Video grosses more than Cinema

The Core RPGC Main Forum
21

I saw a film about the American movie industry yesterday, and the cinema has been losing money to television since the 1950’s so this isn’t big news at all. It just happens to be video games now.

While I agree that the cinema is exceedingly more expensive than video (after the initial purchasing of a television set), there’s a reason: more people are involved. The people working the theatres such as vendors, ticket sellers, maintaince, janitors, all that jazz that you need for a business like that. Not to mention the people who made the movies.

And yes, it is a little outdated in comparison. Infact you can even have your own projection system in your house (my friends do). I’m not sure if technology being outdated is necessarily a bad thing. Is it really that important to have the next shiney object? Of course new technology is better, but that doesn’t make previous inventions useless. Not to mention the resolution of films. I’d say they look pretty damn good for what they’re working with. That being said, I’m sure there could be new ways of making film more “up to date”.

I think the main point of the cinema, and probably the best, is the experience of going there. Going to a theatre and seeing a film on a large screen with other people. It seems more of a community thing than the personal television set in each room in everyone’s apartment in a 30 story complex. I’m sure this is the reason why a lot of people prefer home theatre systems, which is not a surprise considering the culture we live in (particularly those in urban environments).

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Anyway, it’s easier/comfier/techier to watch a dvd in your place but you still need someone to make films for you to view (unless we go all VG/anime). The film industry will probably offset some of the lost revenue by catering to dvds and providing online content but I think many theaters will stay open, if only for the hype factor. I can’t imagine so much fanfare for a Pirates of the Caribbean straight to the video or maybe I’m confined to the current paradigm. Still, cinema’s death has been predicted many times but there are always history-making movies, so I’ll put my optimistic hat on and continue surfing the net.

heh

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You’ve never worked in a movie theater, have you?

I don’t know why, but people love screwing in theaters; young people, I mean. One of my employees found twelve years about to really get into it during the credits of I Am Legend; because, you know, that’s the kind of movie that really gets you in the mood to procreate.

There’s nothing romantic about the trash compactor either, but…we won’t get into that.

Unlike the rest of ya’ll, I believe that the movie theater industry isn’t going the way of the dinosaur. I really enjoy my job, so I might be looking it more than I should, but a home theater system can’t replace going to a movie theater because of the experience. For a great deal of people, going to a theater is an event. Get the family together and go out and enjoy yourself. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but there has to be something that fundamentally unique about watching a movie at home and watching it at the theater.

If a theater is run properly, you use that difference as your foundation. You can’t help the high prices, but you can be courteous. It sounds so strange, but kindness seems like such a foreign concept that I’ve had customers state how they would return to this theater based on how we strive to make certain that they enjoy themselves.

In the end, the movie doesn’t matter because they could see the movie through so many different venues. What matters is how they remember how well they were treated - people will forgive outrageous prices and interrupted movies but not bad service. I didn’t think so, but it seems like being nice is a pretty powerful thing. Who knew? Just had to give out rainchecks to people after our projector went crazy at the end of Micheal Clayton - I was so sincere they wound up thanking me for giving them out like it’s strange for a company to treat it’s customers with respect or something.

I hope it’s not.

P.S. Gila-Monster said it pretty well. We don’t get profits from ticket sales, people. The production company makes such a large percentage off of the tickets that it’s pretty miniscule. A movie print can cost $3,000 - that’s a lot of money we have to make up for right there. Our money is made from concession items.

Movie theater technology is WAY out of date and the technology has fallen behind as home technology as soared forward.

How is it outdated? Christy projectors are not cheap.

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You’ve never worked in a movie theater, have you?
Wow. Read my post again. And pay close attention to the words “actually watching.” I’m sure if you try realllly hard you can decipher my incredibly subtle post.

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Who the fuck really cares about something as quaint as “technology”? Books have been good for millennia, music still comes out on vinyl records. The age of video games is ending. They’re already just movies again. Though I suppose cheaper paper production methods have enabled your tawdry Kings and Grishems. MP3s and the internet allow the kids to listen to utter trash, probably a fashioncore band from myspace.com. Cigarettes have somehow become more expensive.

What’s the world coming to? If technology were all, people would already just be having sex with robots.

We’re just getting worse.

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Cigarettes have somehow become more expensive.
Why wouldn’t cigarettes be more expensive? As far as I know the trend is that less people are smoking. It’s easier to quit and fewer people are stupid enough to start these days. For every smoker I know, I know about thirty non smokers. That’s my “somehow.”

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I agree with your post Mullenkamp, customer service and other services are key. Something to note is that at least in Montreal, the concept of customer service is inexistent. And yes Hades, people do make out in movie theaters.

What I mean by outdated technology is that yes those projectors are expensive but if I look at the quality of the picture, the quality of the seats, the quality of the sound, the quality of the environment in general, I don’t find that these things have changed dramatically, unlike the quality of home entertainment. There is only 1 theater in the world that I actually like going to because it has bigger screens, comfortable reclining seats and liftable armrests and its well kept. Unfortunately for me, it is in Southern California; considering the area of CA that its in, it is definitely not representative of the norm. The “best” and most expensive theaters in Montreal are still crap with uncomfortable, unreclinable seats with small static armrests, higher prices than my place in CA and a ridiculous concession stand. The floors are also occasionally sticky These kinds of arrangements haven’t changed in a 15 years. The only thing that is still of a decent quality are the sound systems. The video is not crisp and in high definition.

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I never said people don’t make out in movie theaters. And the fact that you’re smart enough to figure that out kinda makes me think you’re just trying to irritate me.

What I said is that they don’t make out while actually watching movies, whether there’s one playing in front of them or not. It’s the theater itself that facilitates making out, not the movies. Which is why Sil’s point is kind of stupid. You can make out at home just as easily as you can blow $10 on a movie you’re not actually going to watch.

On topic: I don’t consider HD a step up. It’s too pixelated and going from smooth analog picture to jaggies annoys the shit out of me. When they start getting resolutions like 5000p or at least some kind of blur filter, it might be a little more watchable. Until then, no thanks on HD sports that look like something out of an EA game.

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Looks like somebody is taking a side in the <a href = “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_QsCXm1vrk”>eternal struggle documented for the ages</a>!

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Actually, sometimes making out at home is impossible when you’re a 14 year old.

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Well if we’re talking about 14 year olds, they should probably be out getting hammered on stolen coolers and experimenting with shit-laced pot rather than shoving their tongues down the throats of grade 8’s.

Or maybe I’m old fashioned.

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On the actual topic, I don’t think the “experience” part of going to a movie can be overemphasized. The only time I prefer to go out to see a movie is when it’s shown in a location with some sort of special attraction: a drive-in (Warwick, NY, if you’re close enough), a regular theater with this awesome pipe-organ guy (Stayin’ Alive on a pipe organ? You haven’t lived until…), or somewhere I’m with friends normally (a mall, for example).

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Unless you mean hand-written books, copied on papyrus, I’ll consider you one of these trendy Gutenberg-printing adherents.

What’s the world coming to? If technology were all, people would already just be having sex with robots.

I agree. If technology was all (it could be), we’d already be banging robots or buying teledildonics subscriptions from our ISPs.