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How much do you pay to watch a movie?

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Captante said:
Sucks to be them? Not my problem sorry. 😉

Improve the experience OR lower the price and MAYBE the industry survives.... as-is I suspect it goes away almost completely before too long.
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That's why we support our local Mom & Pop family owned theater - one of the last around here, instead of the chains. It is only 5 bucks to go, but when I asked, they basically created a sort of "frequent viewer" program for us - $80 a person to watch any of the movies they have all year, as many times as we want. Plus, they threw in a couple of extra months as well.
 
nakedfrog said:
Spider-Man: No Way Home has made $1.8 billion at the box office...
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One flashy and "shiny" movie making a crap-ton of money isn't really the point and won't be the way mainstream theaters might survive.

Marvel movies like Endgame or No way Home are also perfect examples of the kind of movie I believe will continue to make money in higher tech/price but far fewer in number theaters.

The way most theaters are priced now with the semi-crappy experience they provide vs watching on my sofa/home theater for 1/4 the price makes the theater a fairly unattractive option.

Right now as-is 99% of theaters offer zero advantages over watching at home beyond the massive screen and that by itself simply doesn't offset all the negatives. (many of them disgusting and sticky!)

😉


GunsMadeAmericaFree said:
That's why we support our local Mom & Pop family owned theater - one of the last around here, instead of the chains. It is only 5 bucks to go, but when I asked, they basically created a sort of "frequent viewer" program for us - $80 a person to watch any of the movies they have all year, as many times as we want. Plus, they threw in a couple of extra months as well.
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We USED to have one of those right down the street and I loved it too!

Now it's a vacant lot .... makes me sad. 🙁
 
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We're down to one theater here & it's surprisingly cheap. $8 for adults. Cheaper matinees($6) & bargain day ($5)

I haven't been to a theater in a loooong, loooong time though. Like a really long time.
 
Is it the overpriced popcorn, or that challenge of sneaking in your own snacks, that make people want to go to theaters?

All the time, you can see people watching on a 4" smartphone, so obviously the bigger screen can't be it. Perhaps it's sitting in a large room with total strangers that are running their mouth, on their phone, or yelling at the screen.

I haven't been to a movie theater in decades, and seeing the prices, I don't care to ever go again.

PS. Paying even more outrageous prices to see "professional" athletes play some ball game is even higher on my "no fucking way list".
 
>Is it the overpriced popcorn, or that challenge of sneaking in your own snacks, >that make people want to go to theaters?

I guess it is mostly me wanting to support the guy who reopened the theater after it was closed for 5 years. When I go out for a popcorn refill, I can often see his wife or his newborn child crawling around the lobby, which is cute. Plus, I like to see a lot of sci-fi, action and superhero movies when they come out.
 
Captante said:
Right now as-is 99% of theaters offer zero advantages over watching at home beyond the massive screen and that by itself simply doesn't offset all the negatives. (many of them disgusting and sticky!)
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Given the sheer number of people I find who have never turned off the motion smoothing on their TVs after pulling them out of the box I think from a technical standpoint home presentation, on average, is usually much poorer than in theaters. Even worse with compressed streams from the major outlets, HBO+ in particular is neigh unwatchable.
 
K1052 said:
Given the sheer number of people I find who have never turned off the motion smoothing on their TVs after pulling them out of the box I think from a technical standpoint home presentation, on average, is usually much poorer than in theaters. Even worse with compressed streams from the major outlets, HBO+ in particular is neigh unwatchable.
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Believe it or not some people apparently enjoy the "soap opera effect".... I have no explanation.
 
I have not been in a public theater since 2004. No regrets. Love my home setup. The 10'foot wide Cinemascope screen in the home theater and the 77" OLED TV in the media room.
 
Captante said:
Believe it or not some people apparently enjoy the "soap opera effect".... I have no explanation.
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I like it on some things, like when we were watching Star Trek: Voyager, it felt right. But I also grew up watching old Dr. Who episodes that switched between film and video depending whether it was an inside or outside shot...
 
I don't go to the movies any more. Last movie I saw was the last horrible star wars movie. And it was a gift. Prior to that I don't remember. I have a 75" 4K tv and 5.1 sound so there really is no need for me to go to a theater and hear people talk and text.
 
nakedfrog said:
I like it on some things, like when we were watching Star Trek: Voyager, it felt right. But I also grew up watching old Dr. Who episodes that switched between film and video depending whether it was an inside or outside shot...
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Only live sports for me .... my primary TV is still an older 46 inch Samsung 1080p/60hz panel so it really helps cutting motion-blur in fast action.

Makes most movies look terrible though IMO. 😕
 
In 1968, I saw the original release of "2001 A Space Odyssey" in the 70 mm format when it was first released. At that time it was by reserved seating, and I landed a row M in the middle. That put me directly between the curved screen edges. That was worth the theater experience.

This was in Philadelphia, as my ship was in the shipyard there at the time.

65" 4K TV and Dolby 5.1 sound system is absolutely fine for everything else, plus I can pause it to get a snack or expel the processed beer.
 
GunsMadeAmericaFree said:
>Is it the overpriced popcorn, or that challenge of sneaking in your own snacks, >that make people want to go to theaters?

I guess it is mostly me wanting to support the guy who reopened the theater after it was closed for 5 years. When I go out for a popcorn refill, I can often see his wife or his newborn child crawling around the lobby, which is cute. Plus, I like to see a lot of sci-fi, action and superhero movies when they come out.
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His wife was crawling around the lobby? Got any pics?
 
nakedfrog said:
Well, if it's that kind of theater things are starting to make more sense.
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Ha ha! Well, I mean, it makes a huge difference to me when you can get to know the people who own the place, and when they are willing to customize things a little in order to make you happy. At the huge places, I just feel like I'm a number.
 
Like $2.12 from Redbox.

If it's only available on Netflix or Prime, then obviously it's included in the fee I pay monthly for those.

But anything that I want to watch that is able to be viewed on bluray gets rented from Redbox because the sound on a bluray is just so much better than anything you can stream.
 
Captante said:
And if some douchebag "manager" in a movie theater bothers me for eating a granola bar from home after I just dropped $20 per person simply to be there I have very little in the way of sympathy. (although I never actually "yell" at anyone regardless of age)
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What if you're diabetic? That's a lawsuit waiting to happen, the ADA says that public venues are supposed to make accommodations for people with disabilities, I believe.
 
VirtualLarry said:
What if you're diabetic? That's a lawsuit waiting to happen, the ADA says that public venues are supposed to make accommodations for people with disabilities, I believe.
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Hmm, I can relate to that one. While diet pop is pretty common, low carb candy and snacks are NOT very common at the movie theater.
 
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