This.
Alamo Drafhouse is the model for how theatres should be. We go as much for the experience at the theatre itself as the movie. Between excellent food at non-insane prices, personal lounge chairs, a 0-tolerance no-talking policy, no ads before movies, and great preshows, it’s basically everything AMC is not.
Oh, and of course, it’s a Draft House, with tons of great adult-drink options.
Canada’s Cineplex needs to learn what a real VIP experience is like for movie watching.
From what I’ve seen, they’ve been letting the theatre business go away gradually and adjusting things like release windows and number of screens on opening day. If anything, AMC should show them some gratitude for delaying the inevitable over the past 5 years.
They’re expanding a lot. Both the founders, and through franchising. So there’s little groups of them building up all over, whoever owns the NYC ones has gone from one in Yonkers to a bunch opening all over the Five Boroughs.
So if there isn’t one near you now (as there is not near me) there might well be one within the next 5 years.
https://drafthouse.com/locations
Especially if the AMCs and Regals of the world start to shutter.
Studios have everything to gain. In further control or direct ownership of theaters. Theaters cutting off their own access to the only thing they got just makes that a hell of a lot more likely.
Theaters (with exceptions) are already teetering on the edge, AMC is basically saying they’re gonna pull the trigger on what the studios threaten to dictate terms. The thing that’s likely to push them over the edge. I just don’t see how that backs down studios at all. They pretty much need to just sit back and their parent company snaps up the rest of the stock they don’t already own when AMC collapses.
I mean I guess AMC doesn’t have a ton left to lose in the current situation. But this seems like shooting the hostage.
I mean trollies is exactly the sort of meh, but profitable for the studio film that theaters get pressed into running for 8 months on 3 screens to ensure access to shit like Fast and the Furious. Which is a) Universal and b) purportedly more profitable for theaters than Marvel.
This is like if arcades had tried to ban Nintendo games when the NES came out.
On a different note, I doubt Universal can pull this trick again to the same degree. I suspect TWT did really well because 1) kids’ movies do well in general, 2) sequels do well in general, 3) stay-at-home was still brand new and people were looking for comfort, and 4) the trailer made it look good enough to be worth the price. I don’t think they would have made money had they tried it with a higher budgeted movie like, say, Doolittle.
Disney has already made it clear that their giant budget stuff like Mulan and Black Widow are too expensive to risk an at-home-only release. My hope is that this means the return of the mid-budget studio film, except they’d be going straight to streaming instead of bothering with a mediocre theater run.
I feel a lot of “good riddance” vibe for movie theaters in posts, especially comments.
It’s hard for me to understand why. Do people really hate movie theaters? Not even disliking going yourself, but like actively hating them so much you don’t want them to exist?
It feels very odd. I mean, I’m not some huge movie-goer, but it is a different experience than watching on TV in your home. Perhaps the difference between reading a book in print and reading on an e-reader? I don’t get the vibe from e-reader folks to “burn all the books!”
If you don’t like them, what’s the downside to you if they exist? You have to wait two months to see a movie that comes out? How does that possibly hurt you?
community entertainment it’s terrible destroy it
1080 is almost completely indistinguishable from 4K at people’s normal screen sizes and viewing distances. Add the usually boomy/shrill and badly set up surround systems in most homes and a theater still has a significant advantage.
In apartment and highrise condo environments, noise is already an issue. Someone rattling my furniture every time they watch an action movie at home is a little irritating, in particular when I’m trying to watch or do something quiet.
Sitting really close to something with a lot of action and lighting changes tends to give me a headache. A 40 foot viewing distance is easier on my eyes.
Please no; I don’t want people making noise from stuffing their faces, boozing it up and spilling their favorite beverage on the way to their seats. We have enough of that already at our local (Canadian) Cineplexes on the West coast.
You can enjoy something from time to time, and still acknowledge that that thing is not doing well financially and that change is coming. Everyone simply likes to argue what their views are, so perhaps that’s why you think folks want them “destroyed.” They’re busy destroying themselves, no need for us to get involved.
The answer to this question and every other one is beer.
Just add beer.
I only went to theaters on $5 Tuesdays, and it’s one of the few things that got me to go out for dinner, so I’d kinda prefer if they stuck around so I didn’t have to pay $20 every time, else get socially left behind. Seniors and military members will probably miss their discounts as well.
I try to go for large companies which were stable/decently run before the disaster. I avoided Worldcom when it was at its height. Generally my gut is to go with the high end of the S&P 500 and companies who make stuff I know about and use. With a reputation in the field. I had no idea what Worldcom did so I avoided them.
For example for media, I went with Disney. They had a 35% drop when film/TV production stopped, but have the IP and resources to bounce back quickly. Exxon-Mobile isn’t going out of business either despite the current glut on oil supplies.
We have a drive in theater that’s been ‘closed for repairs’ since winter.
Now, would be a good time to get a loan and reopen.
First one was much better than it had any business being.
Second felt phoned in and had a lot of Frozen 2 elements (also, not as good as the first)
Just as an example of what’s available near me. We’ve got a disgusting, out dated independent multi screen theater right here. A barely better and over priced Regal where everything is 3d and a couple lingering independent theaters that are only open weekends and only show smaller movies in late release in about a 30 minute radius.
And then an OK multiplex around an hour off. The small one and two screen indys are decent places, but their idea of Art House is whatever Clint Eastwood just put out, and documentaries that re-affirm your grandma’s preconceived notions.
So you don’t go there much. We avoid the local chain theater and especially the indy multiplex (sometimes its full of sewage) like the plague.
So we mostly don’t see movies often, and make the hour drive to the good multiplex for event movies or shit we really want to see.
And we have it relatively good, and are BIG on movie theaters. Even when I lived in NYC and Philly most of the theaters were quite pricy chains, where the experience was frustrating at best.
I had the option of avoiding those and hanging out at certain preferred places. But a lot of places I’ve been in the US your one option is the expensive, mediocre chain.
I think a lot of the “fuck em” response comes out of that. When most of your theater experiences for the last decade or so has been paying extra for assigned seating, when assigned seating is mandatory. And not being able to see the movie you want. Why the fuck would you bother?
And 4k is the projection standard for digital cinema, some older theaters still have 2k (1080p). But mostly on smaller screens.
A 4k TV is not better than a movie theater by virtue of being 4k.
Not the experience at all. I moved from Toronto to Austin, I went from the Cineplex experience to the Alamo experience directly.
Cineplex VIP: carry in your own food or order it before the movie starts. Theatre has larger chairs but otherwise is setup like a normal theatre. All the standard theatre issues like wrappers / people bringing in food / etc apply.
Alamo Drafthouse: Seats are spaced individually in loungers apart from each other, and with food areas specifically designed for eating at each station. Seats are raised from the “floor” so that waiters can run in under everyone’s sight level to bring food in. Food is all prepared rather than pre-packaged, so no wrappers. And no carry-in food, no one has anything to spill as they sit down.
Alamo has the design right - the food experience is designed to not detract from other moviegoers as much as possible, is focused on watching the movie by literally turfing people who talk during movies, and the seating arrangement means you are never shoulder to shoulder with anyone while watching / eating, while simultaneously ensuring that folks who need to use the restroom or whatever can easily bend down and not be in anyone’s sightlines. I can’t think of a way they could make the experience better IMHO, it’s like a properly setup home theatre, except it’s for 50 people, not 8, and has waitstaff and catering.
Yeah, there’s definitely the “popcorn on the sidelines” part, but there also feels like a good amount that really don’t want them around. I have complaints about movie theaters too, but I’d much rather see them improved, not eliminated.
I do like a lot of how Alamo operates, i think the food can be expensive depending on what you order but overall i see it as a positive (though their unlimited popcorn is a steal and their themed food/cocktails for some movies is bomb). Also for people with young kids they do kid specific showings once a month i believe with a “pick your price of $1 or $5 tickets” if i recall correctly. I went to one myself even though i don’t have kids, it was to see Box Trolls and man it was a blast.
There’s also their movie pass which is somewhat worth it for those that see regular movie showings but me and my roommate do their special events which are excluded from the movie pass, which is a shame and not worth me spending money on.
Yeah, I can hear that. Would much rather see theaters be better, not gone. If we eliminate or erode the concept of first-run movies, I fear the concept of movie theaters (and really, then, of “movies” as medium -what’s the difference between it and television, then?) will be gone, too. Only the lowest-common-denominator bland megachains and the shoe-string-iest art houses may survive., or even less than that.
Same. Movie-watching-as-social event isn’t possible for everyone in every city or residence type, and shared experiences, be it a sportsball event, movie, restaurant, etc) are important parts of the social glue.
What theatre chains need to get through their heads is this fact, instead of “people are going to theatres because we’ve forced them to by release schedule”. Restaurants don’t monopolize new recipies, and I the “blackout” idea to force folks to go to certain sportsball events went over like a lead balloon (even if I think that practice still exists in some spots) and isn’t going to survive the longterm, etiher.
Like I said. I don’t think theaters just go away. People still fundementally like going out and socializing. And no one is ever hand wringing that shit like live theaters, music venues and comedy clubs will cease to exist entirely because internet.
My concerns are more about further consolidation and studio control. We don’t need to go back to the days when you went to the Disney Theater to see the Disney movie. Except this time without the independent, 2nd run, reparatory scene and independent distributors.
There’s an outcome here where you either make the Avengers or you work for Netflix. And you know, not a lot of people get to work on the Avengers.
