul 7 2005, 01:24 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (fotze @ Jul 7 2005, 01:24 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Calgary Flames@Jul 7 2005, 01:16 PM
I think movie theaters are going down because for the price of a ticket, popcorn and a pop you could almost buy 2 dvd's... I almost never go to the theater anymore. I just buy dvd's and watch them on our 52" wide HDTV. Who needs a theater?

But do you know what they will do to try and stop this trend. Start charging way more for DVD's, lobby the electronics companies to charge more for TV/home theatre, release movies on DVD much later than current and then bump up the price of going to the movies in order to make up for losses. [/b][/quote]
I don't see this happening at all.. because of the low box office sales they rush dvd's out to get the $$$ It used to be almost an entire year before you'd see a movie hit the shelves... now it's like 3-4 months.

I think Mark Cuban is lobbying to just get movies right to DVD at the same time as they hit theaters.. a good idea IMO. Because people like watching from home. I'm sure if this happened we'd see DVD's priced around $50 or more but that's almost what you'd spend to see it at the theater these days.

Of course bootlegging doesn't help ticket sales... I know someone who has Star Wars Revenge of the Sith on DVD already, this person has seen the film a coouple of times in theater already and will buy the full release copy when it's released but for borderline movies that you normally wouldn't pay to see, it's quite easy to find it on the net shortly after it's theater release.

[Table 5]

Originally posted by JiriHrdina@Jul 7 2005, 02:14 PM
Well if the movie going experience isn't working for you its time to start supporting the local art houses more. (Globe, Plaza, Uptown in Calgary). Movies that actually have stories are shown and they don't have ads before the movie itself. Cheaper tickets and cheaper snacks too.

great point Jiri. the last few years, I have hardly gone to a movie in Calgary that WASN'T at the places you mentioned. There are still good movie experiences out there, its just not at the big boys anymore.

[Looger]

like all activities it waxes and wanes,

theatres were dead before prices went up and megatheatres were built.

they are swinging down

[CaramonLS]

I think theres still bitter feelings after places like Famous players jacked the prices up to the extreme, 15, 16$ a ticket.

At least now they are down to a more reasonable level probably because of all the backlash they recieved.

Not sure what is going on in the US, but I assume its not much better.

[flamingchina]

On Slate they have the hollywood economist, talks about these issues all the time.
the current one talks about the vainshing boix office.
The 5 major studios have actually made more money in the first 6 months this year than they did last year (3.2 vs 2.7 billion)
Besides, most movies make way more now on DVD than they do in theaters, and DVD is where most of the studios money comes from.
But yeah, most movies are crap, but they always have been.. whats the rule? 90% of everything is crap?

When I am in Calgary I just go see movies at the cheap theaters , 2 bucks a pop to get in, cheaper popcorn, and you only have to wait 1-2 months usually to see a movie.

[Cheese]

Price and obnoxious people...I only get to about 3 or 4 a year if I know its a great show.

I do LOVE going to the drive in though...cost is half the price and you can bring your own cooler. Maybe the old drive ins will make a comeback...double headers or the long weekend all nighters!

[RougeUnderoos]

I refuse to go because I am a cheapskate and can't stand being gouged like that. It might have something to do with the "Ed Norton/Robin Williams Theory"-- which posits that if you see a movie starring both these guys and it is called Death To Smoochy, you will remain angry for several years after paying nearly 40$ to see it.

Good call on the Drive-in Cheese. Drive-ins are fun and you get to see first hand what what the world looks like in the trunk of a car (it's dark).

Sadly we don't have a Drive-in here Calgary anymore.

[Cowperson]

Originally posted by Hakan@Jul 7 2005, 05:26 PM

This is the most annoying and aggravating thing about movies these days. I took my girlfriend to go see Batman Begins and we sat through 15 minutes of ads! Not only that but the ads themselves are presumptuous piles of trash passing themselves off as some cinematic masterpiece as if to go in with the theme of the movie theatre. They're long, loud, showy and intensely crappy. I hate the fact that I pay 12 bucks to see 15 minutes of ads. That's BS!

Sadly, Cheese and I are old enough to actually remember when every movie started with 15 minutes of Daffy Duck cartoons.

Cowperson

[4X4]

I could handle 15 minutes of cartoons. I actually have vague recollection of such things.

As for Cheese's comment about the drive in, I am surprised that taht form of entertainment died. I used to go to the one in Calgary before it shut down & I liked it alot more than theatres. Those were the days when we would go to the drive in with a couple of doobies and our own pop or beer (not the driver of course...), and watch a doubleheader. Good times... Great times.
Bring a bucket of KFCrap, talk if you pleased, relate stories that are sparked by happenings in the movie, nail your girl in the back seat...

[Maritime Q-Scout]

maybe it's my backwards Cape Breton ways but...


we still have a drive-in, does the double feature nightly, and all nighters on long weekends. $8.99 a car load I believe



and



the Vogue Theatre on Charlotte Street in Sydney (sadly now closed) would lift the curtain to show the screen and play cartoons before the previews.


I'm 23... does that make me old like Cowperson and Cheese?

[Looger]

i think the corral-4 drive-in closed mostly due to the hub oil explosion, it was pretty covered.

just wasn't making enough money to justify throwing cash at it, sad stuff.

we've got a drive-in here in prince george, but...

http://www.parkdrivein.com/page6.html

the next two double headers are:

The Perfect Man, Cinderella Man

and

Bewitched, Guess Who


and people ask me why i haven't gone there in a decade! sheesh.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally posted by Hakan@Jul 7 2005, 11:26 AM

This is the most annoying and aggravating thing about movies these days. I took my girlfriend to go see Batman Begins and we sat through 15 minutes of ads! Not only that but the ads themselves are presumptuous piles of trash passing themselves off as some cinematic masterpiece as if to go in with the theme of the movie theatre. They're long, loud, showy and intensely crappy. I hate the fact that I pay 12 bucks to see 15 minutes of ads. That's BS!

If you just paid $13 and went to see Batman Begins at IMAX, you'd have a smaller theatre, smaller crowd, the best sound you can get, an amazingly large and higher resolution screen...

AND
NO ADS! Yes, there are no trailer ads for IMAX films besides an amazing laser-light and sound show to plug the IMAX experience.

[CaramonLS]

Originally posted by Hack&Lube+Jul 8 2005, 12:31 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Hack&Lube @ Jul 8 2005, 12:31 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Hakan@Jul 7 2005, 11:26 AM

This is the most annoying and aggravating thing about movies these days. I took my girlfriend to go see Batman Begins and we sat through 15 minutes of ads! Not only that but the ads themselves are presumptuous piles of trash passing themselves off as some cinematic masterpiece as if to go in with the theme of the movie theatre. They're long, loud, showy and intensely crappy. I hate the fact that I pay 12 bucks to see 15 minutes of ads. That's BS!

If you just paid $13 and went to see Batman Begins at IMAX, you'd have a smaller theatre, smaller crowd, the best sound you can get, an amazingly large and higher resolution screen...

AND
NO ADS! Yes, there are no trailer ads for IMAX films besides an amazing laser-light and sound show to plug the IMAX experience. [/b][/quote]
When I saw War of the Worlds, there was at least 15 minutes of BS before the movie got underway. I hate, HATE seeing ads, 1-2 MAX, but seriously there was about 7 before the movie started.

Previews generally aren't so bad, but it can get a little excessive sometimes.

[Claeren]

Originally posted by JiriHrdina@Jul 7 2005, 12:14 PM
Well if the movie going experience isn't working for you its time to start supporting the local art houses more. (Globe, Plaza, Uptown in Calgary). Movies that actually have stories are shown and they don't have ads before the movie itself. Cheaper tickets and cheaper snacks too.

That is exactly what i was thinking. There are some incrediable and original movies out there, you just have to look for them.

I went and saw 'The Believer' (Now on DVD - go rent it!) at the Uptown 3 times for almost the same price as one movie at a regular theatre.


Claeren.

[Phanuthier]

I watch about 3-4 movies a year @ $12 theators. If it was $8, I'd probably watch 8-10. If it was $5, 12-15.

You think any of those movie scruges are reading this? You wonder why there's pirating. :unsure:

I don't care about previews. In fact, I love em. But drop the rediculous prices already. I try and catch the $3.50 movies up in Edmonton (with the occational $8 movie at a less fancy theator) and probably a couple of the biggies (because I am in Calgary) for the special affects and sounds (I don't have a 52' TV with surround sound, unfortunatly. I watch it on a 27' CRT). For the "deep" movies, there's really just no reason to pay so much for that shinguard.

[Homer_J]

I moved out to Winnipeg around the time they were charging $14+ in Calgary & Edmonton. I was pleasently suprised to find movies here were only $7.50 for first-runs. Apparently, when the Silvercitys first opened, prices were in the $12 range and the people didn't show up. So, if people will stop going, they will drop the prices to an acceptable level.

Prices here are now around $8.50 (still not bad) but they are opening a brand new second-run cinema city this month. Prices will remain at $2.75 but the theatres will have all the amenties of a Silvercity (stadium seating, huge screens & high end sound systems). Looking forward to that.

The one thing that really gets me is that Damn Popcorn. I always think of Mike Myers rant on "So I Married an Axe Murderer". He was talking about the Colonel's chicken, but I feel the same way about Movie theatre popcorn. I hate paying over $10 for popcorn & pop, but that stuff is so damn addictive. I smell that scent, and it's like I can't help myself.

Is it legal to put cocaine in popcorn? bas**rds.

[Thunderball]

I think its two-fold...

1. Theatres: They are too pricey, and have way too much advertising... previews are one thing, but when you have 10 mins of commercials before the previews, you have a problem, and that makes people want to stay home.

2. Quality: For the most part, movies kinda suck today. To quote many people, most often today "what's original isn't good and what's good isn't original." I mean, Batman Begins was good, but its not overly original. War of the Worlds wasn't good or original. Too many recycled plots mixed with flashy lights and shiny things. I found myself watching the Sergio Leone trilogy, and while the effects kinda sucked, the plots were solid and original, and they are still good viewing today.

[Phanuthier]

Originally posted by Thunderball@Jul 10 2005, 12:29 AM
2. Quality: For the most part, movies kinda suck today. To quote many people, most often today "what's original isn't good and what's good isn't original." I mean, Batman Begins was good, but its not overly original. War of the Worlds wasn't good or original. Too many recycled plots mixed with flashy lights and shiny things. I found myself watching the Sergio Leone trilogy, and while the effects kinda sucked, the plots were solid and original, and they are still good viewing today.

Honestly, its hard because every single play has been played. Chick flicks with school, chick flicks with high school, chick flicks with daughter and sister, chick flicks with old relationships, girls liking guys, guys likin girls, somewhere in between, comics, every type of horror you can think of, every type of conspiracy you can think of, every major event you can think of, every single theory you can think of, every single type of psycological-thinker movie you can think about. They've played all of these, forwards, backwards, scattered and in flashbacks.

It's very rare to find a "new" type of plot. Granted most arn't as bad as the almost identical movies of Minority and Paycheck, you they all follow the same plotline.

My favourite movies usually involve something "new" and never done before.

Equalibrium - first 1984 type of movie, then taking The Matrix touch and fused together. Not to mention the gun fights.

Spiderman - one of the first marvel movies, although I'll watch them all.

Gataca - the underdog plot has been played so many times, but this movie equally balanced it second for second with an underachiever. Take into the fact that it was about genetic engineering, and it falls into my field of study and its almost a perfect match for me.

Fight Club - every time you watch it, you can see it from a different angle.

Ocean's Eleven - nothing more needed to say

Enemy of the State - a conspiracy movie done well. That is rare.

Saw - appriciation of life, with a real, hard kick in the nuts to remind you.

Minority Report - pre-cogs... very origanal.

Bourne Identity, Supremacy- never gone so in depth on assasins... at least that I had seen.

DISCLAIMER: I have not seen every movie in history, In fact, I'm more of a post-1990 movie type of guy.

Really looking forward to V for Vendetta. Looks quite origanal, although there is potential for it to be an Equalibrium clone.

EDIT 96: New ideas for plots? Religion isn't touched often. It's a sensitive subject, but I guess with the Passion of Christ, now the de Vinci Code, we are starting to go that way.

[Calgary Flames]

Just watched Shawshank Redemption last night for the first time on my new TV... who needs theaters? btw, what an amazing film I can't believe I stalled so long on this one.

Watching The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly tonite or Once Upon a Time in the West. Leone is a genius filmaker.

I'd rather watch classics than the drivel they put in theaters these days.

[Thunderball]

Originally posted by Calgary Flames@Jul 9 2005, 07:11 PM
Just watched Shawshank Redemption last night for the first time on my new TV... who needs theaters? btw, what an amazing film I can't believe I stalled so long on this one.

Watching The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly tonite or Once Upon a Time in the West. Leone is a genius filmaker.

I'd rather watch classics than the drivel they put in theaters these days.

Good, Bad and the Ugly is good, but the best of the three is definitely For a Few Dollars More. Excellent cinematography, great plot, memorable characters, eerie scenes... excellent.